At Nervos, we have seen that the blockchain space still has a number of barriers to entry that are holding back mass adoption of the technology. User experience is often sacrificed for the sake of decentralized functionality, and vice versa.
For example, when it comes to exchanges, you can either use a centralized one for the best user experience — with no decentralized benefits. Or, you can use a decentralized exchange but with all the hard work that comes with it.
We wanted to address this and show how the idea of Universal Applications — apps that transcend individual blockchains to work seamlessly across every chain in the ecosystem — can maintain the decentralized benefits while offering an exceptional user experience.
GliaDex is a demonstration of such a Universal App built on Nervos that allows users to trade CKB for ETH, for example, with only one wallet. This trade on GliaDex means a user can choose their preferred wallet and still cross chains for different assets.
The Universal Application
GliaDex comfortably demonstrates how you can, using the same wallet address, go cross-chain for different assets. Trading ETH for CKB, with the power of the Force Bridge on GliaDex is a simple matter of a few clicks like any centralized exchange, however this is done in an decentralized manner, while operating from the one wallet.
In the demonstration below, members of the Nervos team show, in real time, the simplicity of using GliaDex and how it can make trades across chains all from the same wallet as easily as if it were a centralized exchange.
“If you are an Ethereum user, and you wanted to do your trades for less on a decentralized exchange, Matt just went cross-chain and was able to submit his order to get $CKB without installing anything new,” explains Jordan Mack, Senior Software Engineer at the Nervos Foundation.
“It was all done on MetaMask. For users out there, who are active trading, this is going to mean you are able to move to another platform seamlessly with a single interface, saving them a lot of money in fees, down the road.”
The Force Bridge
This cross-chain capability through Nervos is done via a component of the Universal Passport to Blockchain, called the Force Bridge. The Force Bridge is a cross-chain bridge that initially connects Ethereum to Nervos, and vice versa, with plans to integrate other chains in the future.
Most Ethereum bridges require users to complete several steps before moving an asset — deploying a new asset on the target chain, registering the address on Ethereum, and specifying the relationship between transferring assets, for example. With Force Bridge, there is support for all ERC-20 contracts automatically.
“All of these interactions where we are moving things from Ethereum to CKB are all facilitated through the Force Bridge, which is a collection of different pieces of functionality that roll together. This Dex really does demonstrate the usage of the Force Bridge and how we will continue to see it grow,” explains Matt Quinn.
Centralized experience with decentralized benefits
As mentioned at the beginning, there is usually a trade-off between a good user experience in centralized exchanges and more functionality and autonomy on decentralized exchanges. However, as seen in the demonstration on GliaDex, the trade between CKB and ETH is approaching a centralized experience, but it is not.
“The addresses are being mapped automatically, so MetaMask is providing the private keys, just like it would to Ethereum, but instead of going to an Ethereum address it is being mapped to a CKB address, and instead of using ERC20 tokens on Ethereum, it is using our sUDT standard for tokens” Mack added.
“This is enabling that interoperability that has been spoken about for so long in our industry and you are watching it happen so seamlessly that it looks like almost nothing has occurred, it looks like a centralized exchange, but it is being done in a decentralized way.”
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