Cross-chain demand has grown rapidly over the past year. Currently, the total value locked (TVL) processed by cross-chain bridges between Ethereum and other public chains has exceeded $16 billion. In addition, other types of cross-chain facilities are emerging, such as LayerZero, a general-purpose cross-chain protocol, and Thorchain, which can directly conduct cross-chain asset exchanges. #Portal #AXL #Axelar
Source: Dune Analytics
Axelar, a decentralized cross-chain communication network
Axelar aims to enhance Web3 interoperability by connecting different blockchains and providing asset liquidity and program composability in an optimized way. In the future, the best narrative for this project is to build a decentralized network and tools to connect users, assets and dApps in multiple blockchain ecosystems and solve the problem of cross-chain communication. Through this network, developers can build on the platform that best suits their needs while leveraging the Axelar stack to unlock cross-chain composability and liquidity. The network is the only network that builds cross-chain communication based on proof-of-stake consensus, ensuring security and scalability.
The demand for cross-chain is increasing day by day, but at the same time, security issues also appear frequently, and the losses caused by hacker attacks often reach tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Cross-chain security issues mainly focus on the pre-operation and signature stages of cross-chain operations, and are usually caused by contract vulnerabilities. The security of the cross-chain process mainly depends on the reliability of the cross-chain facility itself.
本文目录：
1. Product mechanism: universal relay chain
2. Token Economy: Fixed Inflation and Unfixed Deflation
3. Current operating status
4.Team and financing
5. Advantages and risks
6. Appendix
1. 产品机制：普世中继链
From the perspective of meeting needs, Axelar is a universal cross-chain basic protocol that can support information transfer between any two public chains. In this regard, it is one of the most comparable products to LayerZero and Chainlink’s CCIP (Cross-chain Composable Protocol). Although CCIP has not yet been launched, this article will mainly compare it with LayerZero.
In terms of implementation, Axelar is a complete PoS public chain with an independent decentralized network and verifiers. It essentially verifies inter-chain communication through a third party. Its workflow can be simply summarized as follows: the verifier monitors the transaction request on the source chain, then verifies the legality of the transaction on the Axelar chain, and finally passes the transaction to the target chain for completion.
The following figure shows the working diagram of Axelar: On each connected public chain, Axelar will deploy smart contracts, called "gateways" (Layer 1 gateways in the figure). Validators need to run nodes or light clients on these chains and monitor transaction requests from the chain through these gateways and report them to the Axelar public chain. Subsequently, validators will vote on all reports and complete transaction verification on the Axelar public chain (Axelar Network layer in the figure). After completing the verification, transaction operations can be performed again through the gateway on the connecting chain.
The biggest difference between Axelar and LayerZero is the implementation method: Axelar has established a complete third-party verification system, and the verification of source chain information is completed on the Axelar chain, so cross-chain security depends on the security of the Axelar public chain; in contrast , LayerZero transmits part of the block information through oracles and relays, and completes verification on the target chain. Security depends on whether these entities are independent.
Axelar adopts a more "heavy" approach to implementation and faces the challenges of operating a public chain and motivating validators. LayerZero is designed to be simple and lightweight, and does not require the operation of a public chain, but relies on other oracles and relay services, which increases security risks.
In terms of safety, it's hard to tell what's high or low right now. There are high security risks in running a public chain independently as a cross-chain facility, but LayerZero also had major security vulnerabilities, although they have been repaired.
总体而言，Axelar类似一条“普世中继链”，通过在自己搭建的L1链上完成信息验证并传递。目前，Axelar已发布跨链转账产品Satellite作为demo，可以实现资产在多条EVM链之间的传递。
Satellite transfer process
作为普世中继链，Axelar不仅仅能够在链间传递代币，还能进行通用消息传递（General Message Passing）。这意味着，源链上的开发者可以调用目标链上的任意功能。用户在源链上发出功能请求后，经过Axelar网络的验证和收费，最终在目标链上完成执行操作。
The official website lists some functional scenarios that universal messaging can achieve. For example, users can purchase NFT on chain A and then mint it on chain B; pledge NFT to lend on any chain; and use an aggregator on a certain chain to purchase NFT on multiple chains. Collateral Liquidity.
The imagination space brought by this universal messaging is huge. It can be understood as extending a multi-chain form similar to Polkadot/Cosmos to all public chains, achieving "inter-chain unity". Of course, this will inevitably involve many issues, such as the security of the Axelar contract itself, the load caused by inter-chain communication, etc. This is a process that requires continuous efforts. There are currently 18 teams working on developing this feature, but no product has yet been launched.
2. Token Economy: Fixed Inflation and Unfixed Deflation
Axelar’s native token is AXL, and there is currently no circulating token price. However, the planning and public offering of the token were completed in March this year.
As a public chain, Axelar's tokens have multiple functions, including paying on-chain fees, participating in community governance, and staking to ensure network security.
初始时，AXL的总量为10亿枚，并具有通胀和通缩机制。通胀机制设定了明确的数值，而通缩机制则由团队决定，因此AXL的总量并非固定。初始铸造的10亿枚代币分布如下图所示：59%掌握在团队和投资人手中，36%用作社区资产以激励Dapp开发和生态建设，而5%作为社区公募已于3月在Coinlist完成，单价为1美元。因此，目前项目的整体估值为10亿美元，与LayerZero相媲美。
Source: Official Medium "An Overview of AXL Token Economics"
It is worth noting that AXL has a relatively high inflation rate, currently 13%, and may increase in the future. Inflation is mainly divided into three parts: 1) 4% is used to reward Tendermint consensus participants, 2) 4% is used to reward participants of the multi-party signature agreement, the total is 8% of the base inflation rate; 3) the rest is used to motivate others For validators who deploy nodes on the chain, each chain has a certain inflation reward, which is 1% in the first year and will decrease year by year in the future.
目前，Axelar支持Cosmos生态以及AVAX、FTM、Polygon、Moonbeam和ETH这五条链。在Cosmos生态中，通过IBC连接即可，无需验证者有额外的特殊支持，也没有通证奖励。而在其他五条链上，验证者将获得每条链首年1%的增发激励。随着未来连接链的增加，增发激励也会相应增加，以此鼓励验证者在更多的链上部署节点，合计增发通胀可能超过13%。仅仅持有代币并不一定划算，用户需要将代币质押给验证者，以获得增发激励来对抗通胀。质押的要求类似于Cosmos，需要支付给验证者至少5%的奖励作为佣金。
In contrast, LayerZero currently does not have its own native token, but instead issues tokens through Stargate built on LayerZero. In other words, LayerZero as an infrastructure does not form a self-circulating economic system, so it chose to give value to tokens through the launch of Stargate. This approach can achieve quick results, but it may also lead to competition for TVL with other projects in the ecosystem.
Axelar does not have to worry about this as its token has a clearly defined function and has a positive feedback effect on the development of the protocol itself. However, higher inflation rates as currently designed may put some pressure on maintaining the token price.
In addition, Axelar also has a certain deflation mechanism, and the team will use network fees to conduct irregular repurchases or destructions. However, there is currently no clear plan in this regard, and the future will depend on the team's operational decisions.
3. Current operating status
Axelar’s mainnet was launched in February 2022, and the official demo product Satellite was launched at the same time. This product connects the five chains of AVAX, FTM, Polygon, Moonbeam and ETH, as well as the cross-chain bridge of the Cosmos ecosystem, and realizes the transfer of a single asset between different addresses between these chains.
4.Team and financing
The two founders of Axelar both come from Algorand’s founding team and have strong academic backgrounds and blockchain development experience. One of the co-founders, Sergey Gorbunov, received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto, his PhD from MIT, and served as an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in cryptography, starting as an assistant professor in 2016. Another co-founder, Georgios Vlachos, received his bachelor's and master's degrees from MIT and won a gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
Axelar在2020年11月进行了一轮380万美元的天使轮融资，投资方包括Coinbase Ventures；在2021年7月进行了一轮2,500万美元的A轮融资，投资方包括Polychain、Dragonfly Capital Partners、Galaxy Digital等；今年2月宣布完成了一轮3,500万美元的融资，估值达到10亿美元，投资方包括Dragonfly
Capital Partners、Polychain、North Island Ventures、Rockaway Blockchain
Fund、 Cygni Capital、Lemniscap、Olive Tree Capital、Blockchange
Ventures、Node Capital，天使投资人包括Waikit Lau和Gokul Rajaram等。
5. Advantages and risks
To summarize Axelar’s core advantages include:
1) The demand for cross-chain tracks is strong and the certainty is high. Axelar solves the lowest level general cross-chain problem, which is not restricted by specific public chains or assets, and has huge room for imagination.
2) As an independent blockchain, Axelar has greater room for development and can establish its own Dapp ecological and economic system.
3) The team has solid academic and technical background and relatively sufficient financial support.
At the same time, the challenges faced by Axelar mainly lie in:
1) Attracting enough validators and developers is crucial to operating a public chain. In the current market environment, whether the additional token incentives can attract validators and developers to enter the market may become a problem.
2) Axelar’s low-key and steady style is an advantage in product development, but it may become a disadvantage in operational competition.
In general, general cross-chain infrastructure is on the rise, represented by Axelar and LayerZero. Although it is unclear how long it will take, at some point in the future, cross-chain technology will become an infrastructure forgotten by users due to its silky smooth user experience.
重点来了，最后一轮融资是10亿美元规模，目前总量6600万，价格2U,ICO和IEO以及战略融资的AXL价格都是1美元，2U以下可以考虑购买一些，在与其他顶级的机构合作中，Axelar
受到顶级 DeFi 应用程序（例如 Frax 和 Lido）、顶级DEX（例如dYdX 和Uniswap）、顶级钱包（例如
MetaMask、Trust Wallet 和Blockchain.com）以及领先 Web3 集成的企业（例如
Mastercard、微软、摩根大通的 Onyx）的信任。
个人观点而言，从长远来看，该项目的代币价格在未来将会有不错的上涨潜力，至于上涨多少，时间会告诉你答案。