Uniswap’s L2 chain Unichain plans to launch new validation network

Unichain, a decentralized finance layer 2 solution developed by Uniswap Labs, is focused on the launch of a new validation network.

As an on-chain decentralization feature, the validation network adds another layer of finality to the network. It also cuts the risks of the network running conflicting blocks as well as contribute to Unichain’s DeFi growth.

The Unichain team announced this on Mar. 7, revealing the plans are part of its roadmap.

Notably, Uniswap (UNI) launched Unichain mainnet in February, fulfilling a target set for the first months of 2025.

Ahead of this milestone, the DeFi-focused platform’s developers hinted at plans for further network decentralization. The goal, according to Unichain, was to have a new validation network, dubbed Unichain Validation Network, or UVN, in place.

Anyone can run a node and participate in block verification via UVN. 

“Upon its launch, the Unichain Validation Network (UVN) is designed to advance Unichain’s decentralization and enable faster finality. The UVN is composed of a network of full nodes that will monitor and verify blocks the sequencer posts to mainnet,” Unichain Foundation noted in a recent blog post.

To incentivize network participants, Unichain has outlined that 65% of its network revenue will go to validators and stalkers.

Unichain says a test version of UVN is scheduled for the testnet environment in the coming months. Once it goes live on mainnet, it will open up 65% of net revenue for distribution to validators and stalkers. Until then, Unichain Foundation will deploy the generated chain revenue to ecosystem growth efforts via its Unichain Growth Reserve.

Other than fast block times aided by the decentralized node operator platform under UVN, Unichain will also feature rollups and become part of Optimism’s Superchain post mainnet.

The development will see Uniswap Labs become an OP Stack core contributor, as well as a result in the Optimism Collective receiving a share of the Unichain gross net revenue.