According to Blockworks, Picasso Network, an interoperability and staking hub, has successfully integrated the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol with Ethereum. This integration allows Ethereum to natively transfer assets and data with the Cosmos Hub, Polkadot, and Kusama via IBC. Picasso Network anticipates more chains, including Solana, will be connected in the near future.
Most current bridging protocols use the lock and mint or lock and burn method to transfer across blockchains, which can pose a security risk. Other blockchains introduce trust assumptions by involving third parties to oversee these transactions. Therefore, native bridging is often considered the most secure way for two separate blockchains to transact with each other.
IBC, which originated in the Cosmos ecosystem, enables native bridging of tokens, messages, and accounts. To bring IBC to Ethereum, the Picasso team made changes to IBC and created an IBC stack on Ethereum. According to Picasso, there are two light clients involved in the Ethereum and IBC connection. These relayers are responsible for transferring IBC packets between Ethereum and connected chains.
Henry Love, the executive director of the Composable Foundation, the organization behind Picasso, stated, 'As the first team to successfully connect Cosmos to Ethereum via IBC, we have achieved a pioneering breakthrough in crosschain interoperability, fulfilling the biggest milestone of our promise we made in 2021 to bring the highest level of security to bridging.'
Osmosis, one of the largest decentralized exchanges in the Cosmos ecosystem, will serve as the primary destination for Ethereum assets and liquidity within the Cosmos ecosystem. Aaron Kong, a growth and strategy contributor at Osmosis, said, 'The shared vision is to allow for a unified and secure crosschain DeFi ecosystem, and connecting Cosmos with Ethereum is both a significant technical milestone and a UX and functionality improvement for users.'
