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Semi-centralized cross-chain bridge design based on hash time lock and incentive mechanism
Tingda SHEN, Konglin ZHU, Lin ZHANG
Journal of Computer Applications    2025, 45 (11): 3440-3445.   DOI: 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2024121848
Abstract72)   HTML0)    PDF (726KB)(15)       Save

Cross-chain bridge technologies in blockchain ecosystems are categorized into centralized and decentralized types. Centralized bridges, due to asset concentration, are vulnerable to attacks with potentially significant losses, while decentralized bridges align with the trustless principle but face challenges such as high resource demands, prolonged implementation cycles, and poor scalability issues. Limited research has addressed balancing single points of failure and operational efficiency in decentralized designs. To address these challenges, a semi-centralized cross-chain bridge architecture that integrates centralized and decentralized models was proposed. In this architecture, initial node services were provided by a central server, while decentralized services, including routing and staking, were facilitated by smart contracts on the blockchain. Firstly, participation of blockchain nodes was incentivized through a reward mechanism, and the trust was established via remote attestation using code signing and hash value verification. Secondly, the verified nodes were incorporated into a decentralized routing table to participate in cross-chain transaction verification and auditing. Finally, cross-chain transactions were validated using Hash Time Locked Contract (HTLC). Experimental results on transaction costs and latency demonstrate that the proposed architecture reduces transaction latency to [24,36] seconds with a per-transaction cost of 403 299 gas, comparable to that of centralized cross-chain bridges; a security analysis identifies three typical cross-chain bridge attacks and corresponding solutions. The proposed semi-centralized cross-chain bridge architecture achieves performance comparable to that of centralized cross-chain bridges while maintaining the security of decentralized cross-chain bridges, balancing security, efficiency, and transaction costs in cross-chain operations.

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