Avail Co-Founder Explains Why the Future of Crypto is Multi-Chain
Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Avail Project, shared his views on the future of crypto and blockchain in an interview at Consensus Hong Kong. Avail is designed to enable blockchains to communicate, verify transactions, and share liquidity between chains in a secure and scalable manner.
Avail's Current Landscape
"We started Avail as a Polygon project in 2020. Then we spun it off in 2023 and it's still here today. The main reason we started Avail was that at that time, the vision of roll-ups for Ethereum was taking shape, and we saw that the future of blockchain was not a single chain but multiple chains working together."
Anurag also gave an example of transaction congestion on Solana to illustrate the need for a multi-chain environment.
Avail's multi-chain vision and features
"We aim to build a seamless multi-chain environment. This is the goal of the upcoming Nexus upgrade. It will allow Avail roll-ups to share liquidity without having to bootstrap liquidity from scratch on each chain."
Arjun further explained that users can make transactions on new roll-ups without having to manually transfer funds from one chain to another, for example from Solana or Base to Sophon or Lens.
Nexus Upgrade Plan
"Currently, app developers have to deploy their products on multiple chains to avoid losing users. With Nexus, they only need to deploy on a single chain, but users from other chains can still access the app without manual bridges. All of this is automated and abstracted, providing a smooth user experience."
Arjun believes that this approach will become increasingly attractive to developers as they get used to easier multi-chain integrations.
Technical and growth challenges
"The biggest challenge right now is mostly technical. Every change we make needs to be proven to work and integrate with other chains securely and quickly. However, on the growth side, our partners like Wormhole are a huge help in building a multi-chain messaging stack."
Arjun also emphasized that, in the future, implementing liquidity campaigns will become more difficult as the number of blockchain chains increases.
Avail's Competitive Advantage and Future
"We have been building a data sampling infrastructure with valid proofs for many years, and this is something that only Ethereum is trying to do. Once we have a critical mass of chains participating in the Avail ecosystem, it will be easier to attract new chains."
Arjun emphasized that Avail is not only creating a strong technical foundation, but also making it easy for new chains to access liquidity without having to start from scratch. "We will bring a very differentiated liquidity service to new chains, helping them grow quickly."
Nexus Upgrade and Future Roadmap
"Our Nexus upgrade is currently live on devnet and will be deployed on testnet soon. We expect to have the first cross-chain transactions on mainnet in Q3 of this year. In addition, we have another upgrade called Availfusion, which focuses on making multi-chain capabilities more seamless and user-friendly, scheduled for Q4."
User Experience and Cross-Chain Transaction Fees
"We want to aim for an optimal user experience, where they don't need to know which network they are using. For example, if they want to make a transaction on Solana and don't have SOL to pay for gas, they can use ETH or USDT. We will help abstract all the processes to bring maximum convenience."
Arjun concluded that Avail's ultimate goal is to become a gateway for all users to participate in Web3, where they don't need to worry about which chain they are operating on.
