Analysis of Interoperability Between Blockchain Networks: A Comparative Study of IBC, XCM, and a Selected General-Purpose Bridge

This bachelor thesis addresses the problem of interoperability between blockchain networks, which represents a key prerequisite for the further development of decentralized applications and efficient management of digital assets. The aim of the thesis is to provide a quanti- tative and qualitative comparison of three main interoperability approaches, namely Inter- Blockchain Communication (IBC), Cross-Consensus Messaging (XCM), and a selected general-purpose bridge solution. The analysis is based on a unified set of metrics, including end-to-end latency, operatio- nal costs, and transfer reliability. The data were obtained through publicly available APIs and subsequently processed using custom analytical scripts. The thesis also reflects different approaches to transaction finality, which is implicitly included in the measured latency for native protocols. The results indicate that native interoperability protocols such as IBC and XCM achieve lower costs and higher stability, while general-purpose bridge solutions enable broader connectivity across heterogeneous blockchain ecosystems at the cost of higher performance variability. The thesis thus provides a comprehensive overview of the advantages and limitations of each approach and offers practical recommendations for their use.