Cross-chain bridges seemingly appear to be constant targets of hackers, and with millions of dollars lost in these hacks. One might wonder — why the need for blockchain bridges? 🌉 Let's find out!
Let’s assume you have some BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and want to move these tokens to the Ethereum blockchain, which has a native ETH token. To make this happen, you will need to send your BTC to a cross-chain bridge, which will hold your coin and create equivalents in ETH for you to use.
These are all different companies, operating different systems and protocols. Yet, transactions are fast and seamless. Blockchain bridges also help to lower transaction costs while providing a better user experience. Imagine having to go through different exchanges each time you need to swap a token. Apart from the higher fees associated with doing this every time, the process is quite cumbersome.