Live at the Sub0 conference, Polytope Labs announced its upcoming protocol, Hyper Bridge, in the web3 space. The product is meant to solve the interoperability challenge between Polkadot and Ethereum with the help of ISMP.
Representing Polytope Labs was its founder, Seun Lanlege, who unveiled the potential of ISMP in his talk.
The Interoperable State Machine Protocol (ISMP) is transforming the world of blockchain interoperability, offering a state-proof-based messaging system that enables seamless communication between parachains.
He said that in Hyper Bridge, the aim is to run the Caspa FFG consensus protocol, which is costly. To handle this, the Labs will dedicate one core for processing consensus proofs and another core for processing user requests and responses, facilitating multi-threaded work sharing across cores using ISMP (Inter-Subsystem Message Passing).
This design allows for scalability by adding more cores as needed to support additional chains.
The workings of ISMP
He went further to explain the core concept, describing it as a cross-chain messaging framework that emphasizes state machines.
ISMP facilitates communication between state machines, whether they exist on the same or different consensus layers.
It’s designed to be efficient and flexible, offering an HTTP-like API for message exchange. Developers can send POST requests to transmit data and GET requests to request storage items on different state machines.
The founder said that one of ISMP’s distinguishing features is its ability to work with various contract environments, including Substrate pallets, EVM contracts, and plans to support Ink. This versatility ensures that ISMP can bridge different blockchain architectures.
The ISMP framework handles the heavy lifting of state-proof verification, simplifying the developer experience.
Modules that sit atop ISMP can focus on processing requests and responses, making it straightforward for developers to interact with the protocol.
Self-relaying on ISMP
Seun also highlighted the significance of self-relaying in ISMP, allowing users or wallets to handle message relaying rather than relying on dedicated relayers.
This approach reduces complexity and costs for teams looking to enable cross-chain communication.
A relayer is a third-party service that helps users interact with the blockchain more efficiently.
It can be used to create transactions, deploy and interact with smart contracts on behalf of a user, and relay information between separate blockchains.
Relayers can also be used to send gasless transactions, which are transactions sent from an account without Ether. Relayers can perform various functions, such as checking transaction formats, estimating gas prices, setting nonces, and monitoring transactions.
They can also be granted partial control over assets present on connected chains
He added that ISMP also supports various consensus clients, including GRANDPA and the Ethereum Beacon Chain Sync Committee, with plans to expand further.
This adaptability ensures ISMP’s compatibility with various consensus mechanisms and blockchain networks.
