Over $20 billion worth of crypto assets are locked in the top 10 cross-chain bridges and blockchains that use cross-chain bridges have seen a 10x jump in price in 2021.
Blockchains function inside a silo as they speak different languages. A Vietnamese person cannot talk to a German because they speak different languages and a translator is required. On the blockchain, cross-chain bridges act as translators, allowing one blockchain to talk to another and even transfer assets across it.
If you want to send Solana to an Ethereum wallet, you cannot directly do that. Instead, you will need to use a centralized exchange and perform 3 transactions. First, you will send Solana to your Binance account, then exchange that Solana for Ethereum on the exchange and lastly send this Ethereum to your Ethereum wallet.
By using cross-chain bridges, you can unlock the best investment opportunities in decentralized finance and even mint NFTs on cheaper blockchains. However, smart contracts of cross-chain bridges are still imperfect and vulnerable to hacks and you could lose all your assets as has happened in the past with Wormhole, Axie Infinity and Poly Network bridge hacks.
