A few questions from me:
A bridge from what to what? (I'm guessing Hive to WAX. I just wanted to be clear).
A bridge from Hive is still dependent on an additional layer correct? (Like Hive-Engine). If you are just using the memo system, what stops me from just sending memos myself?
Are these nodes sufficiently decentralized or is the community paying for individuals to maintain their integrity?
Good evening @kryptik, I'm Nick, from the Inuk Team... First of all thanks for your questions!
Currently the bridge can move tokens (and soon NFTs) between WAX, Rebus EVM and, of course, Hive. Rebus is a Cosmos-Based chain, and its EVM is already linked to other Cosmos Chains and BSC thanks to Axelar Bridge and Pancake Swap. We've chosen Rebus for the EVM part because, thanks to a direct partnership, we can access native Smart Contracts. This makes the bridge absolutely safe.
The bridge will run on Hive Mainnet for legacy tokens and, if needed, on Hive Engine for side ones. Even if we provide a dedicated UI, the bridge is public, and people can directly access it from a console for example, using the memo system as you said. That's not a problem at all, if the transaction is legit and the memo correct, we're ok to that.
Up to now nodes are more than ok. WAX and HIVE share a common structure, and we rely on different nodes and BP to mantein the system. We run 2 BPs on Rebus, 1 on Hive and we've partners on WAX. In full transaprency, only part we would like to improve as fast as possibile is the Private Node on Rebus, since in future our validator there (top 10 and top 20) could be slowed down by too much traffic.
I hope these info can be useful, let me know for anything else!
Would this entail smart contracts being available for creation on Hive or does this only pertain to tokens?
How are the tokens (and soon NFTs) stored on Hive?
Only token for now. Ofc we're going to use Hive Engine for anything smart contract related, as NFTs.
NFTs bridge instead is a bit more complicated, and it requires a direct collaboration between our team and interested teams.