Light Client Relays

Light Client Relays are a type of cross-chain verification where a smart contract on a destination chain tracks the block headers of a source chain. By verifying the cryptographic signatures of the source chain validators against the block headers, the relay determines if a transaction was included in a block.

This method minimizes trust in intermediaries because the security is derived directly from the source chain consensus mechanism. It allows the destination chain to stay synchronized with the source chain state without needing to store the full transaction history.

However, these relays can be computationally expensive to maintain on chains with high gas fees. They are critical for building decentralized bridges that do not rely on centralized operators.