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Temporary relay: A more flexible way to cross chains

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Abstract

As blockchain technology advances, cross-chain asset transfer has become a critical issue in achieving interoperability between different blockchain networks. However, existing cross-chain solutions often require high trust requirements and complex communication protocols, which hinder usability and flexibility. To address these issues, this work introduces the temporary relay, a novel cross-chain asset transfer model without continuous blockchain network presence and frequent inter-chain communication. Technically, the temporary relay uses non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs to verify transactions and protect privacy while ensuring blockchain immutability and traceability after the temporary relay is shut down. We detail the construction of the temporary relay and analyze the security of the circuits constructed by the zero-knowledge proofs. Prototype implementation on the Substrate blockchain platform and experimental evaluation demonstrate the feasibility of the temporary relay. Furthermore, the verification time of zero-knowledge proofs in our model is short.

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Funding

This research was supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region under Grant 2020MS06009, in part by Department of Science and Technology of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region under Grant 2022YFSH0044, in part by Education Department of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region under Grant NJZY23076, and in part by Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology under Grant 2022-132.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Digital and Intelligence Industry, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, 014010, Inner Mongolia, China

    Haonan Wang, Jingyu Wang, Lixin Liu & Yu Lu

  2. School of Information, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Lixin Liu

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  1. Haonan Wang
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Contributions

Haonan Wang and Yu Lu provided ideas and wrote the main manuscript text. Jingyu Wang and Lixin Liu provided guiding ideas and suggestions. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jingyu Wang.

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No Conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is approved for publication by all the authors. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described is original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

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Wang, H., Wang, J., Liu, L. et al. Temporary relay: A more flexible way to cross chains. Peer-to-Peer Netw. Appl. 17, 3489–3504 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-024-01762-3

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