**Proponent:** 12wWLUd5qMzLFGqBsMnHLVFeTuYJwuo5ygMAxuSywrBX1XSF

**Date:** 2023.03.23

**Requested DOT:** 45,306 DOT (277,000 USD)

**Contact:**  jeroen@k-f.co & frederik@k-f.co

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Currently, the only bridges available to users of the Polkadot ecosystem have some limitations, including:

1. Being EVM-specific and not Substrate native, e.g. several bridges (including Axelar) have been deployed on Moonbeam EVM. While this is great for bootstrapping liquidity in those EVM networks, it complicates integrations with other parachains through XCM and adds significant overhead.

2. Centralized bridges which are reliant on multisigs, which is incompatible with the Web3 vision of the Polkadot ecosystem.

3. Bridges that only go to Ethereum mainnet, and don’t support message passing.

We believe Axelar is an ideal option for solving those problems, as it’s a decentralized protocol based on delegated proof-of-stake, with support for general message passing across all its target domains. It’s currently connected to 32 blockchains, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Celo, Arbitrum, Cosmos, and Polygon.

Axelar’s any-to-any connectivity is crucial to the success of any ecosystem. Within Cosmos, where Axelar is the most widely used interoperability platform, historically only a minority of users onboard from Ethereum mainnet, with [Polygon being the most popular option](https://axelarscan.io/transfers?sourceChain=polygon&destinationChain=osmosis). By enabling people to onboard from any ecosystem, we expand the user base of Polkadot, Centrifuge and the ecoystem. Axelar network supports General Message Passing across chains and delivers any-to-any connectivity. Most people are familiar with cross-chain activity via bridges, which can only transport wrapped representations of assets. General Message Passing goes beyond: Axelar can transport any payload. This enables more sophisticated cross-chain operations, like buying an NFT representing a RWA on Centrifuge, with an asset held on Arbitrum. [Axelar is working with Circle](https://www.circle.com/blog/composable-usdc-seamless-multichain-ux-by-axelar) to compose this functionality with CCTP, so that users can perform those operations with 0-slippage.

Centrifuge and Axelar have been discussing the need for this with the ecosystem and the following parachains have also expressed an interest in using a Substrate-native Axelar integration:
* Astar
* Acala
* Oak Network
* Parallel
* Gear
* Manta
* Clover
* Composable
* Equilibrium
* Interlay
* Peaq network
* Unique
* Watr
* OmniBTC

The deliverable for this proposal contains an Axelar-Gateway-Pallet compatible with XCM to be integrated in the BridgeHub common good parachain, an Audit of the given pallet and all work around maintenance. The given Axelar-Gateway-Pallet will also be usable for a "local" deployment so that it will help all Substrate based parachains to connect to Axelar.

The full proposal can be found [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ijCKnuFh4CNOLmObysNTyOa1WW10Ou0bWuf5wxMxetg/edit?usp=sharing).

- The current bridges in the Polkadot ecosystem have limitations.
- Axelar is a decentralized protocol that can solve these problems.
- Axelar is connected to multiple blockchains and supports general message passing.
- Many parachains are interested in integrating with Axelar.
- The proposal is to create an Axelar-Gateway-Pallet for integration in the BridgeHub common good parachain.

#1755 Treasury Proposal by Centrifuge: Support Axelar General Message Passing in the Polkadot ecosystem (via BridgeHub)