Uniswap announced today the roadmap for the Unichain mainnet, stating that the mainnet will go live in early 2025, with permissionless fault proofs and other features available from day one. Meanwhile, experimental testing features like Flashblocks and the verification network will be gradually rolled out. (Background: Is UNI ready to take off? Over $360 million a year could go directly to Uniswap holders after the launch of Unichain) (Background: The launch of Uniswap's 'Unichain' could lead to Ethereum losing $400 million to $500 million in revenue annually, making it harder for ETH to achieve deflation) The leading decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap announced in October the launch of a Layer 2 network 'Unichain' designed for DeFi, becoming part of the OP Mainnet superchain ecosystem. The official Twitter account shared the development roadmap for the mainnet early this morning, stating that the testing phase has already seen over 50 million test transactions and more than 4 million test contracts deployed, highlighting significant developer interest in Unichain. Back in October, we announced Unichain. Today we’re sharing the official Unichain roadmap to public mainnet and beyond. And we're also announcing that Unichain will go live with permissionless fault proofs from day one. pic.twitter.com/BFtE9jvbIA — Unichain (@unichain) December 20, 2024 Unichain Roadmap According to the official statement, the Unichain roadmap specifically includes: 1. Sepolia Testnet (now activated) The primary task of this phase is to ensure network stability and user safety through rigorous testing and monitoring. The official claims that the Unichain Sepolia testnet has maintained over 99% uptime for all critical services, and the team has conducted an in-depth review of the Sequencer’s OP infrastructure, simulating extreme cases to enhance security. 2. Mainnet Launch The mainnet is expected to launch in early 2025, with permissionless fault proofs available from day one, allowing anyone to verify mainnet activities, realizing the decentralized concept. Permissionless fault proofs will officially be enabled on January 6, 2025, at which point the Unichain Sepolia testnet will undergo a planned upgrade to deploy this feature. The official reminds users to re-verify pending withdrawals and suggests avoiding initiating new withdrawals within 7 days before the upgrade, as withdrawals not completed on the upgrade day will need to be restarted for processing. 3. Experimental Test Networks: Flashblocks and Unichain Verification Network The official states that after the mainnet goes live, new features will continue to be launched to further enhance the system’s decentralization and operational performance. These features will undergo preliminary testing on experimental test networks, followed by larger-scale verification on the Sepolia testnet, and finally be deployed to the mainnet as official features. The first feature to launch on the public experimental test network will be Flashblocks, which can reduce block generation time to 250 milliseconds, providing users with an almost instant trading experience. Additionally, the Unichain verification network will also launch in this phase, inviting community members to participate in testing the operation of verification nodes. For detailed technical content about Flashblocks and the verification network, please refer to the Unichain whitepaper. Impact of Unichain Mainnet Launch With the launch of the Unichain mainnet and the Unichain verification network, it is expected to significantly enhance the value capture capability of the UNI token, while having a substantial impact on Ethereum mainnet revenue. According to analysis by DeFi Report founder Michael Nadeau, last year Uniswap paid $368 million to Ethereum validators, which will now be shared among Unichain validators. Although 'permissionless fault proofs' will be enabled from day one of the mainnet launch, this portion of economic value does not solely belong to Uniswap Labs. However, with the launch of the Unichain verification network, there is a high probability that transaction fee revenue and MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) earnings will be shared among UNI token holders. In contrast, Ethereum validators and ETH holders may become the biggest victims. Uniswap has always been at the core of decentralized trading on the Ethereum network, accounting for about 75% of trading volume, facilitating over $2.4 trillion in transaction volume to date. However, with the launch of Unichain, Ethereum validators may lose $400 million to $500 million in revenue annually. This will not only affect the Ethereum transaction fee destruction amount but may also shake the narrative foundation of Ethereum as a 'deflationary currency'. Nonetheless, the ongoing dependency between Uniswap and Ethereum must still be considered, such as Ethereum's role as a security foundation for Layer 2, and whether large holders are willing to migrate to Layer 2 for trading. Furthermore, the value capture capability of UNI will depend on the specific design of its verification network in the future, particularly whether transaction fee distribution and MEV earnings can sufficiently attract token holders to participate in staking. UNI surged 17% potentially due to this news and the overall recovery of the crypto market. CoinGecko data shows that UNI rebounded 17% in the past 24 hours, briefly soaring to $14.71 before slightly retracing to $14.28, ranking among the top five performers in the top 30 cryptocurrencies. Related Reports Is Ethereum beyond saving? Solana Raydium's trading volume has surpassed Uniswap for two consecutive months, with ETH ecosystem funds experiencing a net outflow of $1.2 billion in a single month. Uniswap's Ethereum L2 monthly trading volume has reached an all-time high, and analysts suggest that DeFi demand is returning, with UNI rising over 35% in a week. UNI skyrocketed 18%! Uniswap launched its own L2 'Unichain', countering Vitalik Buterin's predictions from two years ago.