Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author | Fu Howe ( @vincent 31515173 )
Since the launch of the AMM mechanism, Uniswap has been regarded as a benchmark in the DeFi industry. From the launch of V3, V4 and UniswapX, it has shocked the market almost every time. However, most people think of Uniswap as just a DEX and do not think it has higher value. In particular, the low empowerment of the governance token UNI has made people pay less and less attention to it.
But yesterday, Uniswap launched L2 Unichain based on Optimistics OP Stack. A high-speed, low-latency L2 dedicated to the DeFi sector may change everyones view on the future development of Uniswap. The most intuitive reflection is that the price of UNI has risen rapidly in a short period of time. According to OKX market data, UNI has risen to 8.47 USDT, with a maximum increase of more than 15%. It has gradually fallen back to 7.9 USDT.
In the official white paper, Unichain is an L2 optimized for efficient markets that can provide fast state updates, provide a framework for internalizing MEV (maximum extractable value) for applications, and provide guarantees for fast cross-chain settlement through an economic finality system.
Among them, the MEV framework and fast settlement have become the core highlights of the network, and the role of UNI tokens in the network has become the focus of discussion. To this end, Odaily Planet Daily will answer readers questions based on the content of the official white paper .
UniChain Key Points
Flashblocks+TEE, block construction time is greatly shortened
Since the birth of DeFi in 2018, transaction speed has always been a core issue. Compared with other high-speed chains, such as Solana, the low TPS of the Ethereum mainnet limits the speed of DeFi transactions, which has caused most well-known DeFi projects that started on Ethereum to leave, such as dYdX. So can Uniswaps launch of Unichain solve this problem?
According to the official introduction, Unichain introduced a new block construction protocol - Verifiable Block Building, which has the following features:
200-250 ms effective block time: Fast transaction confirmation is achieved by dividing each block into four “Flashblocks”.
Transparent prioritization: Ensure that transaction prioritization within each Flashblock is open and transparent, allowing applications to give back a portion of their MEV to users.
Trustless rollback protection: Through TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) simulation transactions, detect and remove transactions that may fail, and reduce the risk of users paying for failed transactions.
Each Flashblock takes 200-250 ms, and it takes about 1 s to form a complete block. This greatly reduces the block generation time compared to the Ethereum mainnet or many Ethereum L2s.
In addition, Unichain separates the role of block construction from the sequencer. Block construction operations are performed in a trusted execution environment (TEE), allowing external users to verify compliance with the prescribed sorting rules. TEE needs to be implemented through dedicated hardware. The last time I saw the concept of trusted execution environment (TEE) was in the application of privacy public chains.
The TEE builder currently adopted by Unichain will run the open source builder code base on Intels TDX hardware, which provides private data access and verifiable execution through its computational integrity properties. Proof of execution will be published publicly, allowing users to verify that blocks are built within the TEE according to the specified policies.
The advantage of doing this is that it reduces the block formation time and improves on-chain efficiency. At the same time, TEE also supports rollback protection to ensure that failed transactions will not appear in the final block, reducing users transaction risks.
MEV Framework
MEV, as a key issue in the current DeFi sector, became well known to the public after Paradigm invested in Flashbots.
In Unichain, the extraction of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) is achieved through an innovative verifiable block construction mechanism and transparent priority management.
First, Unichain introduced a verifiable block construction protocol developed in collaboration with Flashbots to optimize the user experience by splitting each block into multiple “Flashblocks.” This mechanism allows applications to allocate a portion of MEV to users, promoting market efficiency.
Secondly, Flashblocks is designed so that the priority of transactions can be clearly managed, and users can specify specific Flashblocks for extraction. This transparent management not only reduces the risk for users, but also improves the efficiency of automated market makers (AMMs) and intent-based systems.
In addition, the verifiable builder also provides trustless Revert Protection, reducing the cost users pay due to transaction failures, further enhancing user confidence.
How does Unichain empower the UNI token?
The community has spent a long time imagining how Uniswap can empower the UNI token, but almost 6 years have passed and there are still no surprises.
Essentially, if Web3 projects want to empower tokens, the first prerequisite is that the tokens need to participate in the actual operation of the project. Previously, UNI, as a governance token, was mostly used for community voting. This kind of participation gradually became personal and lazy politics over a long period of time. However, after the launch of Unichain, the decentralized governance of the network became the key to the empowerment of UNI tokens.
In the official white paper, Unichain not only introduced a new block construction protocol, but also introduced a decentralized verification network. The UniChain verification network reduces the risk of the sequencer proposing multiple conflicting blocks or invalid blocks through decentralized verification of nodes, and enhances the finality of on-chain transactions.
To become a validator of Unichain, users must first stake UNI tokens on the Ethereum mainnet. The amount of staked UNI will determine the validators weight and potential rewards. Validators will sign the legitimacy of the blocks and publish these signatures publicly at the end of each epoch to ensure the transparency of the network.
At this point, the UNI token empowerment mechanism that the community has been longing for has finally undergone changes. Stake UNI tokens to become a validator of Unichain and receive potential rewards. The official has not made clear the specific amount of the reward, but I predict that it comes from gas fees or MEV and other income.
