The Rainbow Bridge: the First Fully Trustless Bridge to Ethereum

Cross-chain bridges are all the rage. We present the architecture and design of the Ethereum↔NEAR Rainbow Bridge that enables the transfer of any assets between the two chains. The Rainbow Bridge is a trustless, permissionless, and generic protocol for connecting blockchains. The bridge protocol removes the need to trust anyone except the security of the connected chains. Anyone can deploy a new bridge, use an existing bridge, or join the maintenance of an existing bridge without getting approval from anyone else.