Summary
-Stride is working with Skip to make moving LSTs cross chain easier than ever before
-The Skip API is a multi-ecosystem interoperability platform that helps developers route users between any two chains or tokens.
-Skip API can be plugged into any dapp or wallet & powers many popular apps, including ibc.fun, Keplr, Leap, and many others
-Skip API is very helpful for moving between chains today, and will be a key service for helping users navigate Celestia’s burgeoning modular ecosystem once they integrate Hyperlane
Skipping and Striding
Skip is a top-tier infrastructure team that has been working in the Cosmos ecosystem for years. Originally focused on MEV tech, Skip has recently broadened its focus to include cross chain bridging.
One tool Skip has developed to make bridging easier is the Skip API, which helps developers route users through the most efficient bridges and/or DEXes to get from point A to point B. The Skip API abstracts both bridging and swapping, giving users a hassle-free way to move value across chains and/or tokens.For developers, its designed to make every aspect of building cross-chain 10x easier – from routing and DEX aggregation to transaction tracking and relaying.
The Skip API can be plugged into any frontend. Currently, the Skip API powers Keplr, Stargaze, Leap, Astroport, and many other frontends, including ibc.fun, built by Skip.
For Stride, bridging is uniquely important. Stride issues LSTs on its own blockchain, but that chain has no DeFi. In order to use LSTs in DeFi, they need to be bridged off Stride to one of the dozens of other chains with integrations for Stride LSTs.
So by improving the UX of bridging Stride LSTs across multiple ecosystems, Skip API can help increase usage of LSTs.
Getting LSTs where they need to be
Here’s an example of how the Skip API removes friction and could increase adoption of LSTs.
Say there’s a user with USDC on Arbitrum. In a group chat, he learns that some of his friends are using stTIA on Agoric to mint IST - but he has no idea how to do that himself. Too many steps, too much complexity.
The Skip API removes this complexity. With the Skip API, all this Arbitrum user has to do is go to ibc.fun and tell it to move 1,000 USDC from Arbitrum to stTIA on Agoric. Boom. It’s that easy.
Another example. Imagine you’re on Neutron and you want to swap some STRD for USDC, but there’s no liquidity to trade STRD on Neutron. Instead of manually finding STRD liquidity and bridging there, all you have to do is use ibc.fun to move your STRD on Neutron to USDC on Neutron. And it will automatically find the best STRD liquidity, bridge there, swap for USDC, and bridge the USDC back to Neutron.
With the Skip API, you don’t have to know the complicated paths to get from one token on one chain to another token on another chain. Skip does it for you!
Surfing the modular ecosystem
Notably, the Skip API will be very useful as Celestia’s modular ecosystem grows. There are just a few Celestia rollups today. But those few will soon become dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.
With thousands of diverse rollups to navigate, it will be extremely complex for users to navigate manually and for developers to build bridging/deposit themselves No one will be able to keep up with the ever-increasing number of bridges, chains, and swap venues while building out their own protocol. In this world, the Skip API will be an invaluable tool.
As has been previously announced, Stride is partnering with Hyperlane to become the TIA and stTIA bridging hub of the modular ecosystem. But users won’t have to know that. All a user has to know is where he wants his value and what token he wants it to be in. Then, the Skip API will automatically use Hyperlane to route TIA and stTIA through Stride.
Final thoughts
Here’s a vision of the modular future:
Stride is the neutral, secure, minimal chain that both issues LSTs as functions as a bridging hub. Hyperlane is the interoperability infrastructure that enables permissionless cross chain applications, including bridging. And Skip provides an efficient API that optimizes for the best cross chain bridge and/or DEX route.
Working together, Stride, Hyperlane, and Skip are shaping the future of Celestia’s modular ecosystem.