By Admin February 1, 2023 4 minute read
Home » All
Posts » All About Blockchain Bridges. Why Are They Prone
To Attacks?
Table of Contents
·
What are
Blockchain bridges? What issue does it solve?
·
Are Blockchain bridges safe?
·
Reasons behind
the vulnerability of the Blockchain bridges
·
Why are Blockchain bridge attacks so
common?
Bridges are more
significant than a typical stretch of road for a reason, and the holes in them
are more hazardous. As the world of Blockchain technology has become more
advanced, an increasing number of Crypto transactions now rely on
so-called Blockchain
bridges, which allow for the exchange of a variety of tokens.
In this article, let’s
learn more about Blockchain bridges and understand why they are prone to
attacks.
What are Blockchain
bridges? What issue does it solve?
Blockchain bridges,
sometimes referred to as network bridges or cross-chain bridges, are tools
created to address the issue of interoperability between Blockchains. Bridges
are now an essential part of the Blockchain industry because, as things stand,
Blockchains cannot communicate with one another and operate in silos.
For instance, users
cannot use ether (ETH) on the Bitcoin Blockchain or bitcoin (BTC) on the
Ethereum Blockchain. So, if a user (suppose Barney) wants to buy something from
another user (suppose Robin) but holds all his funds in BTC, and Robin only
accepts ETH, Barney will run into a problem. He won’t be able to send BTC
directly to Robin. However, Barney can take further steps to purchase ETH or
exchange some of his BTC for ETH. In contrast to fiat currencies and credit
cards, which can be used with a variety of providers, this might be considered
a significant drawback.
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Blockchain bridges are
designed to solve this problem.
Despite the fact that
each Blockchain bridge is unique in its design, most of them let users lock in
a particular amount of digital assets on a single Blockchain. In exchange, the
protocol will then credit or mint an equal amount of assets on another Blockchain,
equal to the locked-in funds, as payment.
These new assets are
referred to as “wrapped” versions of a token. For instance, a user who locks in
their ether (ETH) on one Blockchain will get a “wrapped” ether (wETH) on
another Blockchain. As a result, Barney can send wrapped bitcoin (wBTC), which
operates on the Ethereum Blockchain, to Robin more easily through a bridge.
Are Blockchain bridges
safe?
Nobody denies that there
are several unmet security issues with Blockchain bridges. Blockchain bridges
are a novel technology, and hackers are aware of this, according to Crypto
traders.
This does not imply that
all Blockchain bridges are “unsafe,” but they are among the vulnerable parts of
the Web3 ecosystem. Therefore, people who are intrigued by Blockchain bridges
must thoroughly investigate the protocol they intend to use.
Before choosing to use a
Blockchain bridge, find out how long a bridge has been in existence and whether
it has a history of hacks. Your selected bridge should ideally have a
third-party audit confirming the code’s security. Reviewing open information
about your bridge’s leadership and security protocols is also a good idea.
Reasons behind the
vulnerability of the Blockchain bridges
First off, bridges only
broaden the attack surface that would-be hackers have access to, making the
Crypto ecosystem more complex and increasing the potential for attacks.
Second, many are
developed in a fundamentally unique way from the Blockchain they bridge due to
the lack of a larger development community. As a result, the code is not as
carefully and thoroughly examined for potential bugs.
Why are Blockchain
bridge attacks so common?
Blockchain bridges are
some of the most profitable and vulnerable DeFi protocols. These bridges are
the main hubs for Crypto transfers, even if they provide “decentralized”
finance. There is always a lot of Crypto in these protocols since users should
lock their original tokens on a bridge in order to mint wrapped tokens on
another chain. Hackers can steal millions, if not billions if they manage to
breach a bridge.
Bridges are not just a
lucrative target but also frequently have numerous weak points. Blockchain
bridges haven’t been battle-tested like Bitcoin (BTC). The programming needed
to connect two Blockchains hasn’t yet been perfected by bridge developers. As a
result, there’s a potential that hackers with Blockchain coding knowledge could
identify weaknesses in a bridge’s smart contracts.
Moreover, some bridge
projects also publish their source codes as open source to encourage
transparency. Open-source codes promote confidence while making it simpler for
malicious actors to examine, duplicate, or alter a bridge’s software.
Last but not least,
bridge hackers have an easier time avoiding legal ramifications because DeFi is
generally unregulated and doesn’t demand KYC (know-your-customer) documents. No
established regulatory structure exists to deal with Blockchain bridge hacking,
even if authorities catch the hacker.
Closing thoughts
Bridges have the
potential to boost DeFi liquidity and encourage Blockchain
interoperability. Building secure Blockchain bridges is still
difficult in the Crypto sector. Blockchain bridge attacks are too frequent, and
many Web3 users are reluctant to use bridges after learning about
million-dollar exploits.
Bridges are a useful
DeFi tool, but users should take precautions when handing their Crypto to these
protocols.