We’re proud to officially introduce our plans for Hop Protocol. Hop allows users to quickly and easily transfer tokens directly between layer-2s, sidechains, and layer-1 Ethereum. After running head-first into high gas fees with Authereum, we’ve decided to pivot our full attention to enabling a composable and interoperable layer-2 ecosystem for Ethereum.
Hop Protocol 🐰
The Hop protocol provides a scalable token bridge for Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystem using a two-pronged approach:
Create a special intermediary asset called an hToken (e.g., hETH, hDAI, etc.) that can be quickly and economically moved from one network to the next.
Use Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to swap between the hTokens and their corresponding assets on each layer-2 network.
The end result allows users to seamlessly transfer tokens from one network to the next.
Send tokens directly between scaling solutions like Optimism, Arbitrum, xDAI, and Matic
Hop Launch 🧑🚀
The Hop contracts are currently being audited and will go live in April. Initially, we’ll focus on bridging a handful of assets from Optimism to layer-1 Ethereum. From there, we’ll onboard more scaling solutions and expand the set of supported tokens. You can expect the following scaling solutions to be supported in the near term:
Optimism
xDai
Polygon (formerly Matic)
Arbitrum (upon Mainnet launch)
Where We’re Headed 🚀
The current version of Hop enables users to transfer tokens between EVM-compatible scaling solutions. We believe that this just scratches the surface of layer-2 interoperability and composability. Future areas of research will include:
Enabling cross-chain contract calls
Improving the capital efficiency and gas efficiency of the system
Adding support for non-evm compatible rollups
We believe future Ethereum users will be onboarded directly to layer-2 and will stay on layer-2 without ever needing to touch layer-1 and the gas fees that come with it. It’s our goal to make this a reality. In the meantime, stay tuned for more info and learn how you can get involved in the community.