Tokens are the killer app of smart contract blockchains. 

Vitalik may have suspected as much when he listed “Token Systems” as the first among many possible applications in the original Ethereum whitepaper. This simple abstraction is the foundation of DeFi and cross-chain applications.

Much has changed in the crypto landscape since 2014. For one, people now call it “Web3”... 

Monolithic, general-purpose, permissionless chains have reached the limits of their scalability. They have been complemented by modular (Starkware, Celestia), application-specific (Cosmos, Ronin), and permissioned (Polygon Supernets, Avalanche Subnets) alternatives.

In the quest for performance, communities have performed herculean feats of engineering and experimented with various flavors of decentralization. Communities have formed around each of these visions.

Users migrate between these communities over bridges. Sadly, this is where users are most vulnerable: bridges were hacked for over $1 billion in the first half of 2022. Their security has been the topic of much debate this past year. Were the hacked bridges poorly constructed, or are they architecturally unsound?

At the crossroads of alternative chain designs and cross-chain architecture lies a single question: Are we on the right path? 

In the following posts, we will explore what a token is, the challenges of bridging them, and a pragmatic approach to improving the Web3 experience for users who trust bridge guardians.