“The basic security limitations of the bridge,” according to the Ethereum co-founder, are the main reason for his dislike. On Friday, a Reddit post by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), has highlighted major security issues surrounding cross-chain bridges in the blockchain ecosystem, which he believes are being ignored.
Because original content (such as Ethereum on Ethereum and Solana on Solana) are stored directly on the blockchain, which, according to Buterin, are more resistant to 51% attacks. However, even if hackers succeed in censoring or reversing transactions, they cannot recommend blocking rules that could allow someone to lose their cryptocurrency.
The rule also applies to Ethereum application, a smart contract. Consider this scenario: a hacker launches a 51% attack (by controlling 51% of all circulating Ethereum supply) while an investor exchanges 100 ETH for 320,000 DAI stablecoins, the ending state remains immutable, which means that the investor will always receive 100 ETH or 320,000 DAI, depending on the case.
Statement from Buterin on Cross-Chain Bridge
Buterin went on to say that cross-chain bridges do not have the same level of security as the rest of the network. For example, if an attacker uses their own Ethereum (ETH) to deposit into the Ethereum bridge (ETH) to get Solana-wrapped Ether (WETH) and then reverts that transaction on the Ethereum side as soon as the Solana side confirms Accepting it will cause serious loss to other users whose tokens are locked in the SOL-WETH contract, as the wrapped tokens are no longer supported by the original code in a 1:1 ratio.
However, another point made by Buterin is that a security attack can harm scaling if more bridges are added to the cross-chain network. When considering a hypothetical network of 100 chains, the high degree of interdependence and overlapping derivatives imply that a 51% attack on a chain, especially one with a small limit, can be cause system-wide outbreaks. In the opinion of Crypto 51, it can cost up to $1.78 million an hour for hackers to launch a 51% attack vector against the Ethereum network. On the other hand, for blockchains like Bitcoin Cash, the cost can be as low as $13,846 per hour.