Introduction

Axelar Network is a cross-chain communication platform that aims to connect different blockchain networks in a decentralized and interoperable way. The platform allows for the seamless transfer of value and data between different blockchain networks, enabling users to access a wider range of decentralized applications and services. The platform achieves this through two bridges, Satellite and Squid.

Satellite Bridge: Satellite is the first bridge developed by Axelar Network. It is a cross-chain indexing solution that connects different blockchain networks to the Axelar Network. The Satellite bridge uses indexing nodes that run on different blockchain networks, collecting transaction records and relaying them to the Axelar Network. This process ensures that users can access transaction details across different blockchain networks and can track the status of their cross-chain transactions in real-time.

Using the Satellite bridge, users can interact with other blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polkadot. This interoperability allows for the creation of unique decentralized applications that combine the strengths of different blockchain networks. For instance, users can create decentralized finance applications that use smart contracts on Ethereum, and Token transfers on Binance Smart Chain.

Squid Bridge: The Squid bridge is a trust-minimized, permission-less substrate relay chain that connects different blockchain networks with Axelar Network. The Squid bridge is similar to the Satellite bridge, but operates differently. The Squid bridge connects Axelar Network to different decentralized substrate-based blockchain networks, such as Polkadot and Kusama.

The Squid bridge allows for trust-minimized token transfers and cross-chain messaging between Axelar Network and other substrate-based blockchain networks. This bridging enables the development of cross-chain decentralized applications that leverage the benefits of different blockchain networks.

The Squid bridge leverages a two-way peg and a Collator scheme to ensure trustless transfer of assets across different blockchain networks. The Collators ensure that transactions are executed correctly, and the two-way peg ensures that the transfer of assets is genuine, verified via a set of validator nodes for each blockchain network.

Benefits of the Axelar Network Bridges: The Axelar Network's two bridges, Satellite and Squid, enable interoperability between independent blockchain networks empowering the creation of cross-chain applications. Besides, the Axelar Network's bridges offer several benefits, some of which are:

Increased Interoperability: The Axelar Network bridges satellite and Squid offer a more efficient and cost-effective means of achieving interoperability between blockchain networks.

Enhanced Flexibility: The compatibility of the bridges with different blockchain networks empowers users and dApp developers to optimize their choice of technology to build highly flexible projects.

Improved User Access: The Axelar Network bridges expand user access to valuable resources and applications on disparate blockchain networks, ultimately promoting blockchain adoption.

Robust Security: The bridges leverage sophisticated state-of-the-art algorithms to ensure secure and efficient information propagation, token transfer, and cross-chain communications.

Shift Towards Decentralization: Axelar Network bridges epitomize the shift from centralized third-party-based cross-chain solutions to decentralized permission-less means of achieving interoperability.

Methodology

The aim of this dashboard is to identify the Squid bridge's stats and most active chains as destination, source ans also the paths.to reach this goal , the data from Flipsidecrypto Axelar tables had been used. The dashboard is consistde of 4 main parts . first part discusses about Squid stats, the second one shows the destinations' trend and overall stats and the third part reveals the same metrics for different destinations. the last one also presents and discusses about the most used and popular paths since January 1st ,2023. Hop you enjoy it !