IOHK and Nervos Partner to Build First Cross-Chain Bridge to Cardano

The bridge will reportedly be Cardano’s (ADA) first and is expected to launch before the end of July. The bridging of Cardano and Nervos (CKB) will allow ADA and CKB to be used interchangeably. 

Cardano’s first cross-chain bridge has been announced and is set to launch within the next six weeks, linking two entities with massive market capitalization. Upon launch, interoperability across both blockchains will be available and offer traders a seamless experience no matter which they are using. The connection will utilize Nervos’s “Force Bridge” cross-chain technology. 

Additional features include the ability to let holders of ADA and CKB develop user-defined tokens on both networks using what Nervos calls “token wrapping.” Also, Cardano devs will be afforded access to Nervos’s tools to develop dApps. 

In the announcement, IOHK CTO Romain Pellerin stated, “We believe that blockchain technology will only achieve mainstream acceptance when end-users are not locked into one blockchain or standard, but can seamlessly access value and utility, regardless of which blockchain they are using. As a result, bridges like this are an absolute necessity in order to ensure that users have a seamless experience.”

Pellerin goes on to declare that the connection of the two ecosystems will help blockchain continue to create a fair and more effective global finance system. He also brought up that the bridge will not only bring Cardano and Nervos together for this project and hoped the pair could work together on further innovation down the road. This is evidenced by the fact that Cardano and Nervos have partnered before, including a project last year to strengthen the security of smart contracts. 

According to the announcement, Cardano’s development team has utilized Mousebelt, a full-service blockchain accelerator, would build the bride with funding from grants. IOHK will act as sort of an overseer of the project to contribute expertise and resources as needed.

The bridge, when finished, will be called “force bridge” and become the trustless connection between Cardano and Nervos. The goal is ultimately to have cross-chain transactions that are more secure, faster, and ultimately cheaper than competitors.

According to the statement from Nervos, upon launch, the bridge will eliminate the need for clients to have different wallets when accessing gestures from both Cardano and Nervos.

Pellerin concluded that “similar to how the internet was built from the interconnection of extranets, we believe that blockchain will achieve mass adoption by interconnecting public blockchain networks.”