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What is the Bridge?
ALEX Bridge connects Stacks and Ethereum, allowing users to move crypto assets between the two blockchains.
If you want to move tokens from one blockchain to another, you’ll need to use a blockchain bridge to transfer those assets.
Blockchain assets are often not compatible with one another — Stacks uses SIP-10 tokens and Ethereum uses ERC-20. To solve this incompatibility, blockchain bridges create synthetic derivatives that represent an asset from another blockchain.
So when a bridge is used to send USDT tokens from Ethereum to a Stacks wallet, that wallet will receive a token that has been “wrapped” by the bridge — converted to a token based on the target blockchain, in this case from USDT to sUSDT, which are pegged 1:1.
Bridges are either custodial (also known as centralized or trusted) or noncustodial (decentralized or trustless). The difference is in who controls the tokens that are used to create the bridged assets.
ALEX Bridge is also bi-directional or “two-way” bridge, meaning you can freely transfer assets between Stacks and Ethereum and vice versa.
As with all crypto technology, risk is real whether using a centralized or decentralized bridge. Some of the more novel decentralized bridges are relatively untested and even those that have been tested are still subject to exploits.
ALEX Bridge is audited by CoinFabrik, covering both the contracts and the backends.