🧠Cross-chain Integrations
Cross-chain integration is one of Dymensify's main use cases. It serves as a touchpoint between the EVM and IBC ecosystems.
So far in this documentation, constant reference has been made to the two ecosystems above. Therefore, it will be elucidated briefly to provide a common ground of understanding.
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the brainbox behind the main operations of the Ethereum blockchain network.
Every smart contract written in Solidity, Vyper— or any other Ethereum-native language—and deployed on the Ethereum chain will be processed by the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
That leads to the first responsibility of the EVM, which is the processing and execution of smart contracts deployed on it.
Note that after smart contracts are written in high-level languages such as Solidity or Vyper, the EVM later compiles them to OpCode or other low-level languages it understands. This is why senior smart contract engineers often write their smart contract’s stacks straight in Julia to the EVM.
The second responsibility of the EVM is the management of Ethereum’s state. This further extends to the production and propagation of blocks.
It is worth emphasizing that the EVM processes smart contracts deployed directly on Ethereum and smart contracts deployed on Ethereum’s layer-2 blockchains, as they all rely on the EVM.
Therefore, mentioning the EVM ecosystem is not limited to the Ethereum blockchain itself. But also includes other dependent blockchains such as Polygon, Celo, StarkNet, Optimism, Scroll, Base, etc.
The Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol is a chain-agnostic protocol that facilitates the movement of data and assets from one distinct chain to another.
Data shows that the protocol processes $30 million worth of inter-chain transfers annually. In addition, it currently supports over 100 blockchains.
It is vital to disambiguate that IBC is not a blockchain itself. Rather, it is a cross-chain communication protocol, as its name implies.
One of the most important components of the IBC protocol is the Packets, which are communication boxes to communicate information among modules.
Users do not need to worry about setting up a third party for cross-chain interaction, which may be a single point of failure.
The IBC light client ensures interoperability. Examples of popular clients are currently the Tendermint Light client and Wasm client.
Most chains in the Cosmos ecosystem are IBC-based. Thus, it is safe to say Cosmos networks are IBC-based because they were built with the Tendermint light client.
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