Understanding Bridging Mechanisms

The mev-commit chain utilizes advanced bridging mechanisms to ensure a secure and efficient transfer of assets between the Ethereum mainnet (L1) and the mev-commit chain. Below is the process and a breakdown.

We envision mev-commit to eventually integrate a multitude of bridges to other chains, using multiple tech stacks (think wormhole, layerzero, etc.). In the meantime Primev has implemented its own lock/mint bridging protocol as described below.

See implementation.

Lock/Mint Peg

Native ether on the mev-commit chain maintains a 1:1 peg with ether on L1. The only way to mint ether on the mev-commit chain is to lock equivalent ether in a bridge contract on L1. Ether can be burned on the mev-commit chain’s bridge contract to release equivalent ether from the L1 bridge contract.

Ether that is used as gas on the mev-commit chain will accumulate in a treasury contract on L1.

Security

There are inherent security assumptions in bridging ether to the mev-commit chain. While these are similar to other bridge trust assumptions, we’ve listed them below:

  • Liveness of the mev-commit-bridge relayer actor.
  • POA signers that maintain mev-commit chain state.
  • Correctness of Primev’s standard bridge protocol and integration into the mev-commit chain.

The Primev core team is committed to secure and live bridging.

Importance of Origin Chain Security

Selective Bridging: Only bridges originating from Ethereum L1 should be allowed to mint native ether on the mev-commit chain. This is to prevent the impact of compromised states on other chains affecting the mev-commit chain.

Bridge Contracts

See Bridge Contracts section of contracts page to gain context on contracts necessary to enable bridging.