How BTP cuts the hacking risk that keeps surfacing at the bridge layer
The latest ICONLOOP interview with Digital Today, D2 People, is out.
Most of the large-scale hacks in the blockchain space this year involved bridges, and voices pointing out the limits of bridges keep getting louder. This interview focuses on introducing ICONLOOP's BTP (Blockchain Transmission Protocol) as a technology that can reduce exactly that kind of hacking risk.
See the ICONLOOP BTP explainer ▼
ICONLOOP's Interchain Technology, BTP (Blockchain Transmission Protocol)
Countless blockchain projects are underway around the world, and many dApps run independently on platforms with different technical characteristics — which makes the question of integration impossible to ignore. If a dApp can only ever be used on the platform it was built on, convenience and general utility are bound to shrink over the long run. That is why, from its earliest days, ICONLOOP has developed a range of core and applied technologies with one ultimate goal: building an interchain environment where blockchains can communicate and interact...
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Bridges, which let assets move between different blockchains, were long seen as an attractive way to raise the utility of virtual assets — but lately they have also become the epicenter of one hack after another. Even so, connecting to major blockchains remains a practical necessity for other blockchain networks, so the industry's push toward bridges continues.
ICONLOOP's BTP is a decentralized, trustless bridge technology, so its security risk is comparatively low, and it can connect not only the ICON-family blockchains ICONLOOP helped develop but other blockchains as well. Backed by proprietary core technology and wide-ranging experience, ICONLOOP keeps working through what the shift to Web3 demands and keeps pushing innovation aimed at the still-unsolved blockchain trilemma (scalability, security, decentralization). We would love your interest and support.
The interview with ICONLOOP CTO Hyukgon Ryu on the characteristics and strategy behind BTP follows below.
Q. You emphasize that BTP is safe because it is based on a trustless model.
Trustless bridges are relatively difficult to implement, which makes them hard to commercialize. Most bridges available today use a centralized, trusted model, structured so that centralized entities act as the intermediary. Think of it as similar to a centralized exchange.
A trustless bridge has no trusted party in the middle. It runs purely on smart contracts and algorithms. Hacks can still happen through problems in the blockchain itself or in the smart contract, but looking at the bridge alone, the trustless model is comparatively safer. In the trusted model, authority is concentrated in the validators sitting in the middle, so a stolen private key can lead to much bigger damage.
The trustless model is hard to implement and less efficient. That is what makes it comparatively hard to commercialize.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Q. How did you implement BTP?
Commercializing trustless bridge technology is hard because verification methods differ from blockchain to blockchain. If the hash functions differ, you cannot verify an Ethereum block directly on Solana. You can use a smart contract, but it costs a lot of gas. There is also the constraint of having to update blocks periodically. As transactions grow and computation increases, the gas burden inevitably follows. In developing BTP we focused on solving exactly these problems. BTP reduces the volume of transactions, and when different hash functions are involved, going through ICON lets you convert between them.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Q. Where and how will BTP mainly be used?
Applying it to ICON and the ICON-family mainnets comes first. Beyond the ICON-family blockchains, BTP can also be used when those platforms connect to other blockchains. Once the Ethereum Merge is complete, we will connect to Ethereum as well. We plan to support Solana too.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Q. What is the concrete business model for BTP?
BTP itself is provided as open source software. A fee applies when you use BTP to build a bridge. BTP does not have a separate token.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Q. Besides ICON, Polkadot and Cosmos also offer blockchain networks that describe themselves as interchain. What sets you apart from those platforms?
Cosmos and Polkadot provide interchain technology that only connects the Layer 1 blockchains inside their own networks. BTP, as mentioned, can also connect to networks outside ICON. Any blockchain that supports smart contracts can be supported. BTP can of course also be used to connect blockchains other than ICON to each other; in that case ICON plays the intermediary role. For now, though, the priority is connecting the ICON-family networks.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Q. Which projects have BTP applied to them?
It has been applied to HAVAH, the ICON-based interchain NFT platform. HAVAH uses NFTs to let NFTs move between blockchains. Demand for building mainnets has been picking up again recently. ICONLOOP offers PARAMETA, a software development kit (SDK) that makes building a mainnet easier, and as PARAMETA spreads we expect demand for BTP to grow with it.
Q. What are your plans going forward?
As decentralized finance (DeFi) has spread, demand for moving assets has grown, and new Layer 1 mainnets keep appearing. The pull toward bridges is becoming pronounced. Starting with the ICON-family blockchains, we intend to focus on increasing the number of meaningful applications.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
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Life Meets Blockchain, ICONLOOP