What is Axelar?

cyberG
5 min readJan 16, 2022

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Various Aspects of Axelar

There was Bitcoin in the beginning, only one chain that could dominate them all, until additional chains began to appear. To name a few, there’s Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and Cardano. There is definitely a future in which cross-chain interoperability is mainstream.

Sergey Gorbunov was a member of the Algorand founding team and is the co-founder of Axelar, a decentralized network and tools that link users, assets, and decentralized applications (dApps) across several blockchain ecosystems.

About Axelar

Axelar is a decentralized platform and set of tools that link dApp developers to a variety of blockchain ecosystems, enterprises, and users to enable frictionless cross-chain communication. Axelar is made up of a protocol suite, tools, and APIs that are all aimed to make cross-chain communication easier. Anyone may join, utilize, and create on the network, which is powered by a decentralised open network of validators.

The Axelar network allows cross-chain communication as straightforward as utilizing HTTP/HTTPS protocols on the web. Platform developers may connect their blockchains to other ecosystems, and application developers can access global liquidity and communicate with the whole ecosystem via a simple protocol and API.

Axelar’s team has extensive experience in distributed systems, consensus, and cryptography. Binance X, Coinbase Ventures, DCVC, Lemniscap, Collab+Currency, North Island Ventures, Divergence Ventures, Cygni Labs, and others are among the partners in the project.

How is Axelar Network structured?

The Axelar Network is structured as a decentralised state machine that supports cross-chain requests. The Cross-chain Gateway Protocol (CGP) and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CTP) are two of the key protocols supported by the network.

Cross-Chain Gateway Protocol (CGP)

Axelar’s CGP is equivalent to the Internet’s Border Gateway Protocol. It’s used to link independent blockchain ecosystems together and allows for cross-chain routing. Blockchains no longer need to use the same programming language thanks to the Cross-Chain Gateway Protocol.

Rather than making specific improvements to individual blockchains, developers may simply connect their chains to Axelar’s worldwide network to solve their issues.

Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CTP)

Similar to the application-level protocols Hypertext Transfer Protocol and File Transfer, Axelar’s application-level protocol stack CTP sits on top of the routing protocols (such as CGP).

The Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol allows developers to send cross-chain requests to any blockchain, as well as lock, unlock, and transfer assets across blockchain addresses.

Interoperability of Blockchains

Blockchain interoperability will no longer be surprising after twenty years. As a standard, all on-chain and off-chain networks will be linked. The dapps will have an impact on the whole crypto ecosystem, as well as beyond. Users will move from layer to layer depending on their need. But we aren’t there yet.

Axelar is regarded as a pioneer in his domain. While communication and cross-chain interoperability are still in their early phases, the project is focusing on a solution that includes many software components. A technical resource library organized into two tiers. As previously said, there are two protocols that make network connection smooth and secure.

Axelar’s Advantages

In the blockchain ecosystem, the Axelar network provides a variety of benefits to various user groups. Let’s have a look at each group and see how they benefit from Axelar’s enabled cross-chain communication feature:

dApp developers

Developers can choose the blockchain ecosystem that best suits their development needs, but they can also make their apps available to consumers of other blockchain ecosystems. As a result, Axelar gives developers the ability to host dApps anywhere and lock, unlock, and transfer assets.

The CTP API from Axelar also allows developers to interface with other chains’ apps.

End users

End users may engage with apps on external blockchains directly within their wallets, rather than needing to buy the native token of a certain blockchain ecosystem. How cool is that?

Blockchain platform builders

Axelar enables blockchain developers to connect their blockchains to any other blockchain ecosystem in a seamless manner. To connect to the Axelar network, all you have to do is create a threshold account on the blockchain.

Truly amazing, isn’t it?

Some of the use cases Axelar can solve

The Axelar network enables DeFi to access liquidity. DeFi builders can benefit from increased liquidity and distribution channels thanks to universal asset mobility across ecosystems.

Cross-chain bridge applications can be built by developers to let users to migrate their assets from one ecosystem to another. For this use case, Axelar is creating an example application, and independent developers can design their own as well.

Applications can also assemble over arbitrary chains using the Axelar Network. Let’s look at a handful of scenarios.

Example 1, If you wish to get interest rate information from a blockchain-based application, you may send a generic request through the application-level protocols and get an interest rate from a blockchain-based application right away.

Example 2, Let’s say you want to consider two DEXs. Assume you have a DEX with assets (X, Y) on chain A and a DEX with assets (X, Y) on chain B. (Y, Z). You may utilize the Axelar protocol for broad composability if you wish to exchange X -> Z.

The Mainnet

Beginning in February, The Axelar Mainnet will link numerous self-contained blockchain ecosystems widely and seamlessly. As a result, it will serve as a critical infrastructure for web 3. Axelar will let developers and their decentralised apps realize the full potential of different ecosystems.

As a result, artists and consumers will be able to engage and develop on any blockchain network that matches their requirements.

Axelar Academy

Axelar Academy is a selected educational hub run by the community! It gives an overview of the Axelar network, including a description of what Axelar is and what purpose the project aims to achieve.

The Axelar Academy was created to serve as a knowledge repository for all elements of the network, and it will be the home of the Quantum Community Program’s best entries. By submitting your unique work to the Quantum Community Program, you will have the possibility to not only be showcased on the Axelar Academy, but also to be compensated heavily!

Conclusion

Axelar has created an excellent solution that allows developers to build on blockchain networks that closely align with their objectives while giving an easy-to-use platform that can be used with any programming language.

The worldwide interoperability network developed by Axelar will have a significant influence on how blockchain ecosystems communicate and interact. Finally, technologies like this will enable blockchains and Web3 to be embraced by the general public at a faster rate than ever before.

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