The UX of interoperability comes from multiple factors other than accessibility and convenience. When comparing various interoperability solutions, you may also need to consider variables like liquidity, security, pricing, and permissionlessness.

After scrutinizing the big players in interoperability, Axelar is the only project that plays finely with the variables above while supporting most blockchains with great developer UX.

What Is Axelar?

Axelar is a decentralized network that enables cross-chain asset transfers, allowing users to seamlessly move assets across blockchain networks.

Axelar’s architecture is built on the hub-and-spoke model. The hub acts as a central point for asset transfers, and the spokes represent the individual blockchains connected to the hub. The model syndicates efficient and secure asset transfers across networks.

Axelar secures its network by combining Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) and Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms. BFT ensures the network can tolerate several faulty nodes without failing. This combination of mechanisms helps in maintaining the network's security and reliability.

One of Axelar’s key features is supporting more assets than most interoperability projects, including cryptocurrencies, tokens, and other digital assets.

Axelar prioritizes user and developer experience. Users can use projects like Squidrouter to bridge and swap across IBC and EVM chains.

In the same vein, developers and businesses can integrate Axelar’s suite of services into their apps to develop cross-chain apps.

What Is Wormhole?

Wormhole is the protocol that connects blockchain applications to ensure secure communication and interaction between blockchain networks. Woremhokle acts as a bridge that allows asset and information transfer between blockchains.

Wormhole facilitates cross-chain asset transfer by locking the tokens on the source blockchain and minting the equivalent on the target blockchain to ensure a constant total supply.

The Wormhole protocol maintains high-security levels by relying on a network of nodes (guardians) that oversee the cross-chain transactions to ensure their integrity.

Users can transact seamlessly and fast with minimal interaction complexity with dApps like Portalbridge.

For developers, Wormhole offers comprehensive SDKs and APIs, extensive documentation, and a supportive community for building and deploying cross-chain apps.

Axelar vs Wormhole

Axelar and Wormhole are big players in the blockchain interoperability category off multiple metrics, from the number of supported chains to their objectives; however, Wormhole and Axelar aren’t similar technologically.

Here’s a table comparing Axelar and Wormhole by critical metrics you’d consider when choosing an interoperability solution to build or transact on:

It’s safe to conclude that Wormhole’s features are a subset of what the Axelar network has evolved to become. Wormhole offers a streamlined, efficient service for cross-chain transactions within a fixed set of chains; Axelar provides a broader, more adaptable platform that caters to the complexities of cross-chain smart contract development, with more chains supported.

Smart contract support makes Axelar more developer-friendly, and the project also supports chain abstraction in a more scalable approach.

From the comparison table, Wormhole's only edge over Axelar is in terms of volume, which may be due to the airdrop farming that ensued on the protocol. Also, most of Wormhole’s volume comes from its Solana and Sui support, which Axelar will roll out in a few weeks.

Wormhole just took a step further toward decentralization, and it’d be interesting to compare these projects using these metrics again in the coming months.

Conclusion

Axelar and Wormhole take different approaches to tackle the interoperability problem. Axelar provides a more comprehensive solution with broader blockchain support, smart contract capabilities, and enhanced security features.