Nervos is making moves to rapidly expand its DeFi ecosystem, as the network recently announced the launch of Force Bridge to Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Following the completion of the bridge connecting the two blockchain networks, Kevin Wang, co-founder of Nervos revealed what’s next on the list for growing the interoperability of the ecosystem. 

DeFi expansion

The completion of the bridge marks a big milestone in Nervos’ DeFi expansion, unlocking new possibilities given BSC’s Total Value Locked (TVL)–the biggest of any blockchain outside of Ethereum. 

The bridge is enabled through a Force Bridge–allowing seamless transfer of tokens across the networks.

The #CKBxBSC bridge is live!#BSC assets can be moved to #Nervos via the Force Bridge (https://t.co/GSYQhStMFU) #Developers building on @BinanceChain will also be able to port their dApps to Nervos

More on what this means for our #DeFi ecosystem https://t.co/kIU4Q8HZXr pic.twitter.com/hCgDhtMAJs

— Nervos (@NervosNetwork) January 13, 2022

With the completion of the cross-chain bridge, dapps such as YokaiSwap, the first decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Nervos, will gain access to liquidity through the BSC ecosystem. 

It also means devs building on BSC can port their dapps to Nervos and gain access to projects, tools, and resources available in a “burgeoning network focused on DeFi development.” 

Cross-chain bridge between Nervos and Cardano 

“The bridge to Binance Smart Chain is an exciting development as we build out our DeFi ecosystem, but it’s only one of many bridges to come,”  Kevin Wang, co-founder of Nervos told CryptoSlate.

“We’ve been working closely with IOHK, the developers of Cardano, on UTXO research and a cross-chain bridge between our networks is in development. The bridge, currently in testnet, will enable users to use $CKB and $ADA interchangeably, as well as create their own tokens across both blockchains. We’re planning to deploy the Nervos x Cardano bridge in the near future,” he revealed.

Cross-chain bridges, powered by Nervos’ trustless ForceBridge, play an important role in the network’s multi-chain strategy. 

“We want to bridge to all of the top ecosystems and enable blockchain interoperability,” Said Wang, adding that he doesn’t believe blockchain is a “winner take all” space.

“We can work together for the betterment of the technology and the future of the industry. Our bridge with Cardano is just one example of that ethos put into action,” he concluded.

Public chain projects Nervos and Cardano said they plan to enable interoperability across their platforms within the next six weeks. The bridge furthers their goals of discovering the industry’s “Bluetooth moment,” Nervos and IOHK, according to the development team behind Cardano.

The launch is significant because it links two ecosystems worth billions of dollars in terms of market capitalization, the companies said in a press release on Wednesday. It is the first bridge for cardano (ADA), currently valued at $56.3 billion and the market’s fourth most valued crypto.

Blockchain accelerator Mousebelt has been tapped to develop the tech, with funding to come from a Nervos grant. The Cardano team will commit expertise and resources to connect its network.

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The Force Bridge, as it’s known, will allow users to interchangeably transact with Nervos or Cardano’s native currencies (CKB and ADA). It will also enable participants to create their own wrapped tokens – cryptos that are pegged to the value of another – and do so across both chains, according to the release.

The bridge is expected to reduce transaction costs across both platforms’ cryptocurrencies while reducing the burden for users to possess different wallets to access features from both networks. It will let developers from both chains access services and features to expand their decentralized applications and user bases, the companies said.

“We believe that blockchain technology will only achieve mainstream acceptance when end users are not locked into one blockchain or standard,” IOHK CTO Romain Pellerin said. “Bridges like this are an absolute necessity in order to ensure that users have a seamless experience,”

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Story continues

It isn’t the first time the two projects have collaborated. In December they launched a joint research initiative to increase the security of smart contracts by improving Unspent Transaction Outputs – a common accounting method used by blockchains. They also announced they would be furthering future open-source development while exploring the creation of a universal standard for the accounting method. 

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Nervos today announced that the Force Bridge is now live on the mainnet. The Nervos Network is a collection of protocols and public blockchain ecosystem aiming to solve the various challenges facing blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum today.

The Force Bridge is currently connected to Ethereum through a cross-chain bridge and will be connected to Cardano and other EVM and non-EVM public chains in the future, such as Bitcoin, TRON, EOS, and Polkadot.

The Force Bridge is a trustless cross-chain bridge that allows for seamless transactions between the Nervos ecosystem and other public chains, making it easier for developers to expand their dApps and user base to the Nervos ecosystem.

Currently, the bridge supports ETH and whitelisted ERC-20 tokens, including Dai (DAI), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC), with more tokens to come in the future. No CKB, the native token of the Nervos ecosystem, is required to transfer assets to Nervos via the Force Bridge. 

How the Force Bridge Works

While most cross-chain bridges require multiple steps before an asset can be moved, Force Bridge requires only a simple contract deployment to begin asset movement to a user or decentralized app (dApp).

When users send assets from Ethereum using the Force Bridge user interface (UI), the asset gets locked into a multi-signature wallet on Ethereum. Corresponding tokens are then minted on Nervos and sent to the corresponding users’ wallet addresses. 

To ensure the safety and security of assets as they move cross-chain, the Nervos community formed a Force Bridge committee to ensure that the smart contract wallet is secure on Ethereum. 

“The Force Bridge plays an integral role in our suite of multi-chain solutions, which are aimed at creating Universal Applications that transcend individual blockchains,” said Kevin Wang, co-founder at Nervos. “With the recent launch of some of our other multi-chain solutions, Polyjuice and Godwoken which were tested during our recent Hackathon, and now the Force Bridge, we’re making important progress in our roadmap and moving closer to a truly interconnected blockchain ecosystem.” 

Earlier this year, Nervos announced it would connect to Cardano, the latest project in an existing research collaboration between Nervos and IOHK. Once completed, it will be the first cross-chain bridge to Cardano, allowing users to use Nervos and Cardano’s native currencies ($CKB and $ADA, respectively) interchangeably, as well as create their own tokens (user-defined tokens) across both blockchains.

As Nervos moves closer towards its vision for an interoperable blockchain ecosystem—or Interoperability 2.0—users from other chains will soon be able to use their wallets to trade in the same liquidity pool on CKB with Yokaiswap, the first interoperable AMM, DEX, Yield Farming, and Staking platform in the Nervos ecosystem. Additionally, the project is developing an update to transfer $CKB to Ethereum as wrapped $CKB (wCKB).

Kevin added, “Progress on the blockchain is an iterative process. As we continue to make headway on the Force Bridge and our multi-chain solutions, we look forward to receiving feedback from the community.” 

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