wormhole/bridge/README.md

13 lines
717 B
Markdown

# The bridge
The bridge is a lightweight, distributed cross-chain notary.
Read the [the protocol spec](../docs/protocol.md) first.
- **Leaderless**. There is no synchrony/consensus or proposers - the bridge merely observes finalized transactions on
one chain, signs them using its piece of the joint key, and pushes its signature to an off-chain peer-to-peer network.
Once 2/3+ of the guardian set agree, the threshold signature is valid and this jointly signed proof
(which we call a Verifiable Action Approval or VAA) can be posted to the other chain to release or mint funds that
were locked/burned on the first.
- **Stateless**. Nodes do not keep persistent state about transactions they observed.