Waves Founder Unveils Units Protocol for Layer 2 Interoperability

Waves founder Sasha Ivanov is preparing for what he believes is the “endgame for layer 2 scalability,” as he pushes a new blockchain protocol called Units.

Speaking at the Future Blockchain Summit event in Dubai, Ivanov explained to Cointelegraph how the company is solving interoperability issues within the Web3 space through its Units project, which will launch in late October.

The executive raised several issues about the current state of blockchain. He explained:

“A centralized bridge is needed to transfer tokens from one layer to another Layer 2. And this is very wrong. (…) This problem must be resolved.”

Over the years, large-scale hacks have revealed the risks associated with cross-chain bridges. In 2022, accidents involving the Wormhole and Ronin bridges resulted in a combined loss of nearly $1 billion.

The Importance of Blockchain Interoperability

Ivanov argued that if the problem remains unresolved, “the industry will not be able to move forward because this ecosystem is not complete.” Executives said there must be a “final solution” where all chains are interoperable and there is no centralized bridge. He said:

“Interoperability is very important. Because otherwise you don’t have a holistic, tightly connected ecosystem. It’s very divided.”

Because of this, Ivanov said their team created a unit to address interoperability issues. Executives said that all blockchains created through the protocol are fundamentally interoperable.

“If you have the same economic guarantees established in the base layer of the connected layer, you basically become interoperable because there are no other economic incentives,” he said.

Ivanov added that the interaction between these layers occurs under the same conditions as the interaction with the base layer itself, and therefore operates under the same conditions as the base layer. This makes blockchains interoperable.

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Interoperability in Decentralized Finance

Regarding decentralized finance (DeFi), Ivanov said that without interoperability, liquidity will be fragmented. Ivanov reiterated that this creates a cross-chain bridge that already carries many risks.

Management believes one solution is to create cross-chain decentralized applications (DApps) that run on top of the base layer of units. Ivanov expects the project to produce this soon.

“Once we start the ecosystem itself, we will provide grants to launch the ecosystem,” he explained.

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