Osmosis Co-founder Doesn’t See Cosmos and Polkadot as Competitors

Osmosis, a cross-chain automated market maker on Cosmos, has expanded its services to Polkadot and Ethereum-based tokens through integration with Axelar and Moonbeam. 

Cross-chain swaps allow decentralized finance (DeFi) dApp developers to expand their reach between different blockchain ecosystems. 

Osmosis’ latest integration, which enables transactions via Inter-Blockchain Communication, will support one-click swaps between the different blockchains, starting with Polkadot’s native token DOT.

“Our goal for Osmosis is not just to be a Cosmos DEX, our goal is to provide the best DEX possible for the entire crypto ecosystem and the interchain world that is coming into reality,” Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis Labs, told Blockworks.

Aggarwal wanted to make sure that Osmosis had a single canonical bridge to connect different networks. This would give the team capability to execute more functionality in a timely manner. 

A governance voting process that involved four other bridge providers was motioned. Blockchain interoperability startup Axelar was chosen as the primary cross-chain infrastructure.

“Axelar’s UX was very similar to what we were looking for and much more seamless than a lot of the others,” Aggarwal said, adding that Axelar had faster connectivity and a better security model. 

Polkadot and Cosmos are often considered competitors, but Aggarwal hasn’t thought of the two projects in that way. Rather, they’re simply different frameworks for building dApp chains, he said. 

Indeed, this latest collaboration between the two blockchains demonstrates a commitment to deeper integration. 

“The point of building these interoperability protocols is not just to interoperate within tiny ecosystems,” Aggarwal said. “Polkadot is a big ecosystem that has a lot of interesting assets. Our plan is to be able to continue to connect every ecosystem possible.”

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
• Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
• Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
• Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
• The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.