IBC on Substrate with cdot

As part of the recently announced Q2–2020 cycle, the Interchain Foundation has funded cdot’s proposal to develop an IBC Substrate pallet. This work represents a significant step in bridging Polkadot and Kusama with Cosmos chains, enabling secure exchange of assets and data between ecosystems. The IBC Substrate pallet will also enable developers to create their own Substrate-based blockchains with IBC capabilities.

To support developers building with this technology, cdot has also committed to producing documentation and educational materials detailing use of IBC on Substrate, as well as a Chinese translation of the IBC specification.

A newly formed Substrate IBC Working Group aims to coordinate the efforts of cdot, Chorus One and Informal Systems, all of whom are working on components essential to Polkadot/Cosmos bridging efforts. Chorus One was recently awarded a grant from Web3 Foundation to implement Grandpa light client validation in the Cosmos SDK. Meanwhile, Informal Systems is developing modular IBC handlers and an IBC relayer in rust, while formally specifying the IBC protocol with TLA+.

To follow progress from the cdot, Chorus One and Informal teams, join the new #substrate-ibc channel in the Cosmos Community Discord.

Special thanks to Web3 Foundation for collaborating with the ICF on this effort to make a bi-directional bridge between our ecosystems a reality.