No single blockchain can provide all of the infrastructure web3 requires. Instead, different chains with different characteristics play different roles. For web3 to become a cohesive ecosystem, it is vital that communication can take place between these chains, and that users can seamlessly transfer their digital assets and identities across them.

Web3 will be Multi-chain

First, there was Bitcoin. Not long after, Stellar, Ethereum, and Cardano emerged, and still, the growth continued. Today, there are thousands of distinct blockchains and dozens of them are in popular use.

With so many chains, the question naturally arises: what will the relationships between them be? In the early days, many saw blockchains as aspiring autocrats and argued that they would eviscerate one another until a sole ruler emerged supreme.

But, those were the early days. As the space evolves, it’s become increasingly clear that technical trade-offs mean no single chain can provide all of the infrastructure web3 requires. The more decentralized a blockchain is, for instance, the less scalable it tends to be. The more secure it is, the less smart contract functionality it has.

The result is that different blockchains with different characteristics are supporting different functions. For instance, users often prefer hyper-secure Ethereum for long-term asset storage but when buying assets they intend to sell, favor Polygon with its low transaction fees. Web3 then is no autocracy, it is a confederation, and there will always be multiple blockchains to contend with.

The challenge

But, while users themselves tend to access a range of blockchains, their assets and identities cannot easily travel with them. Instead, transferring messages and tokens, fungible or otherwise, across blockchains is either impossible or prohibitively complex and expensive.

This is a serious issue. Not only does it restrict many of the most-popular on-chain activities such as buying NFTs or loaning tokens, it also limits the potential of web3’s most exciting next-generation developments, in particular, decentralized identities and the metaverse.

On top of this, without seamless communication and message transfers between chains, developers have not been able to leverage the different strengths of different blockchains and build truly hybrid dApps. Rather, they are forced to pick a single ecosystem and shoulder its constraints.

The Solution

Glistening on the horizon, however, is a world where the borders between blockchains dissolve; where users, their assets and their identities can travel seamlessly across the ecosystem; and where developers can build hybrid dApps that unleash the different strengths of blockchains in new, unforeseen fashions. Where — just, for instance — content could be stored on Filecoin, transactions processed on Arbitrum, and NFTs minted on Ethereum.

This seamless travel of assets and identities is known as interoperability, and as a next-generation interoperability protocol, Rarimo is bringing the dream to life. Not only does it provide the general messaging that enables communication between chains, it provides the sub-protocols to run different flows. Developers can leverage these sub-protocols to easily expand existing dApps from one chain to many. To ensure that the user experience on Rarimo built dApps remains flawless, Rarimo bundles transactions, allowing single-click, single-free and single-signature solutions.

The examples below illustrate how dramatically this technology can revolutionize the multi-chain experience:

NFT Checkouts

Currently, if you hold crypto on one chain — say $USDC on Polygon, but want to buy an NFT issued on another — say, Ethereum, you will have to manually swap your Polygon $USDC for a token on Ethereum. This process is slow, costly and extremely complex.

You will have to:

• leave the NFT marketplace

• send your $USDC to an exchange

• swap your $USDC

• send your new tokens to your wallet

• return to the marketplace

At every step along the way, you will incur fees and sign transactions.

With Rarimo’s NFT Checkout solution, however, you will be able to make cross-chain NFT purchases with only a single fee, a single signature, and a single click.

At checkout, you will be prompted to select the currency and chain you’d like to pay with, and after paying the transaction fee and signing to authorize the payment, the process will be complete.

Multi-chain Identities

Centralized social media sites like Meta (Facebook) and YouTube have failed to deliver. Concerns around the misuse of data abound, and creators are growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of rewards and the inability to transfer their social status, followers and content from one platform or ecosystem to another.

In the wake of this, decentralized, on-chain, social graphs and identities where users own their data, can monetize their content, and can transport their communities across platforms are rapidly gaining traction. Lens Protocol, for instance, has garnered over 100 thousand users.

Prior to Rarimo, there was no way to transport these identities across different chains. But now, with Rarimo, users can integrate their decentralized identities with communities and platforms across the entire web3 ecosystem.

This is possible because we are able to generate the cross-chain proofs for dApps to verify the status of soul-bound NFTs, dynamic tokens, POAPS and the other token types that support decentralized social graphs.

Conclusion

These are just two examples from an endless number of possible use-cases. The Rarimo testnet is open for developer applications, and there will be a wave of multi-chain dApps to follow. If you’re a developer with an idea for a dApp, you can sign up here.

The seamless transfer of assets and identities will help the confederation thrive and ensures that distinct chains, cultures, and standards can continue to blossom without risking estrangement from the broader ecosystem.