Bridges & Interoperability

Bridges transfer assets between L1 and L2 (or between different L2s). Native bridges are built into the rollup protocol — they inherit the rollup's security but can be slow (7 days for optimistic rollup withdrawals). Third-party bridges (Across, Stargate, Hop) offer faster transfers using liquidity networks but introduce additional trust assumptions. Bridge security is critical: bridge hacks have caused billions in losses (Ronin Bridge: $625M, Wormhole: $325M). The future is 'shared sequencing' and native cross-L2 communication without bridges.