Secure cross-chain communication network leads multichain future with paradigm shift

cointelegraph.com:

With more interest in blockchain development comes more technology platforms to develop on. The industry, which started with only a select handful of relevant blockchains in the 2010s, has grown to include hundreds of chains today. 

The sheer volume of platforms, although offering different benefits, has also shed light on a few unintended consequences, including assets, applications and users siloed in their native blockchains due to the lack of interoperability between platforms.

Not surprisingly, ad-hoc solutions have emerged since the problem is far from new. Among them are bridges. In application, bridges store liquidity between two networks, taking wrapped assets from a user on one network and releasing the equivalent amount at the destination. 

Many are set up as permissioned multisigs, a type of smart contract, in which more than one signer must approve transactions. Despite their potential, these connectors have proven to be a major target for DeFi hackers.

Axelar network emerged as a solution to address the interoperability problem head-on. With a permissionless cross-chain network and a set of APIs, the platform aims to provide the foundations for a secure cross-chain communication model that will effectively usher in a paradigm shift in Web3. The paradigm shift is that developers will be able to build applications that connect to any asset and any application, on any chain, with one click.

Describing the need for this change, CEO and co-founder Sergey Gorbunov said: "Whenever you onboard a retail user and ask them to switch between wallets, switch between application front ends, move their assets back and forth between chains and understand different versions of these assets, you lose them. That's not how we're