Bridging 101
Although ETH remains the dominant Layer 1 for most on-chain activity, alternate Layer 1s have demonstrated product-market fit throughout the bull market run of ‘20/’21. Solana ($SOL) emerged as the ‘high-throughput chain’ focused on complex DeFi / gaming, BNB Chain ($BNB) offers easy fiat on/off-ramps through Binance CEX, while Avalanche ($AVAX) and Cosmos ($ATOM) are building application-specific blockchains that focus on interoperability.
These smart contract networks have chosen different tradeoffs along the Decentralization-Scalability-Security blockchain trilemma, catering to the different use cases above. As such, if smart contract networks were to permeate most business and culture facets in the future, bridges between these networks constitute crucial infrastructure for an omnichain future.
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