Avail Nexus Aspires to Transform Web3’s Cross-Chain Experience

The Avail Nexus mainnet was launched this week, aiming to revolutionize the method by which assets traverse between different blockchains. Rather than merely serving as a bridging tool, Nexus intends to facilitate seamless multichain execution.

Nexus Aims to Enhance Cross-Chain User Experience

Nexus addresses a persistent challenge within Web3: why do users encounter obstacles when attempting to use their on-chain assets? The existing solutions often compel users to bridge tokens, exchange for gas fees, and navigate through multiple applications just to access their funds.

Avail Nexus mainnet is live across 13 ecosystems Avail Nexus mainnet is live across 13 ecosystems

Prabal Banerjee, co-founder of Avail, commented, “Users should be less burdened by chains and underlying infrastructure. The user experience should focus on abstraction while still providing critical security signals that remain visible and understandable.” He believes that the issue lies not in the lack of options, but in the absence of a native coordination layer that seamlessly integrates multichain processes within applications.

Today’s bridges and decentralized exchange aggregators often offer the best route for cross-chain transactions, but users are still required to navigate multiple steps: bridging, swapping, and then bridging back. This current methodology results in complicated processes executed across autonomous systems, leading to potential failure if any part of the sequence breaks.

Banerjee suggests that this approach is now inadequate, as liquidity is dispersed, user experience is fragile, and users feel the need to possess technical knowledge akin to infrastructure engineers just to utilize their applications.

Nexus intends to change this paradigm. Instead of requiring users to determine their path, it allows them to submit signed ‘intents’ (desired outcomes along with any conditions) and delegates the execution mechanics to a network of solvers capable of sourcing liquidity across multiple blockchains and formulating an exact execution plan. In simple terms, users articulate what they want rather than detailing how to achieve it.

Streamlined User Interaction

The front end of Nexus is crafted so users can observe a single balance and conduct transactions directly through their applications, irrespective of where their assets are held. The platform automates many complex tasks (like gas fees, approvals, routing, and cross-chain accounting) so that users can focus exclusively on the applications instead of the complexities of underlying chains.

Banerjee explained that the current landscape represents “a fragmented experience requiring users to understand the chains underpinning the applications instead of merely engaging with the applications.” Nexus integrates decentralized applications into a unified environment where users remain within a single interface, viewing all their assets as one consolidated value.

Emphasizing Trust and Risk Management

This innovative model shifts the focus of trust from bridges toward solvers. The ‘intents’ introduce new challenges in terms of miner extractable value (MEV) and routing. To mitigate risks, user funds are secured within on-chain vault contracts, released only when solvers meet predetermined criteria within a designated timeframe. If a route fails, the system automatically reverts, ensuring the user’s funds are returned.

Conclusion

If Nexus proves successful, it may change how users perceive the chains powering their applications, concentrating power within a few coordination layers that manage intents, solver order flow, and liquidity direction. Avail’s vision is to establish a multichain internet that operates as a singularly user-focused network, transcending the role of a traditional intermediary.