Cross-Chain Bridges: The Distributed Consensus Problem Nobody Talks About

Cross-chain bridges face a unique distributed consensus challenge because, unlike traditional database replication with a single source of truth, two independent blockchains cannot see or trust each other's state. While Web2 solves inter-service trust with signed API requests, bridges rely on quorum-based validator sets using Byzantine Fault Tolerance—but the economic incentives and infrastructure independence assumptions often break down in practice.