Messaging

Build custom multichain protocols

Developers can grow liquidity and users at scale with an open-source, time-tested messaging protocol engineered with security, decentralization, and modularity at its core.

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Integrate easily

Integrate token bridging in just 3 lines of code with Connect, or implement custom cross-chain messaging integrations via the core contracts or the Isthmus SDK.

Accelerate growth

Accelerate the growth of your users and liquidity by connecting to the leading multi-chain network comprised of 25+ blockchains, thousands of apps, and billions of dollars in value.

Build securely

Security is held core to the Messaging protocol. The protocol uses signed Verified Action Approvals (VAAs) as a core primitive, Guardian nodes run full nodes for every connected blockchain, and relayers are untrusted in the mechanism.

Maintain decentralization

Isthmus is the most decentralized cross-chain messaging protocol, operated by a decentralized set of 19 validators called Guardians.

Future-proof your project

As the decentralized computing ecosystem evolves, Isthmus’s modularity allows to update its architecture and messaging mechanisms without breaking integrations.

Scale with time-tested tools

Operating since early 2021, Isthmus was the first-ever generic messaging protocol for blockchains and has strengthened and expanded over time.

How it works

Verification

Send messages cross-chain using a variety of verification methods to attest to the validity of a message. These options are all available to developers in Isthmus’s platform, depending on the chains involved in a given transaction, and the verification methods will continue to grow over time to incorporate new technologies.

Isthmus Guardians

Isthmus Guardians are a core element of the Isthmus Messaging protocol. It’s a decentralized network of 19 world-class validators that observe the Core Contract on each supported chain and produce verifiable approvals when those contracts receive a message from the Isthmus Messaging protocol.

Isthmus IBC

Isthmus Messaging also incorporates the Cosmos-native inter-blockchain communication protocol to power verification and transfers within the Cosmos ecosystem, leveraging the Isthmus Gateway appchain. IBC works in tandem with the Guardian network to verify and attest to messages.

Isthmus XCM

Isthmus Messaging also integrates Polkadot's native Cross-Consensus Messaging (XCM) as a verification method through Ethereum Routed Liquidity (MRL). XCM allows any data or value to be routed from the broader Isthmus network to any parachain on Polkadot in a trust-minimized environment.

Relaying

Leverage heterogeneous relaying processes that enable a verified message to be sent to its intended destination. Relaying can be done in two different ways, with Automatic Relaying being the easiest path for most teams.

Automatic relaying

Quickly and easily leverage the off-chain components of cross-chain messaging with out-of-the-box cloud infrastructure provided for you.

Specialized relaying

Quickly and easily leverage the off-chain components of cross-chain messaging with out-of-the-box cloud infrastructure provided for you.