I have been away for so long but it is great to enter any contest hosted by the steemit Crypto Academy. The reason is that the contest always makes one learn more about crypto and blockchain-related stuff. It also makes one research more which in turn gives both the writer and audience more in-depth knowledge on a topic. On that note, I am dropping my entry to this contest on "Blockchain Bridge"

This post will seek to answer all questions expected to be answered by the participants, on that note, let us dive into the contest.

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What do you understand by a blockchain bridge? And what necessitated bridges in the blockchain

The bridge attached to the Blockchain already gave it away as bridges are meant to close gaps or connect two or more entities. In that vein, A Blockchain Bridge serves as a tool that connects two or more blockchains. We all know that they are different Blockchains with examples such as Binance Smart chain (Which was recently hacked), Ethereum blockchain, Bitcoin Blockchain, Solana, Polygon, etc.

So the Blockchain Bridge is a way to connect the two chains so that they can communicate with each other. With this being implemented, two chains work together. This, in turn, makes it easy for people or users to easily migrate between some tokens or perform activities on some tokens or coins on a blockchain that is entirely different from the Blockchain in which that coin or tokens were created.

They are a lot of factors that necessitated this Blockchain bridge concept into reality. One was the fact that the Blockchain world kept growing (At the time of writing, they have over 1000 blockchains) and expanding. This expansion resulted in blockchains having different protocols, different rules, and also different tokens. In other to find a way for these different blockchains to interact and work together, A blockchain bridge need to arise

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What are the benefits of the blockchain bridge? How does the bridge work?

Well, these blockchain bridges became a thing of a necessity as the blockchain expanded. Some of the benefits of this blockchain bridge were that:

• Reduces transaction costs: In a scenario whereby one needs to perform a transaction on a token built on an Ethereum blockchain which requires a high transaction cost, One could simply bridge the token to Bsc and conduct the same activities while paying less for a transaction cost as what would have been paid on the Eth Blockchain.

• It help saves time: In the days before the Blockchain bridge came into existence, In other to convert a token built on Blockchain A to a token Built on Blockchain B, One need to send the token first to a centralized exchange, Convert the said token to a USDT, then buying the Other token on Blockchain B, before then sending back to your private wallet. This process takes a lot of time and resources to complete. Blockchain bridge eases and simplifies processes.

• improves transaction speed: Another benefit is that one could perform transactions on a less congested blockchain Blockchain bridges improve the efficiency of blockchain transactions.

• improves the interoperability of blockchains: with blockchain bridges now in play, it is easier for different blockchains to interact or communicate with each other.

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How does the Blockchain bridge work?

Since we know that Blockchain bridges are tools that are used to port a crypto asset from a blockchain to an entirely different blockchain, it would be a worthy read to know they work.

To explain this much better, Let me use the traditional method of how money was credited by the Goldsmiths who acted as custodians of money for people and issued traders from different cities promissory notes. These promissory notes serve a prove that the Gold smiths are in charge of the person's money and that you could sell your goods to this person. In order words, the promissory notes were backed by the Gold smiths.

The same concept in a way applies to Blockchain bridge as smart contracts set up act as the custodian and backup a token on another token. This way, a token is locked in one blockchain and is issued on another blockchain as a Wrapped version (but carries the same weight, however). Take, for example, I have a BTC coin on a Bitcoin Blockchain and I want to send it to an Ethereum Blockchain, what I need to do is to perform a transaction on the smart chain, and this smart chain automatically locks my BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and issue a WBTC on the ETH Blockchain to me.

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Highlight the types of blockchain bridges by category. Pick an example of a blockchain bridge in existence and explain how it works

Without mixing words, the two types of blockchain categories available are:

• Trust based Bridges (Custodial bridges)
• Trustless Bridges (non-custodial bridges)

Trust-based Bridges are operated centrally (i.e they are centralized). This Trust based bridge requires the users to place their trust in a central unit or a custodian. This type of bridge needs the service of a middleman to broker on behalf of use from one blockchain to another. it is quite risky and also an attack on that central authority may result in a huge loss to all the users who trusted it with their funds.

The trustless bridges rely on the efficient output from machine algorithms in other to execute their bridging operations. This type of bridge on the other hand does not require the help of a central unit to help perform the bridging operation as it is more decentralized.

Key examples of these bridges are:

The Binance Bridge: The Binance Smart chain ranks top of the Trustless bridges as it is an EVM-compatible blockchain network. The founder of this bridge is the popular known exchange platform Binance. This bridge has served the great purpose of Wrapping coins and Tokens built in the Erc 20 format to Bep 20 format.

Wormhole: It is a trust-based bridge and it is one of the biggest on the Solana blockchain. It works by acquiring tokens not built on the solana blockchain and then locking those coins or token before issue a Wrapped version of those coins to the address that interacted with them. The wormhole platform has been subjected to attacks in time past.

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Are there limitations to the blockchain bridges? What do you think about the future of blockchain bridges?

While Blockchain bridges serve as a means to an end at the moment, it is in no way a perfect solution as it has their shortcomings. They are a lot of security challenges that still existed with this new technology. Hackers keep exploiting these loopholes and this has resulted in a lot of loss for a lot of projects.

The technology is still in its early days and a lot of security issues still need to be addressed. Also, not a lot of blockchains have adopted this tool yet as they are huge concerns about it though. A lot of Vulnerabilities are still in the smart chains of blockchain bridge tools and this remains an issue. A lot of malicious players have also instigated mismanagement of cryptos on cross-chain bridges

The future of Blockchain bridges remains bright as ever as blockchain bridges will be a key component in the future of blockchain. Blockchain bridges will play an important role in improving the blockchain ecosystem. Blockchain bridges will help to solve problems in the blockchain ecosystem. Blockchain bridges will also help to improve the blockchain ecosystem by encouraging communication between different blockchains.