Bridges

A blockchain bridge is a technological connection that facilitates interoperability between two distinct blockchain networks (for instance, Ethereum and Polygon PoS), enabling the transfer of assets or data across them.

The diversity in bridge designs reflects the variety of strategies employed to achieve interoperability, each with its unique strengths and trade-offs. Notably, bridges can be trustless or trusted (i.e. relying on centralized checkpoints to hold bridged assets). Their functioning can result in locking or burning assets from the source chain before minting the equivalent on the destination chain or performing atomic swaps.

Each type of bridge comes with unique strengths and trade-offs to be taken into account.