Why Wormhole is more than a bridge: reply to UX criticism
Quote584 words
Rebuts the view that Wormhole has bad UX: Portal is a separate app, and Wormhole is a messaging and developer platform on 30+ chains. Defends the 13/19 guardian design while conceding trust-minimized ZK verification is the endgame.
Key claims
Wormhole and Axelar were the only interop solutions to pass the Uniswap Foundation bridge assessment
Wormhole runs on 30+ chains
ZK message verification is work in progress, with AMD for prover acceleration
I disagree with this take ser 👇
@Wormhole is much more than a bridge.
Wormhole is an interoperability platform for developers that offers a whole suite of products that enable devs to build natively multi-chain.
This includes:
- Messaging: Secure x-chain transfer of data or tokens
- Connect: In-app bridging integration of only 3 LOC
- Queries: Pull any on-chain data cheap and fast
- NTT: Framework for natively multi-chain tokens
- Gateway: Connecting Wormhole to IBC/Cosmos
It's an ecosystem of industry-leading applications built on Wormhole's battle-tested interoperability infra (e.g. using messaging or NTT or apps that integrate Wormhole Connect for in-app bridging).
Some of my favourite ones that are currently building on Wormhole are:
- @Curvance
- @PikeFinance
- @synonymfinance
- @CatalystAMM
- @infinex_app
- @C3protocol
@wormhole enables the exchange of arbitrary messages across any connected chain, allowing for powerful cross-chain composability that goes beyond the transfer of value. Today it does this on 30+ chains already and is especially strong in the non-EVM space (Solana, Sui, Aptos).
The bad UX you are describing (and that I'm unfortunately familiar with too lol) is how @portalbridge_ worked until not too long ago.
Portal is not Wormhole though.
It's an application that is built on top of @Wormhole technology (originally first iteration of Wormhole Connect iirc). It's built by @xLabsxyz, not @wormhole_labs (which is building the Wormhole core products).
When Portal went live there was no automatic relays and hence the need for manual claims. However, this has changed and for most chains/assets you now have automatic relying in place and hence don't need to manually claim anymore (not even on Portal).
Additionally, there is a whole bunch of other bridges (or cross-chain AMMs) that use @wormhole technology including @Allbridge_io, @magpieprotocol and many more. So there is not this one single UX for Wormhole as an infra layer.
I agree on the wrapped asset issue and the risks / UX issues that come with that. I highly recommend having a look at @wormhole's NTT framework. Probably many big integrations coming post $W launch I would assume:
t.co/qIMEkR1QAt
Finally: Wormhole has often been getting a lot of shit for being "just a multi-sig". But while it is true that VAAs that attest to message validity require a 13/19 threshold signature, I would argue that the Guardian network design is among the most secure verification mechanisms we currently have on the market.
This is evidenced by the fact that, together with @axelarnetwork, Wormhole was the only interoperability solution to pass the @UniswapFND bridge assessment last year.
But yeah, I do share the view of many critics that the endgame of interoperability is (or should be) fully trust-minimized and permissionless.
That's why I love projects like @union_build that build ZK-powered IBC solutions that can be generalized beyond the Cosmos ecosystem, providing the basis for a completely chain-agnostic and permissionless, sovereign interoperability layer.
However, @Wormhole is not sleeping on this either. As a messaging solution and a highly versatile developer platform, Wormhole can support various message verification mechanisms and ZK proofs are work in progress. The partnership with @AMD for prover hardware acceleration will be huge here.
So yeah, pretty damn bullish on @wormhole and the team just keeps shipping relentlessly.
Just wait until people realize that $W might be the eligibility ticket for a bunch of ecosystem airdrops...
Think @Curvance. Think @PikeFinance. Think @monad_xyz.
Might be the TIA of interoperability iykwim.
NFA tho 🫡
@wormhole Forgot to add the Wormhole ZK post link above, so attaching here:
x.com/wormhole/status/1752733057373688098
QUOTING @DefiIgnas
Wormhole's cool and thanks for the $W airdrop but... Anyone who used it knows the UX is one of the worst. I bridged test tx - all good! Then move to send main assets: tx failed and token gone. WTH? You then need to "Redeem" the token by inputting tx hash - normie can't do it.
Wormhole's cool and thanks for the $W airdrop but... Anyone who used it knows the UX is one of the worst. I bridged test tx - all good! Then move to send main assets: tx failed and token gone. WTH? You then need to "Redeem" the token by inputting tx hash - normie can't do it.
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