Hyperlane (ABC)

Hyperlane, previously known as Abacus, is a generalized interchain messaging protocol offering an on-chain API that sends and receives messages across chains. It is primarily a tool built to empower developers to send data between chains and create natively cross-chain applications.

Basics

• Based in:
• Started in / Announced on:
• Testnet release:
• Mainnet release:

Audits & Exploits

• Bug bounty program can be found [insert here].

Technology

• Whitepaper or docs can be found here.
• Code can be viewed here.

Implementations

• Built on:
• Consensus mechanism: delegated proof-of-stake protocol
• Algorithm:
• Virtual Machine:
• Development language:

Transaction Details

• Capacity (TPS):
• Latency:

How it works

• From Onchain Times (10-5-2024):

"Hyperlane is the first interoperability layer that enables permissionless connection to any blockchain. Its main competitive advantage lies in its permissionless feature. Rather than needing to lobby for your chain/rollup to be supported by a cross-chain messaging protocol like Wormhole, Hyperlane allows you to use its service permissionlessly. Concretely, this means you only have to deploy a few smart contracts for your chain to be connected to other chains using Hyperlane. Hyperlane announced plans to develop an EigenLayer AVS back in February 2023 to enable interchain application developers to securely send messages from Ethereum to other chains supported by Hyperlane."

• From Li.Fi (19-9-2022):

"Hyperlane uses “Inbox” and “Outbox” smart contracts to send and receive interchain messages. Every chain Hyperlane supports has one Outbox and n-1 Inboxes (one for every other chain). Sending and receiving messages with Hyperlane is a three-step process:

1. An application calls Outbox.dispatch() on the source chain. Each message gets inserted as a leaf into an incremental Merkle tree (for gas efficiency) of the Outbox. Note: The Outbox.dispatch() function consists of all information related to the transaction (such as message content, destination chain ID, and recipient address).
2. The latest Outbox Merkle root is signed by the validator set of the source chain. This Merkle root is also signed by application-specific validators (local security) if they exist.
3. A Relayer delivers the message to recipients by calling InboxValidatorManager.process(). Doing so provides the message’s Merkle proof, the message, and the signed root mentioned in step 2. The InboxValidatorManager verifies that the root was signed by validators and then calls Inbox.process to verify the Merkle proof. After verification, the Inbox contract calls the recipient.handle() function, and the messages are delivered to the application.

Each Hyperlane-supported chain has its own validator set. This means Hyperlane does not require validators to be present on all supported chains. As a result, some chains may be less secure than others if there’s low economic security due to fewer validators. However, Hyperlane offers applications the flexibility to choose the chains they want to send/receive messages across. As a result, if a dApp concludes that a specific chain’s security is insufficient, it can choose not to integrate that chain."

Staking

• From Li.Fi (19-9-2022):

"Users can stake ABC tokens and delegate them to Hyperlane validators. The validators with the most tokens delegated to them are chosen to be part of the validator set. There is also a transition window where users can propose to change members of the validator set. The stake of Hyperlane validators are bonded, i.e., their stake will be slashed if they act maliciously (collude or censor messages)."

Interoperability

• From Li.Fi (19-9-2022):

"As of September 2022, Hyperlane supports arbitrary message passing and cross-chain contract calls across seven chains: Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Celo, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon."

Roadmap

• Can be found [Insert link here].

Competition

• From Li.Fi (19-9-2022):

"Its key differentiators are Hyperlane’s explicit focus on data passing via APIs and the flexibility it offers to dApps to set up application-specific validators."

Pros and Cons

Pros

• From Li.Fi (19-9-2022):

1. "Easy to integrate API — Hyperlane offers an on-chain API that can be integrated into dApps to send and receive interchain messages. According to Hyperlane, developers can send a simple interchain message to a predeployed smart contract in less than five minutes.
2. Local security provided by application-specific validators — Applications can add their own validator sets for security purposes (in addition to Hyperlane’s proof of stake protocol).
3. Message observability — Applications can track interchain messages and perform an action when the message is processed on the destination chain. The team plans to add an interchain message explorer to enable complete message observability in the near future.
4. Natively interchain DAO governance — Hyperlane is governed by a DAO, and ABC token holders have the power to propose and implement changes to the Hyperlane protocol by voting from any Hyperlane-supported chain."

Team, Funding and Partners

Team

• Full team can be found [here].

Funding

• Hyperlane raised $18.5m back in 2022 led by Variant.

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