Switcheo Labs, the creative and experimental think tank that bootstraps and nurtures decentralised ecosystems in the DeFi space, has successfully deployed the mainnet for ‘ZilBridge’, a cross-chain interoperability bridge built on Zilliqa, the high-performance blockchain platform.
Users of ZilBridge will be able to bridge WBTC, ETH, USDT assets between the Zilliqa and Ethereum blockchains, and provide liquidity for and trade the aforementioned assets on ZilSwap, Zilliqa’s own decentralised exchange. Over time, Zilliqa will be working with Switcheo to accommodate additional assets for cross-chain transfers.
The bridge has also been standardised for cross-chain services with Poly Network’s expertise. Enabled by their heterogeneous cross-chain technology, ZilBridge improves the interoperability of the entire blockchain ecosystem. Poly Network’s suite of services, such as cross-chain asset transfer, swap, and NFT cross-chain services will be instrumental in attracting more users and developers to the Zilliqa ecosystem.
Amrit Kumar, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Zilliqa said: “To achieve true DeFi, blockchains can no longer operate in silos. Given how critical it is to build user-friendly, low-barrier interfaces, cross-chain ecosystems are quickly becoming the norm. The deployment of this interoperability system on our protocol by our long-term ecosystem partner Switcheo will truly change the game for our users. Once the bridge goes live, we expect further uptick on network activity and Total Volume Locked (TVL) into our DeFi protocols in coming months.”
With ZilBridge, millions of users will be able to benefit from a more enriched smart contract ecosystem across both Zilliqa and Ethereum. Ethereum token holders and developers alike will be able to access Zilliqa’s comparatively affordable gas fees by transferring existing decentralised applications (dApps) into Zilliqa. Zilliqa’s transaction throughput is designed to accommodate complex smart contracts without compromising on speed, performance, and security. In addition, developers will also benefit from a greater pool of resources while also being able to build cross-chain logic in their Scilla smart contracts in order to integrate them with Ethereum smart contracts.
Ivan Poon, CEO of Switcheo, said: “The ZilBridge is a monumental step forward in cross-chain interoperability for the Zilliqa ecosystem. As long-standing partners of Zilliqa, Switcheo is committed to supporting Zilliqa’s push for decentralisation with key infrastructure that powers DeFi applications such as the ZilBridge. With a common goal in enabling open finance and accessible markets, we look forward to even more collaborations down the road.”
Starting 6 October, Zilliqa will offer “Lightning Liquidity Mining Rewards” worth US$3.75 million over the course of 6 weeks as an added incentive scheme for all potential liquidity providers, who can earn $ZIL and $ZWAP rewards by using the wBTC-ZIL, wETH-ZIL, and USDT-ZIL pools. By 13 October, eligible liquidity providers will receive both their $ZWAP and $ZIL rewards.
To experiment with the bridge, visit https://zilswap.io/bridge
About Zilliqa
Zilliqa provides secure, scalable, and affordable blockchain solutions for enterprises and decentralised applications. Developed through academic research, Zilliqa is helmed by a team of experienced scientists, leading engineers, financial services specialists, and venture creators. Driven by the mission to commercialise blockchain-based applications, Zilliqa focuses on use cases across asset securitisation, decentralised and open finance, incentivised marketing, and secure tokenisation.
In 2019, Zilliqa became the first public blockchain platform to be built on sharded architecture, with smart contracts written in the platform’s secure-by-design programming language, Scilla. To date, the Zilliqa blockchain has processed over 25 million transactions since launching its mainnet and is home to a flourishing decentralised application ecosystem of over 200 projects.
For more information, visit: zilliqa.com
About Switcheo
Switcheo Labs is a creative and experimental think tank that bootstraps and nurtures decentralized ecosystems in the DeFi space. Founded in 2018, Switcheo Labs was born out of a simple desire to make finance accessible and trust optional. Recognizing the financial challenges that currently exist, Switcheo Labs innovates on robust alternatives to put power back where it rightly belongs, in the hands of the people.
About Poly Network
Poly Network is an interoperability protocol for heterogeneous blockchains. Poly Network has implemented interoperability with 11 heterogeneous chains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Neo, Ontology, BSC, HECO, OKExChain, Polygon, Elrond, Zilliqa and Cosmos-SDK. Since the launch, the protocol has enabled cross-chain asset transfer of more than $10 billion USD involving more than 260K addresses on different blockchains, and its TVL surpasses $1 billion USD.