One of Everscale’s strategic goals is to become a hub for other blockchains. To do this, the platform is actively developing partnerships with other projects and creating bridges with them. At the moment, the main cross-chain bridge implemented on the Everscale blockchain is Octus Bridge, developed by Broxus.
Octus Bridge, which started with the development of the bridge between Free TON (the former name of Everscale) and Ethereum, is the company’s flagship product. According to the developers, the priorities in its creation and development are improving security and usability, as well as expanding functionality.
What lies ahead for Octus Bridge
Using Octus Bridge, you can transfer funds between Everscale and other blockchain platforms like Ethereum (ETH), Binance Chain (BNB/BSC), Polygon (MATIC/POL), and Fantom (FTM). Right now, work is underway to connect Avalanche — this blockchain is first in line — as well as Solana and TRON. In addition, support is being developed for a new version of the TIP-3.1 token, NFT bridge, cross-chain oracles, liquidity requests, and more.
The second bridge, which has already been launched in test mode in the Everscale ecosystem, is Adaever, which connects Everscale with the Cardano blockchain and makes it possible to exchange EVER for ADA. The exchange infrastructure also includes DEX, and in the future, there are plans for the bridge to become a liquidity transfer hub from Cardano to other EVM-compatible networks, with some of this liquidity remaining in Everscale.
The future of crypto bridges on Everscale: EVM compatibility and transfers to the Cardano network
In Q2 2022, Everscale plans to launch an EVM-compatible workchain. This will allow EVM-compatible applications to run with minimal modifications, which will undoubtedly lead to project growth and attract additional liquidity to Everscale.
The next Everscale co-system cross-chain solution is the NFT bridge to EVM blockchains. Since there are various NFT standards with different storage options and metadata, synchronization in this direction is a difficult task, but once solved, the NFT bridge can be expected to launch and further form an NFT cross-chain marketplace on Everscale.
In addition, Everscale’s 2022 roadmap includes a plan to build a direct bridge with Bitcoin, achieving an alliance with the Tezos blockchain. There are also plans to expand collaboration with Cardano — integrating with their savings packages and deploying the first Cardano cross-chain projects based on the Everscale blockchain.
Development of the DOTON Bridge between what was then Free TON and Polkadot has been underway since 2021, with the Wintex development team saying it was three-quarters complete last June. The bridge was expected to be fully launched once the required infrastructure on the Polkadot side was ready. The project is on hold until that happens, and you can track the level of completion of the technical part in the repository on GitHub. But there is another option to integrate Octus Bridge with some Polkadot parachains, getting direct access to the ecosystem, which will be a lot easier using the already existing infrastructure.
Existing and future cross-chain solutions are definitely turning Everscale into a kind of hub between different blockchains. All of this is possible thanks to the technical advantages of our network, such as virtually unlimited speed and capacity and, as a result, minimal gas costs.
