Magic Eden Supports Polygon | LI.FI x Pangolin | MetaMask Integrates Connext | Bridges with Zero Knowledge Proofs & More!

Last Week In The Multi-Chain Ecosystem (12 - 18 Dec 2022)

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Dec 19, 2022

Welcome to LI.FI’s Cross Chain Insider newsletter. If you want to join this community of cross-chain aficionados learning about bridges, interoperability, and the multi-chain ecosystem, subscribe below:

You can also check out LI.FI’s research articles, and follow us on Twitter!

Bridge Updates

1) Reminder: Ren 1.0 Will Shut Down on 20th Dec ⚠️

According to Etherscan, 4.6k+ users still hold approx. $15.1M worth of renBTC. These assets must be bridged back to native chains ASAP or risk being lost as Ren 1.0 will shut down on 20th Dec.

2) 3 New Integrations for LI.FI 🦎

Pangolin Integrates LI.FI’s SDK — Pangolin announced BridgeSwap powered by LI.FI’s SDK, allowing users to bridge and swap assets across 16 different EVM-compatible chains, 13 bridges, and 28 DEXs directly from the Pangolin user interface.
VaporDEX Integrates LI.FI’s Widget — VaporDEX, a new feature-packed decentralized exchange powered by VaporFI has integrated LI.FI’s Widget. Users can now bridge and swap any asset from 16 different chains and Layer-2s to and from Avalanche with just a few clicks.
Valve.x Integrates LI.FI’s Widget — Valve.x, a dApp that allows you to safely and securely move crypto assets from one wallet to another, is using LI.FI to power bridging and swapping inside its interface. With the integration, Valve.x users can move any asset seamlessly across the 15+ chains supported by LI.FI.

3) Multichain Introduces Updated Explorer 🧐

Multichain made several UI/UX changes, including an updated explorer with an upgraded API, 100% transparency, and a dashboard for all assets, NFTs, and anyCall messaging transfers.

4) Router Protocol Integrates Circle’s CCTP 🚀

Router Protocol, an infrastructure layer enabling communication between blockchains, announced the integration of Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. The integration makes USD Coin and $USDC interoperable.

5) MetaMask Integrates Connext 🤝🏻

MetaMask integrated Connext, as part of their bridge aggregator. As per the team, MetaMask selected Connext for its “security, trust-minimized design (one that doesn’t rely on external validators), and its ability to extend to multiple networks.”

Multi-Chain Ecosystem Updates

1) Magic Eden Now Supports Polygon 💜

Magic Eden, the premier NFT marketplace on Solana, has added support for Polygon NFTs. Users can now buy, sell, and mint Polygon NFTs with $MATIC, $WETH, and $USDC on Magic Eden.

2) Aztec Raised $100M in Series B 💸

Aztec Network, a privacy layer for web3, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

3) PayPal x MetaMask 🦊

ConsenSys announced that U.S. MetaMask users could soon purchase crypto (ETH) from within the app using PayPal, making MetaMask the first wallet to leverage PayPal for on-ramp transactions.

What’s Popping on Twitter?

Karthik Inbasekar’s article on “Bridging the Multichain Universe with Zero Knowledge Proofs”, recently had many discussing the future of bridges and the use of ZK tech to improve their security.

For those who haven’t read the article yet, here’s a quick TL;DR:

The article states that while many bridge hacks we’ve seen to date are not preventable just with the use of Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP’s), the use of ZKPs can be used to improve the overall security of cross-chain communication.
Some of the interesting projects that leverage the properties of zk-SNARKS to build secure bridges include:
The different approaches are summarised with the help of a comparison table!
The multi-chain universe is fragmented, and cross-chain bridges “defragment” it. However, building bridges is not easy as there are several technical challenges, such as 1) Low computational overhead (efficiently handling cross-domain data, out-of-field arithmetic), 2) Low storage overhead (Succinctness), and 3) Security/trustless (Soundness).

Given the complexity of zk-tech and bridges, whether zk-tech will reduce bridge hacks still needs to be seen, as most bridge hacks have occurred due to implementation errors. However, we must explore the use of zk-tech to build secure bridges and this article provides a comprehensive overview of the projects currently working to bridge zk-tech to bridges.

The summary doesn’t do the article justice. We highly encourage you to read the entire article!