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Catalyst Documentation

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The Catalyst for Cross-Chain Applications

Welcome to the Catalyst docs! This guide will provide you with a simple, easy-to-understand introduction to Catalyst, explaining its purpose, key features, and benefits.

What Is Catalyst?

Catalyst is the permissionless liquidity engine for the modular future. Catalyst is a cross-chain automated market marker (AMM) that facilitates atomic native asset swaps from different chains. Catalyst can be deployed on any chain and allows liquidity to be sourced from any other connected ecosystem such as Ethereum, Cosmos and L2s.

The vision for Catalyst is to be a permissionless liquidity layer for all chains. Catalyst will have permissionless deployments, meaning that any new chain can automatically have Catalyst contracts deployed with it—connecting the chain with all the other Catalyst deployments on all other chains. The goal of Catalyst is to create an interconnected ecosystem where users can effortlessly access assets and applications across multiple chains, and developers can easily launch new blockchains and connect them to existing networks and their respective users.

What Is The Modular Future?

It’s become trivially easy to launch a new chain. Modular blockchains – a relatively new concept in crypto – are blockchains that are made up of different modules that can be added or removed as needed. Each module performs a specific function, making the blockchain more flexible and adaptable to changing needs, allowing for greater customization and specialization. Modular blockchains can help increase the scalability and efficiency of blockchain networks, allowing more people to begin to adopt and use crypto technology.

Modular blockchains are easier to configure and deploy than traditional blockchains, which will enable an explosion in the number of blockchains. As an industry, we are currently connecting chains in the same way we were in 2020, taking 2-3 weeks to establish connections. As new chains continue to launch, they remain siloed and fragmented, hindering trade between them. In fact, there’s not much to do for a modular chain after launch if they can’t connect to another blockchain.

Catalyst introduces a new cross-chain paradigm that automatically connects chains as they launch, and efficiently shares liquidity between them – dissolving the barriers between chains as a global liquidity layer.

Why Is Catalyst Needed?

Catalyst has a vision for a global liquidity layer for all chains—available automatically at launch. With an innovation called unit of liquidity, Catalyst can automatically connect to any new chain in a future of continued chain proliferation.

  1. Permissionless Liquidity: Catalyst democratizes access to blockchains by enabling permissionless liquidity. By allowing any new chain to connect with any desired chains (whether it be an established hub like Ethereum or a newer modular chain), Catalyst reduces overhead in expanding into new chains and accessing their liquidity, thereby providing support for the long tail of assets not found on any other on-chain venue.

  2. Cross-Chain Interoperability: As the number of blockchain networks continues to grow, it’s essential to have a solution that enables seamless communication and liquidity movement between them. Catalyst facilitates cross-chain swaps, allowing users to access applications and assets on different chains without being restricted by their current holdings.

  3. Simplified Integration for Developers: Catalyst streamlines the process for developers to create new chains and connect them to existing networks. This encourages innovation and helps developers scale their projects, ultimately leading to a more diverse and robust ecosystem of applications and services for users.

Our advantages

Permissionless

New chains are integrated into Catalyst immediately as they are deployed. Cross-chain liquidity pools and cross-chain asset swaps are open for anyone to initialize.

Safe by Design

Catalyst sends one single, lightning-fast cross-chain message and only leverages battle-tested, trust-minimized protocols like IBC.

Simple and Sustainable

One-click transaction experience using native assets. Capital efficient liquidity provisioning, and sustainable yield through MEV recapture.