Imagine if you could send a message casually on Web2 social platforms such as Telegram or WeChat, and then you could control the funds on Sui to complete the transfer, or conduct daily interactions such as lending with any DeFi protocol on the network such as Arbitrum. What kind of scene would that be?
Doesn’t it feel very cool? This is actually the vision that Axelar’s newly launched Axelar Mobius Development Stack (MDS) aims to achieve. As a complete set of developer-friendly full-chain development frameworks, Axelar MDS encapsulates all interoperability tools as API services, which can achieve seamless integration and interoperability between Web2 traffic portals (Telegram, WeChat, etc.) and the Web3 on-chain world, opening up new possibilities for DAPP:
On the one hand, Web3 users can conduct on-chain financial activities on platforms such as Telegram in a more convenient and efficient way; on the other hand, developers can also use Axelar MDS to directly reach billions of Web2 users such as WeChat and Telegram, and combine the huge Web2 user base with Web3 on-chain scenarios to create more diverse DApps.
From this perspective, Axelar MDS can be regarded as an upgrade from a full-chain technology solution to a business model empowerment. If it can be realized, it means that the future network world will no longer have the boundaries between Web2 and Web3, and it is expected to create a new era composed of interconnected applications and ecosystems.
Axelar MDS: The Great Convergence Era of Web2 and Web3
Mass Adoption has always been one of the ultimate narratives of Web3.
However, Web3 developers are currently facing an insurmountable dilemma, which is that it is difficult to reach billions of Web2 users such as WeChat and Telegram. They are always stuck in the small pool of Web3 stock and are unable to widely promote and apply innovative DApps and on-chain financial services.
Especially over the years, most pure on-chain native applications such as DeFi and NFT have been struggling to break out of the circle through various channels, trying to obtain the first wave of initial traffic, and then working hard to retain users, but with little success:
Looking back at the phenomenal Web3 applications that have emerged in recent years, whether it is StepN, which swept Web2Web3 in the last bull and bear market, or Notcoin, which has emerged in this cycle, or USDT, which is considered to be the most successful crypto financial product in the world, the core code that enables them to break out of the circle is undoubtedly that they have made Web3 no longer a carnival for a few people, greatly broadening and deepening the user base of the crypto economy.
This is also the core driving force behind the wave of consumer applications on the chain. To put it bluntly, instead of thinking about how to attract Web2 users to actively enter Web3, it is better to target the massive base of Web2 Internet grassroots users , use on-chain scenarios as a starting point, and directly bridge billions of existing Web2 users and traditional funds into incremental Web3 users and Web3 New Money. Perhaps this is the best way to break the deadlock.
Axelar MDS actually draws inspiration from the success of WeChat applet and Telegram Mini App. It is equivalent to a complete technical black box based on cross-chain interoperability, which can help Web3 projects easily integrate DApp into Web2 platforms such as Telegram or WeChat, and directly reach hundreds of millions of Web2 users.
For example, through Axelar MDS, we can complete a variety of on-chain asset management operations simply by sending messages on Telegram or WeChat:
Send a message in a specific format on Telegram to trigger the corresponding cross-chain transfer operation, transferring ETH from the Ethereum mainnet to another supported L2 blockchain;
Send a command in Telegram to automatically transfer DAI tokens from Ethereum to Arbitrum’s DeFi platform for liquidity mining;
Provide liquidity for cross-chain AMM through Telegram and collect Farm income regularly;
This cross-chain communication capability enables Web3 applications to interact with Web2 users in an unprecedented way, thereby promoting true Mass Adoption . Whats more interesting is that in this process, developers do not need to face difficult problems such as complex cross-chain messaging. They only need to focus on innovation and strive to create excellent applications.
This will not only help Web3 project owners expand DApps to social platforms such as Telegram/WeChat in one stop, but also bridge hundreds of millions of existing social platform users to incremental Web3 users , completely opening up the imagination space for the integration and interconnection of Web2 and Web3. At the same time, it has also been in line with Axelars grand strategy of focusing on RWA - it has successively reached cooperation with JPMorgan Chase, Centrifuge and others.
In a nutshell, Axelar MDS can build a seamless bridge between Web2 and Web3, making it easier to integrate existing Telegram and WeChat with blockchain, helping Web3 projects break through existing boundaries, reach a wider user group, and achieve true large-scale adoption, thus leading a new trend of Web2 and Web3 integration.
Axelar MDS’s “Three Horsemen”
Before exploring the unlimited potential of Axelar MDS, we must first understand the architecture behind it, which mainly includes three core components: Interchain Amplifier, Axelar ITS, and Axelar Virtual Machine (AVM).
Interchain Amplifier
Among them, Interchain Amplifier is one of the key components of Axelar MDS and plays an important role in connecting different blockchains.
It is now live on the mainnet, providing developers and users with a simple and permissionless way to connect various blockchains to the Axelar network and its interconnected blockchain networks. This connection method breaks the isolation between traditional blockchains and realizes dynamic and customizable integration.
For example, popular blockchains such as Sui, Aptos, and Solana are ready to connect. Through Interchain Amplifier, applications and assets on these different chains can interact more conveniently , which not only broadens the application scenarios of blockchain, but also brings more choices and possibilities to users.
In short, the advantage of Interchain Amplifier lies in its flexibility and scalability. It allows developers to customize security configurations according to specific needs, providing a high degree of flexibility for new integrations. At the same time, by connecting different blockchains, it also brings stronger interoperability to the entire blockchain ecosystem and promotes the large-scale circulation of on-chain assets.
Interchain Token Service (ITS)
Interchain Token Service (ITS) is an institutional-grade tokenization tool that was launched on the Axelar mainnet as early as February 6 this year. It completely replaces the concept of cross-chain bridge and is a service specially launched to solve the needs of project parties when deploying tokens on multiple chains. Its automated deployment + maintenance service allows the team to easily manage the token deployment process.
Its unique advantage is that it can not only be used to link native tokens to meet the diverse needs of blockchain network deployment, but also can still be fully interoperable with native tokens, quickly realizing the free flow of tokens across chains - for users, with ITS, tokens can be moved natively across chains while maintaining full functionality and substitutability, which means that users can seamlessly use their own tokens on different blockchains without worrying about compatibility issues.
For example, we can initiate a cross-chain transfer from token A to Arbitrum on the Ethereum mainnet. ITS will automatically perform corresponding processing on Ethereum (lock the token to be transferred) and ensure that token A is minted on Arbitrum according to user needs. There is no need to worry about the risk of token loss or transaction failure. In this way, our tokens are successfully transferred to Arbitrum.
Axelar Virtual Machine (AVM)
Axelar Virtual Machine (AVM) is the technical cornerstone of Axelar MDS. It supports Interchain Amplifier and ITS and can implement smart contract logic at the cross-chain layer.
The emergence of AVM has opened a new door for developers, enabling them to develop more complex and powerful multi-chain applications. Unlike traditional single-chain smart contracts, AVM supports developers to write smart contracts on Axelar to achieve the operability of cross-chain tasks, allowing Axelar to break away from the single cross-chain attribute and completely open up the imagination space of multiple narratives .
For example, any AVM-based DAPP can run on multiple blockchains simultaneously, leveraging the advantages of different chains to provide better services: DeFi lending applications can use AVM to achieve cross-chain lending and financial management. Users can pledge assets on one blockchain and then obtain loans on another blockchain, improving the utilization and flexibility of funds.
In addition, what is more noteworthy is that Axelar plans to share the economic security from Ethereum through EigenLayer (which will also be extended to other collateral), adding a layer of customizability to Axelars Interchain Amplifier, which means that when conducting cross-chain interactions, the security configuration can be flexibly adjusted according to different needs and scenarios.
It is important to know that Interchain Amplifier itself already allows customized security configurations for new integrations. Now with the connection with Ethereum and other collateral, it further enriches the options for security customization and improves the security and adaptability of the entire system.
Axelars open stack strategy can be considered an overt conspiracy: compared with full-chain players with closed stacks, Axelar provides a completely open framework. Instead of keeping things to themselves, it widely introduces the top Web3 development teams (such as EigenLayer and Common Prefix) to pool their wisdom and share development resources to expand and enhance the Axelar network together. This not only brings more partners and developers, but also provides users with richer and more diverse services.
Through cooperation with OpenZeppelin, Axelar has developed a set of open interoperability interfaces and integrated them into OpenZeppelins smart contract library. This has brought great convenience to developers, allowing them to easily insert any interoperability technology without being restricted by specific suppliers or protocols. It also means that developers can quickly choose the appropriate technology to build cross-chain applications based on project requirements.
In general, Axelar MDS is not just a single tool or platform in the strict sense, but a complex ecosystem. With open interfaces and rich interoperability technology options, it will help attract more developers to join the Axelar ecosystem and jointly promote the development and innovation of the blockchain industry.
The full-chain narrative realizes the second half of Web3 mass adoption?
Over the past 10 years, Web2 consumer applications have completely changed peoples daily lives in an unprecedented way, quietly penetrating into every aspect of our lives, from social interaction to e-commerce, from online entertainment to information acquisition.
Today, with the continuous development and penetration of Web3 technology, we are standing at a critical juncture in the era of the great integration of Web2 and Web3. The decentralization, security and privacy protection brought by Web3 are expected to bring new changes to our digital life.
To put it bluntly, the greater potential of Axelar MDS lies in its ability to become a bridge connecting Web2 and Web3, accelerating the integration process of the two worlds.
Imagine that in the future we can easily interact with Web3 decentralized applications through Axelar MDS on familiar Web2 social platforms such as Telegram, Twitter, and even WeChat, including:
Directly participate in DeFi projects on WeChat or Telegram, and conduct safe and efficient DeFi transactions and on-chain asset management;
Interact with artists from around the world on the NFT marketplace to collect and trade unique digital artworks;
We can also manage our personal information and digital assets more securely through a decentralized identity authentication system;
For the entire Web3 world, this may be an innovation in Web3 product thinking - creating a low-threshold Web3 product environment that is incremental and has an experience close to traditional Web2 applications, returning to a user-centric product paradigm, and thus capturing the broadest underlying value.
For Axelar, MDS is expected to make it a key network to connect incremental users/traffic with on-chain services, proving that bringing native Web2 users into Web3 may be the key entry point for Web3 to truly reach hundreds of millions of users, subverting the current Web3 incremental dilemma and replicating the incremental miracle of Axie Infinity from another logic.
What’s more interesting is that this upgrade also brings more diverse token capabilities to AXL:
First, verification nodes need to stake tokens to ensure security. Of course, after cooperating with Babylon and Eigenlayer, nodes can stake BTC and ETH in addition to AXL to further ensure security.
Secondly, there will be no more rewards for new connections to the Axelar network, thus reducing the issuance of tokens;
Finally, AXL’s transaction fees will be destroyed instead of distributed to token holders, similar to the Gas burning mechanism;
Among them, the first empowerment stimulated the market demand for AXL from the demand side, and the last two empowerments directly enriched the consumption scenario deflation of AXL from the supply side. As a result, AXLs value capture ability has been significantly improved.
Especially as the number of blockchain networks connected to Axelar continues to increase, the number of transactions and transaction amounts continue to rise. This shift in token economics is expected to open up broader application scenarios and demand space for AXL.
summary
Starting from the whole chain, but not limited to the whole chain, this is also the core essence of Axelar MDS.
If Web3 in 2022 is Web2 in 2002, then the current cold market environment may be a good time to do things, and the focus is on how to open up a way for massive Web2 users to enter Web3.
Whoever captures the billions of users in the Web2 world will win this war , and Axelar MDS will undoubtedly be at the forefront by targeting the billions of existing Internet users in Web2 - more and more users will be expected to contact and enter the Web3 ecosystem through Axelar, achieving the goal of Mass Adoption.
This proposition is full of unknowns, but this is also where the charm and opportunity of new solutions such as Axelar MDS lie.
