#ChartoftheDay On October 10, #Uniswap Labs introduced #Unichain as a new #Ethereum #Layer2 solution aiming to be the home for DeFi and liquidity across chains.

Unchain is a fast, decentralized, low-cost Optimism Superchain built on the OP stack by Uniswap Labs in collaboration with Flashbots, OP Labs, and Paradigm. The Unichain testnet went live on the same day, and the mainnet is scheduled for release later this year. The Uniswap Foundation will provide grants and programming to support developers building on Unichain.

Validation Network

Unchain will introduce a decentralized validation network that allows nodes to verify blocks. This adds a layer of finality and reduces the risk of conflicting or invalid blocks. In order to serve as a validator, users will have to stake UNI in exchange for rewards, which means the UNI tokens will finally gain utility outside of governance itself.

TEE-based Builder

While Unichain’s testnet launched with one-second block times, its mainnet aims to introduce 250ms “sub-blocks” that will make the user experience feel instant. This improvement is made through a block builder using a trusted execution environment (TEE), which will also improve the transparency of transaction ordering and prevent failed transactions, in addition to improving speed.

A Uniswap app chain has long been rumored. Whether Unchain can mimic Uniswap’s success remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it should be a boon for UNI investors by allowing them to share in the protocol’s revenue.