I’ve been following the amazing Chain Fusion developments and trying to understand how all these integrations work. From what I’m reading, ICP uses threshold signatures for Bitcoin (ECDSA), Ethereum (ECDSA), and now Solana (EdDSA) integrations, but I’m seeing some concerning numbers that I’d like to understand better.
What I Think I Understand
From various forum posts and documentation, it seems like:
- ICP can process about 1 signature per second for cross-chain transactions
- There’s a 20 signature queue limit per subnet
- Every Bitcoin transaction needs 1 signature per input
- Every Ethereum transaction needs 1 signature
- Every Solana transaction needs 1 signature
My Concerns as a User
With all these exciting developments happening:
- KongSwap is integrating Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana
- 1sec bridge and other cross-chain applications are launching
- More Bitcoin ecosystem apps are being built
- ckETH and ckERC-20 integrations are expanding
I’m wondering if we’re heading toward a situation where these applications will compete for the same limited signing capacity?
Simple Math That Worries Me
If I’m understanding correctly:
- 1 signature/second = only 86,400 cross-chain transactions per day maximum
- If KongSwap gets popular and processes even 1,000 cross-chain swaps daily, that’s already consuming a significant portion
- Add in bridging activity, Bitcoin apps, and other integrations…
Am I missing something here? Will I end up waiting minutes or hours for my cross-chain transactions to process if these apps become popular?
Questions I Have
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Is this actually a limitation or am I misunderstanding how it works?
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Are there plans to increase this capacity? I saw mentions of 10x improvements but no clear timeline.
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How will this affect user experience as more Chain Fusion apps launch?
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Should I be concerned about transaction delays in the future?
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Are there workarounds that applications can use to avoid this bottleneck?
I also saw something about an IKA.xyz team mentioning 10,000 TPS threshold signatures - is that something that could help ICP?
Just Want to Understand
I’m really excited about Chain Fusion and what it means for the ecosystem, but I want to understand if there are infrastructure challenges I should be aware of as a user.
Are my concerns valid, or am I overthinking this? Would love to hear from anyone who understands this better than I do.