With recent cryptocurrency hacks exposing security flaws in cross-chain bridges, the community is looking for alternative methods to achieve interoperability. One project has introduced an innovative feature called âtunneling,â designed to link two of the largest networks in the cryptocurrency space.
Jeff Garzik, an early Bitcoin core developer, founded the Hemi Network, a blockchain protocol that aims to âmergeâ the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains through tunnels. According to Hemi, the project approaches the two blockchains as components of a larger supernetwork.
The team claims that, unlike cross-chain bridges, tunneling creates a unique environment that allows Bitcoin and Ethereum to âcoexist.â This eliminates the attack vectors associated with traditional bridges.
Difference between bridge and tunnel
Max Sanchez, co-founder and chief technology officer at Hemi Labs, told TinTucBitcoin that tunneling is fundamentally different from cross-chain bridging solutions. The CEO said that their protocol allows the network to âfully inherit Bitcoinâs security,â allowing for secure interactions between networks.
Sanchez also said that their Hemi Virtual Machine (HVM) also enables the creation of secure Bitcoin interoperability technology. He said:
âWe are using the deep Bitcoin insight in HVM to build an ultra-secure, optimized Bitcoin tunneling system based on an adapted version of BitVM2 that is more capital efficient and more robust.â
BitVM2 was created to enable computations that are expected to be secured by Bitcoin. Its main focus is to enable a rollup that can process transactions more efficiently than the blockchain while maintaining the same level of security as the original Bitcoin network.
The CEO said that the Hemi protocol's connectivity with Bitcoin and Ethereum allows users to transfer assets from both networks into Hemi, which can be used on any application deployed on Hemi.
âPeople will be able to transfer Bitcoin assets via Hemi to Ethereum, bringing highly secure tokenization of Bitcoin-based assets to the entire Ethereum ecosystem,â Sanchez added.
On September 18, the protocol announced that it had completed a $15 million round 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 issues will soon be solved. On August 6, Buterin announced a roadmap to solve the interoperability problem on Ethereum. The Ethereum co-founder said that people will be surprised at how quickly the layer-2 interoperability problems will stop being a problem.
On September 18, 1inch Network, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, launched a new cross-chain swap solution called âFusion+,â which combines off-chain and on-chain liquidity to power swaps.
