Uniswap announced the launch of a Layer2 network called “Unichain” specifically designed for DeFi. Built on the OP Stack, Unichain aims to be decentralized, fast, and affordable, while also allowing for multi-chain exchanges. It is worth mentioning that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated two years ago that the launch of an application chain by Uniswap would be meaningless.
Unicahin’s 3 Highlights:
UNI Soars 18%
Vitalik: Uniswap’s Launch of an Application Chain is Meaningless
Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX), announced the launch of the Layer2 network “Unicahin” specifically designed for DeFi. Built on the OP Stack, Unicahin emphasizes decentralization, speed, affordability, and enables multi-chain exchanges. The testnet is already live, and the mainnet is expected to be released later this year.
According to official introductions, Unichain was created to address the challenges of DeFi on Ethereum and has three main goals:
1) Further decentralization while maintaining low costs: By transferring transaction execution to Unichain, it will reduce transaction costs on Ethereum L1 by approximately 95% in the short term, with the potential for further reductions over time. Additionally, Unichain plans to launch a “decentralized verification network” in 2025, allowing nodes to stake $UNI to validate blocks. This adds an additional layer of finality and reduces the risk of conflicting or invalid blocks proposed by the orchestrator.
2) Speed: Through collaboration with Flashbots, Unichain aims to achieve block times of just 1 second and will soon introduce sub-blocks with a duration of 250 milliseconds. This will greatly enhance user experience, improve market efficiency, and reduce losses caused by MEV (Miner Extractable Value).
3) Seamless multi-chain exchanges: Unichain allows for seamless multi-chain exchanges. It is expected that shortly after the launch of Unichain, this feature will be introduced on the Uniswap website and Uniswap Wallet.
As part of Optimism Superchain, Unichain is working with OP Labs to achieve native cross-chain interoperability, enabling communication between different L2 chains within a single block (such as Base and Synthetix’s SNAXchain). For chains outside of Superchain, improvements in cross-chain interoperability will be made through protocols like ERC-7683, ultimately allowing users to seamlessly operate without worrying about which chain they are using.
In addition to these goals, Unichain is modular, allowing for the inclusion of more powerful features and is open-source (under the MIT license) for adoption by other chains. The Uniswap Foundation provides funding and technical support to assist developers on Unichain.
As a result of this news, especially the fact that $UNI will be used for staking and node validation, the price of $UNI has experienced a significant increase. According to CoinGecko data, UNI has risen from a low of $7.15 yesterday to a high of $8.43 around 2 AM today, resulting in a cumulative increase of 17.9%.
At the time of writing, $UNI is currently trading at $8.09, with a 9.3% increase in the past 24 hours.
It is worth mentioning that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously stated in 2022 that he did not believe it was necessary for Uniswap to launch an application chain. However, with the launch of “Unichain,” specifically designed for DeFi, it indicates that they are actively expanding in the direction of application chains. It remains to be seen whether it will achieve widespread adoption, and we should continue to monitor its progress after the mainnet launch.