The third time a friend asked me "Who do you really trust in cross-chain," I went back to review IBC and all the message passing/bridge links... Frankly, a single cross-chain doesn't just trust one chain. You have to trust the finality of the source chain (no rollbacks), whether the relayer/relayer has honestly forwarded messages, whether the light client/verification logic on the opposite chain is correct, and also trust that the bridge contract/multisig/oracle doesn't do anything fishy. What makes IBC more comfortable is that it clearly separates "who to trust": mainly the consensus and light client on both sides, with relayers acting more like couriers who can't pass verification if they run wrong. In contrast, many bridges ultimately rely on "certain people or a specific validator network" as the backstop. The experience is faster, but there's always a bit of unease. Recently, everyone is arguing about miner/validator income, MEV, and fair ordering. I'm actually more concerned about: who decides the ordering/latency of cross-chain messages? Once manipulated, retail users' experience feels even worse... When the market is noisy, I look at the real usage on the settlement layer, for now.