G GOPNIK ACADEMY
Bridges 101 — Initiate · Lesson 3 of 5

The 6 bridges in the wallet's picker

6 min · read

Back to course

The wallet integrates six bridges across iter-A through iter-H. Each plays a different role.

1. Native XRPL ↔ XRPL-EVM (Ripple-operated)

The cheapest and fastest bridge in the wallet. Ripple operates a centralised mint/burn between XRPL mainnet and the XRPL-EVM sidechain.

  • Trust model: Centralised attestation (Ripple)
  • Latency: ~30 seconds
  • Fee: €0.01-0.05
  • Routes: XRPL ↔ XRPL-EVM only
  • Use it for: Moving XRP between mainnet and the EVM sidechain. Default for any XRPL-EVM operation.

2. Axelar

Federated bridge with ~70 validators running BFT consensus, used widely across the EVM ecosystem.

  • Trust model: Federated multisig (large set, BFT-ordered)
  • Latency: 8-15 minutes
  • Fee: €0.50-3 depending on destination L1 gas
  • Routes: XRPL ↔ XRPL-EVM ↔ Ethereum L1 + most major chains
  • Use it for: XRPL ↔ Ethereum L1 (alongside LayerZero); broadest chain coverage in the picker.

3. LayerZero

Federated multisig but smaller — typically a 5-of-7 multisig per application ("DVN" — Decentralised Verifier Network).

  • Trust model: Federated multisig (small per-app set)
  • Latency: 2-3 minutes
  • Fee: €0.20-2
  • Routes: XRPL ↔ XRPL-EVM ↔ Ethereum L1 + most chains
  • Use it for: Speed when light-client isn't available. Trust assumption is weaker than Axelar.

4. CCTP (Circle Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol)

Circle's native USDC bridge — burns USDC on source chain, mints on destination. Circle attests.

  • Trust model: Centralised attestation (Circle)
  • Latency: 10-20 minutes
  • Fee: ~$0 (Circle absorbs)
  • Routes: Between every chain Circle has launched USDC on — Ethereum L1, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Solana, etc.
  • Use it for: USDC moves. Other stables and assets need a different bridge.

5. Wormhole

Federated bridge with 19 guardian validators. Used heavily by Solana ecosystem.

  • Trust model: Federated multisig (19 guardians, typically 13-of-19 threshold)
  • Latency: 5-15 minutes
  • Fee: €0.30-2
  • Routes: Solana ↔ Ethereum + L2s; many other long-tail chains
  • Use it for: Anything involving Solana. Wallet uses it for Solana ↔ Ethereum movement (iter-D).

6. IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication)

Cosmos-ecosystem native cross-chain protocol. Light-client based; the strongest trust model.

  • Trust model: Light-client
  • Latency: 12-60 seconds (Tendermint finality dependent)
  • Fee: €0.005
  • Routes: Intra-Cosmos only (currently). Hub ↔ Osmosis in iter-G.
  • Use it for: Anything intra-Cosmos. Cheapest + most-trust-minimised bridge in the wallet.

7. Snowbridge (iter-G)

Polkadot's native bridge to Ethereum. BEEFY light-client verification.

  • Trust model: Light-client (BEEFY)
  • Latency: 5 minutes
  • Fee: ~€0.80
  • Routes: Polkadot ↔ Ethereum (DOT, ETH in iter-G; more assets coming)
  • Use it for: Polkadot ↔ Ethereum value transfer. Highest trust outside IBC.

How the picker picks

Given a (source, destination, asset, amount) tuple, the wallet's comparator:

  1. Filters to bridges that support the route.
  2. Ranks by security tier first (light-client > federated > centralised — though centralised regulated entities like Circle/Ripple are ranked ahead of small-multisig federations).
  3. Sorts ties by fee + latency.
  4. Marks the top one "Recommended", but shows all available options with their parameters.

The user can override with one click. The override is logged to the audit trail.

Special routes

  • XRPL ↔ Cosmos: not direct. Hop via Axelar or LayerZero to Ethereum, then bridge to Cosmos via Axelar (which has Cosmos validator). Two-hop, slower, more trust assumptions.
  • Bitcoin ↔ anywhere: wallet integrates BTC natively but bridging BTC to other chains uses WBTC (a custodial wrapped token) on Ethereum. Iter-H+1 will add federated alternative tBTC.

The wallet doesn't currently route Bitcoin↔EVM bridges directly. That's a deliberate restriction — every bridge that touches Bitcoin has had a major incident.

What this means for you

Don't bridge unless you have to. When you do:

  1. Use IBC if both chains are Cosmos.
  2. Use Snowbridge if it's Polkadot ↔ Ethereum.
  3. Use CCTP if it's USDC.
  4. For everything else, accept the federated trust assumption with the largest available set.

Next: the history of bridge hacks — $2.5B lost in 5 years.