Wormhole Queries Launches, Bringing On-Demand Access to On-Chain Data to Apps on Any Chain

Wormhole Queries has launched, bringing the industry a new primitive that will redefine how developers think about app development. This innovation is a step forward from Wormhole's traditional "push" attestation model, introducing a "pull" mechanism that dramatically reduces latency (now sub-1 second) and cost (up to 84% gas fee reduction) for cross-chain data access.

Problems with push attestation

In the existing "push" model, accessing chain state information from a chain like Ethereum involves deploying specific contracts to explicitly read state and call `publishMessage` on the Wormhole Core Bridge. Furthermore, whenever that data is needed elsewhere, a costly and time-consuming transaction would need to be made. This not only leads to significant delays but also imposes considerable expenses, making the process inefficient for applications requiring on-demand cross-chain state calls.

The Solution: Wormhole Queries

Wormhole Queries introduces a flexible, on-demand, efficient, and decentralized method for immediate cross-chain data retrieval and attestation. It leverages the full nodes run by the decentralized set of 19 Wormhole Guardians, enabling fast and exponentially cheaper cross-chain data access. At launch, Queries is supported starting with contract calls to Wormhole-connected EVM chains.

Key Features & Benefits

Simplified Cross-Chain Development: Reduce code and development time by using your existing state and read calls.

• Source chain: you never have to do a cross-call
• Destination chain: set your own schedule to pull data on-demand

Cheaper Gas Fees: Save on gas fees with batched requests and avoid expensive cross-chain transactions, making your blockchain applications more cost-effective.

Rapid Requests: Fetch cross-chain data in seconds, ensuring responsive and reliable cross-chain data retrieval for your app.

Proven Security: Benefit from attestation provided by the Wormhole Guardians for secure and trustworthy data access - the same security model trusted by Uniswap Foundation.

Flexible Data Retrieval: Leverage pull-based data retrieval to unlock new opportunities and flexibility for your application.

How It Works

Integrators can submit query requests to the Wormhole Guardian network. The Guardians process the requests and publish the successful results, allowing integrators to verify and consume the data on-chain.

Use Cases for Wormhole Queries

Wormhole Queries don't just improve existing products, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for blockchain developers. Here are a few examples:

Cross-Chain Price Feeds for On-Chain Activity

Wormhole Queries significantly enhances the DeFi space by enabling real-time, cross-chain price feeds for on-chain activity. By leveraging Queries, DeFi platforms can access up-to-date price information from various blockchains, a crucial component for functions like collateralization, loan issuance, and AMMs. For example, a DeFi lending platform like MarginFi or Perp DEX like Drift on Solana could utilize Queries to pull current Uniswap ETH/USDC price on Ethereum all in a fully verifiable and attested message via the Wormhole Guardian network.

Cross-Chain Asset Verification for Games

Gamers can prove ownership of assets (like NFTs or in-game tokens) on one chain and use them in a game on another chain. This broadens the usability of gaming assets and enhances your users’ engagement by allowing them to carry their achievements across different gaming ecosystems without having to manually move them.

Games can now pull real-time data from multiple chains, enabling dynamic game mechanics that react to changes in blockchain states. For example, a game could adjust its in-game economy based on real-time cryptocurrency values or NFT trades happening across different blockchains.

With faster and cheaper cross-chain data retrieval, game developers can create more complex and interactive cross-chain gaming experiences. This could involve multi-chain quests, cross-chain leaderboards, or global events that reflect states across various blockchains, thus abstracting away the complexities of multiple chains and giving users a unified web2-like experience.

Unified Cross-Chain Digital Identity

Cross-chain identity with Wormhole Queries solves the challenge of fragmented digital identities across chains. Users often manage separate identities on different networks, such as ENS on Ethereum, but Wormhole Queries allows for a unified identity system. This means a user's verified identity and credentials on one blockchain can be recognized on-demand and used seamlessly on another, eliminating the need for multiple, redundant, expensive data calls. For example, a user's Degen score on Ethereum could be utilized by a lending platform on Binance Smart Chain. This functionality enhances user experience and opens up new possibilities in DeFi and social platforms, ensuring that cross-chain identity is secure, reliable, and seamlessly integrated.

Wrapping Up

Wormhole Queries represent a major innovation in on-chain development, offering unprecedented speed, efficiency, and flexibility in cross-chain data access. This product is set to redefine the landscape of decentralized applications and cross-chain functionality.

App developers can start integrating by signing up for the beta program - Sign up here.

About Wormhole

Wormhole is the leading blockchain development platform that enables connectivity and growth across all major blockchains. Wormhole provides developers access to liquidity and users on over 30 of the leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases that span DeFi, NFTs, governance, and more. Wormhole enables a growing suite of products built around the foundational Wormhole Messaging protocol. Wormhole Connect is a key asset layer product, providing developers with an in-app bridging widget that can be integrated in as few as 3 lines of code. The wider Wormhole network is trusted and used by teams like Circle and Uniswap, and to date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 35 billion dollars through hundreds of millions of cross-chain messages.