Blog Article
Stellar Bridge Bounty Program Grants Up to $5 Million to Finalists
Author
Tomer Weller
Publishing date
SCF
Projects
Stellar is all about interoperability between financial systems. Our work at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) strives to support solutions building system-to-system interplay, while also making those solutions as accessible as possible. Although decentralized finance ecosystems are fertile ground for financial innovation, there is still a gap between the conceptual and the capable. In the urgency of bringing the future of Web3 and DeFi closer to the financial rails of the present, we launched the Stellar Bridge Bounty Program, which endeavors to transform these challenges into changes.
Recently, we’ve seen exciting developments in the space of blockchain interoperability. And we wanted to support projects tackling this important issue, because it's through their work that we’ll make a truly global, interoperable financial system a reality.
That’s why earlier this year we announced the creation of this Bridge Bounty Program. It awards five teams up to $1,000,000 worth of XLM each for incorporating Stellar in a cross-chain solution. That's right — SDF has committed $5,000,000 worth of XLM in total to support projects building interoperability between Stellar and one or more DeFi ecosystems. We believe that supporting builders with programs like this is critical to creating a thriving Web3 ecosystem. By providing developers with the resources they need, SDF is driving towards our mission of creating equitable access to the financial system.
Traditionally, Stellar bridges between payment systems using the network’s on- and off-ramps, a.k.a. Stellar’s anchor network. With the Stellar Bridge Bounty program, we are supporting projects doing the hard work of building bridges between Stellar and the rest of the world. These interoperability solutions may also provide a reference point for how other chains can launch integrations with Stellar in the future.
And the winners are…
The number of applications was overwhelming and the decision was hard. Over the past few months, projects from around the world have told us about their business, their mission, and areas of focus. After a healthy deliberation, we are confident these trailblazers are on their way to empowering Stellar as the leading interoperability gateway, providing users of the global financial system with equitable access to innovative DeFi solutions.
The winners are diverse. They vary in terms of technology, product, and team size. Yet they all share three things in common: clear deliverables, concrete timelines, and qualified teams. SDF evaluated each of these applicants' products, services, and code repositories, and we're pleased to present the finalists to you here today.
Allbridge
"The Allbridge team is very excited to become a part of the Bridge Bounty program. It offers us an incredible opportunity to add Stellar to the ever-growing list of supported chains, enabling seamless entry into their ecosystem for the entire DeFi community. Inspired by Stellar's traditions, we have internally named the integration project Estrella. We look forward to taking this journey together with our partners!"– Andriy Velykyy, CEO and Co-founder of Allbridge
Allbridge is a simple, modern, and reliable way to transfer assets between blockchains. One of the top 10 public asset transfer bridges by total value locked (TVL), Allbridge has integrated a total of 14 different chains, all while building a recognizable brand. With Allbridge Core and Allbridge BaaS products under development, this exciting project bridges coins and tokens, and plans to extend their support to NFTs in the future. To date, Allbridge has bridged over $6.3 billion in assets.
Learn more at https://allbridge.io/.
Axelar
“Stellar has a dynamic ecosystem of builders focused on real-world applications for crypto. Axelar is excited to provide the secure infrastructure to connect those applications with functions, users, and currencies on any chain. Together, we’ll build onramps for the next millions of users in crypto.”– Sergey Gorbunov, CEO of Axelar
Axelar delivers secure cross-chain communication for Web3. Its infrastructure enables dApp users to interact with any asset or application, on any chain, with one click.
Learn more at https://axelar.network/.
Cubist
“Cubist is a new development and deployment platform that makes it easy to build, test, and launch multi-chain dApps. With Cubist, Soroban contracts will be able to communicate seamlessly and securely with contracts across the blockchain multiverse - and developers will be able to deploy their entire application at the push of a button.” — Riad Wahby, Co-founder of Cubist
Cubist’s team includes veteran hackers with deep experience in developer tooling, skilled operators who are former founders and early startup employees, and respected academics who have collectively published over 80 research papers on computer systems, compilers, programming languages, security, and cryptography.
Learn more at https://cubist.dev/.
Kaladin
“We’re excited to build on Stellar to take advantage of the speed and efficiency of the base chain, as well as the active and engaged community.”– Sean Costello, CEO of Kaladin
Kaladin is building a P2P protocol for exchanging crypto assets regardless of which chain they’re on. The Kaladin protocol is focused on providing fast, low-friction transactions without relying on any custodians.
Learn more at https://www.kaladin.com/.
Multichain
“Multichain is the ultimate router for Web3. It is an infrastructure developed for arbitrary cross-chain interactions. It is the leading decentralized cross-chain bridge. We are excited to become a part of the Stellar ecosystem and help contribute to the ultimate success of the network. Multichain will help Stellar connect to over 63 different chains.”– Vasco Pinto, VP of Ecosystem of Multichain
With a full suite of five products, Multichain provides a comprehensive infrastructure that helps organizations to build and deploy blockchain applications with speed. Supporting over 2,600 tokens across 61 different chains, Multichain has a massive reach and is the leading decentralized cross-chain bridge on the market today. The project has been running since 2020 and has had over $87 billion in volume and $2.4 billion in TVL.
Learn more at https://multichain.xyz/.