Four largest ecosystems now connected as Terra joins Wormhole

Leading Solana bridge protocol Wormhole V2, has integrated a new connection with the Terra (LUNA) ecosystem, creating a four-way bridge for digital assets between the four largest blockchain ecosystems.

The integration includes UST – Terra’s USD stablecoin.

The ETH <> SOL <> BSC <> LUNA move is exciting NFT fans in particular, with the single interface acting as a one-stop digital asset port for all four networks.

Technologically speaking, this is quite a development in Wormhole’s capabilities as it tackles the burden of blockchain interoperability since launching in September.

On the old Wormhole protocol V1, LUNA users were able to pass Terra and UST assets through the bridge but they became double-wrapped assets – limiting their usage to platforms such as Saber or Mercurial.

But now the Wormhole team have been able to do-away with double-wrapping entirely, unlocking the free flow of assets between the four ecosystems.

Jump Crypto Director talks Terra integration and future of Wormhole V2

Speaking with Coin Rivet, Hendrik Hofstadt – Special Projects Director at Jump Crypto – a major backer of Wormhole – explained the milestone the four-way bridge represented and laid out his vision for the future of Wormhole.

“By allowing value to flow freely throughout decentralised networks, Wormhole is opening the door for use cases that were previously unattainable,” he said.

“Now, cross-chain governance, liquid staking tokens, oracle data being passed over multiple chains and the ability to avoid double wrapping tokens are all within a user’s reach, and by connecting these chains, they have the opportunity to grow beyond what they would be capable of if they were isolated.

“In my ideal scenario, users won’t know which chain they’re on even while they’re using Wormhole’s bridge.

“They will be able to utilise all that liquidity from various chains in a very seamless experience, without having to think about the details on the backend.”

This has only been made possible due to the recent Columbus-5 upgrade to the Terra network – which saw the implementation of the ecosystem’s first inter-blockchain communication system – opening the network doors to interoperability with Cosmos, Polkadot, and Solana.

Columbus-5 has driven LUNA to a $38bn valuation, and the ecosystem’s total locked value now sits just shy of $10bn courtesy of a growing range of DEXs and DeFi protocols.