Explaining the Blockchain with Axelar CEO Sergey Gorbunov

Sergey Gorbunov is the co-founder and CEO of Axelar. Axelar is a decentralized blockchain network built on interoperability. As well as being an assistant professor he was also on the founding team of web 3 giant Algorand.

In this slogging ama, we chatted with Sergey about his blockchain network, his background, and the basics of blockchain. Check it out below!

This Slogging thread by Abeer, Sergey Gorbunov, Drone Warfare, Giovanni Martorella, Pamela Liang, Aman Shaikh, Felix Changoo, Melissa Schwartz and Ildar Utebaev occurred in slogging's official #amas channel, and has been edited for readability.

AbeerApr 5, 2022, 12:00 PM

Hey @channel, please join me in welcoming our next AMA guest, Sergey Gorbunov. Sergey is a co-founder and CEO of Axelar, a decentralized blockchain interoperability network. He received a Ph.D. from MIT, where he was a Microsoft Ph.D. fellow. His Ph.D. dissertation was on designing cryptographic tools for the cloud using lattice-based cryptography, for which he received the Sprowls Doctoral Thesis Award for best thesis in CS at MIT. Sergey is a co-author of many cryptographic protocols, standards and systems. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo and was on the founding team of Algorand, where he worked on the core platform design and development and led the cryptography group.

Please feel free to ask Sergey anything about:

AbeerApr 5, 2022, 12:01 PM

Hello Sergey Gorbunov! It’s an honor to have you here! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, your background, and Axelar?

Sergey GorbunovApr 5, 2022, 12:14 PM

Hey everyone:

Great to be here. Sergey here. I work on distributed systems, cryptography, blockchains, and other related things. Really enjoy solving problems of all shapes and forms.

About a year and a half ago, my co-founder, Georgios Vlachos, and I started Axelar to solve the most challenging and important problem for the blockchain ecosystem for the coming years: how to securely connect and enable communication across multiple blockchains. We've been building Axelar ever since. Today, we have ~30 full-time members of the team, raised over $65m in funding, started our main network launch, and will soon deliver interoperability to all of web3.

Feel free to ask me anything about Axelar, blockchains, security, web3, [or even academia].

Drone WarfareApr 5, 2022, 12:28 PM

Hi Sergey Gorbunov. You have a very impressive background. I'd like to ask an insightful question but I don't really know much about Blockchain. How would you explain Blockchain to someone completely new to the concept?

Sergey GorbunovApr 5, 2022, 12:34 PM

Drone Warfare The simplest way to think about it is of a distributed database and compute environment with strong security properties. Anyone can read and write transactions or data to it. A decentralized set of node operators executes the transactions and ensures they cannot be erased or repeated [i.e. when you send funds to a merchant, you want to make sure the funds are sent only once].

The "blockchain protocol" ensures these properties. It also can tolerate malicious nodes [up to a certain threshold] and cannot be simply turned off as anyone can participate in the consensus and continue performing the verification functions. So it's a reliable compute and storage environment that can be used to exchange and compute information jointly.

Giovanni MartorellaApr 5, 2022, 8:46 PM

Hello Sergey Gorbunov what do you see as the benefits of web3 for people's everyday life like how web2 really brought everyone closer together in communication? What new ways can web3 revolutionize the internet? Nice to meet you by the way.

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 1:59 AM

I'd say that the main difference is that in web3 you're building on an open environment with global distribution. You can build on a platform that has users, distribution, and financial mechanisms to transact across the globe all on the same platform.

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 2:00 AM

Since data and code are open, composability becomes one of the key benefits. Anyone can see all data, and the state of the system and build on top of it, improve, and iterate.

Giovanni MartorellaApr 6, 2022, 2:44 AM

Amazing, web3 sounds exciting overall. Another question I have Sergey Gorbunov is what part does blockchain play in Web3 really? 🙂

Pamela LiangApr 6, 2022, 4:16 AM

How does Blockchain compare to other systems and databases when it comes to security?

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 2:34 PM

Web3 is powered by blockchains. they serve as permissionless distributed ledgers that help organize and exchange information.

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 2:35 PM

Traditional distributed systems and databases do not guarantee transaction or data integrity in the presence of malicious nodes on the networks. Blockchain consensus protocols and systems guarantee that data is safe and unmalleable even in the presence of malicious nodes on the network.

Aman ShaikhApr 6, 2022, 5:45 PM

what are your thoughts on the differences between LayerZero and axelar networks? What are the trade-offs for developers choosing to build on either platform? Also, what are your views on https://twitter.com/PrimordialAA/status/1511403360838041608?t=D1MlNr2_rnT_bz_fRpFIdQ&s=19 allegations by the LayerZero cofounder about dishonesty, what you think? Sergey Gorbunov

Aman ShaikhApr 6, 2022, 6:03 PM

Please answer sir Sergey Gorbunov

Felix ChangooApr 6, 2022, 8:18 PM

Hey Sergey, nice to meet you 👋 ! I'd love to know what a cross-chain service is and what’s a good example of one?

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 9:49 PM

Layerzero delegates trust to external oracles and relayers. Right now it's a 2/3 multi-sig setup. Axelar is a decentralized proof of stake interoperability network, similar to cosmos or avalanche.

Sergey GorbunovApr 6, 2022, 9:51 PM

Cross-chain services allow users to use their assets across any blockchain with no friction. For instance, you can transfer or swap your assets across chains with 1 click. Or if you have an NFT on blockchain 1, you can take a loan against it in application on blockchain 2.

Felix ChangooApr 6, 2022, 9:59 PM

Thanks, Sergey!!

Melissa SchwartzApr 6, 2022, 10:31 PM

Hello Sergey Gorbunov. I'd like to ask you more about Axelar. You said earlier that you started Axelar to securely connect and enable communication across multiple blockchains. How does Axelar attempt to solve this problem and how does it differentiate itself from competitors? Thank you.

Aman ShaikhApr 6, 2022, 11:20 PM

LayerZero person made fun of the axelar team member Sergey Gorbunov
https://twitter.com/PrimordialAA/status/1511798588208447490?t=5u5KMEOBU7ZrI89Tq3na-A&s=19
why is the founder making fun of axelar? what you think sir

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 2:20 AM

Hi, Sergey Gorbunov! The DAOs are very popular now, is it planned to create a DAO or partnership/friendship with already created ones in the Axelar ecosystem in the future?

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 2:41 AM

About the token. Many members of the community often have questions:
- token staking: how will it be implemented? in particular, people are interested in stаking locked tokens on Coinlist?
-Will Axelar have its own wallet?
-Why was the erc-20 token standard chosen for the sale?

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 2:49 AM

New blockchains. We see that Axelar is developing and moving towards its goal. So, what new blockchains will be added to the ecosystem? BSC, Solana...?

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 3:01 AM

Community. Right now, we know about several grant programs for dAPPs developers and for finding vulnerabilities and bugs. I know that there will be activities and contests in the project's Discord soon. Is there anything else planned? The ambassador's program (besides QCP), for example?

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 3:14 AM

A question from my 8-year-old son Danis: I want to become as smart and successful as you. Parents suggest reading a lot and doing math. Does it work? Are there any life hacks for young people like me?

Sergey GorbunovApr 7, 2022, 1:11 PM

Ildar Utebaev great questions.

[will reply to remaining questions shortly]

Sergey GorbunovApr 7, 2022, 1:46 PM

6. Community. Expect to see more dev grants, community contests, ecosystem grants, etc. We're just getting started.
7. to Danis. Doing a lot of math and programming is great. There are a lot of interesting puzzles, competitions, online contests, and study groups you can participate in. Getting into a habit of exercising regularly and eating healthy is also important. Overall, find what you're good at and enjoy doing, and do it 10x more than others and you'll be great.

Ildar UtebaevApr 7, 2022, 3:39 PM

Thank you very much, Sergey! Wish you good luck and prosperity in the Axelar project! We all will win together!

AbeerApr 7, 2022, 4:58 PM

Sergey Gorbunov Thank you for all the insightful answers! It was absolutely fantastic having you here. Before we wrap up this AMA, do you have any final thoughts, closing remarks, or anything you’d like to promote to our readers?

Sergey GorbunovApr 7, 2022, 7:59 PM

Thanks, everyone for the great questions. check out more info at axelar. network, sign-up for discord and let's build x-chain together!