Technical requirements
Cross-chain operations in blockchain have atomicity requirements, which means that during a cross-chain transaction, the transactions generated on both blockchains should either be confirmed or not confirmed.
Under the atomicity requirement of cross-chain transactions, the different single chains need to have a common and agreed-upon timestamp as a reference for transaction alignment. If cross-chain transactions involve smart contracts, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of referencing state data of external chain contract. Furthermore, inconsistencies in referencing external chain data caused by forks or oscillations in single chains also need to be resolved.
Cross-chain within the Hyperchain system
In the Hyperchain system, due to the fact that Hyperblocks are the result of consensus across all single chains and are recognized by all chains, they can naturally be used as a alignment reference for cross-chain transactions. Based on this, the native base coins and smart contracts of each single chain can reliably reference external chain data in consensus and contract calculations through the Hyperchain triplet addressing. After the finalization confirmation of the Hyperblock, any inconsistencies in referencing external chain data and contracts caused by chain forks or oscillations can be resolved.
Cross-chain to external systems
For cross-chain transactions between single chains within the Hyperchain system and single chains outside the system, current cross-chain solutions commonly used between standalone blockchain systems are still employed.
In standalone blockchain systems outside the Hyperchain system, due to the inherent closed nature of their consensus algorithms, chains are completely independent from each other, lacking a common agreed-upon state alignment reference. This poses challenges for cross-chain transactions, either requiring them to bear real-world credit risks or making the implementation of cross-chain solutions complex and difficult to scale.
For example, there are currently three common cross-chain solutions. The first involves using centralized systems as intermediaries, such as CEX exchanges. The second involves using smart contract-based bridges, such as Wormhole. The third involves using sidechains or relay chains as intermediaries, such as Cosmos and Polkadot. The first two solutions require users to bear intermediary credit risks, while the third solution is complex and its complexity rapidly increases with the addition of new chains, limiting scalability.