31. Bridging to Kortana

[!IMPORTANT] Philosophy: No Native Bridge. Kortana does not operate a "native" or "official" multi-sig bridge. History has shown that L1-operated bridges are massive honeypots. Instead, Kortana relies on specialized third-party attestation providers (LayerZero, Axelar, Wormhole) to secure cross-chain messaging.

31.2 What Each Provider Needs

Because Kortana is EVM-compatible, onboarding bridge providers is straightforward:

• LayerZero V2: Deploy the Endpoint V2 contracts.
• Axelar: Deploy the Axelar Gateway contract.
• Wormhole: Deploy the Core Bridge contract.

31.3 Wiring a Bridge (Step-by-Step)

1. The Bridge Provider deploys their Gateway contract on Kortana.
2. The Gateway is authorized by governance to call specific minting endpoints (e.g., the BridgeMinter for USDC.e).
3. The provider’s off-chain relayers listen for events on the source chain (e.g., Ethereum), wait for finality, and submit the payload to the Kortana Gateway.

31.4 Operational Guidance

• Sizing & Monitoring: Relayers must be funded with DNR to pay for execution gas.
• Key Separation: Ensure relayer keys are distinct from administrative keys.

31.5 Finality Advantage

1 Block, Certified: Bridges typically force users to wait for 128+ blocks on EVM chains to ensure the transaction isn't re-organized. Because Kortana utilizes KSC BFT, finality is deterministic in 1 block. A relayer can safely mint the bridged asset on Kortana roughly 1.5 seconds after a user deposits it on the source chain (if the source chain also has fast finality).

Part VIII — Node Operators & Validators

This section is for DevOps engineers, infrastructure providers, and validator operators who maintain the physical network layer of the Kortana Blockchain.

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