Gnosis Chain Merge Completed | LI.FI x Alpaca Finance | Axelar Supports Arbitrum | Cross-Chain EIP & More!

Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (5 - 11 Dec 2022)

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Dec 12, 2022

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Bridge Updates

1) Axelar Now Supports Arbitrum 💙

Axelar has added support for Arbitrum, extending it’s range of supported networks within the EVM ecosystem. Users can now transfer assets from any Axelar support chain to Arbitrum via Satellite.

2) Alpaca Finance Integrates LI.FI’s Widget 🦎

Alpaca Finance, a secure lending protocol that allows leveraged yield farming, has integrated our Widget! Alpaca users can now move their assets from seven new chains and Layer-2s like, Arbitrum and Optimism onto BNB or Fantom without leaving the dApp.

3) LayerZero Supports Metis, Klaytn and DeFi Kingdom Serendale 🔥

LayerZero is now officially live on Metis Andromeda Mainnet, Klaytn, and DeFi Kingdom Serendale.

4) Synapse Now Supports Canto 🤝🏻

Synapse has added support for Canto blockchain. Users can now bridge USDC and USDT to and from Canto on Synapse.

5) Ren PSA: Bridge Back Ren Assets to Native Chains ⚠️

Since Ren 1.0 network is shutting down due to the events surrounding Alameda, it’s critical that holders of Ren assets bridge back to native chains ASAP, or risk losing their assets. This is because once Ren 1.0 is shut down, compatibility between Ren 1.0 and 2.0 cannot be guaranteed.

6) Nomad to Restart Bridge 👏🏻

After the $190M hack in August, the Nomad team is preparing to restart the bridge. In a recent announcement, the team released a Relaunch Guide, sharing more info on how the relaunch will work and provide more details. Moreover, the team asked affected users to kick off the KYC/KYB verification process to recover their funds once the bridge restarts.

7) Aave <> Starknet Bridge Activated 🚀

The Aave <> StarkNet bridge for aTokens has been activated, as a result of the collaboration between BGD labs and Nethermind. The bridge lets users hold and trade Aave aTokens on StarkNet while still accruing Aave rewards from Ethereum.

Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates

1) Gnosis Chain Merge Completed 🐼

Gnosis chain, on Dec 08, completed its Merge upgrade, transitioning from Proof of Authority (PoA) to Proof of Stake (PoS).

2) Ethereum Shanghai Planned for March 2023 📅

In the last Ethereum AllCoreDevs meeting of the year, the team tentatively set March 2023 as the month for shipping the Shanghai upgrade. The upgrade will allow users to permit their staked ETH withdrawals, which is expected to encourage more users to stake and improve network security.

3) Starbucks Odyssey Beta is Live on Polygon 💜

Starbucks Odyssey, an extension of the Starbucks Rewards loyalty program that unlocks access to exciting new benefits and experiences for members, is now live on Polygon (still in Beta).

What’s Popping on Twitter?

There’s a Cross Chain EIP… And I Bet You Had No Idea

Last week, PoolTogether sponsored a code4rena audit contest for EIP-5164, which specifies a common interface for cross-chain contract calls in the world of EVM-compatible chains. PoolTogether offered a total prize pool of $26,900 to evaluate the implementations of EIP-5164 using Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon’s native bridges.

Sounds like big news, yes? Well, based on the fact that the announcement tweet brought in a grand total of 29 likes, it doesn’t seem like a ton of people are paying attention.

asselstine.eth 🌊 🏆 @b_asselstine

The @code4rena auditing contest for ERC-5164 is now live! This ERC specifies a common interface for cross-chain contract calls. The contest scope covers implementations for: - Ethereum to @optimismFND - Ethereum to @arbitrum - Ethereum to @0xPolygon

github.comGitHub - code-423n4/2022-12-pooltogetherContribute to code-423n4/2022-12-pooltogether development by creating an account on GitHub.

But you should be paying attention, because EIP-5164 is actually super, super cool.

Here’s what you need to know….

EIP–5164 Background

First off, EIP stand for Ethereum Improvement Proposal

Originally proposed as a vague solution for multichain governance, EIP-5164 has since transformed into a specification to define a generalized cross-chain execution interface for EVM-based blockchains.

PoolTogether’s CTO Brendan Asselstin has spearheaded the EIP movement, from concept to proposal. As described in a previous Cross-Chain Insider article, EIP-5164 was born out of PoolTogether’s need to signal votes and approve state changes across multiple chains.

In essence, EIP-5164 attempts to mass-produce a solution that would allow dApp token holders to vote and approve state changes across multiple chains – meaning 1) tokens should be able to vote from any chain and 2) whatever changes are approved by the vote automatically get executed on the various EVM-compatible iterations of a dApp like PoolTogether.

A secondary, but perhaps more important, facet of EIP-5164 is its potential to improve code reuse and how it might make it easier to interact with bridges in the EVM-blockchain space. In the current state of bridging in the EVM-world, each bridge has different APIs and brings differing degrees of trustlessness to the table, making it rather messy to interact with multiple bridges (LI.FI is a bridge aggregator, we feel this). EIP-5164, as a common specification, could potentially allow for a more generalized way for dApps and projects to interact with bridges.

How EIP-5164 Works

To borrow words directly from the documentation, EIP-5164 is a way for contracts on one chain to call contracts on another.

It’s a rather simple architecture. On the source chain, EIP-5164 utilizes a “Cross Chain Relayer” to broadcast calls through a transport layer (a bridge) to a “Cross Chain Executor” that is housed on the destination chain.

Here’s a diagram (courtesy of Brendan):

In its first iteration, the “transport layer” used to move messages is the native bridges of Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon. However, in the future, ERC-5164 implementations could use LayerZero, Axelar, Hyperlane or other arbitrary messaging bridges as the transport layer, which would greatly decrease the latency of message passing, as Ethereum to Polygon messages currently take 30 minutes to move.

What’s Next

Well, short term, we do know is that EIP-5164 entered the review stage on October 31, 2022.

Additionally, PoolTogether plans to use the EIP “to bridge governance commands and RNG results.”

Long term, we’re unsure… but luckily we’re going to find out a bit more on our Twitter spaces with Brendan today, which you should definitely tune into!