Interoperability, or the capacity to transfer data between different blockchain and blockchain-like systems, is one of the requirements for the widespread use of blockchain technology.

Today, a large number of interoperability projects have gained traction and are expanding incredibly quickly. In fact, it won't be long before there are trillions of cross-chain communications sent.

Interoperability between blockchains is more common than ever. Over $23 billion worth of assets were held hostage in Ethereum cross-chain bridges as of January 2024.

It's evident that early adopters in our sector, known as Web3 enthusiasts, are eager to investigate novel ecosystems as they frequently transfer assets between different blockchains.

Despite its awkwardness, this procedure is now so prevalent that many people think the problem of blockchain interoperability has been resolved.

The fact is much more dire.

As of right now, blockchain interoperability is in a state of broken incompatibility.

Rival interoperability efforts create ad hoc solutions that sabotage the blockchain ecosystem, making it difficult for businesses and authorities to assess each one's security.

The mainstream adoption of blockchain technology as a whole is currently facing an existential threat due to the current status of blockchain interoperability.

Too much attention is being paid to developing and expanding their own proprietary solutions in modern interoperability projects.

There is limitless risk because of the increasing complexity of the system brought about by the competition to be the only one.

Blockchain interoperability protocols are becoming more complex as many projects make different trade-offs to address different issues. This intricacy not only causes protocols to become increasingly incompatible with one another,

There are new attack vectors introduced with every new trust assumption or system component. We as a sector need to stop this alarming trend.

There is an urgent need for a common interoperability framework.

Decentralised blockchains are not capable of interacting with other blockchain networks directly because they are trustless systems.

The risk profile of a specific cross-chain design is determined by trust assumptions, which also define how a system might be attacked and shape its vulnerabilities. In general, a system's vulnerability to attack increases with its level of complexity.

Therefore, to reduce the number of components that can be exploited, it is better to simplify the design of cross-chain solutions.

There is security in simplicity, even while it is true that blockchain interoperability solutions require certain trust assumptions.

System complexity can be decreased by using a common framework for interoperability between blockchain and blockchain-like systems, which contains approved interface definitions and architectural guidelines.

Preventing fragmentation across several project implementations is a consequence of this.

Enhancing interoperability and lowering the requirement for custom implementations could be achieved with as little as shared interfaces and functions to decode and validate messages.

Collaboration between various interoperability efforts may also be enhanced by a common interoperability framework. In general, interoperability projects don't trust one another's work.

This is not totally shocking, given that cross-chain bridges were used to steal more than $2.9 billion between 2021 and 2023. However, this mistrust has been a major factor in the broken

state of blockchain interoperability today. A shared framework, built openly and vetted by all, will result in a more secure system.

Blockchain interoperability must be core infrastructure first, product second.

If we as an industry are to have any hope of achieving the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology (without sacrificing the industry’s core ethos of decentralization), we must establish a shared framework for interoperability.