This article was translated by the Cosmos Chinese Chinese technology community. The original text was published on the ICF Cross-Chain Foundation Blog. The author is Adi Ravi Raj.
Original link: https://medium.com/the-interchain-foundation/ibc-protocol-a-review-of-the-major-developments-of-2022-cff533cf6490
Introduction
2022 is a year of great progress for the IBC cross-chain communication protocol.
Understand the IBC cross-chain communication protocol:
https://ibcprotocol.org/
In terms of new chain integrations, features, and improvements, IBC has certainly cemented its position as the gold standard for blockchain interoperability in 2022.
On the other hand, the cross-chain ecosystem continues to flourish. Developments over the past year have reinforced the vision of building a global blockchain internet.
This article aims to review and summarize the major developments and updates of the IBC protocol in 2022. Topics include:
Major version releases
New features and protocol improvements
On-chain and GitHub code base related indicators
Important progress at the ecological level
Interchain GmbH Team Update
Outlook for some important events in 2023
Version release
This year, ibc-go released 4 major versions, each of which introduced new features or improvements to the existing stack, which will be summarized in the next section.
New features and improvements
Cost middleware
In the implementation of the cross-chain standard ICS-29 (Fee Middleware Standard), a set of on-chain mechanisms for supporting relays was introduced. The purpose of this function is to incentivize relays to achieve sustainable expansion of IBC.
ICS-29 fee middleware standard:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-029-fee-payment
Fee middleware is included in ibc-go v4.0.0. You can read more about it in Moving Relay Incentives On-Chain: Fee Middleware, Fee Payment, and Budget Modules.
Cross-chain account
In March this year, ibc-go v3.0.0 was released, which includes cross-chain accounts (ICA). So far, we have seen Stride and Quicksilver go online and enable the controller chain function. The controller chain can open and control accounts on the host chain.
ibc-go v3.0.0：
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/releases/tag/v3.0.0
One of the major new features added in ibc.go v5.0.0 is an InterchainAccount gRPC query endpoint for the control chain submodule so that users can retrieve their registered ICA addresses.
ibc.go v5.0.0：
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/releases/tag/v5.0.0
Among many other improvements, ibc-go v6.0.0 adds a MsgServer to the ICA controller submodule. These changes are intended to make ICA implementation and adoption easier.
ibc-go v6.0.0：
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/releases/tag/v6.0.0
《ibc-go v6: Cross-chain account ICA function changes and impacts》
《Cross-chain Account FAQs》
Client refactoring
Light clients are one of the key components of IBC. One of the main obstacles to widespread adoption of IBC is the need to develop different light clients to keep track of different consensus algorithms.
The client refactoring is designed to simplify the development of light clients and thereby reduce this burden. A refactored version will be released in ibc-go v7.0.0 in 2023. This release will also upgrade the SDK version to v0.47.
"ibc-go v7.0.0 version client reconstruction: laying the foundation for IBC cross-ecological expansion"
Client refactoring beta1:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/tree/02-client-refactor-beta1
On-chain indicators
Number of active chains
Figure 1 below shows the number of active IBC chains. This number has been growing quarter by quarter. There are currently 53 active chains in the inter-chain ecosystem.
Total IBC Transactions
In 2022, IBC’s cross-chain transactions totaled $30.3 billion.
Figure 2 shows the total value of IBC transactions transferred in and out. While transaction volume has been declining for much of the year, we can see that total cross-chain transaction value appears to be gradually recovering starting in November.
Cross-chain accounts
Cross-chain accounts have been enabled on the Stride and Quicksilver mainnets since their launch earlier this year.
GitHub repository metrics
The strong community of external contributors and the outstanding Cosmos development team have delivered high-quality software time and again.
The chart below summarizes some important GitHub metrics for ibc-go and ibc (canonical) repositories in 2022.
Figure 3 shows the total number of commits submitted to ibc-go in 2022.
Our utmost praise and gratitude goes to our external contributors for their excellent work and for fostering collaboration and innovation in the development of ibc-go.
Other ecological developments
Interchain NFTs [Border Intelligence]
The cross-chain NFTs feature is based on the NFT module and the cross-chain NFT standard ICS-721, and is developed by Bianjie Intelligence (a long-term core technology contributor to Cosmos and IRISnet) and supported by the ICF Cross-Chain Foundation. This feature will introduce IBC-based cross-chain NFT interoperability to Cosmos and expand IBC capabilities. For more details, please refer to "Cosmos' Upcoming IBC Cross-Chain NFT Technology".
Bianjie Intelligence official website:
https://www.bianjie.ai/
NFT Module:
https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/main/docs/architecture/adr-043-nft-module.md
Cross-chain NFT standard ICS-721:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-721-nft-transfer
In addition, the Game of NFTs, jointly initiated by Border Intelligence and Cosmos ecological teams such as IRISnet, Stargaze, and Gravity Bridge, will launch in the first quarter of 2023! Game of NFTs is another highly anticipated large-scale developer activity after Game of Zones, Game of Stakes, and Game of Chains. It consists of two parts: a public incentivized test network and a hackathon, aiming to comprehensively test cross-chain NFT functions. And guide Cosmos developers to explore more innovative use cases around this feature.
Extending IBC to Polkadot [Composable Finance]
Composable Finance, with the help of Strangelove Ventures, is building infrastructure to connect the Cosmos and Polkadot ecosystems by developing the BEEFY light client and the new XCVM cross-chain smart contract platform. Their launch plans for next year will also utilize Wasm and GRANDPA clients.
BEEFY light client:
https://github.com/ComposableFi/centauri/tree/master/light-clients/ics11-beefy/
XCVM：
https://medium.com/composable-finance/xcvm-architectural-overview-8425fc2e5d47
Composable Finance：
https://www.composable.finance/
Strangelove Ventures：
https://strange.love/
GRANDPA：
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/blob/main/spec/client/ics-010-grandpa-client/README.md
The Composable team is also committed to using IBC to interconnect the Substrate chain with the Near ecosystem.
Related Links:
https://medium.com/composable-finance/bringing-ibc-to-near-our-near-polkadot-bridge-a8954d7ed886
ZK-IBC [Polymer]
Polymer is about to become one of the first consumer chains of Interchain Security. Polymer aims to connect IBC chains with non-IBC chains using zero-knowledge proofs.
Polymer：
https://www.polymerlabs.org/
Applying IBC on non-Cosmos-SDK chains [Penumbra]
This year, the first Cosmos SDK chain, Penumbra, went live. Penumbra connected to the Cosmos Hub using IBC in its testnet. This was an important milestone, showing that implementing IBC is not limited to Cosmos SDK chains.
Penumbra：
https://penumbra.zone/
Penumbra connects to the Cosmos Hub via IBC:
https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/txs/BA254A764A202BB1188E97F44DF03C5532307793B6DAF39E69C2DB800E13880A
Bringing IBC to the Ethereum and Near Ecosystem [Electron Labs]
By using zk-snarks, Electron Labs aims to connect the Ethereum and Cosmos ecosystems through IBC, and eventually other EVM chains.
Electron Labs：
https://electronlabs.org/
Detailed links:
https://www.notion.so/Bringing-IBC-to-Ethereum-using-ZK-Snarks-zk-IBC-899d9ef103e8428c92f907621b027175
Transfer security using IBC [Babylon]
By leveraging IBC as a tool to transfer security, Babylon is committed to providing the security of the Bitcoin network to the Cosmos chain. Babylon uses a checkpointing method to aggregate transactions on the Cosmos chain to the Bitcoin network through the IBC transport layer and add timestamps to them.
The working principle of Babylon is detailed in the blog:
https://babylonchain.io/blogs
Cross-chain query
The ICS-31 cross-chain query function, developed by the Informal Systems and Interchain GmbH teams, is a protocol that allows the "querying" chain to request data from the "queried" chain through IBC. Both Stride and Quicksilver currently use cross-chain query modules in production environments.
ICS-31 cross-chain query function:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-031-crosschain-queries
The IBC team at Interchain GmbH
As one of the three core teams supported by the ICF Cross-Chain Foundation to develop IBC (the other two teams are Informal Systems and Strangelove Ventures), the Interchain GmbH team serves as the manager and maintainer of the IBC protocol specification and ibc-go warehouse .
IBC Protocol Specification:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc
ibc-go repository:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc-go
Interchain GmbH’s vision is to realize a future where the IBC acts as the connecting organization between all blockchains, thereby creating an internet of blockchains in which blockchains can interact securely and exchange information.
At the beginning of 2022, the Interchain GmbH team consisted of only 6 people. Today, the number of team members has expanded to 9, working in development and product verticals.
Outlook 2023
The goals for 2023 can be roughly divided into three main themes, namely: 1) upgradability; 2) application composability; and 3) ecological expansion.
Upgradability
Designed to enable future-proofing of IBC and the ability to upgrade the core protocol without sacrificing network effects or cumulative status.
This will include work around channel upgradability to take advantage of new features such as fee middleware, upgrading IBC smart contracts, enhancing ICS-20, changing channel order, and more. The scalability topic also touches on work around IBC connectivity and client scalability.
Channel upgradeability:
https://medium.com/the-interchain-foundation/how-channel-upgradability-will-level-up-the-interchain-18077ae1d6cc
Cost middleware:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-029-fee-payment
Application composability
Aims to extend the functionality of IBC and make it easier for developers to create custom IBC applications in Golang or CosmWasm.
Key deliverables under this theme include path unwinding (ICS-20 v2), PubSub queries, support for new application workflows, and enhanced smart contract composability with IBC.
Path expansion:
https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/discussions/824
PubSub query:
https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/issues/13095
Ecological expansion
This includes supporting the team to implement IBC for other ecosystems or light clients (ZK-IBC, NEAR, Substrate), publishing localhost connections, and ensuring IBC security and compatibility of dependent projects.
Summarize
In 2022, the cross-chain ecosystem will buck the trend and continue to grow, and IBC has always been at the forefront of growth and innovation in the entire ecosystem.
As we head into 2023, IBC will continue to play a key role in the development of blockchain interoperability. Whether it’s enabling new use cases and applications, or driving innovation across different networks, the future of cross-chain has never been brighter.
IBC is a fundamental paradigm shift in interoperability that allows the transfer of arbitrary data across chains in a trust-minimized, secure, and scalable manner.
IBC：
https://ibcprotocol.org/
For more information about IBC, please refer to the Cross-Chain Developers Association materials.
https://tutorials.cosmos.network/academy/3-ibc
