In a world where blockchain ecosystems often operate like isolated islands, Union Labs is emerging as a bridge builder, bringing seamless interoperability to the forefront. We had the opportunity to sit down with Karel Kubat, the founder of Union Labs, to explore their innovative approach and the technological marvels they’re unveiling.
From tackling the challenges of liquidity and state-sharing to ensuring trustless transactions, Union Labs is pioneering a new era of interconnected blockchain ecosystems.
Join us as we explore how Union Labs is reshaping the future of blockchain with their cutting-edge solutions and ambitious vision.
Could you elaborate on the role of Union Labs in enhancing interoperability between blockchain ecosystems?
Union Labs is pioneering trustless and sovereign interoperability between blockchain ecosystems by providing decentralized connections for protocols within the modular tech stack. One of our key functions is to address the challenges associated with interoperability, such as disparate protocols, consensus mechanisms, and data formats. Through our innovative technology, we standardize communication protocols and facilitate the seamless exchange of data and assets between different blockchain ecosystems without depending on third parties.
What specific challenges does the AggLayer address, and how does Union’s integration with it improve the overall functionality?
The AggLayer addresses challenges related to shared state and liquidity among CDK-based chains by securely connecting them while maintaining unified liquidity. Union’s integration with the AggLayer will position it as a critical IBC gateway in and out of the service layer, facilitating seamless message passing and asset transfers between the Polygon and Cosmos ecosystems. The implications of this are enormous given these are two of the biggest blockchain ecosystems and they see high liquidity and user movement every day.
This collaboration positions Union as a key player in enabling efficient communication and asset movement between the two ecosystems, promising enhanced liquidity access and streamlined processes. Additionally, the integration underscores Union’s commitment to overcoming blockchain silos while fostering innovation and interoperability across both ecosystems.
How do you envision the impact of this integration on the liquidity flow between the Polygon and Cosmos ecosystems?
The integration will enhance liquidity flow between the Polygon and Cosmos ecosystems, in turn increasing liquidity access for projects and users in both ecosystems. In doing so, the integration will drive more efficient, trustless, and low-latency processes and foster increased collaboration and innovation between projects in both ecosystems, driving overall growth and development.
Can you discuss the technical innovations that have been crucial in developing Union’s interoperability solutions?
Union’s most important technical innovation is our first-of-its-kind ZK-powered consensus mechanism, which leverages zk-proof tech to remove the reliance on third parties, vulnerability to exploits, and potential for censorship or corruption.
CometBLS, Union’s consensus verification layer, is a modified version of CometBFT, itself forked from Tendermint Core. CometBLS streamlines consensus verification, ensuring rapid execution, low operational costs, and scalability. Union’s prover, Galois, was built using Gnark, a fast zk-SNARK library, promoting decentralization by enabling developers from any ecosystem to participate in the system.
By embracing open standards and composability, Union fosters collaboration and innovation within the blockchain space, while prioritizing security and scalability through advanced cryptographic techniques.
How does Union ensure the security and trustworthiness of cross-chain transactions?
Union ensures the security and trustworthiness of cross-chain transactions through the utilization of zero-knowledge cryptography. Thanks to zk-proof tech, Union’s consensus layer expands upon IBC, which was built to minimize trust in cross-chain consensus verification. In essence, Union’s consensus layer verifies one chain’s state in the execution environment of another without introducing additional risk or trust assumptions. By reducing data sharing and computation to a single machine and verifying that computation without sharing the underlying data, Union protects user privacy.
ZK-proof technology is also what enables Union to ensure cross-chain transactions are secure. By circumventing the multisig structure, which acts as a centralized point of failure and target for malicious actors, Union’s zk-powered bridge enhances decentralization and therefore, security. Zk-bridges can essentially run on their own, making them highly secure and censorship-resistant.
What are the future goals for Union Labs, and how do you plan to achieve them?
Looking ahead, Union Labs is committed to advancing blockchain’s decentralized ethos by eliminating intermediaries and fostering trustless connections among modular chains. Our goal is to promote seamless interoperability across various protocols and blockchains while ensuring users remain in control of their personal data and assets and are granted universal financial access and freedom from legacy systems.
Our recent partnerships with Movement Labs and Noble across the Celestia tech stack and the integration with the AggLayer constitute significant steps towards achieving this vision, strengthening asset transfers across modular chains, which also promote greater decentralization, innovation, and composability. Through continued partnerships and integrations, we will work towards advancing our mission, and we’re looking forward to our forthcoming mainnet launch as a key milestone along that path.
How do you see the evolution of decentralized applications benefiting from enhanced interoperability?
Enhanced interoperability is set to revolutionize decentralized applications (DApps) by fostering a more interconnected and collaborative ecosystem. By breaking down barriers between blockchain networks, it enables seamless communication and interaction among DApps, leading to the creation of more sophisticated and feature-rich applications. Users benefit from improved cross-platform compatibility, enabling seamless access to DApps across various networks. Additionally, enhanced interoperability facilitates data and resource sharing among DApps, fostering innovation and collaboration among developers to address a wider range of use cases and cater to diverse user needs.
Overall, enhanced interoperability holds the potential to unlock new possibilities for decentralized applications, driving innovation, collaboration, and adoption in the rapidly evolving blockchain ecosystem.
What role do open standards and composability play in the future of blockchain technology according to Union Labs?
For us, open standards and composability are the keys to unlocking boundless innovation in the blockchain industry by fostering collaboration and enabling seamless integration and interaction between different protocols and applications. Greater composability gives developers greater freedom as they design and build the applications of tomorrow, allowing them to tailor their tech stack to their project’s needs.
Can you share insights on any upcoming features or partnerships that might be of interest to our readers?
We have a bunch of exciting partnerships coming up. We just announced a partnership with Stargaze, a decentralized NFT marketplace, unlocking the movement of blue-chip Ethereum NFTs to the Cosmos ecosystem. There’s more to come! While we can’t disclose specific details at this moment, we’re actively engaging with various projects to remove the silos in the industry in favor of seamless, sovereign interoperability. We’re actively working toward our mainnet launch this year too, so keep an eye out for updates on our social channels.
What advice would you give to developers and companies looking to integrate blockchain interoperability solutions?
Look for interoperability providers who have designed their protocols to be trustless, decentralized, secure, and open source. Bridges have been subject to hacks in the past due to centralized points of failure and often are somewhat trust-reliant—beyond projects subjecting themselves to hacks and financial loss, this isn’t the ethos of Web3, which is to replace the outdated systems that exist in the Web2 world.
Developers can look at a projects’ technology (see what its underlying framework is), see which partners have integrated with it, and look at its track record and the team behind it. In general, the more research they do on an interoperability protocol, such as by reading the whitepaper or other technical documentation, the more informed they will be when making that decision.
As our conversation with Karel Kubat draws to a close, it’s clear that Union Labs is not just making waves but creating new pathways in the blockchain landscape. Their focus on trustless, decentralized, and secure interoperability solutions stands as a beacon for the industry’s future. With exciting partnerships and innovations on the horizon, Union Labs is set to redefine how blockchain ecosystems communicate and collaborate. Stay tuned to their journey, as they continue to break down barriers and foster a more connected and efficient blockchain world.
Learn more about Union Labs: https://union.build/
