My notes..

First, the what ?

Axelar is an omnichain layer zero-esque blockchain that enables “communications” between different blockchains.

Core protocols of Axelar;

Cross-Chain gateway Protocol: this allows the axelar to connect to and through various other blockchain ecosystems.

Cross-Chain Transaction protocol; this layer allows for txs between the interconnected chains from [1] above. It allows developers to “connect their dapps on any chain and perform Cross-Chain requests”. This protocol is “alive” at the application level.

Axelar facilitates something referred to as “interoperability”. For the uninitiated, this simply refers to the ability of blockchains interacting with each other. With axelar, one can potentially interact with a lending dapp on Avax whilst being on Aptos.

The advantages of Axelar (I lifted this one straight off Axelar’s whitepaper);

• For blockchain platform builders: Ability to easily plug-in their blockchains to all other blockchain ecosystems. Only a threshold account needs to be set up on the chain to plug into the network.

• For dapps builders: Application builders can host their dapps anywhere, lock, unlock, transfer assets,and communicate with applications on any other chain via CTP API.• For users: Users can interact with all applications across the ecosystem directly from their wallets.

Summarily, Axelar will;

1. Give blockchains a wider reach since users on other chains would be able to access them through the Axelar network.
2. Give existing/new dapps on these chains similar reach for the same reasons.
3. Give users the ability to interact with applications built on these blockchains.

In effect, Axelar proposes to give you (the user) the ability to go omnichain without having to bridge assets/send them through centralised exchanges (like Binance) to swap, withdraw, and then interact with the intended chain.

Why does Axelar make sense ?

First, you need to understand that blockchains do not innately have the ability to “communicate” with each other. So, for a user on A chain to be able to use a protocol on B chain, they'd either have to;

1. Deposit the asset on A chain on a centralised exchange (like Binance), swap the asset to an asset supported on B chain, send the asset from the Exchange to B chain (all three steps incur fees at their different levels).
2. Use a bridge to move the assets from chain A to B. But bridges are a sweet spot for hackers.Take a look at the data below for example.