Title
General-purpose cross-chain bridging through the Blocksense Network
Contact Details
@zahary.84 on Signal
Summary
The Blocksense Network is developing a highly efficient bridging protocol that will enable a high level of interoperability between all chains connected to the network.
In particular, applications deployed on different chains will be able to:
- Exchange arbitrary user-defined messages.
- Initiate transactions on other chains through a general-purpose remote procedure call (RPC) framework.
- Coordinate the execution of distributed atomic transactions spanning smart contracts on multiple chains.
- Implement additional algorithms and processing steps that can transform data as it passes through the Blocksense Network and specify conditions that must be satisfied before these are triggered.
The Blocksense Network protocol implements the required data transfers efficiently by tightly packing multiple application messages into a single on-chain transaction while ensuring the integrity of all communications through zero-knowledge proofs.
Our protocol authenticates the state of other chains either through a ZK light client or through our novel ZK Schelling Point Consensus – a proof-of-stake algorithm that employs sophisticated vote secrecy and appeal mechanisms to prevent collusion and bribery attacks.
About Us
The Blocksense team has extensive experience developing ZK light clients, previously implementing DendrETH – a feature-complete ZK light client for Ethereum.
We share Aztec’s mission, admire Noir, and are actively developing enhancements to the Noir compiler, including an alternative PLONKY2 backend and a formal verification system based on the Z3 SMT solver.
In collaboration with Metacraft Labs, we’ve recently released CodeTracer – a powerful time-traveling debugger for Noir.
Blocksense’s primary mission is to enhance the capabilities of smart contracts across all blockchain ecosystems by enabling them to seamlessly perform arbitrary I/O operations and complex CPU/GPU computations. With the Blocksense SDK, you can program precisely how your DApp interacts with other chains and the real world.
Start and End Date
Work will start on 1st of April and the initial cross-chain messaging demo is expected to be completed by 1st of June.
Cross-Chain App Demo Details
While the developed bridging protocol aims to be general, for the purposes of showcasing it, we will develop a simple cross-chain swap application, based on the ERC-7683 standard for cross-chain Intents. Our team will operate testnet solver instances that will demonstrate swaps between Aztec and other L2s, as well as testnets in other networks such as Avalanche.
A second iteration of the demo will allow for the funds made available on the destination network to be controlled through a private multi-sig, residing on the Aztec network.
The mechanism of the cross-chain swaps will be similar to the one used in Across and Specular. The remote management of funds will leverage the general-purpose message passing mechanism, provided by the bridge.
The users will drive the process from a simple WebUI that simplifies the initiation of a cross-chain swaps and provides timely updates for early confirmations and finality status of the executed transactions.
Grant Amount
We are requesting the maximum allowed amount of $50,000.
Grant Budget Rationale
This would be a cross-functional effort within the Blocksense team, requiring involvement from all of our departments (smart contracts, node infrastructure, UX design, front-end, management, etc). The requested budget will likely offset a fraction of our costs. We are eager to embark on this project due to our long-term commitment to support the Aztec ecosystem and the Noir developer community with powerful tools and primitives for the creation of ground-breaking DApps.