Polkadot’s governance is currently mulling over a proposal to activate SnowBridge, a cross-chain bridge designed to link the Polkadot blockchain with Ethereum.
A cross-chain bridge essentially serves as a decentralized application (DApp), streamlining asset transfers between blockchains to enhance token utility by fostering cross-chain liquidity.
Market observers have highlighted the significant role SnowBridge would play in enabling Polkadot’s ecosystem to tap into Ethereum’s extensive DeFi landscape.
The SnowBridge proposal has garnered substantial support from the community due to the potential benefits, t, with all cast votes currently in favor of its implementation. If approved, SnowBridge is slated to go live in 28 days.
What is SnowBridge?
SnowBridge is one of the many bridges under development within the Polkadot ecosystem. This initiative, a collaboration between Snowfork and Parity Technologies, aims to revolutionize the movement of Ethereum assets into and out of Polkadot.
Currently, bridging ERC-20 tokens into Polkadot necessitates using bridges reliant on third-party signatures. While this method is standard in Web3 ecosystems, it poses limitations for Parachains and dApps on Polkadot due to its impact on their trust model.
SnowBridge offers a solution through a trustless model that relies solely on signatures from first-party Ethereum and Polkadot validators. It operates on BridgeHub and is poised to enhance cross-chain interaction between Polkadot and Ethereum.
SnowBridge has been in development for some time and was deployed on the Polkadot parachain testnet Rococo in January 2024. Subsequently, developers utilized it to transfer assets between the Ethereum Sepolia testnet and AssetHub on Rococo, with ERC-20 tokens initially being the sole supported asset type.
Since its deployment, several updates to SnowBridge have been implemented based on thorough testing and audits conducted by the team and security firms.