Greetings to all our readers and blockchain enthusiasts!

Welcome to a fresh edition of Multichain Matters, your monthly source for updates on the t3rn protocol's latest developments. In this installment, we'll shed light on the pivotal role of attesters in bridging the gap between t3rn and its connected target chains, particularly Ethereum and its Layer 2 solutions.

Read time: 2.44 minutes, 3 for those who take it all in at a leisurely pace. 😊

📑 Cross-Chain DeFi Explained: The Comprehensive 2023 Guide

Decentralized finance, known popularly as DeFi, has surged in adoption. Its decentralized nature offers a more inclusive financial system, free from traditional financial intermediaries.

As a reminder, Bitcoin was launched in 2009, which laid the foundation for a new era of peer-to-peer financial services. However, the true potential of DeFi was unlocked with the launch of Ethereum in 2015, which introduced smart contracts and enabled complex functionality required for modern finance applications.

We've distilled the evolution of DeFi into a visual timeline. At a glance, you'll journey from Ethereum's launch in 2015—marking the genesis of dApp and smart contract functionalities—all the way to 2021, where established institutions began dipping their toes into the DeFi waters.

Read the full article: 👉 https://www.t3rn.io/blog/cross-chain-defi 

⛓️ Exploring Cross-Chain Interoperability With XCM

Our Blockchain Developer, Aleksandar Brayanov, penned an insightful article on XCM, a cross-chain message format enabling communication among blockchains in the Dotsama ecosystem. This innovation simplifies cross-chain transfers and multi-chain DApps development, allowing developers to focus on creating secure products.

To learn more about it, follow this link: 👉 https://www.t3rn.io/blog/cross-chain-interoperability-xcm

🍂 October Triumphs: Kusama Parachain Success, DeFi Innovations, and Global Expansion Highlights

Eager to get a quick rundown of t3rn's October highlights within 3 minutes? You've come to the right spot. We're delighted to present the strides and accomplishments made by our team throughout October, characterized by notable progress.

Read more 👉 https://t3rn.io/blog/october-triumphs

Or watch the video

❎ The Challenge of Cross-Chain Transactions

Cross-chain transactions require a seamless flow of information across different blockchain networks. For t3rn, this involves creating a bidirectional bridge with its connected target chains. The process starts by verifying the completion of a transaction on the target chain, a task efficiently managed by lightweight clients.

However, the primary challenge emerges when releasing funds from the escrow contract on the target chain. Trustlessly transmitting state information from t3rn to the escrow contract is a significant undertaking, particularly given the lack of fee control on target chains. Ideally, native finality proofs from the relay chain would authenticate this process, safeguarding the integrity of the transmitted state.

These native finality proofs entail verifying the relay chain header, examining numerous signature pairs (often as many as 200), and confirming both the parachain header inclusion proof and the parachain header state inclusion proof. Although this method provides maximum security and decentralization, the associated gas costs and computational demands render it impractical for regular use.

The Attesters Solution

Here, the unsung heroes of t3rn, the Attesters, come into play. Instead of relying exclusively on the resource-intensive native finality proofs, t3rn utilizes a network of committed participants known as Attesters. These individuals or entities are crucial in validating transactions and maintaining the security of the t3rn ecosystem.

Attesters provide signatures that are native to the target signature scheme. For Ethereum, this is ECDSA, and for Polkadot-like networks, it is sr25519. Attesters are an essential component, ensuring the reliability, cost-effectiveness, and trustlessness of cross-chain transactions.

The Power of t3rn’s Smart Contracts

With its latest suite of Solidity (EVM-compatible) smart contracts, t3rn has enhanced its integration with Ethereum and its Layer 2 solutions. These smart contracts are located in the pallet attesters in the contract directory on t3rn’s main repository.

• Escrow GMP (Generic Message Payload): This contract records the IDs and Payload hashes of cross-chain orders, independent of their interpretation. Only the Attester's Contract can execute specific operations, such as committing or reverting payloads.

• Local Order: This contract enables users to place orders that will be executed on the same chain.

• Remote Order: This contract allows users to place orders for execution on a remote chain, supporting multiple asset swaps and 1:1 asset bridging.

• Attesters Verifier: This contract employs Merkle Proofs to confirm inclusion in the current committee set of attesters. It stores the upcoming committee hash set for activation after a shuffle and interacts with and decodes GMP to either commit or revert requests made by t3rn protocol operations.

Users Choose the Speed Mode

t3rn, in conjunction with Attesters, provides cross-chain users with options and flexibility in their transactions:

• Instant: Users can select attesters to submit immediate attestations, circumventing the potentially lengthy wait for light client epochs.

• Fast: Users may choose to wait until the end of the current Ethereum epoch (approximately 32 Eth blocks).

• Rational: This option involves waiting until the end of the current Ethereum epoch plus the entire next epoch (Justified).

• Finalized: For maximum certainty, users can wait until the end of the current Ethereum epoch plus two additional epochs.

In conclusion, Attesters are pivotal in t3rn's cross-chain transaction ecosystem, ensuring security, reliability, and offering users a range of choices. They unlock a realm of possibilities for cross-chain transactions and interoperability. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking developments from t3rn in the blockchain multiverse!

🚨 In case you missed it…

t3rn is mentioned in the Boston College Blockchain VC Newsletter's debut!

Share your thoughts with me on Twitter @Maciej_Baj shall you have a taste for the topics to cover in the next editions of the Multichain Matters newsletter.

Stay tuned for more updates and insights in the upcoming issues! 

Maciej Baj
Founder and CTO of t3rn