HyperService: Interoperability and Programmability Across Heterogeneous Blockchains

Abstract

Blockchain interoperability, which allows state transitions across different\nblockchain networks, is critical functionality to facilitate major blockchain\nadoption. Existing interoperability protocols mostly focus on atomic token\nexchange between blockchains. However, as blockchains have been upgraded from\npassive distributed ledgers into programmable state machines (thanks to smart\ncontracts), the scope of blockchain interoperability goes beyond just token\nexchange. In this paper, we present HyperService, the first platform that\ndelivers interoperability and programmability across heterogeneous blockchains.\nHyperService is powered by two innovative designs: (i) a developer-facing\nprogramming framework that allows developers to build cross-chain applications\nin a unified programming model; and (ii) a secure blockchain-facing\ncryptography protocol that provably realizes those applications on blockchains.\nWe implement a prototype of HyperService in about 35,000 lines of code to\ndemonstrate its practicality. Our experiment results show that HyperService\nimposes reasonable latency, in order of seconds, on the end-to-end execution of\ncross-chain applications\n