Bridging with the Espresso Network

Using Espresso confirmations for bridging

The availability API allows users (e.g., a bridge application or a solver settling a cross-chain intent) to query whether a bridging transaction originating from a rollup was confirmed by Espresso’s HotShot consensus. For example, the bridge provider can use this call to receive the transactions of a specific namespace within a certain block. For this it's possible to run your own Espresso node or to query directly from other Espresso nodes. This Docker image allows one to run a Espresso node, from which the compiled binary is called sequencer.

For ease of use, Espresso is also building modified versions of the standard node software for popular rollup ecosystems that update their state based on finalized Espresso blocks as part of an effort to create standardized integrations for these rollup technology stacks. This will make it especially easy to utilize Espresso’s strong confirmations for cross-chain transactions. All a user has to do is run the modified node software for the chain they are interested in and use the standard JSON-RPC interface they are used to.

For example, using the Espresso-Arbitrum Nitro integration, bridges will be able to run a node (or connect to an RPC provider) for the Arbitrum chain they supporting, and use the same JSON-RPC they use today. This integration is expected to be available in production in January 2025.