Please describe your proposed solution.
For DeFi truly to work, seamless interoperability between blockchains is paramount. Currently, the most significant advantage of CEXes is their cross-chain interoperability. For DeFi to be truly successful, on-chain funds need to be liquid and fluid across ecosystems. This will be substantial for Cardano to integrate with new and existing global DeFi structures.
Our research shows that EVM has become a standard for cross-chain operations. Every relevant project is able to bridge towards and interact with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Omni-EVM will be relevant for the following stakeholders
- Cardano – as they will be able to bridge assets to Sifchain/Cosmos
- Cosmos - as they will be able to bridge assets to Cardano
- Sifchain - as they will be able to bridge assets to Cardano
- All users of projects bridging to Sifchain/Cosmos this includes IBC and other Omni-EVM bridges. Please see our submitted infographic for an overview over these projects. Its massive.
- Liquidity providers – as they will get the ability to bridge tokens themselves and open/fund pools.
- Projects building on Cardano – as they will be able to interact with Cosmos & Sifchain assets
- Projects building on Cosmos & Sifchain – as they will be able to interact with Cardano assets
Sifchain already secured competent developers and planned the implementation of the Omni-EVM bridge.
- We will produce all relevant parts of the bridge
- Updated set of smart contracts, called Peggy 2.0, which we will migrate existing Peggy 1.0 contracts to
- Updated versions of our relayers and witnesses
- Updated UI (including adding of custom token flow)
- Formal audit reports
Results of implementing Omni-EVM
- Assets from Cardano and Cosmos will be bridged among both ecosystems.
- Cosmos users will be now exposed to Cardano and its ecosystem. Cardano users will now be exposed to Cosmos and its ecosystem.
- New pools with those assets will be created on decentralized exchanges of both ecosystems.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
The bridge will connect the ecosystems of Cardano and Sifchain, so that assets will be able to easily, quickly, and cheaply migrate between both.
This clearly leads to increased on-chain activity for Cardano.
Omni-EVM is enabling projects from Cardano to utilize Cosmos assets and vice versa. This is a major building block for collaborations and interoperable applications between those ecosystems.
The Omni-EVM solution will also enable other ecosystems to bridge towards Sifchain/Cosmos. The assets of those ecosystems can then be further bridged to Cardano as well. Potentially bridging thousands of projects to Cardano.
OMNI-EVM will offer the Cardano blockchain to achieve significant interoperability across all EVM compatible chains, and later on additional required blockchains. Initial chains would include Polygon, Moonbeam, Avalanche and many others.
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
1st Risk
Developer fluctuation: In the current building phase for Blockchain, hiring and keeping able developers is a bottleneck.
Mitigation
The team responsible for developing Omni-EVM is comprised of 7 people, 5 engineers, 1 test engineer, and a Product Manager. On top of this, our Co-Founder Jazear is very experienced in bridge development and architecture as he was a lead developer on ThorChain and was responsible for the development of Sifchain’s Peggy 1.0 bridge from Cosmos to Ethereum. Jazear and Aidan are visionaries in bridge development and are both the main designers of our Peggy 2.0 architecture, which Omni-EVM will be enabled by. This team has been with Sifchain since the development of Peggy 1.0, and have been working diligently on the development of Peggy 2.0 for the last 1.5 years. We are in excellent relations with them and are engaging them in a variety of incentive programs to ensure fair economic participation and healthy work-life balance.
2nd Risk
Hacks: In recent history, there were some significant hacks targeting cross-chain bridges. Due to the architecture of bridges, single wallets that store assets are honey pots.
Mitigation
We are being very careful with our development and have engaged in 4 different audits: two from well-known and respected parties, Certik and Halborn as well as two from independent developers. We will also have everyone who holds keys to the Peggy 2.0 bridge be on multi-sig hardware wallets.
3rd Risk
Legal threats to DeFi: With a variety of new regulations on the way for Blockchain and Defi, the terrains remains insecure.
Mitigation
Sifchain works extremely closely with our in-house legal team. We have taken a conservative approach when it comes to regulation interpretation. We have a completely decentralized validator set, our front-end is also completely decentralized, we have a SifDAO that controls many governance decisions, and we are constantly working towards total decentralization on all aspects of the product.
This rigorous governance process including the vibrant and forward thinking DAO which is focused on ensuring a fully decentralised bridging product. It has been “war tested” for a significant amount of time with an existing Ethereum - Cosmos Bridge and has organically grown in a way to allow for additional bridges to be managed and incorporated with significant ease.