Prior to joining Axelar, I spent time marketing at Bittrex, one of the OG CEXes in the space. (Bittrex recently wound down US operations.)

While there, I always wondered how CEXes and dApps would coexist as Web3 attracts a critical mass of users. 

🧵👇

Social Lead @ Axelar | Disco Pickleball 🔜

What I realized dApps are missing is onboarding and access with any token, features that are trivial to a centralized exchange.

But Axelar’s making all of that possible.

I won’t get too in the weeds, but at a high level this is how it works.

Ex: Tokens on Chain A want to be used on Chain E.

You make a cross-chain request in an Axelar-connected dApp, the Axelar SDK creates a unique address on Chain A w/ properties:

1️⃣It’s associated 1:1 with this specific transaction and destination.
2️⃣Relayer services monitor the address for deposits.

The unique address receives Chain A tokens, Axelar validators see the transaction, confirm it, and Axelar protocols already know the deposited assets are meant to go to Chain E.

Once the cross-chain transaction has been translated and routed appropriately, the validators authorize minting on Chain E of a wrapped representation of Chain A tokens in the equivalent amount.

It’s crazy to think that all that wondering led me to Axelar and to be writing about the solution that levels the playing field for those building in a decentralized setting. 

In case you’d like to dive a bit deeper, the docs are linked below ⤵️
https://docs.axelar.dev/dev/send-tokens/overview

One-time deposit addresses allow all decentralized projects to mimic the way CEXes are able to handle deposits from any chain, by creating a monitored address for receiving tokens

Unlike deposit addresses on a CEX, only Axelar validators can control or lock funds. 

Here’s the flow: https://i.imgur.com/NXqe9o2.gif