All terms
Blockchains being able to read and act on each other state.
Chains are isolated by default. Interoperability is the work of letting them communicate: moving assets, passing messages, or letting a contract on one chain react to something on another.
Approaches range from trusted bridges to light client verification to shared messaging standards like IBC. The tradeoff is always between how fast and general the solution is and how much you have to trust.
IBC in the Cosmos ecosystem lets independent chains move tokens between each other without a trusted intermediary.
That interoperability means chains are merging. It means they can read and act on each other, through infrastructure that has to be trusted or proved. Every connection is another surface, which is why bridges have been the biggest target in crypto.
Common questions
Why can blockchains not just talk to each other?
Is interoperability the same as bridging?
Where this comes up on the site
The guides that actually use this word, rather than a list of everything we have written.
Where to go next
More web3 terms
Want this explained out loud?
Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.