Hello, Steemians. I'm happy to see that season 5 of the challenge has begun, the time most of us have been waiting for. So, for my first participation of the week will be in the academy with the topic that was titled, " The Blockchain Bridge". Go with me as I discuss this topic and my understanding of it.

What do you understand by a blockchain bridge? And what necessitated bridges in the blockchain

I will start with the meaning of the word bridge, bridges are very known structures designed to link one place to the other for easy passage of vehicles, humans, and others. We can also describe it as a medium that allows two or more different places to be linked and stay compatible together, now I will discuss the main bridge for today.

Blockchain bridge is defined as a development on a blockchain that allows them to easily communicate and exchange data with the other blockchains. Blockchain bridges make it easy to exchange cryptocurrencies between different blockchains, share data, sign smart contracts, and many others, simply with the help of the bridge and this is not possible normally without a bridge.

Furthermore, blockchain bridges have the functionality known as interoperability that allows one blockchain to communicate with each other even when the blockchains that want to share data operate under different protocols and models. The blockchain bridge will bridge the gap and ensure that data is shared with ease.

Some blockchain bridges were developed to reduce the gas fee people pay on the main chain and many other benefits that I will write about where it was asked in this contest.

To be able to explain this in detail, one may have to choose a platform and discuss how it works. An example of how the blockchain bridge work is when one wants to own Ether, the person needs it because he or she doesn't have that currency at that time but has another currency which is BNB for example.

The BNB can be traded for Ether on the exchange so that the person can own the token but the process will involve some transaction fees and variation in prices during that time may affect and the user would have some value blown away. Blockchain bridge can be used to achieve that aim through Wrapped tokens.

Wrapped tokens are one of the ways blockchain bridge can be used for cross-chain exchange. Wrapped tokens is an equivalent of a token on another blockchain that is not its native network, an example of that is 1 BNB which is equal to 1 wBNB on the Ethereum blockchain, the wBNB is an ERC20 token.

Furthermore, on Ethereum the user can bridge her BNB to acquire the wBNB (Wrapped BNB), the amount of the asset will be locked in a smart contract and the equivalent of the BNB to ETH would be minted, through the exchange price of BNB to ETH, the user through the blockchain bridge would have acquired some Ether easily and efficiently without moving assets across exchanges which consumes more fees. The wrapped token would be burnt in the contract after the mint of the new token.

Highlight the types of blockchain bridges by category. Pick an example of a blockchain bridge in existence and explain how it works

When I researched the categories of blockchain bridges I got to know that they can be classified according to trust, functions, and mechanisms.

A blockchain bridge can be trust-based or trustless. Trust-based bridges are the type of blockchain bridge that is run by a centralized entity which means the user has to commit her asset into the trust of the central authority when performing a bridging transaction.

Trustless category is that blockchain bridge that is fully decentralized which means there is no central authority, the bridge is managed by smart contracts.

The category based on functions can be Wrapped assets bridge and Side-chain. The wrapped assets bridge enables users to acquire wrapped tokens in a smart contract and later the main asset they are willing to get at the end of the bridging as I explained before.

Side-chain function in the blockchain bridge allows the main chain to connect with the side-chain solution to exchange data and assets. This function is the one that is used to take care of gas fees, scalability, speed, and many others.

A blockchain bridge based on mechanisms can be unidirectional which means one can bridge to a particular blockchain but would be unable to do the same back to the native blockchain while the second based on mechanisms can be bidirectional which is two-way bridging which means assets can be bridged to a blockchain and back to its native blockchain.

Arbitrum bridge is one of the popular blockchain bridges that was developed to support the Ethereum blockchain. The Ethereum network was growing fast and has a congested network earlier which leads to slow transactions and also has high gas fees, these are considered the limitations of the network. So in 2021, Offchain Labs created the Arbitrum bridge.

Arbitrum bridge is a category based on side-chain function which means that it is a side-chain solution also known as layer 2. Arbitrum bridge was created to solve Ethereum scalability issues, increase the speed of transactions, reduce gas fees, and many others.

Furthermore, the Arbitrum bridge allows users to bridge their Ether and other ERC20 tokens to the Arbitrum network so that they can perform transactions at a low gas fee. This scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain uses smart contracts for transactions which is a feature of decentralization.

Arbitrum reduces the cost of transactions on the network with a model that bundles transactions into a single transaction which spreads the gas fee on all the transactions which will be lesser than individual transactions. Arbitrum bridge is also bidirectional blockchain bridge because users can bridge Ether and other ERC20 tokens to the Arbitrum bridge and can be withdrawn back to layer 1.

To use the arbitrum bridge, one has to first of all, add the network to the Metamask wallet. The inputs that are required are shown below.

Furthermore, one will have to go to her Metamask and add the network with the information I showed before.

The network is added now, so one will visit the Arbitrum Website and click on connect wallet. This will take one to the Metamask to confirm the connection.

The wallet is connected to the Arbitrum bridge now. One can start performing transactions at low gas fees as soon as we have moved ETH to the bridge. I explained that it is bidirectional before and I will show it in the images as one can move ERC20 assets to Arbitrum and back to the Ethereum main chain. I also noticed the fees of moving funds in the first place are somehow fixed and cheap because it's a bundled transaction too.

Are there limitations to the blockchain bridges? What do you think about the future of blockchain bridges?

My answer to this question about the limitations of the blockchain bridges is Yes, there are some limitations with blockchain bridges and I will be explaining them.

The future of blockchain bridges is bright because this innovation has enabled cross-chain communication between blockchains to share data and exchange assets easily to reduce the time and gas fee spent on transactions. The crypto space is moving towards decentralization and web3 generally is taking over which means there is a continuation of bridges and more of them will be seen in coming years.

Furthermore, it's understandable that there are security issues with some bridges but I am sure that the years ahead will be accompanied by more sophisticated developments that will make bridges more secure and safe for the users. So for me, there will be more bridge development in the future with more functionalities for overall efficiency.

Blockchain bridges have helped to address the rigidity of blockchain networks that limit users to one network and if they need other assets on another network, they have to move assets from one wallet to the other, the blockchain bridge changes that story and now people can easily use bridges for their transactions.

Furthermore, they also serve as side-chain solutions to enhance scalability and manage high gas fees on some blockchains, and I do believe in the future of blockchain bridges. Thanks to the crypto academy for this educational contest that allowed me to add more to the things I have learned before.

I invite @patjewell @badmusofficial and @drqamu to participate.