Today we are proud to announce the launch of Satellite, one of the first ecosystem applications powered by the Axelar Network. Satellite is a decentralized cross-chain asset transfer application, which enables users to transfer assets they hold on a source chain to an address on a different destination chain.

Upon launch, Satellite will support the transfer of native Terra assets such as LUNA and UST between several EVM and non-EVM chains such as Terra, Avalanche, Polygon, Ethereum and Fantom, with Moonbeam added shortly thereafter. Multiple networks and assets will be added in the coming weeks and months.

Satellite is the first app to demonstrate that Axelar connects all Cosmos chains via IBC and its GCP protocol with multiple ecosystems. Axelar serves as the translation layer that allows Cosmos assets to flow freely to all Axelar-interconnected networks and back. Axelar supports routing, finalizing and executing transactions in different “languages”.

Why Satellite?

Web3 is growing. Today there are more blockchains, assets, decentralized applications and users than ever before. According to Electric Capital’s Annual Developer Report, 34,000 new developers began contributing to blockchain projects in 2021 — the largest single year increase ever.

As the ecosystem grows, the infrastructure to support this influx of talent, innovation, energy and capital must develop as well.

We built Satellite to connect this growing ecosystem, to provide end users with a simpler, more decentralized transfer experience and to demonstrate to developers what the Axelar Network is capable of.

How to Use Satellite

Our aim is to provide users with a simple, streamlined, cross-chain transfer experience.

Please review the documentation we have created in the links below before using Satellite.

Read the Official Tutorial Post

With any new software, there could be bugs and unforeseen edge cases the developers did not account for. Be sure to exercise caution and test-transfer before executing larger sum transfers.

If you run into issues, please check the support icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. We will do our best to help you if you run into any issues.

Transaction Fees

There are fees required to process cross-chain asset transfers. Users pay the fee on the source chain they are sending from plus 0.1% of the asset transferred is assessed to cover the fees on all other chains (Axelar network / destination chain / relay infrastructure costs, etc.).

There is a minimum transfer amount that is different depending on the network users are transferring assets to / from.

Anyone Can Build On Axelar

Satellite is just the start. Soon, developers will be able to connect their applications to Axelar’s decentralized network through an API, gaining access to every other network connected to Axelar and the assets and users on those networks. Satellite was created as an example application using the API to execute cross-chain asset transfers.

Satellite’s code will be open sourced. API documentation, developer tools and an SDK are currently in development to make it easy to interact with the network. We welcome and encourage developers to build their own cross-chain asset transfer applications.

If you have an idea you would like to explore with Axelar, please submit an application to the Ecosystem Developer Program.

Start exploring Axelar Testnet here.

How Axelar Processes Cross-Chain Transfers

It should be noted, that when Axelar is used to execute cross-chain transfers, the assets are transferred from the source chain through a gateway smart contract, which is monitored by a decentralized group of validators. When a transaction occurs, the validators monitoring the gateway execute a read request to the gateway.

Then the validators use a multi-party consensus protocol to agree upon the state of the transfer. Upon agreement, the validators then execute a write request to the gateway contract for the destination chain that the funds are being transferred to. Again, multi-party consensus takes place, and upon completion, the funds are transferred to the destination address provided by the user.

Announcing The Launch of Satellite was originally published in Axelar on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.