Approaching Across Part 1 - The Original Intention

In Part 1 of our Getting Closer to Across series, we discussed the origins of the Across Protocol and the details of its conceptualization and design process.

A brainstorm at a sushi restaurant

On a hot June day in New York City, UMA engineer Nick Pai and UMA co-founder Hart Lambur sat at a table at Sushi on Jones. Their conversation seems more focused than the surrounding small talk, and they're debating around the future of the UMA protocol, and where they're headed next. So far, UMA has focused on products such as KPI options and range tokens. These products are intended to be part of the backend as a product to help DAOs manage their funds. Ultimately, they see these products as a bank-like investment service.

While eating and chatting, they had a new idea - they wanted to build a product that would fully demonstrate UMA's optimistic oracle. Questions revolve around what they can do with this oracle, what some underlying assumptions might be, and whether they can create a consumer-facing product.

L2 surfaced

The topic turns to L2s. This was around the time when L2s started to gain a lot of attention. At the same time, Arbitrum ran into a problem that it would take a long time for a large capital to cross the bridge. In theory, an optimistic oracle seems to be the perfect way to ensure cross-chain transfers. Combine that with the idea that they want to get rid of "only for financial contracts" and it seems like a big deal.

Pai and Lambur agreed to create and announce a base document called: Insured Bridge: Brainstorm Doc. This document became the catalyst to take it seriously - it really happened!

The abstract is written at the top and reads as follows:

“The purpose of this document is to demonstrate an insured cross-bridge infrastructure that can provide insured, cross-chain, and timely transfers guaranteed by the UMA optimistic oracle.”

Mighty Optimistic Oracle

The team felt the idea of using Optimistic Oracle as a bridge for several reasons.

If they were to build a bridge, the team wanted to make recourse a first-class feature in their product. Optimistic Oracles seem to be a good fit for this, as any party who thinks it is unfair may dispute the outcome of the bridge for a period of time.

This user-facing product seems like a clear use case for oracles to add to the ecosystem. This is a way of passing messages across chains.

This is in line with UMA's mission to incorporate Optimistic Oracle into Web3.

Fast and Safe Bridge Concept

After researching various versions of Across, the team came up with a final concept: a fast and fully insured bridge.

This version provides insurance with a certain amount of funding and recourse. It also relies on game theory to make repeaters a fully insured mechanism.

Side note: Across is not usually thought of as such, but you can conceptually think of it as an insurance protocol: you have a lending pool and relayers provide instant funds to users. If the data is wrong, they insure the user, and the relayers get paid extra to provide this service.

As the last iteration progressed, we realized we had no choice - the world needed us to build a bridge that was fast and safe! So it was officially announced and the design process started.

Brand Objectives of the Acros Protocol

After getting the green light, the next step was to have our design lead, Jesper, create a concept design. Design requires a solid understanding of how a user interface (UI) front end works. A bad user interface can even make a good product fail.

Jesper started the design, but didn't get very far. To implement a good UI, Jesper first needs a name to give the design direction. The original file's Insured Bridge name doesn't prune it. A sudden inspiration crossed Jesper's brain. Across Protocol

This sounds like a good idea, and we want our users to hear the name and know that they can cross bridges cheaply, quickly and safely.

After a few modifications, Jesper found black and aqua, colors that immediately matched the Across. They're bold, friendly, and embody a "friendly interface," which is the perfect vibe for the protocol's look. The colors also feel unique - haven't seen the same in the market of its kind, and then the purple and orange secondary colors are in place, and things just fall into place, just right.

Across's design is inspired by the NFT space, especially graphic illustrations. As Jesper puts it, "flat is just right" compared to the 3D illustrations he sees. Inspiration also came from Across's parent company, UMA. UMA also promotes minimalism with few colors. As a designer, Jesper was excited because it was a challenge.

The design needs to reflect the product - easy to operate, minimalist, unique.

The simple, minimal design is also in line with the honest thinking promoted by Across. For Across, there is a "no smoke and mirrors" policy (no smoke bombs everything is transparent). Nothing is hidden. The platform needs to be transparent and easy to use for everyone.

To further promote this idea, Jesper took a unique approach to website design.

Starting with a marketing-type landing page, as many DApps have done in the past, users are taken directly to the bridge. This again pushes the idea of transparency and ease of use.

Once the design is complete and agreed upon, the building process begins.

The team still has a long way to go before Across is released, but everything seems to be going hand in hand and going full steam ahead.

Conclusion: Come and join the Across community

(If you want to learn more about Across and stay up to date with our agreements)

Web URL: https://linktr.ee/AcrossProtocol

Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/AcrossProtocol

Chinese Twitter: https://twitter.com/Across_cn

Discord Community: https://discord.gg/XQEh4csgH7

Chinese Matters: https://matters.news/ @Across CN

Chinese WeChat Official Account: Across Chinese