Burn-to-Claim: An asset transfer protocol for blockchain interoperability

Abstract

The future of multi-blockchain architecture depends on the emergence of new protocols that enable consensus between trustless cross-blockchain participants. However, interoperability between blockchains remains a research challenge. The existing interoperability approaches provide integration through solutions using a middleware system, making it difficult to gain confidence in the security and correctness of the process. A cross-blockchain protocol must provide a self-verifiable state proof that encodes trust in the transfer process to guarantee consensus. Inspired by the burn-address concept, we propose a Burn-to-Claim cross-blockchain protocol to exchange assets between two networks. The proposed protocol transfers assets from one blockchain system to another so that the asset is burned from the source blockchain and recreated on the destination blockchain. Our protocol makes use of digital signatures, hash-time-locks and integration mechanisms to perform cross-blockchain transactions in a distributed manner. We theoretically prove that the proposed cross-blockchain protocol transfers assets securely and correctly. In addition, the experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the Burn-to-Claim protocol when used in an application environment.