Chainlink, a leading project focusing on the use of oracles to bring real-world data onto the blockchain and use it for business purposes, has been working on a way to bring its hard-earned, reputable data to partnered projects for quite some time now.

After a long wait, the devs at Chainlink announced the launch of CCIP, the Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol.

For now, CCIP is available on the mainnets of target protocols only in an invitation-based early access system – but not for long.

Testnet Availability Coming Soon

CCIPs mainnet launch on the Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Optimism blockchains is already in use by the teams at Synthetix and BGD Labs, who are using the Chainlink network to get around the limitations of traditional cross-chain bridges.

1/ The Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) has officially launched on Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon mainnets.#LinkTheWorld pic.twitter.com/SdLVyaapg3

— Chainlink (@chainlink) July 17, 2023

For non-partnered projects, CCIP will be made available on the testnets of these blockchains on the 20th of July. In the meantime, devs looking to integrate their dApps with Chainlink can sign up for early access and get vetted on the project’s website.

Setting New Standards

According to Chainlink co-founder and acting CEO Sergey Nazarov, the project hopes that CCIP will become the new gold standard for cross-chain interoperability. In a press release celebrating the launch, he likened CCIP to the TCP/IP standard that made the Internet as we know it possible.

“Just like key standards such as TCP/IP remade a fragmented early internet into the single global internet we all know and use today, we are making CCIP to connect the fragmented public blockchain landscape and the growing bank chain ecosystem into a single Internet of Contracts.”

However, Nazarov also stressed that he and his team hope that other devs will find ways to improve the infrastructure he and his team built.

In order to facilitate further development of the protocol, Chainlink gives developers the option to build their own cross-chain solutions on top of CCIP using Arbitrary Messaging and Simplified Token Transfers – both of which will be backed up by the data that has so far enabled over $8 trillion worth of value to be moved on-chain.

Devs who use CCIP will also benefit from the Active Risk Management Network (ARM), a lightweight, independent network created specifically to add an extra layer of security to CCIP.

“ARM is a separate, independent network that continually monitors and validates the behavior of the primary CCIP network, providing an additional layer of security by independently verifying cross-chain operations. The ARM Network utilizes a separate, minimal Rust implementation of the Chainlink node software.”

The surprise announcement prompted an increase in the market value of LINK. The price of Chainlink’s proprietary token has risen by over 6% within the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, compounding a steady increase in value over the past month.