Macauley Peterson

Squid has unwrapped a decentralized intent-based liquidity protocol that promises cheaper, faster, and more efficient cross-chain swaps.



The Cross-Chain Order Routing and Auction Layer (CORAL), which went live today, uses a request-for-quote (RFQ) system, enabling users to execute swaps across chains with minimal costs and near-instant finality.&nbsp;



CORAL’s intents handle swaps natively, unlocking market maker order book pricing similar to CoWSwap. This approach eliminates slippage and ensures optimal execution by directly engaging with liquidity providers during the transaction process.



“With CORAL, we’ve removed the borders between chains [to] allow liquidity to flow with minimal friction,” said Fig, Squid’s co-founder.



The new protocol builds on the successful Squid 2.0 upgrade, which focused on abstracting away complex cross-chain transaction flows with multiple hops.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/squid-upgrade-cross-chain-abstraction?utm_source=blockworks-research.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=solving-multichain-pain-points">Squid sinks its tentacles into cross-chain abstraction</a>



One interesting property of the design is that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/zk-rollups-cheaper-with-scale?utm_source=blockworks-research.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=solving-multichain-pain-points">like a zk rollup</a>, the more transactions come through, the cheaper it becomes for the end user.



That’s because the architecture allows for batching intents, which &#8220;saves a significant amount of gas and delivers users the best execution possible for their swaps,&#8221; Fig said.&nbsp;



This makes it “the cheapest decentralized intent protocol” on the market, even edging out market leaders like Across Protocol, he said. By reducing the per-order gas overhead, “as you scale, it becomes basically free.”



Across Protocol uses more complex <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/unlocked/across-protocol-based-on-intents">cryptographic batching processes</a>, while CORAL leverages Axelar’s secure general message-passing protocol. Like Across, this approach pushes all bridge and routing risks to market makers, who handle the backend complexities of asset transfers. Users receive native assets on their destination chain, eliminating the need for wrapped tokens or trust in external validators.



CORAL’s flexibility goes beyond swaps. It allows developers to build complex DeFi applications using pre- and post-hooks, enabling actions like depositing cross-chain-swapped assets into yield farms with one click.



“I think we’re on a trajectory to have all the assets on one or two chains,” Fig said. “This tech allows you to hold native assets and not really have to bridge them.”



The protocol is now live on major chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base. Plans to integrate Solana, Sui and Aptos are slated for January, and Cosmos-based chains through <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ibc?utm_source=blockworks-research.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=solving-multichain-pain-points">IBC</a> later in 2025.



Also on the road map: the ability to aggregate multiple messaging protocols, such as Hyperlane, which will add support for another 40-50 EVM-compatible blockchains. These additions will create a “network of networks,” significantly enhancing interoperability.



Altogether, Squid is positioned as a front-runner in <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research/issue/post_07a45426-69f7-4e72-9bb6-c84e92857ebd">achieving true chain abstraction</a>, where users interact with assets seamlessly, regardless of their originating chains.



“Cross-chain swaps are now as cheap as single-chain swaps, so we can really move toward full chain abstraction, where users don’t need to think about which chain their assets are on,” Fig said.



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Squid greases cross-chain liquidity

New cross-chain solutions are tackling persistent challenges presented by Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap.



Safe’s Safenet, planned for release in 2025, aims to operate as a transaction processor network atop existing blockchains, offering execution guarantees for cross-chain transactions.



Safenet’s design — announced today — introduces a set of capabilities targeting longstanding issues in DeFi, such as speed, security and liquidity fragmentation. It reimagines transaction processing by unbundling execution and settlement, akin to VisaNet’s architecture.



At its core, Safenet aims to dramatically improve transaction efficiency, processing transactions in under one second thanks to <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/bellcurve/8dcb7122-c486-11ee-9d5a-1f6f0a61552c">an intents-based solver network</a>. This level of performance would bring cross-chain operations closer to real-time usability, allowing users to move assets or execute transactions between different blockchains almost instantaneously.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/drop-traditional-bridges-for-interoperability">Want cheaper and safer interoperability? Drop traditional bridges</a>



Whether transferring tokens or interacting with dapps, delays in moving across chains have traditionally hindered such activity, leading to a siloed user experience.



“Safenet addresses DeFi’s biggest challenges: fragmentation, latency and complexity,” Lukas Schor, co-founder of Safe, <a href="https://safe.global/blog/introducing-safenet">said</a>.



By leveraging Safenet Processors, users gain access to instant liquidity and secure, composable transactions that span onchain and offchain networks.



The network is secured by user-defined policies and a decentralized validator network — staking the <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/safe">SAFE</a> token — and the system is geared towards providing robust protection against risks like address poisoning and other vulnerabilities.



Validators actively oversee processor activity, and can flag any malicious behavior. This oversight, combined with user-set transaction rules, creates a <a href="https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/defense_in_depth">defense-in-depth</a> security layer that reduces exposure to common threats.



On the <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research/issue/post_07a45426-69f7-4e72-9bb6-c84e92857ebd">chain abstraction</a> front, Safenet’s ability to unify balances across chains represents a major step forward in usability. Instead of requiring users to manage separate wallets or bridge assets manually, Safenet plans to present a single, consolidated view of their holdings.



Current Safe wallets secure $112 billion in assets, 75% of which is on Ethereum. They already allow for switching between multiple networks, deploying the same Ethereum address across many chains, but Safenet extends the abstraction beyond EVM-based networks to incorporate non-EVM-compatible chains like Solana, according to the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/safe">Safe</a> team.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcH_ATJ03yGo39ncHv_5kkcAXpLj8tXs4oKIOst6h1Z8AGiqpZGy-3nFNVDr2_2MV9ERAyLvXyN6yDKCr65FVi6mtw9OHFeUdZ4S4nFBrFJvNjqlYIJ1lU3vZhBdul9F9gz72FOmQ?key=qOrp2o31eFStOc0xGp5HJ-YP" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Safe TVL over time | Source: <a href="https://dune.com/safe/all">Dune / Safe</a></figcaption></figure>



Safe expects to bridge the gap between onchain and off-chain ecosystems as well, for example by enabling users to interact with centralized exchanges and payment systems using the same unified asset balance. This flexibility simplifies asset management while expanding the ways users can engage with their holdings.



DEX activity accounts for about 5% of the Total Volume Processed (TVP) on Ethereum mainnet by Safe accounts, according to Richard Meissner, co-founder of Safe.



“The remaining volume is a mix of asset transfers, treasury management, DAO governance actions and complex DeFi operations like liquidity provisioning,” Meissner told Blockworks.



He notes that what differentiates Safe’s wallet from other solutions is its focus on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/safe-whitepaper-smart-accounts">providing smart accounts</a>.



“By advancing smart accounts, we offer features not possible with traditional EOA accounts like multisig, private key recovery [and] automation,” Meissner said.



Safe is betting that features like these will make it appealing for businesses to move more of their operations onchain.



A key component of Safenet&#8217;s functionality is its integration with <a href="https://erc7579.com/">ERC-7579</a>, a standard that defines interfaces and behaviors for modular smart accounts to ensure interoperability across different implementations or “modules.”



By adopting ERC-7579, Safenet can facilitate the unbundling of transaction execution and settlement, similar to how VisaNet operates in traditional finance.



To do so, Safe, in collaboration with Rhinestone, developed the <a href="https://docs.safe.global/advanced/erc-7579/7579-safe">Safe7579 Adapter</a>, which enables Safe accounts to comply with the ERC-7579 standard.



Such standards are crucial for interoperability. For instance, modules such as spending limits, role-based account access and recovery can be incorporated into Safe accounts.



Safenet is set for alpha release in Q1 2025, initially supporting cross-chain accounts and basic liquidity functions. By mid-2025, Safenet will introduce third-party processors and compatibility with the Safe Apps SDK, enabling new use cases such as off-exchange settlement and subscription services.



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Safenet is Safe’s bid for an ‘onchain VisaNet’

Knut Vinger

Alexander Kjeldaas

Anton Roos

We should be building cross-chain solutions as if consensus mechanisms are unnecessary — because they are. ​​Blockchain technology has been celebrated for its potential to revolutionize various industries through decentralization, security and transparency. However, as the ecosystem expands, the complexities and costs associated with interoperability between different blockchains have become increasingly apparent.&nbsp;



Consensus algorithms are essential for individual blockchain networks, ensuring that all participants agree on the state of the ledger to maintain integrity and security. Yet, when these mechanisms are applied to interoperability solutions like cross-chain bridges, they introduce significant inefficiencies and risks.



Implementing consensus in interoperability often leads to extreme over-collateralization — sometimes more than 100 times the value of the assets being transferred. Funds get locked up in validator nodes to secure the network, tying up enormous amounts of capital. For example, a common bridge is paying each validator around $30,000 per month, totalling a staggering $3 million per month for their 100 validators. The additional costs of incentivizing and maintaining a community of validators only add to this financial burden.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/web3-web2-interoperability-mistakes">Don’t let Web3 repeat Web2’s interoperability mistakes</a>



This over-collateralization isn&#8217;t just expensive; it&#8217;s economically inefficient. The total value locked (TVL) metric is frequently highlighted in the DeFi space. But, when it comes to bridges, these numbers <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tvl-metrics-defi-lightspeed">often mask these underlying inefficiencies</a> by presenting them as indicators of success rather than sunk costs. While consensus aims to provide security, it doesn&#8217;t guarantee consistency in interoperability solutions.&nbsp;



Bridges introduce non-deterministic data, meaning the same input doesn&#8217;t always produce the same output across different chains. Without consistency, the stability of the entire system decreases with each additional blockchain connected. This instability increases the risk of tokens or transactions being duplicated, stuck or disappearing altogether. It is estimated that billions of dollars have been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/in-second-largest-defi-hack-ever-blockchain-bridge-loses-320m-ether">stolen from bridges</a>, including $650 million from Ronin, $326 million from Wormhole and $566 million from Binance’s BNB Chain bridge.



The lack of consistency also hampers DeFi abstractions and composability. Bridges often rely on hardcoded primitives that require hard forks to modify, complicating innovation and slowing down the evolution of dapps. Many interoperability solutions struggle to scale effectively. Since these bridges can be considered blockchains, with their own consensus mechanisms, they introduce additional layers of complexity and potential bottlenecks. This not only slows down transaction times, but also adds more points of failure to the system.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blockchains-still-arent-great-at-communication">Blockchains still aren’t great at communication</a>



The crux of the matter is simple: Consensus mechanisms are unnecessary for interoperability, and may in fact be counterproductive. By eliminating the need for consensus in cross-chain solutions, we can significantly reduce costs and complexity. Instead of relying on validators to maintain a consensus, we can use deterministic proofs and verification methods that are inherently secure and efficient.&nbsp;



The key to enable consensus-less interoperability is to move proof and verification mechanisms out of layer-1 smart contracts. This approach mitigates major bottlenecks like limited cross-chain data availability. By decoupling from individual layer-1 constraints, dapps are enabled to process data more freely and create additional value without being hindered by consensus-related limitations — benefiting not only blockchains, but most importantly, users.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/interoperability-buzzword-blockchains">Interoperability isn’t just a buzzword</a>



By focusing on deterministic computations, interoperability solutions can ensure that transactions are predictable and verifiable without the overhead of consensus mechanisms. Techniques like <a href="https://docs.coinweb.io/learn/protocol/refereed-delegation-of-computation-rdoc#:~:text=RDoC%20is%20the%20proof%20mechanism,that%20proves%20information%20between%20blockchains.">refereed delegation of computation</a> (RDoC) and cryptographic validation provide the necessary security assurances. This approach reduces the risk of inconsistencies and errors, enhancing the overall stability of cross-chain interactions.



Removing consensus from interoperability is not just a cost-saving measure; it&#8217;s a strategic evolution in building blockchain networks. This paradigm shift allows for greater levels of abstraction, improved efficiency and more room for innovation. Developers can create more complex and composable dapps without being hindered by the limitations imposed by consensus-driven bridges.



The current reliance on consensus mechanisms for interoperability is both costly and inefficient. By rethinking our approach and eliminating unnecessary consensus layers in cross-chain solutions, we can build a more robust, scalable and efficient blockchain ecosystem. This strategic move not only reduces operational costs but also fosters innovation, allowing blockchain technology to reach its full transformative potential.



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Want cheaper and safer interoperability? Drop traditional bridges

Donovan Choy

Today, enjoy the 0xResearch newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/research">Subscribe to the 0xResearch newsletter</a>. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">New tech for cross-chain interoperability</h2>



Several teams are making strides to enhance the crypto developer experience, offering advanced tech stacks with the ultimate goal of simplifying the onboarding experience for new users.



OKX has launched <a href="https://www.okx.com/web3/build/docs/waas/okx-waas-what-is-waas">OKX OS</a>, an open-source infrastructure suite of tools, SDKs and APIs needed to build applications across a wide range of blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana.



This new stack allows developers to leverage the same technology that powers the OKX Wallet, and aims to simplify and scale development for 100+ chains, the company announced Monday.



Another new path toward an omnichain user experience is Axelar’s Mobius Development Stack (MDS).



The tech stack, unveiled today, is offered as vendor-agnostic architecture integrated into popular OpenZeppelin libraries.



Axelar’s MDS also marks the mainnet debut of its <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/axelar-interchain-amplifier-liquidity-flow">Interchain Amplifier</a> for permissionless cross-chain connections at the smart-contract layer. The Interchain Amplifier is secured by staked AXL, or restaked assets like ether and bitcoin.



This approach places cross-chain interoperability front and center, spanning diverse L1s including Solana, Stellar and XRP Ledger — without requiring bridges. But it also offers a way to connect off-chain resources, like zk or AI co-processors.



Features such as the Interchain Token Service (ITS) facilitate native cross-chain tokens, with use cases such as tokenizing real-world assets, enhancing liquidity and enabling fractional ownership across different chains.



According to Axelar co-founder Georgios Vlachos, MDS is “empowering developers to build decentralized applications that compose resources, logic, value and network effects freely across a truly global internet landscape.”



OKX and Axelar’s recent launches tie into a broader trend in the Web3 space around improving developer experiences and user onboarding through enhanced infrastructure.&nbsp;



W3.io, launched in September, is building the Orchestration Cloud, an industry utility that aims to bring the benefits of an orchestration layer — long proven in Web2 environments — into Web3.



Backed by an impressive cadre of crypto builders, W3 functions like an advanced oracle and is designed to string together multiple services to support complex transactions across Web3.



Similar to Axelar’s MDS, W3 also looks to enable developers to build applications that not only function efficiently across blockchains but also integrate off-chain resources.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcToQY7_SakDzRyUKygy3d_AQijjwiL6esFBGyQJ57Xkq5oiN36qtvXxjZwiTAJEmPNpgy_1NEtclysGh4TvyQQZNXDD0vyNON_W1qNLYE77lAv4i38DZvER8o8z8Y8aT1PVIN83oA9TAXyHguKu0W1WJo?key=Fg21ruo8oQ1_UB1OqbE92Q" alt=""/></figure>



W3.io can simplify the process of coordinating multiple actions, according to Scott Dykstra, co-founder and CTO at Space and Time.



“The challenge that developers have right now is stringing together a bunch of different services to accomplish very complex onchain tasks,” Dykstra told Blockworks.



For example, it could help a game manage steps such as tracking player achievements, minting NFTs and updating the game server with new data. W3.io acts as middleware that connects off-chain and onchain actions seamlessly.



Together, these technologies point to the creation of a holistic ecosystem where developers can build decentralized applications that are interoperable, scalable and easier to use across the entire Web3 space.



— Macauley Peterson



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Chart of the Day</h2>



Base increases gas limits:



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXea8tr69lP15mz3TFA5mEbokMlkeyL2I98nJadL-FUGz8gKZ_aDW-Pxx0d2Q0RPp6HujPaCMkVjW9JrUUvav16lFCnp0bCsKTSjoSipY6UbhY8fHrP3IBOprgzaTqonOaT_Rzaoa7gkz5lss1-VsfHxE7c?key=Fg21ruo8oQ1_UB1OqbE92Q" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://x.com/base/status/1838639094995521831">Base</a></figcaption></figure>



In pursuit of scalability, Base continues to ramp up gas limits per block. 1 Megagas/s per block will be added weekly, with this week’s increment going from 11 to 12 Megagas/s. Base’s stated goal is to reach 1 Gigagas/s capacity eventually.



L2s drastically increasing gas limits have some subtle, but far-reaching implications for Ethereum’s grand roadmap. As explained on <a href="https://youtu.be/yvP39-EOADU">The Rollup podcast</a> by Justin Drake, raising gas limits reduces the baseline profitability accrued from priority transaction fees paid by users, which in turn increases the dependency on centralized sequencer profits (MEV).



Since MEV profits for L2s outweigh transaction fee profits, this may ultimately reduce the incentive for L2s to decentralize its sequencer and enter into a multichain-like shared sequencer arrangement, sometimes referred to in Ethereum research circles as “synchronized composability.”



— Donovan Choy



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OKX and Axelar launch tech development stacks

The SocialFi network friend.tech has taken a significant step this week, and appears to have abandoned further development of its once-popular platform.



On Monday, friend.tech <a href="https://x.com/friendtech/status/1832581118165709140">announced</a> it was transferring the administrative and ownership rights of the platform’s code to a null address. This effectively makes any future changes to fee rates or functionalities impossible.



Though friend.tech will continue to exist on the Base blockchain, this move is being interpreted by <a href="https://x.com/flippen6485/status/1833261855462330677">community members</a> on X as a lack of desire to continue maintaining the project.



The SocialFi platform first launched on Aug. 10, 2023. It subsequently undertook an unprecedented 100% community allocation of FRIEND tokens to users in May 2024, in contrast to most projects where a certain percentage of tokens are set aside for early investors.&nbsp;



Post-airdrop, FRIEND reached a peak of $2.86 but has since cratered to $0.09. Even with the introduction of new features in a v2 update, including social clubs, the platform has struggled to revive trading volumes, which <a href="https://dune.com/queries/2844757/4753456">reached</a> multi-million dollar <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/friend-tech-copycats">figures last September</a>.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/friend.tech">Friend.tech</a> has generated about $22.3 million in protocol fees, according to <a href="https://dune.com/cryptokoryo/friendtech">Dune</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Osmosis goes cross-chain with Polaris portal</h2>



Osmosis DEX <a href="https://x.com/sunnya97/status/1833854372607824199">unveiled</a> its latest product on Wednesday: Polaris, a cross-chain DEX aggregator.



Polaris wants to address the persistent problem of liquidity fragmentation — or the “Great Chain Divide” as Osmosis co-founder Sunny Aggarwal calls it – by letting users trade any asset from any chain with their existing wallets.



Unlike liquidity aggregators, Polaris simplifies cross-chain trading by offering a streamlined interface powered by multiparty computation (MPC) technology. This interface <a href="https://x.com/Polaris_App/status/1833845907168620978">handles</a> complex processes like token conversion, bridging, approvals and gas token acquisition — all from users&#8217; existing wallets.



“Osmosis is the foundation” and “our mission is to build the Interchain DEX,” Aggarwal <a href="https://x.com/sunnya97/status/1833854374604349703">tweeted</a>.



This move marks a notable change in Osmosis’ longstanding strategic focus within the Cosmos ecosystem.



The product will be officially revealed next week at Solana Breakpoint 2024 in Singapore.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">One interesting stat:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Stablecoins volume make up about 70-80% of all value that is being settled on public blockchains in 2024, according to research from <a href="https://x.com/artemis__xyz/status/1834226475916296527">Artemis</a>.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Also of note:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>In partnership with interoperability platform Wormhole, <a href="https://x.com/worldcoin/status/1834577701182566472">Worldcoin</a> is bringing World ID integration to Solana.</li>



<li>The Azuki NFT project is <a href="https://x.com/ZAGABOND/status/1834397475945504774">introducing</a> Anime.com, where fans and creators can co-create and share in co-ownership of anime intellectual property on “AnimeChain.”</li>



<li>ENS addresses are now <a href="https://x.com/ensdomains/status/1833536140529570039?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1833536140529570039%7Ctwgr%5Ee063d37346302dc8d5b17b867e0053918034ba6e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fopensea.io%2Fblog%2Farticles%2Fopensea-digest-september-12-2024">supported</a> on PayPal and Venmo for crypto payments.</li>



<li>The L2 gaming chain Immutable is <a href="https://x.com/Portalcoin/status/1831015526358827181">partnering</a> with Web3 distribution platform Portal.</li>



<li>Wrapped bitcoin players make big moves: Coinbase <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-wrapped-bitcoin-competitor-cbbtc">launched its own tokenized bitcoin cbBTC</a>, and BitGo is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/layerzero-interoperability-provider-bitgo-wbtc">taking its WBTC product cross-chain</a> with LayerZero’s OmniChain Fungible Token (OFT) standard.</li>



<li>Onchain voting for DAOs level up: Snapshot leveraged Starknet to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cheaper-onchain-voting-snapshot-starknet">launch its new onchain voting protocol</a> Snapshot X, while Aragon leveraged ZKSync’s native account abstraction and LayerZero relays for its new cross-chain voting <a href="https://x.com/AragonProject/status/1834241399283482688">solution</a>.</li>
</ul>



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Web3 Watch: Friend.tech team steps back, relinquishing control of platform

Cross-chain swaps are getting a boost with the latest version of Squid, launched today.



Squid 2.0 introduces a new architecture that abstracts away chains to simplify even complex transaction flows with multiple hops.



The update includes performance and cost improvements, and expands Squid 2.0’s functionality into new areas such as 1:1 stablecoin transfers, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/real-world-assets">real-world asset</a> (RWA) transactions and advanced routing.



This new approach goes far beyond finding the most efficient bridge routes, according to Fig, Squid’s co-founder.



“We are a bridging tool in a certain way, but we think that we can change the way that swaps are also done,” Fig told Blockworks.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/squid-one-click-cross-chain-swaps-cosmos">Squid enables one-click cross-chain swaps on Cosmos</a>



A key innovation in Squid 2.0 is its graph-based architecture, which enables intelligent routing through over 110 liquidity sources across 77 chains. This ensures that swaps are executed using the most efficient paths, reducing costs and increasing execution speed.



“In Squid v1, it was a very simple routing algorithm — we would just always swap via wETH into USDC, and then we bridge and swap out on the other side. But with Squid v2, we&#8217;ve upped the infrastructure a lot.”



Squid’s new algorithm compares liquidity across multiple dexes and liquidity pools, automatically choosing the most cost-effective route. This focus on speed builds on the previous version&#8217;s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cross-chain-transactions-squid">Squid Boost feature</a>, which allows for sub-20 second swaps across chains, adding real-time quotes delivered in under half a second, the team says.



“There&#8217;s so much variation happening in cross-chain that we had to build a system which was able to adapt to all of the change in liquidity, of new technology, instantly and without us having to do anything manually on our side,” Fig explained.



Competition is heating up in the cross-chain space. Just this week, Osmosis debuted its latest product. Polaris, a cross-chain token portal, aggregates DEXs and leverages the Inter-Blockchain Communication (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ibc">IBC</a>) protocol.



Osmosis co-founder Sunny Aggarwal pitched Polaris as a bid to tackle what he calls, “the Great Chain Divide.”



“Liquidity is fragmented and sticky on its native chain, driven by both inertia and incentives (everyone&#8217;s trying to build their own internal DeFi ecosystems!),” Aggarwal <a href="https://x.com/sunnya97/status/1833854378807087292">wrote</a> on X.



Squid similarly integrates liquidity from Osmosis, Astroport and other dex, not only in Cosmos but across multiple Ethereum layer-2s, Bitcoin (via the Chainflip cross-chain dex) and soon Solana as well.



ZeroDev also demoed a Magic Account, showcasing wallet abstraction with a user-centric design, including social login with passkeys and gasless transactions.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/vitalik-buterin-eip-account-abstraction">Vitalik rallies support for temporary smart wallets on Ethereum</a>



Squid is also advocating for a “token-first” approach that lets users interact seamlessly with their digital assets, regardless of which chain they reside on. For example, a user can see an aggregated USDC balance across chains, and have Squid automatically choose the most cost-efficient way to complete a transaction — say, swapping into a memecoin.



The interface will also address the problem of multiple wrapped versions of stablecoins that proliferate as a result of cross-chain bridging, Fig said. This solves a major UX pain point.



“We work with stablecoin providers directly, and then they will use <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/axelar-multichain-tokens">Axelar [Interchain Token Service</a>], or even if they don&#8217;t use it, we can swap the stablecoin on the other side,” he said.



This level of chain abstraction is a major milestone in creating a fully noncustodial, multichain environment.



“We can start to move to the world where you don&#8217;t see the chain ever,” Fig said. “We can move this ‘Coinbase experience’ — which is really what 99% of crypto in the world use — into a fully self-custodial environment with decentralized liquidity as well.”



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Squid sinks its tentacles into cross-chain abstraction

Temujin Louie

One of the prerequisites for the mass adoption of blockchain technology is interoperability — the ability to pass data between distinct blockchain and blockchain-like systems. Numerous interoperability projects have established themselves today, and many are growing at an incredible rate. Indeed, it’s only a matter of time before the number of cross-chain messages is measured in trillions.&nbsp;



Blockchain interoperability has never been more ubiquitous. In January 2024, <a href="https://blog.bcas.io/implications-of-cross-chain-bridges-under-mica#:~:text=As%20of%20January%202024%2C%20the,ranks%20third%20at%20%242.27%20billion.">more than $23 billion worth of assets</a> were locked in cross-chain bridges on Ethereum alone. Clearly, our industry’s early adopters — affectionately called Web3 enthusiasts — are keen to explore new ecosystems as they routinely bridge assets from one blockchain to another. This process, though clunky, has become so commonplace that&nbsp;many believe that blockchain interoperability is a solved issue.&nbsp;



The truth is far more bleak.&nbsp;



The state of blockchain interoperability today is one of fractured incompatibility. Competing interoperability projects build ad hoc solutions that gerrymander the blockchain landscape, making it impractical for enterprises and regulators to vet the security of each. As it stands, the current state of blockchain interoperability poses an existential threat to the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology as a whole.&nbsp;



Modern interoperability projects are far too focused on building and growing their own proprietary products. The fight to become the one-and-only has introduced growing system complexity and, therefore, unbounded risk. As different projects make different tradeoffs to solve different problems, blockchain interoperability protocols continue to increase in complexity. Not only does this complexity make protocols progressively more incompatible with one another, each new system component or trust assumption introduces new attack vectors. As an industry, we must curb this troubling trend.



A shared framework for interoperability is desperately needed.&nbsp;



As a trustless system, decentralized blockchains are incapable of communicating with other blockchain networks out-of-the-box. Trust assumptions dictate the risk profile of a particular cross-chain design by shaping its vulnerabilities and delineating how a system can be exploited. Generally speaking, the greater the complexity of a system, the higher its susceptibility to attack. It is therefore preferable to simplify the design of cross-chain solutions in order to limit the number of exploitable components. So, while it is true that trust assumptions are inherent to blockchain interoperability solutions, there is security in simplicity. 



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/open-tech-scapegoat-progress">There’s no reason to fear open platforms</a>



A shared framework for interoperability between blockchain and blockchain-like systems — one that includes architectural guidelines and vetted interface definitions — makes it possible to reduce system complexity. This has the knock-on effect of preventing fragmentation across different project implementations. Even something as simple as common interfaces and functions to decode and verify the validity of messages would go a long way towards enhancing interoperability, while reducing the need for custom implementations.&nbsp;



A shared framework for interoperability also has the potential to foster collaboration between different interoperability projects. Broadly speaking, interoperability projects simply don’t trust each others’ work. This isn’t entirely surprising considering that, between 2021 and 2023, more than <a href="https://twitter.com/PeckShieldAlert/status/1741852326305100283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1741852326305100283%7Ctwgr%5E97ab62338d1c1ccce7cdd60687e8ec02e6921617%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcointelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Forbit-bridge-hack-pushes-december-crypto-losses-100m">$2.9 billion was stolen</a> from exploited cross-chain bridges. Nevertheless, this distrust has directly contributed to the fractured state of blockchain interoperability today. A shared framework, built openly and vetted by all, will result in a more secure system.&nbsp;



Blockchain interoperability must be core infrastructure first, product second. If we as an industry are to have any hope of achieving the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology (without sacrificing the industry’s core ethos of decentralization), we must establish a shared framework for interoperability. Time is running out.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>


<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Temujin Louie (Tem), CEO of Wanchain, is committed to bridging the world of emerging tech to the broader public in an easy-to-understand and accessible way.

With over 10 years of experience driving the adoption of transformative digital technologies, Tem has served as a marketing director for leading new tech companies such as Matrix AI network, Calwave Group, and Lightnet Group before pursuing a VP position at Wachain in 2021. 

In addition to professional experience, Tem proved his deep understanding of decentralized technologies in an academic field as well, dedicating two years to researching Bitcoin’s impact on incumbent power structures at the London School of Economics. 

Tem believes that accessibility, simple UX, and narratives that address the non-technical everyday users are the secret sauce to making blockchain widely adopted by the general public.</div>


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Blockchains still aren’t great at communication

Bessie Liu

Cross-chain messaging protocols have become increasingly popular over the past year.&nbsp;



Wormhole recently surpassed <a href="https://wormholescan.io/">1 billion</a> cross-chain messages since its launch in 2021 and has seen a total volume of over $39 billion being transferred through its token bridge.&nbsp;



Similarly, interchain transactions on and active addresses on Axelar have <a href="https://messari.io/report/axelar-brief-q4-2023">increased </a>by 478% and 430% over the past year, respectively.



The primary method for transferring information and assets across different blockchain networks today is through blockchain bridges. However, bridges are infamously challenging to decentralize.



Blockchain bridges often use the lock and mint or burn and mint approach to transfer value across different blockchains.&nbsp;



In doing so, a user must lock up their native asset on Chain A and swap it for a synthetic version of that same asset before they can transfer it from Chain A to Chain B. Once they transfer the asset, they must once again pay to change that synthetic asset back to the native asset on Chain B.&nbsp;



Although this method would guarantee instant finality on the destination chain, the process is rather tedious. It also comes with its own set of security risks, such as being vulnerable to malicious attacks.



Wormhole itself was subjected to one of these attacks in 2022, where the protocol lost over <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/in-second-largest-defi-hack-ever-blockchain-bridge-loses-320m-ether">$320 million in ether</a>, making it one of the largest DeFi exploits to date.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/chainlink-bridges-unsecure">Most bridges ‘absolutely not secure’: Chainlink co-founder</a>



Custodial bridges have hoped to prevent this by introducing a centralized entity that oversees the assets and safeguard the bridge itself. However, this in turn means that users must place their trust in a single entity, defying the ethos of decentralization.



Another way that bridges are able to transfer assets is by having a unified liquidity pool. This means that multiple chains will share the same liquidity pool and improve capital efficiency between the connected blockchains.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This solution would only work if all chains could fulfill liquidity requests. In the instance where multiple transactions are hoping to withdraw from the same pool, there must be ways to ensure that there is enough liquidity in the pool to fulfill all requests. Failure to do so could result in greater complications. This type of bridging also does not guarantee instant finality.&nbsp;



The latest shift toward focusing on cross-chain messaging solutions is to improve existing bridging infrastructure.



It is important to note that cross-chain messaging protocols are low-level infrastructures, similar to blockchains themselves, Robinson Burkey, the CCO at the Wormhole Foundation, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“These messaging protocols provide the basic language and framework to send data securely between two systems that aren’t compatible. Once you have this foundational technology in place you can build what people often refer to as token bridges, on top of the messaging protocol,” Burkey said.



A popular cross-chain messaging solution that has gained attention is Axelar’s General Message Passing (GMP).



GMP acts almost like a translator for the different networks that otherwise would not be able to understand each other. This is achieved through self-executing smart contracts that are able to use various methods to validate and authenticate transactions on Chain A before they reach Chain B.&nbsp;



Galen Moore, the global communications lead at Interop Labs, the initial developer of the Axelar network, told Blockworks that GMP simplifies the blockchain bridging process by enabling developers on one chain to call functions on a different chain.&nbsp;



“GMP allows applications to bridge assets, alongside instructions for an application on another blockchain,” Moore said. “If I build an app on a new blockchain and use a simple bridge, I have to say to my users, “Bridge your ETH to my blockchain over here, then use this DEX to buy some of my gas tokens over there, then come back to my app and onboard.” GMP can trigger all those steps automatically; to the user, it looks like a single transaction.”



Although GMP is an improvement over bridges when it comes to transferring assets, it too is still in its infancy.&nbsp;



“GMP is an improvement, but it’s still a great deal of work to create a unified user experience that spans multiple blockchains,” Moore said.



He notes that the next stage of evolution for Axelar will be to enable programmable interoperability, which will have the potential to leave bridges behind altogether.&nbsp;



“When the interoperability layer itself is a virtual machine like Ethereum, it can automate complex tasks – like minting a token on multiple blockchains at once, and managing supply and custom features across all of them,” Moore said.



Moore notes the interchain token service (ITS) that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/axelar-multichain-tokens">launched</a> on Axelar mainnet last week is hoping to provide this exact type of automation.&nbsp;



“The vision behind Axelar is a Web3 where developers can compose freely, connecting to functions and networks that exist on many chains across Web3 and beyond. This is something you just can’t do at all in Web2. The long-term vision is an internet that supports a different breed of online network,” he said.



Wormhole is also working to improve the interoperability experience. Recently revealing its <a href="https://wormhole.com/announcing-wormholes-zk-roadmap/">ZK roadmap</a> to facilitate multichain communication to improve the trust assumptions on the Wormhole protocol.



“In our approach, ZK will serve as a cornerstone for decentralization and ensuring message verification. Specifically, in an interoperability protocol like Wormhole, ZK will empower the prover to authenticate the entire state of a blockchain, such as Ethereum, to verify the validity of messages transmitted from the source blockchain,” Burkey said.



He adds, “The ZK roadmap will become clearer in the upcoming months. But our strategy involves bringing aboard new cryptography experts to our team and collaborating, upcoming light client rollouts, and a strategic collaboration with a hardware provider to accelerate a number of light client implementations.”



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Why cross-chain messaging is becoming more popular

Cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero has revealed a “gas abstraction” tool to facilitate cross-chain NFT swaps.&nbsp;



The news coincides with the integration of NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, with the LayerZero protocol. This means traders can now purchase and sell Omnichain non-fungible tokens (ONFTs) across supported chains.&nbsp;



At launch, these capabilities will be available to Ethereum and Polygon, though they will soon be available to more chains.



In an interview with Blockworks, LayerZero’s head of strategy Irene Wu said that the gas abstraction tool, which they have named “Gas Station,” was designed to help users create a more seamless experience when purchasing and moving <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFTs</a> from one chain to another.



“If a collector or an end user is only familiar with one ecosystem, they tend to only have one gas token in their wallet,” Wu said. “Gas abstraction enables the quoting and exchange upfront of gas tokens.”



Gas Station was a collaborative project between <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/magic-eden">Magic Eden</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layerzero">LayerZero</a>, and will enable users to purchase NFTs directly through the Magic Eden app or platform without needing to go to a centralized exchange to swap or borrow their tokens.&nbsp;



“The way Gas Station works is actually quite different from hot wallets who are charging a gas fee upfront. What is unique about this is that it isn’t a service, it’s an entirely open-sourced protocol-based solution, it’s decentralized and doesn’t put the security in the hands of a third party,” Wu said.



Cross-chain NFTs can be especially useful in gaming protocols, Wu explained.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/magic-eden-nfts">NFTs need to be about connecting creators with collectors, says Magic Eden’s Huang</a>



“If you&#8217;re designing your game, you need the gaming assets and the currency to be able to move across all these networks or at least be able to deliver an abstracted user experience that is chain agnostic,” she said. “I would say almost every NFT creator and gaming studio is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-gaming-web3-argus-labs-web2">thinking about interoperability right now</a>.”



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LayerZero’s ‘Gas Station’ will simplify cross-chain NFT swaps

James Cirrone

Eight crypto startups raised $72.2 million this week, with the largest sum going to a firm that’s developing a cross-chain oracle solution.&nbsp;



Supra raised $24 million in early-stage private investing rounds from Animoca, Coinbase Ventures, HashKey and over a dozen others.&nbsp;



Supra’s cross-chain tools are available on over 40 testnets, including Aptos, Arbitrum, BNB Chain and others, its website says. Supra will also be airdropping a native token, which will be distributed to funds, investors and node operators.&nbsp;



Investors this week also capitalized on the marriage of NFTs and apparel.&nbsp;



Web3 startup IYK, which stands for “If You Know,” announced <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/a16z-funding-iyk">a nearly $17 million fundraise</a> from lead investor a16z Crypto, Collab Currency, Lattice Capital, 1kx, Synergis Capital and others.&nbsp;



IYK’s mission is to embed NFC (near-field communication) chips within merchandise or apparel items. This would allow customers to tap their smartphone on the chip and instantly confirm an item’s authenticity. IYK then gives them NFTs in exchange.&nbsp;



IYK’s clients so far include VÉRITÉ, an independent musician, 9dcc, and Adidas. Adidas and IYK <a href="https://twitter.com/iyk_app/status/1646705948327567362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1646705948327567362%7Ctwgr%5Ed94c4b52ca949e1b557ccbf4bf99dfb078a00b07%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fblockworks.co%2Fnews%2Fa16z-funding-iyk">partnered</a> during NFT NYC 2023 for an exclusive limited shirt release that yielded 152 shirts.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Beacon chain explorer, upcoming layer-2 raise funds</h2>



Rated Labs <a href="https://blog.rated.network/blog/series-a">raised</a> more than $12 million in a Series A round. The firm is behind the Rated Network <a href="https://www.rated.network/?network=mainnet&amp;view=pool&amp;timeWindow=1d&amp;page=1&amp;poolType=all">Explorer</a>, which keeps tabs on Ethereum beacon chain validators and provides data on participation rate, inclusion delay, and correctness percentage.



Archetype led the round with additional participation from Placeholder, 1confirmation, Cherry and Semantic.&nbsp;



With the fresh cash, Rated Labs plans to improve its explorer tool, which was its first product. It also will develop a new API console and launch credentials for node operators.&nbsp;



Separately, the team behind the soon-to-launch layer-2 network Fhenix secured $7 million in seed funding. The round was led by Multicoin Capital and Collider Ventures with added support from Node Capital, Robot Ventures, Bankless, HackVC, TaneLabs and Metaplanet, among others.



Fhenix plans to launch its testnet, which will employ fully homomorphic encrypted smart contracts, in early 2024.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/fhenix-homomorphic-encryption">Encryption startup Fhenix raises $7M for private computation</a>



Fhenix CEO Guy Itzhaki told Blockworks FHE is different from zero-knowledge proofs, where data is moved off-chain where the decrypted message can be seen by a prover.&nbsp;



“With FHE, it’s really the first time that we can have data on-chain, encrypted, and being used as if it’s non-encrypted for the sake of confidentiality,” Itzhaki said.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Other notable fundraises</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Avantis Labs, a DeFi derivatives trading platform, raised $4 million in a seed round led by Pantera Capital.</li>



<li>AnchorWatch, an institutional custody provider and insurer, <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anchorwatch-raises-3m-to-solidify-bitcoin-custody-and-insurance-platform-301938468.html">got</a> $3 million to continue managing risk for&nbsp; firms holding bitcoin.&nbsp;</li>



<li>DeFi portfolio manager Bril Finance locked down $3 million from FalconX, Kosmos Ventures, and the Algorand Foundation.</li>



<li>Pimlico <a href="https://blog.pimlico.io/posts/pre-seed">raised</a> $1.6 million in pre-seed money to build infrastructure for smart accounts, a concept borne out of ERC-4337.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



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Crypto funding: A $72M week for cross-chain oracles, NFT merchandise 

Shalini Nagarajan

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) on Thursday announced successful experiments of tokenized asset transfers across multiple blockchains.



A new series of experiments revealed that Swift’s infrastructure could potentially eliminate &#8220;significant friction&#8221; hindering the growth of tokenized asset markets.



As a global interbank messaging system connecting over 11,000 banking and securities institutions across more than 200 countries, Swift plays a pivotal role in financial communications.&nbsp;



The organization identifies one of the key challenges facing investors and institutions is the fragmentation of tokenized assets across multiple blockchains.



Among its findings, a lack of regulatory clarity remains a primary obstacle, along with the need for data privacy, which Swift characterized as “fundamental to any commercial solution.”



Swift emphasizes that cross-platform compatibility is essential among these blockchains. Otherwise, financial institutions would be burdened with the complex and costly task of establishing individual connections to each.



In light of these complexities, investment bank Citi <a href="https://ir.citi.com/gps/MG9DEWhoYvQJVWLM9Kr3%2BZmqjoztKJcyNHr83F9Wug2pzAGHPQKfp23RAMrkNts%2FJitXoTNqufOvegUjjXh0IA%3D%3D">projects</a> a booming future for the tokenization market, estimating its potential value to escalate to between $4 trillion and $5 trillion by the end of the decade.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenization-standards-finance-crypto">We’re thinking about tokenization all wrong</a>



In June, Swift announced its aim to link private and public blockchains <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/banks-can-10x-the-blockchain-industry-says-chainlink-co-founder">in a trial collaboration with Web3 provider Chainlink</a> and major financial institutions like BNP Paribas and BNY Mellon.



Now, it says the collaboration has effectively shown its capability to serve as a unified access point for multiple networks, using secure existing infrastructure.&nbsp;



The experiments were conducted on public testnets Ethereum Sepolia, Avalanche Fuji and a private Quorum blockchain.



“It’s now clear that both top global banks and leading market infrastructures believe there will be greater adoption of digital assets across the entire banking industry, and that this adoption will happen using multiple different blockchain technologies at the same time,” Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said in a statement.



“The collaboration between Swift, over ten of the largest financial institutions, and Chainlink also proved that interoperability across chains is critical to enabling the next stage of digital asset adoption across the global financial system,” he added.



After examining design and technical components with an emphasis on data privacy, governance, and risks, the latest experiments involved simulated transfers of tokens. These transfers took place within a single public blockchain, between different public blockchains, and also between public and private networks.



Swift&#8217;s infrastructure shows potential for facilitating the integration of Central Bank Digital Currencies and other digital assets with both new and existing payment systems.



The organization said it intends to continue exploring various blockchain technologies, concentrating particularly on public permissioned ledgers.



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Swift details findings in tests of Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability

Cross-chain swap and liquidity routing protocol Squid today launched Boost — a tool that is intended to reduce transaction speeds across different blockchains to as little as two seconds.



The protocol itself is built on top of cross-chain communication network Axelar. It uses Axelar’s General Messaging Passing (GMP) to enable one-click swaps across chains.&nbsp;



Squid said it supports over 43 different blockchains, including Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) chains such as Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon and Avalanche, and many Cosmos chains such as Cosmos Hub, Crescent and Injective.



Squid launched in February and has since seen $93 million in transaction volumes, co-founder Christina Rud told Blockworks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How does Squid swap tokens?</h2>



Squid co-founder Fig told Blockworks that instead of needing to transfer funds to an application, then convert it to a different token to use it, Squid’s router enables users to directly transfer across blockchains and into the token they wish to receive in just one click.&nbsp;



This means that users can swap any-to-any token across all blockchain networks that Squid supports.



Squid said it achieves this functionality by utilizing existing liquidity on different automated market makers (AMMs) — such as Uniswap or Curve.&nbsp;



All its transactions are routed through Axelar Wrapped USDC (axIUSDC)/USDC stable swap pools and USDC/native token pools on AMMs.



“If you have USDC on Avalanche and you want to stake Ethereum on a liquid staking contract, what Squid would do is we would swap USDC on Avalanche into Axelar Wrapped USDC, we would do that on Stellaswap, and transfer that across to Ethereum where the USDC gets unlocked by the Axelar bridge, and then stake it in the Lido contract, for example,” Fig said. “All of that happens in one click.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/PGxDj0CULBtR_7oJ5inVGC8oNnwnPwfKADYPzhk9ecP4l8wST1bzvHpxAteuSDjL73zFB_028e0wxURzuSK-voyMHJYH0DxOur4VLXzgXW8qYdVWodh830kFTWSg8-A3WVWpGSBuZzETrdH4xTE_hug" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: Squid</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The latest Boost feature</h2>



Squid’s new Boost feature will now improve the cross-chain swap process, the protocol said.



Although the Squid router has simplified the cross-chain swapping experience down to one click, the time to execute these transactions is still slow — ranging anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes.



Boost’s goal is to enable all swaps to occur in under one minute — and as little as two seconds — with the caveat that it is only available for transactions under $20,000.



“Boost is a layer which allows service providers to provide that bridge out of their own inventory almost as a loan, execute the swap immediately, and then when the bridge comes through 20 minutes later, it pays back the service provider instead of now sending to the user again,” Fig said.



Boost itself has received over five audits, and the Axelar bridge has more than 50 audits, Fig noted.



“The important thing is in the design, the risk is only for the service provider providing funds to the user. At no point is the user exposed to losing money compared to what we have in our standard credit protocol,” Fig said.



“The worst thing that can happen is if the service provider tries to censor the transaction, in that case, it falls back elegantly to the previous system…so you will still get your transaction in 20 minutes.”



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Cross-chain transactions in just 2 seconds? Squid says it’s possible

In the culinary world, a sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable professional, adept in food and wine pairing. In the <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#inter-blockchain-communication-protocol-ibc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interchain</a> landscape, asset management protocol <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sommelier" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sommelier</a> mixes and matches DeFi yield opportunities selected by independent strategists.



The Cosmos-based chain launched its first “intelligent DeFi vaults” on Ethereum mainnet in January, and has since grown its total value locked (TVL) from about $1.4 million to $16.7 million.&nbsp;



Now, thanks to Axelar’s implementation of general message passing (GMP), Sommelier is expanding to additional EVM-compatible chains, starting with layer-2 rollup, Arbitrum One.



Sommelier took two years to build, co-founder Zaki Manian told Blockworks in an interview. But with the advent of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/axelar" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axelar</a>, if they were starting from scratch today, it could be done in 60 days, Manian said.



“The combination of the two is immensely powerful,” Manian said. “What Axelar has done is establish a transport system.” It brings the same level of composability as found natively in the Cosmos tech stack to other EVM-based <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">layer-1</a> chains and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/rollups" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rollups</a>.



Axelar’s GMP for Cosmos recently went live on mainnet, and this will be its first production use once Sommelier&#8217;s Arbitrum vault launches.



“I think the [layer-1] war is going to start coming to an end soon,” said Manian. When decentralized application layers all fit together, “we’re gonna build amazing user experiences that are really able to onboard at a mass scale,” he said.



For instance, the protocol&#8217;s two main vault strategies — Real Yield USD and Real Yield ETH, which account for 97% of its TVL — couldn’t exist without the mechanisms of the Cosmos SDK. Non-custodial depositors on Ethereum mainnet are able to deploy capital into vaults managed by Sommelier’s strategists, approved by holders of its native token SOMM on its Cosmos chain.



But Ethereum mainnet — due to gas costs and performance constraints — lacks financial primitives, such as derivatives, that are enabled by other chains, including Arbitrum. The Axelar tie-up gives strategies access to Arbitrum dapps, while offloading the cross-chain infrastructure requirements to Axelar’s validators.



“Everything you can build with the Cosmos SDK is now going to be a lot more interoperable with Ethereum and other layer-1s that have EVM-support,” Axelar’s co-founder and engineering lead Sergey Gorbunov told Blockworks.



Previously, Sommelier would have had to run nodes, not only on Ethereum, but on any additional chains where it wants to offer its vaults. But now Axelar becomes a single point of contact for its future expansion.



“The Axelar network has been designed to support that type of activity on the economic side, on the incentive side,” Gorbunov said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What are the risks?</h2>



Sommelier vaults on Arbitrum naturally will introduce some new trust assumptions and commensurate risks.



As before, users of its DeFi strategies have to trust SOMM validators to behave correctly, but now must trust the design of Axelar’s GMP and its validators as well. However, Manian said, “we have designed our smart contracts on Sommelier to make it so it would be difficult for validators to steal funds, even if Sommelier or Axelar is compromised.



There are also inherent risks of transacting on EVM alternatives, such as Arbitrum, including the need to trust its centralized sequencer. These scaling solutions are still comparatively new, and there could be flaws or bugs yet to be revealed, Manian said.



“There is a reason why 95% of the Defi TVL is on Ethereum, but there’s so many exciting applications being built on L-2s like derivatives that are very exciting for strategies that it’s impossible for us to ignore the possibilities,” he said.



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DeFi Strategies Get a Multichain Boost From Sommelier and Axelar

Jack Kubinec

<div id="highlights-block_62e30a11f6d23" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The chain is a layer-2 optimistic rollup that financially rewards “guards” for verifying transactions</li>
 <li>“Rather than deploy your dapp on ten different chains, why not deploy it on the bridge protocol that’s already connected to every chain?” Synapse tweeted</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto builders are rushing to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bridge-protocols-race-to-win-consumer-trust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">restore trust in bridges</a> as cross-chain hacks have cost crypto users nearly $2 billion this year. But the Synapse Protocol hopes to win over disaffected investors by getting rid of bridging altogether.



Synapse Chain, announced today, would create a single-chain solution to cross-chain swaps. In theory, the chain could lower costs and increase security.



At a basic level, cross-chain bridges are protocols that transfer information between blockchains. The most common bridge use case is moving cryptoassets between chains. In that case, the bridge holds a user&#8217;s assets in a smart contract while deploying a “wrapped” IOU asset on the bridged chain.



Synapse Chain would do away with asset wrapping by creating a blockchain directly compatible with different cryptoassets, Synapse explained <a href="https://synapse.mirror.xyz/L6dBb7aXIJ1Ll5_sxP2bIJxVEYNd43ZzIV6dRylQJxw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in a blog post</a>.



For instance, if a user purchased hypothetical token XYZ on the Ethereum network, she could potentially use a Synapse-powered decentralized exchange (DEX) to directly convert ETH to XYZ without bridging tokens, saving on gas fees and increasing security.



Synapse’s “single execution environment” is built on Ethereum but theoretically is compatible with any blockchain.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">3/ By leveraging Synapse’s messaging system and bridge, Synapse Chain will become the organizational hub of all cross-chain activity. Rather than deploy your dapp on ten different chains, why not deploy it on the bridge protocol that’s already connected to every chain? <a href="https://t.co/XqZrLE8mSM">pic.twitter.com/XqZrLE8mSM</a>&mdash; Synapse Protocol (@SynapseProtocol) <a href="https://twitter.com/SynapseProtocol/status/1552665932027334657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The layer-2 uses optimistic proofs, where all transactions are assumed to be valid pending fraud claims from so-called guards.&nbsp;



Synapse believes optimistic verification will help the chain avoid adding to the nearly $2 billion in assets stolen from cross-chain protocols this year. Many hacked bridges held assets in multi-signature wallets that went light on the “multi.” <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/defi-cross-chain-horizon-bridge-hacked-for-100m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Harmony Horizon bridge</a>, for instance, had five keys, only two of which needed to be compromised by the hacker.



An optimistic system requires every validator to approve transactions, as every guard tacitly verifies data when it does not submit an allegation of fraud. Synapse incentivizes guards to do their jobs by confiscating their SYN governance tokens when faulty transactions are marked valid, a mechanism known as slashing.



SYN jumped roughly 40% after the Synapse Chain announcement, trading around $1.70 Thursday afternoon.



Synapse’s optimistic rollup sequencer will initially be run in-house, though the protocol hopes to follow other layer-2s toward decentralization.



Still, <a href="https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/01/05/rollup.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">optimistic rollups have been criticized</a> for the tradeoffs inherent to the use of fraud proofs, such as a relatively long withdrawal period to move funds to the Ethereum mainnet, and Synapse is not the only team rethinking bridges. 



Axelar and LayerZero are other major players in the post-bridge space. In a Telegram message, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino called the protocol “neither a bridge nor a blockchain” that moves assets directly between contracts.



Similarly, the Synapse Chain, which is expected to go live on a public testnet within weeks, doesn’t necessarily require assets to be bridged at all.



“A lot of the assets won’t have to be sent into the rollup, they can live on a chain and the messaging system will attest to their value,” said Synapse’s chief operating officer Max Bronstein.



“If you trust the security of the messaging system, [then] you trust that the asset in the rollup is the same as the asset on the native chain.”



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Synapse Chain Eyeing Bridgeless Asset Swaps

<div id="highlights-block_62bc42c09b064" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Few DeFi companies employ dedicated security personnel</li>
 <li>Industry experts believe bridges will become more secure as DeFi matures</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



As investment in cryptocurrency grows, so does the incentive for criminal actors to exploit the DeFi (decentralized finance) space. Cross-chain bridge hacks have been the weapon of choice for crypto thieves in 2022. Bridge hacks have accounted for more than a billion dollars in stolen funds this year, according to research from blockchain analytics and compliance firm Elliptic.



Cross-chain bridges allow assets to be moved between different blockchain protocols, meaning the networks contain a large concentration of crypto assets. The recent string of bridge attacks has caused some industry leaders to question whether the benefits of bridges outweigh their risks. A top analyst at Elliptic believes bridge hacks are just growing pains that DeFi will eventually surmount.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/defi-cross-chain-horizon-bridge-hacked-for-100m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harmony</a>, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sky-mavis-ronin-network-bridge-exploited-for-over-600m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sky Mavis</a>, and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/in-second-largest-defi-hack-ever-blockchain-bridge-loses-320m-ether/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wormhole</a> all suffered blockchain exploits exceeding $100 million this year. Mudit Gupta, Chief Information Security Officer at Polygon, believes bridge insecurity is an industry-wide problem.



“Most of the hacks are happening due to companies not having proper security experts and not knowing what to do themselves,” Gupta said in a Twitter DM. “There are very few DeFi companies with [dedicated] security personnel.”



DeFi protocols have proliferated rapidly in the past six years, but security infrastructure has not kept up with the now over-$900 billion industry. For this reason, hacks totaling in the hundreds of millions are not surprising.&nbsp;



On April 1, a trader tweeted their concern that a major Harmony Horizon Bridge exploit would only require a hacker to obtain two of the protocol’s five validator keys. In June, that exact scenario occurred — and Harmony was ransacked for $100 million.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Since the current narative du-jour is bridges &amp; bridge hacks, I wanted to do some digging on the harmony bridge on Ethereum which secures ~$330m worth of tokens.&mdash; Ape Dev (@_apedev) <a href="https://twitter.com/_apedev/status/1510007663832223751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, believes cross-chain bridges are inherently prone to security breaches.



“The fundamental security limits of bridges are actually a key reason why…I am pessimistic about cross-chain applications,” Buterin wrote in a lengthy January Reddit post. The influential founder went on to express his belief that assets should be held in the same blockchain ecosystem, rather than shuffled between chains.



Tara Annison, Head of Technical Crypto Advisory at the crypto research firm Elliptic, disagrees.



“We’re not going to live in a single chain world,” Annison said. It will always be necessary to move assets between blockchains, so “we shouldn’t characterize bridges in general as bad just because some have been hacked.”



Annison believes bridge hacks are caused by the concentration of value within cross-chain bridges, not by the bridges themselves.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“If you think of wars, you try to bomb bridges to stop goods and services moving across,” Annison said. Recent cross-chain bridge hacks are not happening “because bridges are inherently weak infrastructure, it’s because they have a concentration of value.”</blockquote>



Annison believes that all crypto assets come with risk, and bridges are just the risk “flavor of the month” following stablecoins in May and NFTs before that. Bridges should become more secure as protocols become more technologically mature.



It remains to be seen if market participants agree.



Sky Mavis’ Ronin Bridge, which was compromised for $625 million in April, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sky-mavis-reopening-ronin-bridge-with-enhanced-security/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reopened</a> this morning. Close to $9 million in assets have already left the chain, according to Messari.



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