Acala Integrates Wormhole, Taking Polkadot Multi-Chain

Mar 31, 2022

Parachain winners Acala and Karura will join and Kusama with the broader crypto ecosystem.

Key Takeaways

  • Acala and Karura will combine with the Wormhole cross-chain bridge.
  • The replace will allow customers to ship tokens from different Wormhole-connected Layer 1 networks to the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems.
  • Whereas Wormhole has helped create a extra interconnected blockchain ecosystem, current hacks have raised issues over bridge safety.

Acala and Karura have introduced plans to combine with Wormhole’s main cross-chain bridge. The transfer will join the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems with eight different Layer 1 chains, together with , , , and .

Polkadot Prepares for Wormhole Integration

The Polkadot ecosystem is integrating with Wormhole.

Acala and Karura, two DeFi-focused parachains operating on Polkadot and Kusama, have introduced that they’ll combine with the Wormhole cross-chain bridge. A Wednesday press launch revealed that growth to attach the parachains to Wormhole was ongoing, with an estimated launch date for the second quarter of 2022.

The Wormhole integration will let customers ship tokens from different Wormhole-connected Layer 1 networks to Acala and Karura. From there, tokens can both be transformed to different Polkadot and Kusama native property or be used as collateral to mint the aUSD and kUSD stablecoins.

As soon as the bridge is operational, it’ll give the Polkadot and Kusama networks easy accessibility to over $200 billion of liquidity from eight different Layer 1 networks. For instance, DeFi protocols constructing on Acala or some other related Polkadot parachains will be capable to combine tokens despatched by way of Wormhole to make use of in yield farming methods or to offer liquidity. Acala and Karura will be a part of Ethereum, Avalanche, Solana, Polygon, Terra, BNB Chain, Fantom, and Oasis to turn out to be the ninth and tenth networks to permit token bridging by way of Wormhole.

Karura would be the first of the 2 networks to affix Wormhole. Karura serves as Acala’s equal on the Polkadot Canary community Kusama. Like many earlier launches and upgrades, new integrations will first be examined on Kusama earlier than being dedicated to the safer Polkadot community.

The Wormhole is a message-passing protocol that lets customers ship property corresponding to tokens and NFTs throughout varied blockchains utilizing good contracts. It additionally allows cross-chain communication protocols and multi-chain oracles to share data between Layer 1 chains.

Whereas Wormhole has helped create a extra interconnected blockchain ecosystem, many have raised issues over the protocol’s safety and different comparable cross-chain bridges. In February, the Wormhole Solana bridge fell sufferer to one of many in DeFi historical past when a hacker faked the bridge switch signatures to steal 120,000 Ethereum value over $322 million on the time.

Extra not too long ago, the Ronin Community group disclosed that its bridge connecting Ethereum mainnet to the ecosystem was hacked for about $552 million on Mar. 23, additional highlighting the vulnerability of cross-chain bridges. Nonetheless, as extra blockchains look to supply a solution to join with Ethereum and different Layer 1 networks, demand for cross-chain interoperability options stays excessive.

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