Skip Protocol: The API for Seamless Cross-Chain Experiences on Cosmos & Beyond - Sam Hart
Sep 13, 2024
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In this discussion, Sam Hart, head of product at Skip Protocol, shares insights on creating seamless cross-chain experiences in the Cosmos ecosystem. He dives into the challenges of interoperability, highlighting the role of Skip’s innovative Go API and Skip:Connect tools. Sam explores the ongoing competition between Ethereum and Cosmos, addressing unique economic behaviors and the impact of Miner Extractable Value. He also discusses the future of cross-chain monetization and the importance of enhancing user experiences through advanced blockchain solutions.
The Skip Protocol's Go API streamlines cross-chain interactions by leveraging Cosmos infrastructure to enhance developer capabilities and user experiences.
Despite its focus on interoperability, the Cosmos ecosystem faces significant challenges due to varying signing methods among different blockchains, complicating seamless transactions.
Deep dives
Challenges of Interoperability Across Blockchains
The complexity of achieving interoperability among diverse blockchains poses significant challenges, particularly within the Cosmos ecosystem. Each blockchain operates under its unique signing method, leading to complications in cross-chain transactions. For instance, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos employ different signing schemes, resulting in fragmented user experiences and technical difficulties. This variance necessitates specialized middleware solutions to facilitate communication and smooth interactions between these distinct systems.
Evolving the Skip Protocol for Cross-Chain Solutions
The Skip Protocol has transitioned from its initial focus on MEV (Miner Extractable Value) infrastructure to developing comprehensive tools for cross-chain economic activity. Realizing that achieving interoperability requires addressing various technical hurdles, Skip has implemented full-stack modifications to enhance transaction building and fee market mechanisms. This evolution empowers developers to streamline cross-chain transactions and improve user experiences by simplifying the process of interacting with multiple blockchain ecosystems. Notably, Skip is involved in creating tools and interfaces for sovereign chains while also integrating with non-Cosmos protocols to widen its reach and utility.
Unique Characteristics of the Cosmos Ecosystem
The Cosmos ecosystem is designed to prioritize interoperability and application-specific architectures, setting it apart from other blockchain networks like Ethereum. While best known for enabling seamless communication between distinct blockchains, it grapples with inherent complexities, particularly in defining what interoperability truly means within its network. The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol serves as the backbone for message-passing in Cosmos, yet practical issues arise when attempting to execute cross-chain token exchanges safely and efficiently, often requiring middlewares to manage the intricate workflows. Despite these challenges, the Cosmos model offers a promising approach to building a more integrated blockchain future if the technical barriers can be effectively managed.
The Future of Cross-Chain Applications and User Experience
As the blockchain industry matures, a seamless user experience across diverse ecosystems will be crucial for widespread adoption. Current innovations have allowed for certain cross-chain transactions, such as moving USDC from Solana to Osmosis in one click, showcasing the potential for smoother integrations. However, challenges remain, including differing fee markets and wallet requirements that hinder the user experience. To facilitate this vision, emphasis on developing unified signing approaches and middleware solutions within and across ecosystems will be key to bridging gaps and enhancing usability for end-users.
Interoperability is the holy grail for a multi-chain future or the ‘internet of blockchains’. However, while IBC (inter-blockchain communication protocol) revolutionised permissionless cross-chain transfers, it was Skip Protocol’s Go API that took advantage of Cosmos’ infrastructure (and its numerous messaging protocols), to create an end-to-end interoperability platform, allowing developers to design seamless cross-chain user experiences.
We were joined by Sam Hart, head of product at Skip Protocol, to discuss the challenges of interoperability across Cosmos & Ethereum, and how Skip:Go API & Skip:Connect push the crosschain boundaries towards end user adoption.
Topics covered in this episode:
Sam’s background
The Other Internet
Skip Protocol: bringing seamless interoperability to Cosmos
Monetization for Skip:Connect & Skip:Go
The Skip:Connect oracle and how Cosmos chains pull data
Cross-chain MEV
MEV blockers
Ethereum vs. Cosmos ecosystem development and activity
Gnosis: Gnosis builds decentralized infrastructure for the Ethereum ecosystem, since 2015. This year marks the launch of Gnosis Pay— the world's first Decentralized Payment Network. Get started today at - gnosis.io
Chorus1: Chorus1 is one of the largest node operators worldwide, supporting more than 100,000 delegators, across 45 networks. The recently launched OPUS allows staking up to 8,000 ETH in a single transaction. Enjoy the highest yields and institutional grade security at - chorus.one
This episode is hosted by Friederike Ernst.
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