As recent crypto hacks expose security vulnerabilities in cross-chain bridges, the community is exploring alternative approaches to achieving interoperability. One project has introduced an innovative feature called “tunneling,” designed to link the two largest networks in the crypto space.
Jeff Garzik, an early core Bitcoin developer, founded the Hemi Network, a blockchain protocol that aims to “unite” the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains through tunnels. According to Hemi, the project approaches the two blockchains as components for a larger supernetwork.
The team claims that, unlike cross-chain bridges, tunneling creates a unique environment that allows Bitcoin and Ethereum to “coexist.” This removes attack vectors associated with traditional bridges.
The difference between bridges and tunnels
Max Sanchez, the co-founder and chief technology officer at Hemi Labs, told Cointelegraph that tunneling fundamentally differs from cross-chain bridging solutions. The executive said their protocol allows the network to “inherit Bitcoin’s full security,” which allows secure cross-network interactions.
Sanchez also said that their Hemi Virtual Machine (HVM) also allows the creation of secure Bitcoin interoperability technology. The executive said:
“We are using the deep Bitcoin introspection in HVM to build an extremely secure, trust-minimized Bitcoin tunneling system based on an adapted version of BitVM2 that’s more capital-efficient and robust.”
BitVM2 was created to enable optimistic computations secured by Bitcoin. Its main focus is to enable a rollup capable of processing transactions more efficiently than the blockchain while maintaining a similar level of security to the original Bitcoin network.
The executive said that the Hemi protocol’s connectivity to Bitcoin and Ethereum allows users to move assets from both networks into Hemi, which can be used on any applications deployed on Hemi.
“People will be able to tunnel Bitcoin assets through Hemi to Ethereum, bringing highly secure Bitcoin-based asset tokenization to the entire Ethereum ecosystem,” Sanchez added.
On Sept. 18, the protocol announced that it had completed a $15 million raise led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital, and Big Brain Holdings.
Cross-chain interoperability in Ethereum
Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that cross-chain interoperability problems will soon be solved. On Aug. 6, Buterin unveiled a road map for solving the interoperability issue on Ethereum. The Ethereum co-founder said that people will be surprised at how quickly layer-2 interoperability issues will stop being problems.
On Sept. 18, the decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch network launched a new cross-chain swap solution called “Fusion+,” which combines offchain and onchain liquidity to power swaps.
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