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Blockchain Bridge

Cardano’s First Cross-Chain Bridge With BSC Launched

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Cardano-based P2P Game Cornucopias rolled out the first-ever bridge connecting the BSC blockchain, thanks to the partnership between research and development firm IOG and ChainPort, a permissionless crypto bridge.

This collaboration has enabled users to seamlessly port their COPI tokens from BSC to Cardano. In order to be able to conduct the transfer, they are required to have at least 5k COPI coins, the announcement read.

Cornucopias is one of the biggest play-to-earn projects on the Cardano network where players can play this metaverse to earn money and acquire real estate, and other NFT-based assets.

The platform’s community is also one of the largest in the Cardano ecosystem but this is hardly a surprise because it is a community-driven blockchain gaming project.

That said, according to a survey by DappRadar, Cardano has risen to be the third-largest nonfungible token [NFT] protocol by trading volume.

Cardano’s NFT Volume Tapped Close To $200M

In the 30-day period that ended on September 30, the network’s total NFT volume hit $191 million, trailing only Solana [SOL] 3.3% and Ethereum [ETH] 1.8%.

Per data from The Block, in the same time period, Ethereum, the network that powers the most widely used NFT protocol [ERC-721], made over $338 million, whereas Solana contributed $116 million in NFT volume.

The trading volume on the largest NFT marketplace for ADA +0.6% this quarter surged by 40%, hitting $11.2 million on the platform alone. However, none of the top 10 marketplaces listed by DappRadar support Cardano NFTs, which makes them unavailable to anybody outside the network of that blockchain.

The network’s Vasil update, which went live on Sept. 22 after a series of delays and doubled the network’s operating capacity while decreasing transaction time, is mostly responsible for the spike in trading volume.

Additionally, the hard fork triggered the release of Plutus v2, the network’s smart contract language, which facilitated chain development for developers.

In accordance with a blog article by DappRadar, Cardano remains the favored option for large projects due to its “scalability, interoperability, and sustainability,” yet its $66 million Total Value locked [TVL] is meager compared to Ethereum’s $31.4 billion and Solana’s $955.5 million.

How did a $600M Hack of a Blockchain Bridge go unnoticed for almost a week?

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Popular online game Axie infinity’s bridge called Ronin Network suffered an exploit losing more than half a billion funds in one of the biggest crypto attacks to date. The breach took place on March 23 but was discovered only on 30 March, Tuesday, according to the blog, published by Ronin detailing the incident.

So what exactly happened?

Blockchain bridge is software that enables cross-chain communication allowing tokens to be transferred. Attackers drained 173,600 Ether and 25.5 million USDC tokens from the network in two transactions. The stolen funds were siphoned off in two cryptocurrency exchanges, according to blockchain forensics firm Elliptic.

Ronin in its blog said it’s in contact with several cryptocurrency exchanges along with blockchain data analytic Chainalysis to monitor the movement of the stolen funds. The network also stated that it’s working with law enforcement agencies.

Following the incident, the price of Ronin’s token RON took a steep fall of 22%. AXS, of Axie Infinity, too reacted by losing as much as 11%, according to CoinMarketCap.  

Blockchain bridges have some major flaws

The attack highlights how bridges are susceptible to malicious actors. Experts say that these are run by unaudited computer codes, making them vulnerable to attackers. On top of that, the identities of validators/nodes, who run the transactions are not known, which makes it difficult to track suspects.

Expressing surprise, Wilfred Daye, head of Securitize Capital, the asset-management arm of Securitize Inc. said, “The fact that nobody notices for six days scream aloud that some structure should be in place to watch illicit transfers.” Another red flag, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, is the bridge’s centralized architecture.

“In this case, the issue was that the bridge was highly centralized, the theft came as a result of someone hacking the ‘validator nodes’ of the Ronin Bridge. “Funds can be moved out of the bridge if five of the nine validators approve it. The hacker managed to get hold of the private cryptographic keys belonging to five of the validators so that was enough to steal the crypto assets.”

Kelvin Fichter, a developer felt that the Ronin was heavily dependent on validator-based bridges which he termed a “Fundamental error”. Fichter also pointed out that the network’s “minimal monitoring and alerting” system provided the hacker’s a solid ground to launch their attack.