Today, applications and assets live on different blockchains and rollups. Getting around is often a slow and confusing process. There are secure highways between these chains, but no Google Maps or public transport companies to get users around them. Squid fills this gap.
In this post, we explore Squid, how it works, and how you can do cross-chain swaps in under 20 seconds.
What is Squid?
Squid is an easy-to-integrate cross-chain router that lets you do any action on any chain in one click. Squid makes simple apps and tools for moving tokens around fast and easily, and for accessing blockchain products, no matter what chain or rollup the product is on.
Squid supports 37 chains, and the list is growing fast. Squid is among the few to support both Ethereum-based networks and blockchains built on Cosmos.
Other than their swap app, Squid is being integrated as an onboarding layer for apps all across crypto. For example, in one click, you can stake your tokens on Vela Exchange on Arbitrum from any token on any chain.
Built on Axelar Network
Squid is built on Axelar, a secure network for cross-chain communications between dapps.
Axelar is a permissionless proof-of-stake network with a programmable interoperability layer. This means Axelar can enable complex cross-chain experiences. For example, it can call smart contract functions across different blockchains.
However, you don’t need to know the underlying tech to easily do cross-chain swaps.
How to do a cross-chain swap
Selling/buying tokens on different chains in a decentralized way used to be very difficult.
Usually, you need to do a combination of swaps and bridge transactions. It could take up to half an hour to sell one token for another.
Squid now lets you do all of it in one click in under 20 seconds.
The first and most simple app built with Squid lets you do a cross-chain swap in one click.
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Connect your wallet to Squid at https://app.squidrouter.com
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Select the token you want to get and the chain
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Select the token you want to pay with and the chain
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Get a quote
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Swap in one click
That’s it!
Much like tapping your Visa card at a merchant in a different country, Squid works near instantly and seamlessly, converting tokens on one blockchain for another.
Your Zerion wallet can hold tokens on many chains, and you can view your portfolio across these chains. Besides core supported networks, in Zerion you can also add custom networks, including EVM chains built on Cosmos.
Now, you can use Squid to reshuffle that part of your portfolio easily without using a centralized exchange or manually bridging and swapping in multiple steps.