Router Protocol’s Voyager Crosses 300 Million in Transaction Volume

Record-breaking capital efficiency reveals TVL may not be the most prudent metric to evaluate the fidelity of a bridge  

Router Protocol, a modular cross-chain interoperability protocol connecting nine different blockchains, just crossed $300 million in cumulative transaction volume. 

Backed by ventures like Coinbase, QCP Capital, DeFi Capital, Shima Capital, and more, Router Protocol is expanding aggressively to build a chain agnostic Web 3.0 ecosystem by building a suite of cross-chain infrastructure primitives that aims to seamlessly provide bridging infrastructure between current and emerging Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain solutions. 

Since the launch of alpha mainnet in January this year, Router has integrated key blockchain networks into their cross-chain messaging mesh, viz., Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Fantom, Harmony, Cronos, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche.  

The CEO of Router Protocol, Ramani 'Ram' Ramachandran, says that the current landscape of cross-chain is reminiscent of the dot-com boom of 1995 to 2000, where the narrative was far ahead of the product build-up. Similarly, the conversations, developments, and innovations at Router Protocol are essentially building the foundation for empowering developers to build seamless cross-chain products with excellent user experiences a few years from now. 

Router has facilitated over $300 million in cross-chain swaps and transfers with just over $500k in bridge liquidity. The high level of capital efficiency shows that a large bridge TVL is not needed for the majority of the transactions on the bridge. Unlike AMMs or lending platforms, bridges do not offer better quotes with high TVL but instead act as a honeypot for hackers.  

Voyager:  

 This was the first B2C offering released by Router Protocol in January this year. Voyager is a cross-chain swap engine built on Router Protocol that supports cross-chain swaps and asset transfers.  

Moreover, Voyager is powered by Router Protocol’s proprietary PathFinder Algorithm that is integrated with 1inch API. The PathFinder Algorithm traverses multiple DEXes to find the fastest and most economical routes to execute cross-chain swaps and transfers. 90% of the transactions conducted on Voyager were completed within 90 seconds. The efficiency and scalability of Voyager catapulted Router Protocol to being categorised as one of the top performing dApps on Polygon on metrics like transaction volume and speed.  

Router Widget:  

Router Protocol has abstracted the bridge to provide a fully customisable white labelled solution in the form of an easily integratable widget. This would allow Web 3.0 projects to empower their users with the functionality of conducting cross-chain swaps/transfers without leaving their platform.  

With Router Widget, users can set up default networks on the bridge, customise the widget to match their UI, set biases for encouraging users to make favourable transactions, and most importantly make their dApp more inclusive to users with different native chains. It’s a low code solution for adding cross-chain functionalities to any dApp.  

Pathfinder API and JS SDK: 

Router Protocol has abstracted its proprietary PathFinder Algorithm into an AssetSwap API and JS SDK. The API and the SDK provide the entire asset-swap functionality of Voyager on any Web 3.0 platform with a simple integration. For e.g., just like MetaMask provides the capability of same chain swaps inside its interface, by integrating our SDK, any wallet provider can provide the functionality to perform cross-chain swaps inside their platform. It is a completely white labelled solution with its documentation available here. Some of its relevant use cases include: 

  • Capturing cross-chain arbitrage. 
  • Providing cross-chain swap as a service inside existing projects, particularly wallet providers, multi-chain DEXes, and other multi-chain applications. 
  • Customizing user flow for cross-chain swaps in existing cross-chain bridges that only have cross-chain transfers as a functionality. 

Unlike JS SDK, PathFinder API can be called via any environment that supports REST calls. Moreover, it supports all devices. However, if your application is a website built on React tech stack, we would recommend using JS SDK for a more seamless integration experience. 

CrossTalk Library:  

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CrossTalk Library is a complete abstraction of Router Protocol’s cross-chain communication infrastructure. It is a plug and play framework that allows users to build cross-chain applications using the Router infrastructure. It primarily facilitates cross-chain communication amongst smart contracts, which helps developers to build native cross-chain dApps or port a single chain dApp to multiple chains. Here are some functionalities of the CrossTalk Library: 

  • Router Crosstalk allows seamless state transitions across multiple chains, akin to the Inter Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) for Cosmos, which creates a network of independent chains that can communicate in a decentralized manner. 
  • Developers can build and deliver complex cross-chain applications by leveraging Router’s cross-chain communication engine. 
  • Another prominent feature of Router CrossTalk is its flexibility when it comes to fee management. It gives developers complete control over the gas limit and other fee parameters. It also allows for the fee to be paid in various tokens on the source chain itself. 

Integrations 

In the past couple of months, the diverse functionalities of this ecosystem suite have paved the way for multiple strategic partnerships for Router Protocol. Here is the roundup of the most notable ones: 

Annex Finance 

On July 14, 2022, Router Protocol announced partnership with with Annex Finance by enabling them to use Router’s AssetSwap API for providing Annex’s users the functionality of swapping tokens from BNB Chain to Cronos Chain.  

Trava Finance 

On July 18, Router Protocol announced the initiation of a three pronged partnership with Trava Finance and Dfyn. Trava Finance will integrate Router Widget, Dfyn will integrate Trava’s proprietary token health analytics in their DEX, and Voyager is now listing $TRAVA for cross-chain transfers and swaps.  

UniFarm 

On July 18, 2022, Router Protocol announced a collaboration with UniFarm where UniFarm will be using the CrossTalk library to build Setu: a dApp to transfer tokens between various blockchaIn networks. Moreover, UniFarm was also a recipient of Router Protocol’s grants initiative and will be using those resources to build Setu.  

Gods of Africa 

Router Protcol recently announced that Gods of Africa will be leveraging CrossTalk Library for creating cross-chain NFTs. 

Router Widget Integrations 

Web 3.0 projects like Titan, 7Pixels, Dfyn, Coreto, RetroDeFi have integrated Router Widget on their platform to provide cross-chain functionalities to their users.  




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