Uniswap Labs, a corporation that builds products that use the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol of the same name, announced Thursday the launch of its so-called Layer 2 blockchain. The new blockchain is called Unichain, and the company says it will significantly reduce the time it takes to execute transactions on decentralized exchanges.
“Unichain's block time will initially be 1 second, but will later be optimized to meet block times of 200-250 milliseconds, which will feel like a near-instantaneous trading experience for users,” Uniswap Labs said. said in a statement.
Layer 2 blockchains, known as L2, have proliferated in recent years and include services like Arbitrum and Coinbase's Base. They work by compiling transactions and recording them as batches on the main Ethereum blockchain. This process minimizes fees and avoids delays due to congestion.
Uniswap Labs' decision to launch its own L2 is significant. Uniswap, an open-source protocol similar to email's SMTP, is the most popular tool for DeFi, as it relies on modular Lego-like tools to execute transactions. Centralized authority. Using an email analogy, Unichain is like Gmail or another client built on open protocols.
In an interview with luckUniswap Labs Chief Operating Officer Mary Katherine Rader said Unichain will eventually make DeFi less inconvenient for users and increase liquidity for the industry as a whole. Rader, a former banker at BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, predicts that DeFi-style tools will become increasingly adopted in the traditional finance world.
According to Lader, Uniswap Labs built Unichain with Apple's adage in mind that building great software requires great hardware, and the company's philosophy is speed, low cost, It is said to be based on simultaneously pursuing the ideal of cryptocurrencies: decentralization. Unichain itself is built on the L2 technology known as Optimism, which is used in the popular L2 of the same name and Base, among others.
Uniswap was created in 2018 by self-taught programmer Hayden Adams. Hayden Adams has since developed second and third versions of the protocol. In late 2022, Uniswap Labs raised $165 million in a Series B funding round, which was valued at about the same amount at the time.
Uniswap has created a new L2 blockchain with support from DeFi research and development organizations Flashbots and OP Labs.
