Hassan Maishera
On Friday, the Wormhole team announced via X that Wormhole's Executor framework is live, replacing the Standard Relay model. It expands support to non-EVM chains like Solana, Aptos and Sui Network, lowers gas costs and introduces a quote-based pricing model.
Wormhole is a cross-chain messaging protocol that enables secure transfers of data or tokens across different blockchain networks. It supports a variety of applications, including DeFi, NFTs, and governance, by allowing data to be moved between blockchains efficiently and securely. Wormhole employs multiple verification methods to ensure the integrity and validity of the data transmitted through its network.
Wormhole is a leading interoperability platform powering multichain applications and bridges at scale. Wormhole’s modular suite of open-source, permissionless protocols and tools is being used by multichain builders to create some of the most popular web3 applications. W is trading at $0.01274, up 3.4% in the last 24 hours.
The core technology behind the Wormhole network includes the following components:
1. Guardian Network (Validators)
The backbone of Wormhole is a decentralized network of 19 Guardians—highly reputable validators in the blockchain industry (e.g., Chorus One, Figment, Jump Crypto).
Observation: Guardians run full nodes on all supported blockchains and observe the "Core Contract" on each chain.
Validation: When a user initiates a transaction (e.g., locking tokens on Ethereum), the Guardians observe this action and individually sign the message.
Consensus: A message is validated once a supermajority (13 out of 19) of Guardians sign it.
2. Verifiable Action Approvals (VAAs)
When the Guardians approve a transaction, they create a VAA (Verified Action Approval).
A VAA is a cryptographically signed document that acts as proof of the transaction.
The destination chain verifies this VAA signature before finalizing the action (e.g., unlocking or minting the wrapped token).
3. Relayer Network
Relayers are off-chain processes that transport the signed VAAs to the destination blockchain.
Generic Relayers: These are part of the decentralized network that can pick up any VAA and deliver it.
Specialized Relayers: These are custom-built to handle specific application actions, offering higher efficiency for certain dApps.
4. Wormhole Core Contracts
These are smart contracts deployed on every connected blockchain. They act as the "inbox" and "outbox" for messages on each respective chain.
They receive data from user contracts, pass it to the Guardians for validation, and execute the final action on the destination side.
5. Native Token Transfers (NTT)
Wormhole's newer technology, NTT, allows for the transfer of tokens without creating "wrapped" assets. It allows tokens to maintain their native properties (voting, staking) across chains instead of being replaced by a bridged token, avoiding liquidity fragmentation.
