By Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Panteral Capital
Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance
Unified Rollups - Omni Network
Recently, Uniswap Labs announced the launch of UniChain, an L2 designed specifically for DeFi. Whether it is to control more parts of the blockchain stack, launch new products, or capture more value, more and more applications are building their own L2 at an accelerated pace. L2 is gradually dominating transaction volume and locked value (TVL), but it is also becoming more and more fragmented. L2 chains need to choose between isolated environments (such as Arbitrum Orbit or Optimism Superchain) and modular infrastructure (such as bridges that are built after sufficient liquidity supports swaps).
Yet, despite this, chains still choose these isolated or modular infrastructure providers because they can maintain control of their rollups. This results in a poor user experience for users, as they still need to struggle to transfer assets between different L2s to use different protocols. Chain Abstraction is a concept centered around the idea that users should be isolated from the underlying chain infrastructure, meaning they should be able to access any application regardless of which chain they are on or what token they own. This concept is still in early development, but one of the most interesting projects in this space right now is the Omni Network.
Chain abstraction and the launch of Omni Network
Omni Network addresses this by focusing on two priorities:
Minimize the overhead of L2 integration Omni.
Ensure that L2 does not lose control of any part of its stack.
Omni solves this problem by introducing a front-end SDK that any application can integrate on its website. It does not have any requirements for rollups and does not require development teams to upgrade their smart contracts. From a user perspective, it is fully backwards compatible with existing wallet providers, which means that users do not need to download new software, perform wallet upgrades, or change existing usage patterns. Before we dive into how this technical architecture is implemented, here is a video showing this user experience:
Omni simplifies the user experience by:
No need to manually switch networks in your wallet.
Reduce latency for message transmission across rollups.
Automatically handle gas fees on the target rollup.
Funds can be seamlessly transferred using a cross-chain bridge protocol without the user having to leave the application.
These are the core issues that prevent Ethereum from feeling like a single platform for end users. If adopted at scale, Omni will allow Ethereum to once again have a âmonolithicâ user experience similar to Solana, but with the benefits of higher throughput and lower fees provided by rollups.
Omni's technical architecture
Omni is a chain built specifically to facilitate interoperability between the Ethereum rollup ecosystem. Compared to other interoperability networks that focus on cross-chain messaging, such as LayerZero and Wormhole, Omni takes a very different product route. On top of Omni's core interoperability network, there is also a coordination protocol so that solvers (market participants such as market makers) can provide users with advances if they hold funds on a rollup that is different from the rollup where the application is located.
From a userâs perspective, the movement of tokens is instantaneous. While competitors use a âpushâ model where messages are sent from rollup A and pushed to rollup B (taking about 10 seconds at best), Omniâs protocol uses a âpullâ model where solvers immediately provide liquidity to users on B. This frees up the user process so they get the results they want instantly, while complex market participants (solvers) deal with the latency inherent in any interoperable network.
When a user submits a transaction, they are actually depositing funds into an escrow contract that will only release the funds after receiving a cross-rollup message proving that a resolver has fulfilled the user's intent. However, from the user's perspective, they appear to be using the same assets on multiple L2s. With this architecture, users no longer have to consider the complexity that previously accompanied cross-rollup activity.
Decoupling and Reorganization of Ethereum
The crypto infrastructure stack has been âdecoupledâ with the goal of increasing scalability, modularity, and ownership. While this has been beneficial for Layer 2 networks (L2s), it has made the experience more fragmented and complicated for the average user. Omni aims to ârestructureâ these modular components, recognizing that the modular Layer 2 network is where the vast majority of activity occurs, and creating a protocol that enables users to move between chains instantly while allowing the Layer 2 network to maintain its sovereignty.
Chain abstraction is a relatively new design paradigm, and Omni is in the early stages of exploring the potential of this new technology. Perhaps Omni is the key infrastructure that combines the composability of the Ethereum ecosystem with the Solana user experience.
