Connext has partnered with Nomad
Introducing the Modular Interoperability Stack.
Important note: Nomad is not part of the Connext stack anymore.
Please read this update and learn how Connext currently works.
We are delighted to announce that Connext has formed a deep partnership with Nomad to accelerate the adoption of trustless, fully generalized crosschain communication. This partnership enables the world’s first modular interoperability stack that provides users a fast, cheap, and trust-minimized way to bridge assets between chains!
What is Nomad?
Nomad is an implementation and extension of the Optics protocol (short for OPTimistic Interchain Communication). It is a new design for cheap, fully generalized crosschain communication that can easily be deployed to any chain or L2 that supports user-defined computations.
Nomad utilizes an optimistic pattern as part of its protocol. Messages that pass through Nomad have a latency of 35–60 minutes, within which fraud can be proven if message relayers are dishonest.
Nomad is an ideal protocol for more generalized crosschain operations that are typically performed by DAOs or other organizations, rather than end users. For example, Nomad allows for migrating USDC from Ethereum L1 to other chains with radically lower trust assumptions than any other bridge.
Modular Interoperability
In our blog post on the Interoperability Trilemma we discussed the inherent difficulty with building crosschain communication systems that are simultaneously:
- Trust-minimized: Do not involve trusted 3rd parties.
- Extensible: Can be quickly and easily deployed to new rollups/chains.
- Generalizeable: Support sending arbitrary data across chains.
Similar to the Scalability Trilemma, we proposed that Connext could solve this trilemma through a modular architecture where different communication protocols are layered on top of one another. Our work with Nomad is the first live example of the modular interoperability thesis in action!
Connext 🤝 Nomad
Connext enables trustlessly sending value and calling contracts across chains & L2s. Unlike Nomad, Connext does not allow for fully generalized communication, but it does have much lower latency (typically 2 minutes). Additionally, Connext doesn’t mint tokens on a destination chain — instead, it relies on liquidity minted by other bridging systems like Nomad, thus absorbing their trust/risk assumptions.
The synergies between Connext and Nomad are profound. By using madTokens (as opposed to assets created by Multichain, Celer, or other trusted systems), Connext dramatically reduces the trust/risk requirements for its users on any given chain. At the same time, Connext provides a way for Nomad users to have “fast liquidity” on a given chain, leveraging Connext’s low latency liquidity pools to allow end users to do transfers in minutes rather than with a latency over 30 minutes.
Together, Connext and Nomad make up an interoperability “stack” that offers everything developers need to build crosschain applications with minimal trust requirements or tradeoffs. For now, this stack is used primarily for asset transfers, but the same approach can be extended to more expressive crosschain interactions. More on this soon!
Madlads on Moonbeam! 🚀
The Connext + Nomad synergy is already live on Moonbeam!
Users bridging via the Nomad app will be dynamically routed to Connext or Nomad depending on available liquidity and the size of the user’s transfer. Typically, what we’re seeing is that whales and institutions will take the longer 35m Nomad bridging time, while end users quickly trying to use Moonbeam applications will be routed via Connext. As liquidity on Connext grows, the use of Nomad can shift towards institutional capital and rebalancing Connext liquidity pools.
What’s Next?
The Connext ecosystem is already working on integrating Nomad into interfaces like xPollinate. We also plan to heavily advocate for and support Nomad’s growth as it rolls out to other chains and L2s.
Longer term, our goal is to work closely with the Nomad team on shared offchain infrastructure and a combined onchain interface for developers. This would mean that, in a single integration, applications can leverage fast, limited Connext-style communication or slower, general Nomad-style communication depending a project’s context-specific needs.
About Nomad
Nomad is a new design for radically cheaper cross-chain communication without header verification. It will form the base layer of a cross-chain communication network that provides fast, cheap communication for all smart contract chains and rollups.
The Nomad interoperability protocol is launching on Ethereum Mainnet, Moonbeam, and Evmos.
Website | Documentation | Twitter | Discord | Github | Blog
About Connext
Connext is the interoperability protocol of L2 Ethereum.
Connext enables sending value and calling contracts across Ethereum-compatible chains and L2s. It is the only interoperability system that does this cheaply and quickly without introducing any new trust assumptions. Connext is aimed at developers who are looking to build bridges and other natively cross-chain applications. To date, over $900m in transactions have crossed the network.
