Benchmarking Blockchain Bridge Aggregators

Blockchain aggregators play an instrumental role in the evolution of blockchain technology, serving as pivotal enablers of interoperability, efficiency, and user accessibility in an increasingly decentralized digital world. However, the literature on this emerging technology is scarce and is not systematized, making it harder for practitioners and researchers to understand the field. In this paper, we systematize bridge aggregators, a type of blockchain aggregators. We present an exhaustive analysis of a diverse array of token and message aggregators, each distinguished by its unique architecture. Our research delves into critical aspects of these aggregators, encompassing their functionality, security measures, pricing models, and latency. This research aims to provide readers, users, and developers with insightful and actionable information, facilitating informed navigation through the complex landscape of blockchain aggregators. We explore our findings and compare them with our intuitive expectations. We show that there is a value in centralizing token aggregators. Message aggregators are found to be more powerful but less efficient in transaction cost and latency. Finally, we propose a set of future research directions for practitioners.