With all these things coming into the scene, Web 3.0 has also presented a solid need for cross-chain solutions to be launched in the market.
This article will cover the basics of cross-chain bridges and how they will be useful for investors and crypto enthusiasts.  

There are different blockchains over Web 3, and such rapid development over the network has led to the need for unique chains with varying mechanisms so that these networks can communicate. Those days are gone when blockchains were restricted to themselves and weren't allowed to communicate with each other. This is where the concept of cross-chain bridges originates.

What is a Cross Chain Bridge?

As the name suggests, a cross-chain bridge or blockchain bridge acts like a bridge between different cryptocurrencies and is used to link multiple blockchains with one another. Cross-chain bridge serves as an infrastructure designed to allow crypto enthusiasts and developers to transfer all their decentralized apps and the digital assets they own seamlessly over multiple blockchain networks. It provides users with a neutral environment where all the investors & users can easily switch between different blockchains.

All the new networks know that Ethereum is a network which has immense importance in the crypto space, and thus, this importance cannot be ignored at any cost. Most cross-chain bridges are between Ethereum and the newer generations of blockchain networks. The recent generations of blockchain networks are known for incorporating cross-chain features with bridges of different blockchain networks and decentralized apps. For example, using these cross-chain bridges, one can easily spend their bitcoin in terms of Ethereum.

We now have some knowledge about the basic idea behind Cross-chain bridges which are also called blockchain bridges. Moving forward into this article, you will get many more insights into how these bridges work, their advantages, their risk factor and their significance.

What are the advantages of using Cross-Chain Bridges?

A cross bridge or a multichain bridge crypto is known for a lot of fun activities from deploying token holdings to working as a middle man between the different networks of blockchains.

There are also many other advantages apart from providing a neutral ecosystem for easy token and currency management. These advantages are:-

Increased productivity of assets:

Apart from leaving your currency stagnant, you can use it for different purposes like using one asset as an collateral for the other, which in return increases the value being earned by any particular asset.

Better User Experience:

With increased use & popularity of Cryptocurrency, all the users are looking for services which are better in terms of speed, financial security, swift payments, etc. These bridges help the user in using the enhanced features from one network into the other network.

Use of dApps:

These dApps help users in switching the networks for better user experience, the users can switch networks in different cases like in the case of Network congestion on some network, These apps also allow users to easily flow the funds by providing value to them as well as value for the flow.

How do these Cross Chain Bridges work?

These cross-chain bridges' basic functionality revolves around generating and wrapping up different types of tokens. These tokens act like a reference key or value for your Blockchain. The Cross chain bridges create a receipt for your Blockchain, which you can easily use on the other network.

These tokens also make it easy for the users to convert a blockchain given on a particular network into the one present on another web; for example, a blockchain bridge will generate token X for your Blockchain X and token Y for Blockchain Y; now, take a scenario where you want to move your token X holdings to blockchain Y, the bridge will take up your token X holdings and generate an equivalent amount of token Y for the Blockchain Y.

These bridges don't transfer your token from one Blockchain to another; on the other hand, they tend to create the same amount of holdings in Blockchain Y using the smart contract concept.

These smart contracts get discarded when the user wants to move the token holdings back to the origin from where they were generated in the first place. This gives you a fair idea about the working of these cross-chain bridges. Moving forward, we will get to see about different types of bridges.

What Are the Types of Cross-Chain Bridges?

There are different types of bridges being launched in the market. All those bridges are classified into two distinct categories of cross-chain bridges, their main difference being their nature.

One of the bridges is Centralized, while the other one is decentralized. The two categories can be summoned as:-

Trust-based Bridges

These bridges are designed to be fast and affordable for every user over the blockchain network. But even though these bridges are quick and cheap, a major drawback persists: they are governed by some central organization which takes care of all the transactions executed over these bridges.

As the name suggests, the users need to trust some or the other intermediary or centralized authorities to close the process effectively. This bridge might be fast and affordable but is not yet as secure as its counterpart.

Talking about its counterpart, let us take a look at the second type of cross-chain bridge:

Trustless bridges

It is very much understood that this bridge will be the opposite of the trust-based bridges; therefore, these bridges are known for being decentralized and follow the regular procedure that the blockchain network follows.

This bridge is considered safer than trust-based bridges as the users need to depend on any intermediary to execute the various transactions that happen over the network.

Are these trustless bridges trustless? No, the users put their trust in the code which operates the bridge and thus consider it safer because no centralized body can hamper the code and use it for its purpose.

Conclusion:

With the rapid increase in the crypto market, the need for easy management tools can be felt. Many users worldwide, from big-fat investors to the newbies in the market, look for ease while making transactions or deploying smart contracts, and for delivering what the users want, cross-chain bridges are one of the key factors. To conclude, let's revise whatever we talked about in this article.

1: Cross-chain bridges help in connecting two blockchain networks and help the users transfer their tokens, smart contracts, and even some of the decentralized apps.

2: Even though these are fast and secured, there is some amount of risk involved in completing various transactions, which should be kept in mind by all the users.

This was a detailed article about cross-chain bridges and how they help simplify the lives of every blockchain user.