The Imminent Connection of IBC and EVM: A Leap Towards Seamless Data Transfers and Unified Crypto Liquidity

High Rollers:

A significant milestone is on the horizon for the crypto community as we approach the integration of the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

This article explores the challenges and implications of this groundbreaking development, marking a new era of seamless data transfers and unified crypto liquidity.

𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞” 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐞𝐫𝐚…

The crypto community has been hollering from the hills for this.

𝑇𝑒𝑐𝘩𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒…

Why, you ask?

Well anon, we are about to connect IBC <> EVM and enable seamless, chasm-crossing data transfers with the click of a button.

In today’s post, you’ll learn about the state of fragmented liquidity in crypto currently, difficulties of connecting EVM <> IBC, and how we are headed towards a fully connected future with the help of a few key pieces of tech 👇

If you ask me, the ethos and alignment between @cosmos and @ethereum has always been there.

The principles of trustlessness, permissionless, censor-ship resistant technology are at the core ethos of both communities.

At all the events I’ve been, the Cosmos fam has shown up with extremely intelligent builders passionate about the @interchain_io, mirroring that of Ethereum.

So, what has been stopping this “collaboration” which we didn’t even realize we needed?

Well, for starters the technology hasn’t been there. We are just recently seeing teams tackle this issue with a secure POV.

𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘!

These ecosystems are almost like remote islands, or siloes. There’d been a ton of developer interest with Cosmos and similarly on Ethereum.

There had been concerns with these “spokes” security measures causing a downfall which would spill over into the other ecosystems.

Also, zk technology was just not there yet.

But, now it is…and there are some notable teams working on solutions as we speak.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠: @union_build 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬” 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐁𝐂 <> 𝐄𝐕𝐌.

Union network is a zk-based infra layer for general message passing and asset transfers. Its based on consensus verification and has no dependencies on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or MPC.

The key core values of Union are centered around speed of bridging transactions, security via trustless designs, and easy to use APIs for devs.

𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑦 𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 @therollupco 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝘩𝑒 𝑧𝑘𝐴𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑜𝑜𝑛!

The product of @union_build’s work so far is the Union Testnet comprised of: CometBLS, Galois, and Voyager.

CometBLS: improvement of Tendermint with increased bridging times, and cheaper relayers (Voyager).
Voyager: a fully functional stateless relayer.
Galois: an efficient zero-knowledge prover.

This testnet is the most recent initiative for @union_build which involves connecting IBC <> EVM, facilitating connection of two previously independent blockchains that will soon be fully interoperable with each other.

Union is focused on building light clients on both sides of the bridge based on (non)membership proofs and header verification via ZK proof.

TLDR on light clients below 👇

Composability and interoperability are two critical aspects of a blossoming blockchain world. By connecting EVM and Cosmos, Union Protocol gains seamless interaction of smart contracts across the two ecosystems and can facilitate cross-ecosystem transfers of many types (NFTs, data, cryptoassets, etc.)

This “endgame” has far-reaching implications. It signifies a future where @cosmos and IBC are no longer isolated from the economic activity and liquidity of Ethereum, and EVM.

This has the potential to lead to more complex, yet highly secure, DeFi primitives that we’ve yet to see.

The best part?

Future users will never know this is happening. They will have a streamlined experience from start-to-finish all powered by the magic of zero-knowledge proofs ✨

@union_build is taking strides that embody the future of our ecosystem as a whole:

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚, 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐧.