Celo taps Chorus One to build a bridge with Cosmos, paving the way for others

Celo has awarded a grant to staking service provider Chorus One to build a bridge facilitating interoperability between the Cosmos and Celo networks.

The proof-based bridge will allow “bidirectional communication’ between Celo and Cosmos, allowing Celo’s cUSD stablecoin to operate on the Cosmos network, and Cosmos-based assets including ATOM, BAND, and KAVA to be held in the Celo Reserve.

According to a Nov. 19 announcement, the partnership will lay the groundwork for building future bridges between Celo and “chains like Polkadot, Near, and Solana.”

Cosmos is also working to build numerous cross-chain bridges, including with Ethereum, Polkadot, and Kadena.

The post notes that work will be split between two service agreements, and will require the implementation of a “unique light client” on each blockchain.

The Interchain Foundation, a non-profit foundation formed to support the development of Cosmos, will fund a WASM-based Light Client to allow Cosmos to verify Celo transactions without undergoing a hard fork.

The Celo Foundation will also fund a Tendermint Light Client allowing the Celo blockchain to verify signatures and block headers created both by Cosmos and Cosmos-SDK-based chains.

Celo’s co-founder Marek Olszewski emphasized his belief that the crypto sector will come to comprise an interoperable ecosystem spanning many blockchain networks:

“We believe that the industry is not zero-sum, or winner takes all. In a future with many chains, cooperation is necessary to realize our goal of a globally accessible and inclusive financial system. We view the implementation of cross-chain architecture as an act of Mutually Assured Development.”

In May, Chorus One was awarded a similar grant by the Web3 Foundation to build aspects of a bridge enabling interoperability between Substrate and Cosmos-SDK-based blockchains.

Cosmos and Celo are not only networks pursuing interoperability, with Near launching its Ethereum bridge and Ontology Neo and Switcheo unveiling their “interoperability protocol alliance,” Poly Network, in August.