What is a cross-chain bridge?

Ritu13

A cross-chain bridge is a decentralized application that enables assets to be transferred from one blockchain to another.

Today, cross-chain bridges vary greatly in design and purpose. For example, some cross-chain bridges are specifically designed for transferring assets between Layer 2 and underlying blockchains. Meanwhile, universal cross-chain bridges developed based on cross-chain protocols like Chainlink CCIP can seamlessly transfer assets and messages across multiple blockchains.

Cross-chain bridges are a core element of Web3 infrastructure. For users, cross-chain bridges facilitate seamless token and message transfers between different chains. For developers, leveraging cross-chain protocols enables the creation of user experiences compatible with any blockchain, greatly simplifying infrastructure. Currently, the total monthly transaction volume of all cross-chain bridges exceeds 6 billion, highlighting the crucial role this area plays in the Web3 ecosystem, enjoying widespread adoption.

Therefore, whether users, developers, or institutions, understanding the seven key vulnerabilities of cross-chain bridges is essential for researching the cross-chain arena, to safeguard their security, users, and stakeholders' interests.

1. **Private Key Management Vulnerability**: Cross-chain bridges typically use one or a set of private keys for management. Each node running one or more cross-chain bridges holds a unique private key. Their task is to achieve consensus on cross-chain messages or value transmitted by users and accurately transfer messages or value across chains. They use private keys for digital signatures or threshold signatures to approve cross-chain messages.

   Therefore, private key theft is one of the most common vulnerabilities of cross-chain bridges. The most notorious incidents of cross-chain bridge theft in the Web3 industry have been caused by private key theft. Private key theft usually occurs due to vulnerabilities in private key management or cross-chain bridge operation security.

   A general principle is that the more decentralized cross-chain bridges and their private keys are in terms of servers, infrastructure providers, deployment locations, and node operators, the more capable they are of preventing single-point failures and centralization risks.

Yamini003

Centralized risk is something we need to look into.

Iti9

It tells us, but I still don't understand at all.