New Cross-Chain Protocol Will Let You “Teleport” Tokens Between Ethereum and EOS

shEOS, a female-founded EOS block producer, has introduced a new cross-chain protocol called EOS21. This protocol will allow developers to “teleport” Ethereum tokens onto the EOS blockchain. The protocol was announced on the group’s Medium blog, and a video demo will be released soon.

EOS21 allows tokens to be easily moved from the Ethereum blockchain to the EOS blockchain. Although there are already ways of running apps on different blockchains, there are drawbacks and limitations. As shEOS explains, “Any token should be able to move as the developers desire or require, as their apps may be best run on different chains at different times.”

For this reason, the protocol will seamlessly transfer tokens between the two blockchains. Although the original tokens will exist on the Ethereum blockchain after they are moved, they will no longer be fungible. This is accomplished by a “black hole” contract that absorbs Ethereum tokens and an “oracle” program that distributes EOS tokens.

In other words, EOS21 allows Ethereum tokens to be decommissioned on one chain while EOS tokens are distributed on the other. This enables developers to build applications on a particular blockchain while accepting an otherwise incompatible token. This is clearly beneficial, as shEOS posits:

“How empowering would it be for developers to have freedom to move their tokens to any chain they wanted to? To any chain they felt best addresses the needs of their particular project?”

Cross-chain tokens are a growing trend in the blockchain world, and EOS21 is a project that is in good company. The project coincides with the recent announcement of WBTC, a token that links Bitcoin and Ethereum. It also follows August’s launch of Dogethereum, a Dogecoin-Ethereum bridge.

Although these projects have different technical underpinnings, they all provide ways for competing blockchains to work with one another. If this trend becomes ubiquitous enough, users might not have to worry about exchanging tokens in order to use an app.

In fact, EOS21 may extend its reach beyond just two blockchains. shEOS is considering adding support for other platforms, such as GoChain and Stellar.