Plasm Network Partners with Secret Network to Launch the First Polkadot-Cosmos Cross-Chain Bridge

Announced on Tuesday, the ‘bridge’ results from an ongoing partnership between Plasm Network (PLM) and Secret Network (SCRT), a Cosmos blockchain-based transaction privacy solution, which allows users to transact assets on any of the two networks. Built on Plasm testnet, the bridge will allow private transactions on Secret Network and access to decentralized finance, DeFi, provided on SecretSwap, the platform’s automated market maker (AMM).

“We’ve completed building our bridge with Secret Network,” the blog post reads. “This build will start on our testnet before deploying to mainnet down the road.”

Plasm Network users will be limited to enjoying “secret” transactions and DeFi products built on the Secret DApp hub at launch. By turning their assets to “Secret Tokens,” synthetic tokens on Secret built using ERC-20 standards and privacy features of coins such as Monero and Dash, users can enjoy encrypted transactions, “viewable only to address owners or holders of their viewing key.”

Notwithstanding, the bridge also brings DeFi to Plasm users through Secret DeFi, which allows the building of privacy-preserving DeFi apps.

The mainnet launch will follow the testnet launch once Kusama Network (KSM) is ready for launch and Plasm becomes a parachain on Polkadot. Kusama is a Polkadot parachain testnet unveiled by Polkadot’s co-founder Gavin Wood in 2019.

Speaking on the recent partnership, Plasm co-founder Sota Watanabe said,

“We have considered the light client implementation. And we are highly likely to take this approach after becoming a Kusama Parachain. The implementation we have today is an MVP [minimum viable product].”

Secret Network and Plasm partnership is the first time the Polkadot (DOT) and Cosmos (ATOM) blockchain has a direct connection. This is made possible through the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) on Cosmos, which allows direct communication between different blockchains.

“This is the first commercial trial that brings Cosmos assets to the Polkadot ecosystem and vice versa.”

“We would like to make the idea of ‘Cosmos vs. Polkadot' obsolete.”