Psychedelic, a decentralized Web 3 development studio building products for the Internet Computer, today launched Terabethia — a cross-network bridge designed to enable cross-chain contract communication, and asset mirroring and transfer across different chains, starting with the Internet Computer and Ethereum.
Terabethia represents the first bridge connecting Ethereum and the Internet Computer. Built on a forked version of StarkWare’s messaging protocol and contracts, the bridge will enable contracts on both chains to communicate and allow anyone to mirror and use any Ethereum asset — fungible and non-fungible — on the Internet Computer and vice versa.
The bridge also serves as an essential and complementary precursor to the Internet Computer’s native Ethereum integration, which will instill interoperability between the two chains.
While the integration will allow Internet Computer smart contracts (known as canisters) to hold Ethereum assets on Ethereum and make calls to them, it will not enable Ethereum assets to truly exist on the Internet Computer. Terabethia remedies this by allowing ERC standard assets to be represented on the Internet Computer while enabling users to take advantage of the blockchain’s infinitely scalable infrastructure as a Layer-2 solution.
Ethereum’s inability to scale has led to network congestion and prohibitive gas fees, creating a bottleneck for users and developers alike. The Internet Computer, meanwhile, eliminates the problem by using a “reverse gas model” where developers supply the funds needed to run the applications/contracts that use their gas (known as “cycles”).
Moreover, one GB of smart contract data on Ethereum currently costs more than $373 million, Psychedelic said. In contrast, the same requirement on the Internet Computer is $0.467 per month — providing a sustainable base of operations for Ethereum users and developers.
Porting assets between the Internet Computer and Ethereum will also promote greater liquidity and unlock entirely new use cases for both ecosystems, Psychedelic believes. For example, NFTs can now be minted on either network, enabling users to offset Ethereum’s costly minting fees. Ethereum-based assets can also be brought over and used within NFT gaming, traded on decentralized marketplaces, or even leveraged as collateral on lending platforms.
“Similarly to how Ethereum extended the functionality, usefulness, and value of Bitcoin, we believe the Internet Computer has the potential to do the same for Ethereum assets and applications, and could even potentially become the best L2 for Ethereum long term,” Psychedelic founder and CEO Harrison Hines said.https://psychedelic.ooo/
