ETH- NEAR Rainbow Bridge

21 March 10:28

[TL;DR]

Rainbow bridge is an innovation to how applications can easily connect and transfer their digital assets.

Once a piece of information is cryptographically readable on the connecting apps, Rainbow bridge will link them.

The scalability and ease of usage are some of the mouth-watering features of the Rainbow bridge.

Ethereum miners and NEAR validators embrace the Rainbow bridge for digital asset exchange and transfer.

NEAR is a blockchain app that uses the Sharding technique to split its network infrastructure into different transactions.

ETH is the crypto token of Ethereum.

The Rainbow bridge platform requires some components that include the LiteNodes, Relayers, etc.

Fill in the form to receive 5 reward points→

Day by day, the blockchain network continues to witness innovations and the development of scalability solutions.

One of those scalability solutions is the ability to move your digital assets and data from one blockchain platform to another seamlessly.

Holders and investors of these assets want to move their data and assets between blockchains. At the same time, they want to run these assets across multiple platforms.

For instance, a cryptocurrency holder wants to leverage performance on one blockchain and community & ecosystem on another blockchain.

While you may be familiar with ethereum and NEAR, there is a high probability that you do not know how the Rainbow Bridge works. Not to worry, we shall unfold every trick behind NEAR, Ethereum, and the Rainbow Bridge connection.

What is Rainbow Bridge?

Sometimes, developers of these blockchain apps do not want to commit to one wallet; as said earlier, they want to keep their assets on multiple wallets and communicate without boundaries.

That's where the Rainbow bridge comes into play.

The bridge (as the name implies) was developed to connect blockchain apps with the lowest level of trust to provide interoperability solutions. In this case, the Rainbow bridge allows connection between the ETH and NEAR blockchains. The Ethereum miners and NEAR validators connect via the bridge and do not encounter trust issues.

The "ETH-NEAR Rainbow bridge" arrangement allows your digital asset free flow and transfer between Ethereum and NEAR blockchains. This arrangement or protocol enables users and holders of these assets to bridge any ERC-20 token with ease.

The Rainbow bridge is fully decentralized, and any information that is cryptographically provable on NEAR can be usable in Ethereum contracts and vice versa. It is so flexible that anyone can deploy a new bridge, use an existing one or join others in maintaining one. To connect your blockchain software, you do not need approval from anyone or trust any network.

What Is the NEAR Protocol?

NEAR protocol is a blockchain platform developed by Alex Skidanov and Illia Polosukhin. NEAR protocol's native currency is available as a NEAR token on the blockchain.

NEAR is software that uses the sharding process to split network infrastructure into several segments. The splitting will enable the nodes to handle a part of the network's transaction.

The NEAR protocol allows different computers to connect and operate a single platform for developers to launch a blockchain app.

NEAR has a similar operation with centralized data storage systems like Amazon web services (AWS).

They both serve as the base layer on which you can build applications.

NEAR protocol is operated and maintained by a distributed network of computers instead of being run by a single entity ( in the case of Amazon web services).

What Is ETH?

ETH is the abbreviation for Ether, a token for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum is an open-source blockchain platform that runs anonymously and independently.

Now, we examine how we can connect and transfer digital assets with Rainbow bridge.

How To Connect And Transfer Digital Assets With Rainbow Bridge

To use the rainbow bridge for your connection and exchange, you need an ETH Faucet and a MetaMask wallet. The other components involved in the link and transfer includes;

The Rainbow Bridge UI
The rainbow bridge UI is the website or application where you, as the user, relate with the bridge to transfer your assets between networks.

The rainbow bridge 2.0 is the latest version of this bridging app, and you can interact with this version via the rainbow bridge UI.

The LiteNode
The LiteNode is in the form of a smart contract. You can deploy the LiteNode in two phases.

The first one is deployed on the Ethereum network, and it stores the NEAR block headers, while the second one is deployed on NEAR and stores the Ethereum block headers.

The reason why this node stores block headers is to reduce the storage space needed for transactions. Some people refer to it as “Light client.”

The Relayers
LiteNodes are only smart contracts; they can neither run nor update themselves. That is why the bridge needs a relayer.

It is the function of the Relayer to keep the LiteNodes up-to-date.

The relayers are _script_s that run on the local server. These relayers periodically read blocks from one blockchain and communicate the blocks to the LiteNode running on another blockchain.

Every time a Relayer updates a LiteNode, the Node on NEAR that contains the ethereum block is updated, and a gas fee is deducted. However, the Relayer is configurable when the update frequency on Ethereum has the NEAR block.

The financial budget determines the gas fee, and the duration can vary from 12 to 16 hours.

Connectors
Connectors are smart contracts that enable data and asset transfer across the Rainbow bridge.

The connectors are responsible for the logic associated with the cross-chain management of a specified digital asset.

The connector needed for Rainbow bridge transfer exists in pairs, and one runs on ETH, and the other runs on NEAR.

The first ETH connector transfers ETH between two blockchain networks, while the ERC-20 connector transfers ERC-20 tokens.

Conclusion

Rainbow bridge is a scalability solution that has made it easy to transfer digital assets such as Ethereum and NEAR across wallets.

It is an innovation that has continued to help individuals who do not want to commit to a single blockchain platform.

Using Rainbow bridge, you do not have to trust the connector; your trust resides with the blockchain platform.

There are quite a several processes and procedures involved in these transfers. Albeit, we have highlighted and simplified the basic ones in this article.

Author: Valentine A., Gate.io Researcher
This article represents only the researcher's views and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.