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New York, NY, October 3rd, 2024, Chainwire

MDS is a New Interoperability Standard Leveraging Enhanced AXL Token Utility to Power Infinite Security and Scalability Across Web3. Top L1s Are Cued to Launch; Augmentable Security via Babylon and EigenLayer; and a Vendor-Agnostic Interface Built With OpenZeppelin

Axelar, a leader in blockchain interoperability, has launched the Mobius Development Stack (MDS) on mainnet, following on-chain governance approval. MDS is the first-and-only holistic interoperability platform. MDS enables customizable, self-service integration with any on-chain or off-chain system, creating a new design space for decentralized applications. The list of upcoming layer 1 interoperability launches includes Solana, Stellar, Sui and XRP Ledger – powered by the newly launched Interchain Amplifier. 

MDS is set to redefine how data, value and users connect and interact across a reimagined Web 3.0: One connection, limitless possibilities. 

“What we know as 'Web3' was supposed to break free from walled gardens,” said Georgios Vlachos, director at Axelar Foundation and co-founder of the Axelar protocol. "Instead, we have a blockchain ecosystem where user experience is broken and developer capabilities are limited. MDS empowers developers to build decentralized applications that compose resources, logic, value and network effects freely across a truly global internet landscape.”

Axelar’s Mobius Development Stack is a platform for an omnichain world, where decentralized applications not only integrate with but also surpass traditional systems in functionality, access and user experience. This new era of internet design prioritizes openness, flexibility, and interoperability, redefining how applications are built and how users interact with them.

"Interoperability stacks have traditionally been in catch-up mode with the rapid growth in the number of blockchains," said Sergey Gorbunov, CEO of Interop Labs and co-founder of Axelar protocol. "MDS is the first architecture that allows us to keep up with the demand. It scales to support thousands of heterogeneous blockchains offering strong security properties, and allowing innovation to continue to happen at all levels of the stack. It allows developers to easily plug in their blockchain to the 'Internet' of blockchains and build dApps that span all chains at the same time."

Key Benefits of the Mobius Development Stack (MDS):

• Self-service, customizable connections: Newly approved through on-chain governance and launched on mainnet, Interchain Amplifier introduces a novel staking approach that enables permissionless, dynamic, customizable integrations, with diverse consensus approaches like Flow, Hedera, Solana, Stellar, Sui and XRP Ledger cued up to connect.
• Native tokens anywhere, beyond bridges: With the Interchain Token Service (ITS), anyone can access rapid tokenization of both crypto and real-world assets; tokenize assets like real estate or intellectual property, unlocking liquidity and enabling fractional ownership on any chain.
• Connecting on/off-chain: Acting as a gateway between Web2 and Web3, MDS allows various off-chain actors (e.g., ZK co-processors, AI co-processors) to interact with Web3 dApps through a single, secure transaction on the Axelar network.
• Limitless community: Foster omnichain user experiences, allowing developers to engage users on any blockchain. For example, NFTs can extend across multiple chains, while automating royalty payments; solutions deliver rapid RWA tokenization and unified payments and services in the DePIN space

Integrating with Leading Ecosystems to Establish Standards for Interoperability

MDS enables self-service, customizable connection to blockchains powered by any form of consensus – which is why leading L1 blockchain ecosystems are adopting, with formal launches expected in the coming weeks.

"The Sui ecosystem is making significant advances with innovations such as Mysticeti, a new consensus algorithm that offers the fastest end-to-end transactions speeds in the industry, as well as zkLogin and sponsored transactions which make onboarding new users seamless," said Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Mysten Labs, which developed the Sui Network. "Axelar MDS will give developers the tools to compose these innovations with technology and communities across Web3."

"Axelar developers are once again pushing the envelope on what a secure, developer-friendly and modular cross-chain tech stack can be," said Stellar Development Foundation Chief Product Officer Tomer Weller. "We are excited about working with Axelar and look forward to this integration strengthening Stellar’s position in the rapidly evolving DeFi space."

With Mobius, global financial services firms and blockchain innovators can connect private-chain environments to public layer 1s, unlocking the potential of tokenized assets. 

“Bringing Web3 to traditional finance was meant to break down the siloed, opaque systems of the past in favor of open, transparent blockchain rails. However, without seamless interoperability, we only get part of the way there," said Jasmine Cooper, head of product at RippleX. "Different blockchains serve specific purposes and niches, and to fully unlock the potential of real-world asset tokenization and financial use cases, cross-chain asset mobility and protocol access are crucial. By integrating the XRP Ledger with Axelar MDS, we are moving another step closer to unlocking value for both users and developers, enabling them to leverage new opportunities for interoperability and build and operate on a truly globally, decentralized network.”

Flexible Security to Meet Institutional Requirements

With MDS, Axelar will become the first institutional-grade interoperability network to integrate Babylon and EigenLayer (subject to online governance), bringing Bitcoin- and Ethereum-level security to cross-chain interactions. 

"Today, we build and work in a multichain world – but one blockchain, Bitcoin, still sets the standard for security," said David Tse, co-founder of Babylon Blockchain. "Through this integration, Axelar MDS will make Bitcoin security available to any application across Web3. It sets a new standard for secure interoperability across all chains."

This is key for institutional participants who require the highest-quality digital collateral to secure trillions in total value locked (TVL). For the second year in a row, Axelar is supporting top-10 global investment banks with their projects at the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian initiative. 

“Integration with Axelar Mobius Development Stack opens a universe of restaking opportunities in new use cases that were inaccessible to Eigen previously" said Luke Hajdukiewicz, EigenLayer Head of AVS BD. "Axelar and EigenLayer are reaching toward the same vision: a horizontally scalable Web3 in which developers compose freely across user networks and resources."  

Vendor-Agnostic, Open Interface

OpenZeppelin is the leader in Web3 developer tools, with smart-contract libraries that have secured over $7 trillion in value transferred. The previously announced integration into these libraries now adds an evolutionary step for interoperability: an open interface compatible with all major interoperability protocols.

“We've already made great progress with Interop Labs toward integrating Axelar into OpenZeppelin's leading smart-contract libraries," said Luca Cosivi, ecosystem development lead at OpenZeppelin. "That collaboration just took on a new dimension: a completely open set of semantics that is vendor-agnostic, so dApp developers can truly build interoperability from Day One."

As Axelar is integrated into OpenZeppelin libraries, these open interoperability standards will be available to developers at the start of their dApp-building journey, so dApps can go multichain on Day One, without vendor lock-in.  

A New Security Approach and Improved AXL Tokenomics

With the Mobius release, Interchain Amplifier launches to mainnet, following its approval by on-chain governance. This long-anticipated feature enables permissionless cross-chain connections with a novel consensus approach that exists at the smart-contract layer. This is supported by a new security approach, powered by the AXL token:

• New chains and off-chain resources connect securely via designated groups of verifiers, and set aside pools of AXL incentives. 
• Verifiers post collateral in AXL, restaked ETH and/or restaked BTC. 
• A mechanism has been proposed to send AXL transaction fees to a burn address, instead of distributing them to tokenholders. 

Protocol-level development is not needed, accelerating and expanding accessibility; any consensus mechanism or off-chain system can connect in this way. 

Users can learn more about Axelar MDS: axelar.network/mobius.

About Axelar

Axelar is the Web3 interoperability platform, delivering the shortest path to scale: an open stack to connect all blockchains. Adopters include Uniswap, Microsoft and dozens of natively multichain startups, building applications to reach all blockchain users at once – 10X as many active users as the leading Web3 application environment. Axelar supports smart contracts on a cross-chain layer that is open, scalable and secure. Backers include Binance, Coinbase, Dragonfly, Galaxy and Polychain. Learn more: axelar.network.

About Axelar Foundation

Axelar Foundation is a nonprofit established to support the growth and adoption of the Axelar network, a decentralized interoperability network that connects multiple blockchain ecosystems. Users can learn more at axelar.foundation.

About Babylon

Babylon is a project that designs Bitcoin security-sharing protocols with a vision of building a Bitcoin-secured decentralised world. Its latest development is the world’s first trustless and self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol, which enables Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) systems such as PoS chains, L2s, Data Availability (DA) layers, etc, enabling them to earn yield without the need for third-party custody, bridge solutions, or wrapping services. Babylon's approach combines the high security and wide adoption of Bitcoin with the efficiency and scalability of PoS systems, increasing Bitcoin's utility.

About EigenLayer

EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that pioneered restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. Through EigenLayer's system of interconnected smart contracts, any ERC-20 token can be "restaked" to participate in not one, but any number of Actively Validated Services (AVSs) in exchange for fees and/or rewards. Operators opt into these opportunities by running additional node software and in some cases grant the EigenLayer smart contracts the ability to impose additional slashing conditions on their assets as specified by the AVS. EigenLayer's core objective is to unlock a new era of open innovation by reducing developer complexity when building and bootstrapping decentralized networks from scratch.

About Interop Labs

Interop Labs is a leading developer of blockchain interoperability technology, used by Web3 infrastructure protocols to support scaling the next generation of internet applications to billions of users. Interop Labs is the initial developer of Axelar network. Learn more at interoplabs.io.

About Mysten Labs

Mysten Labs is a team of leading distributed systems, programming languages, and cryptography experts whose founders were senior executives and lead architects of pioneering blockchain projects. The mission of Mysten Labs is to create foundational infrastructure for web3. Users can learn more: https://mystenlabs.com

About OpenZeppelin

Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin is dedicated to creating and protecting the open economy through secure and reliable blockchain infrastructure. Our widely-used OpenZeppelin Contracts Library has secured over $7 trillion in total value transferred, and our Defender Cloud Services streamline and safeguard decentralized applications. We empower developers with industry-leading tools and initiatives, fostering a secure blockchain ecosystem. Trusted by top projects globally, OpenZeppelin is your partner in building a safe and interoperable decentralized future. Users can learn more at: www.openzeppelin.com

About Stellar

Stellar is more than a blockchain. Powered by a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network made for financial products and services and a thriving and passionate ecosystem that includes a non-profit organization driven by a mission, Stellar is paving the path to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. Built with speed and low costs in mind, the Stellar network provides builders and financial institutions worldwide a platform to issue assets, and to send and convert currencies in real time creating real world utility. Founded in 2014, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) supports the continued development and growth of the Stellar network and also serves the ecosystem of NGOs, corporations, universities, small businesses, governments, and solo entrepreneurs building on the Stellar network through tooling, funding and strategic collaborations. Together, Stellar is where blockchain meets the real world.

About Sui

Sui is a first-of-its-kind Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed from the ground up to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible to everyone. Its object-centric model, based on the Move programming language, enables parallel execution, sub-second finality, and rich on-chain assets. With horizontally scalable processing and storage, Sui supports a wide range of applications with unrivaled speed at low cost. Sui is a step-function advancement in blockchain and a platform on which creators and developers can build amazing user-friendly experiences. For more information about Sui, users can visit https://sui.io.

About XRP Ledger

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is a decentralized layer 1 blockchain renowned for its decade-long reliability and stability in tokenizing and exchanging crypto-native and real-world assets. Designed to support businesses and builders, it is powered by XRP, a cryptocurrency purpose-built for payments. Trusted by over 1,000 visionary builders and businesses worldwide, the XRP Ledger offers institutional-grade functionality and built-in features to enable secure, efficient, and scalable financial services and use cases. It's more than just a blockchain – it's a global developer community dedicated to transforming future business solutions.

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