Octopus Network launches Adaptive IBC to bridge Cosmos with Near

Press Release

Octopus Network, a Web3 infrastructure that's built on the Near Protocol, announces during NearCon 2023 the launch of its Adaptive IBC to bridge the Cosmos ecosystem with Near.

Secret Network, one of the longest-running confidential computing blockchains, is expected to become the first user of adaptive IBC in early 2024. This integration would represent the first connection between the Cosmos and NEAR ecosystems, further expanding the interoperability of the IBC protocol.

Louis Liu, founder of Octopus Network, and Alex Zaidelson, CEO of SCRT Labs, the core development team of Secret Network, announced the launch of the collaboration during NearCon 2023.

"It's a ground-breaking development in the space of interoperability, as it unleashes huge potentials when connecting the NEAR ecosystem with Cosmos", said Louis Liu, referring to the Adaptive IBC that Octopus Network team has built.

IBC, or Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, is a protocol that handles authentication and transport of data between two blockchains, and is considered by the industry as one of the most comprehensive open blockchain interoperability protocol stacks.

The NEAR-IBC project is a major part of Octopus 2.0 roadmap, which aims to enable seamless asset transfer between the NEAR and Cosmos ecosystems.

On the basis of the IBC partnership, Secret Network, built using the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint consensus and featuring confidentiality-preserving smart contracts, will be exploring further partnership with Octopus Network to provide more confidential computing features between NEAR and Cosmos.

Some of the features in the pipeline include enabling smart contracts on NEAR to utilize the confidential computation features from the Secret Network. With such integration, a smart contract built on NEAR can perform the majority of its operations within its home network, while leveraging a proxy contract on Secret for tasks requiring confidential computation—effectively harnessing the “best of both worlds.”

According to Alex Zaidelson, CEO of SCRT Labs, the partnership with Octopus is part of the overall 2024 strategy to make Secret Network’s confidential computing power accessible to developers and users across the Web3 ecosystem, targeting Ethereum, NEAR and other leading blockchains.

“We strongly believe that confidential computing is a key driver for the next wave of adoption, and happy to bring it to every blockchain out there”, Alex Zaidelson said.

According to Louis Liu, Octopus Network aims to connect NEAR with other major blockchain ecosystems in the near future, such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana, by building the NEAR IBC Port.

"The advent of the NEAR IBC Port inaugurates an era of boundless opportunities for the NEAR ecosystem, igniting innovation, empowering interoperability, and expanding the horizons of what is conceivable in the blockchain landscape", Louis Liu Said.