Axelar, the universal overlay network, delivering secure cross-chain communication for Web3, has launched General Message Passing on its mainnet. The new function, which has been trialed by developers since going live in a local development environment in March, now enables applications to call any function on any chain, marking a significant step forward for cross-chain capabilities, beyond pairwise bridges and wrapped assets.

Sergey Gorbunov, Co-founder of Axelar, commented: “Releasing General Message Passing across chains is an important step, as we deliver on our promise of secure cross-chain communication for Web3. We’re taking blockchain interoperability beyond conventional pairwise bridges to provide any-to-any composability through our proof-of-stake transport layer. We’re looking forward to seeing dApp builders utilize Axelar’s tools to deliver a secure one-click experience for their users, regardless of the blockchain they are building on. We encourage any developers interested in securely communicating across chains to apply for our Axelarator Grant Challenge.”

Through Axelar’s new General Message Passing function, many-to-many communication is enabled across all chains, allowing users to compose DeFi functions, move tokens and NFTs, and perform multichain calls of any kind between dApps on various ecosystems.

Gorbunov added: “In today’s Web2 world, there are obstacles that make it difficult to create super apps, including the requirement for massive horizontal integration, and antitrust regulatory concerns. Web3 eliminates these issues, offering access to functions and assets in a permissionless manner. To enable this and offer users full maximum security, Axelar has built its General Message Passing atop the permissionless Axelar validator set for security; a decentralized protocol handles translation and routing. Decentralized by nature, Axelar’s interoperability solution treats security as a top priority – to protect developers and users from the risks associated with centralized bridging solutions.”

Developers seeking to build applications using General Message Passing can find more information about it in Axelar’s technical documentation or read a high-level explanation on the Axelar blog.

Today’s announcement follows on from a recent $35 million Series B funding round, which saw Axelar achieve a valuation of $1 billion. Investors in Axelar include Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital and Dragonfly Capital. Axelar has an extensive network of ecosystem partners including Avalanche, Cosmos, Ethereum, Fantom, Keplr, Metrika, Pangolin, Moonbeam, Polkadot, Polygon, Solarbeam and Terra.

About Axelar

Axelar delivers secure cross-chain communication for Web3. Axelar is a universal overlay network that supports General Message Passing and composability of programs via a proof-of-stake transport layer. Developer tools and APIs make it easy for both protocol and application developers to integrate interoperability. Axelar has raised capital from top-tier investors including Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, and Polychain Capital. Partners include major proof-of-stake blockchains, such as Avalanche, Cosmos, Ethereum, Polkadot, and Terra. Axelar’s co-founders are founding team members of Algorand and award-winning graduates of MIT, where they received notable recognition as part of their graduate studies.

For more information, follow us on Twitter at @axelarcore, or join our Discord community.

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