I checked the activity of cross-chain bridges at night and found that an IBC-style protocol-layer bridge is actually quite interesting—it doesn’t rely on a committee like multi-sig bridges does, but instead uses light client verification. Put simply, the chain itself keeps an eye on the state of another chain, with the middleman removed. But if you think about it, you still need to additionally trust certain things: the correctness of the light client itself, and whether the relayers could mess things up. In any case, whenever I cross-chain, I default to “trust but verify.” If I can run nodes myself, I’ll run them as much as possible. If I can’t be bothered to fuss around, then I pick bridges with higher TVL and longer audit history… anyway, I’m a low-frequency participant, so I cross-chain less.

I just looked at the funding rate—spot and perpetuals have been swinging in the extreme zone for almost two days. The group chat is also arguing about whether they’re forcing more leverage or if it’s the real top. I’m not moving. I’ll decide after I wake up. Since I’m not using leverage, my account can’t get liquidated anyway.