Thread by @frensvalidator

A $3 billion chain is about to enable IBC 🚀

Time for a thread 🧵👇

1/ IBC is about to come to @NEARProtocol very soon!

Other EVM chains could follow...

But how can blockchains enable IBC?

What does the expansion of IBC mean for the future of the crypto industry?

2/ First of all, what is NEAR?

✅ NEAR is a PoS blockchain
✅ NEAR is EVM compatible via Aurora
✅ NEAR is interoperable with Ethereum via the Rainbow bridge

3/ DeFi on NEAR is booming 🚀 The blockchain also has some significant TVL.

As of now, NEAR’s TVL is almost $300 million.

To compare: Evmos’s TVL is only $1.4 million after the recent Nomad exploit.

4/ Near having IBC would be highly beneficial for the interchain as more liquidity would flow into the Cosmos.

So, what needs to happen, and where are we🤔?

5/ Let us start with what needs to happen to ship IBC to NEAR. Generally, one feature is very important:

✅ light client support

6/ Light clients use full nodes as an intermediate to understand the state of a blockchain without storing the whole transaction history.

Running a light client requires fewer resources and technical knowledge.

And NEAR has light client support... 👀

7/ So, it is generally possible to implement IBC on NEAR. But enabling IBC on a blockchain doesn't work out of nowhere.

Therefore, @Composable & @strangelovelabs work on expanding IBC to major networks with light client support - such as NEAR!

https://twitter.com/0xbrainjar/status/1542944188928561155

8/ However, to enable IBC, light clients must be able to validate a set of transactions as a batch. This is also how IBC generally works on a very high level.

But currently, light clients on NEAR validate transactions singularly.

9/ So, before finally shipping IBC to NEAR, light clients must first be able to validate transactions as a batch.

Composable requested this ability to be enabled in a governance proposal a couple of weeks ago:

gov.near.org/t/near-polkado…

10/ To ship the batching technology to NEAR, a certain endpoint on NEAR has to be deployed.

A Vec would be passed at this new endpoint, and an adapted version of RpcLightClientExecutionProofResponse would be returned.

11/ In plain words: This is how the block’s outcome root will match the block’s header for each transaction.

12/ Besides being able to ship IBC under these circumstances, allowing light clients to validate transactions as a batch is net-positive for NEAR anyway in terms of costs.

Validating transactions would become cheaper 🤑!

13/ NEAR Co-Founder @ilblackdragon signaled that he would support that proposal.

12/ Summary:

Enabling IBC on NEAR comes with challenges!

The blockchain has to allow light clients to validate transactions as a batch.

This was started by Composable, and the project’s NEP got approved yesterday 😍

https://twitter.com/0xbrainjar/status/1562762734353383432?s=20&t=SedenJnF_b_a6oy9Zse5pQ

13/ According to Composable CEO @0xbrainjar, Composable will help expand IBC to all networks with light client support - such as Polygon🤯!

14/ Near could be just the beginning.

One day, all major smart contract blockchains could be IBC enabled, making the Interchain more significant in terms of liquidity.

15/ What does this mean for you? Well, you will rely less on fragile token bridges ❌🚀

16/ Big shoutout to @composablefinance & @strangeloveventures for leading the efforts to bring IBC to NEAR!

17/ Want to learn more? 👀

We host an IBC expert panel with @0xbrainjar & @composable, @susevans, and Trevor from @OpenShards.

Going live at 12:45 UTC

Feel free to tune in 💛👇

It's @ComposableFin *

Panel is now live! :)