Lesson in Security | Ferrum Cross-Chain Token Bridge
Ferrum Cross-Chain Token Bridge brings an unparalleled level of security not yet seen in the DeFi space.
In DeFi, it seems as though there’s a hack every other day. From ChainSwap to AnySwap to the largest and most recent PolyNetwork hack, what do all of these have in common? The most obvious is that all three were cross-chain bridging protocols. However, not all bridges are created equal.
🔹Different Approaches to Bridging
There are a couple different approaches that projects take when architecting cross-chain token bridges. The most commonly used are those that deploy a “lock and mint” or a “burn and mint” functionality. On these sorts of bridges, the bridge contract interacts with the token contract, giving control over functionality and liquidity of your project . What’re the downsides of this? Well there’s a few!
- The amount of liquidity that is locked on the bridge is all but a sitting target and is quite a large pool.
- In most cases, the tokens that are being minted on other chains may not be authorized by the project whose token is being bridged. This creates a slew of messes when determining what contract addresses are authentic and which ones are not.
- Most bridges will deploy a generic copy of a standard ERC20 contract on the destination network. So if you have any custom functionality or DeFi protocols such as a tax on transactions, burn etc. say goodbye to those. Those functionalities won’t transfer over to the token on the new network. Pretty boring!
For the sake of today’s topic of conversation, let’s focus more on the first point.
No software is immune to exploits. You can build the most secure app, but if a downstream or upstream provider or a dependency in your code has a vulnerability and gets exploited, you are at risk.
Thinking that your code is exploit proof or claiming it might even be considered negligence. This is why we emphasize business and operational security best practices in addition to technical architecture security. – Taha Abbasi | Ferrum Network
🔹Two Way Bridge Liquidity Pools
With the Ferrum Cross-Chain Token Bridge we allow projects who either deploy their own white label version or choose to simply list on Ferrum’s native bridge to do two things.
- The project can map their token to any contract address on the destination chain. This is super helpful for projects who already have contracts deployed on other chains in which they did not necessarily authorize.
- The liquidity is then provided and managed by said project.
The fact that this liquidity is managed by the project on the origin chain and destination chain and the bridge contracts do not have interactive or operational control over the project’s token contract drastically reduces the exposure to the project and the community compared to other solutions in the market today.
About Ferrum
Ferrum Network is a DeFi ecosystem that interoperates across chains and removes barriers to mass adoption. Ferrum’s cross-chain DAG enables the transfer of any digital asset in milliseconds for near-zero network fees. Its non-custodial UniFyre Wallet has revolutionized the way people send crypto with its “Link Drop” technology and Staking-as-a-Service being used by over 50 projects. Their Token Bridge is the fastest and most secure means of moving assets between Ethereum and Binance Chain.
📰 INFO:
https://medium.com/ferrumnetwork/a-lesson-in-security-ferrum-cross-chain-token-bridge-cd0fb78f6277
