Cross-chain smart contract hub, t3rn deploys its testnet on Polkadot’s Rococo

Polkadot-based cross-chain smart contract hub, t3rn has finally deployed its testnet parachain on Rococo, Polkadot blockchain’s primary testing ecosystem. The testnet, named t0rn, will now enable developers and apps built on the platform to integrate across all parachain testnet networks on Polkadot, kicking off the journey towards a full mainnet launch of the premier smart contracts hub on Polkadot. 

“Deploying on Rococo is a huge milestone for us, as this is the last testing ground before reaching a mainnet with economic value” said Maciej Baj, Founder of t3rn.

Launched in 2021, the t3rn platform aims to enable cross-chain execution and asset transfer via its easy-to-use and efficient hub. The platform proposes an accessible model that allows any platform to achieve smart contract interoperability. The Rococo deployment will help developers and users test out t3rn to ensure smooth functionality of the platform’s unique technological innovations in the Polkadot ecosystem, the atomic cross-chain smart contract execution environment.  

Built to focus on a fail-safe aspect of cross-chain execution, t0rn will be the firsat step in solving the problems facing cross-chain interactions. Simply, this will enable the users to test out the execution of transactions on both blockchains involved in the cross-chain transaction. This means the transaction execution will either finish in all the connected blockchains or fail on both (rolling back the transaction). Such cases are common when the cross-chain transaction from proof of stake (PoS) networks interact with proof of work (PoW) networks. A transaction originating from the PoS side might be confirmed on PoW, but a chain reorg can always result in the transaction being discarded.

If the Rococo testnet is successful, this will be avoided via the atomic cross-chain execution model. As explained above, the transactions are guaranteed to succeed or fail on both of the networks, whereby the latter rolls back the transactions. T3rn relies on its “Circuit”, an execution environment that dispatches smart contract calls to other parachains, to ensure the transaction is fail-safe. Following major optimizations on the Circuit, the platform has improved verification times allowing it to be extremely efficient when working with Polkadot’s  finality gadget, GRANDPA. Specifically, a Multi Finality Verifier collects GRANDPA ranges instead of the full proofs, which dramatically speeds up computation.

“With t0rn, developers will be able to try out our backend and our unified UI,” Maciej Baj added. “Other parachains can register for Gateways and test our execution model. We think this will be revolutionary for the Polkadot ecosystem, finally enabling true cross-chain execution going beyond simple asset transfers.”

Finally, the Circuit will also includes instructions submitted for cross-chain execution. These instructions, Side Effects, are executed off chain by ‘Executors’, which evaluate the SIde effects for execution on a risk-reward basis.  If they consider the transaction to be worthwhile, they will volunteer to optimistically execute them, provided they commit an insurance bond. Similar to Optimistic rollups on Ethereum, the Executors allows the system to execute the transaction first and finalize the transaction at a later date. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice