From theblock by Daniel Kuhn

Ethereum ETH -4.70% scaling solution Omni Network launched its Omni Core mainnet on Tuesday, according to an announcement. The system will serve as the “base layer” of the Omni Orderflow Engine, which seeks to unify the fragmented Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem.

“The proliferation of Ethereum rollups has caused $58 billion in TVL to be scattered across more than 40 networks, creating significant challenges for users and developers alike,” the team wrote in a statement. “Omni is built to reunite the ecosystem, empowering users and developers to seamlessly interact with Ethereum as if it were a single unified chain.”

Omni, not to be confused with the Bitcoin secondary layer of the same name, represents an early experiment unlocked by the emerging world of “restaking.” Restaking is the process of reusing staked assets like ETH to simultaneously secure multiple blockchain networks and applications, theoretically stretching the value of proof-of-stake networks and supporting a host of novel applications. 

Introduced primarily through the experimental EigenLayer protocol, restaking has become one of Ethereum's hottest and most promising research areas. However, to date, few applications have taken advantage of the supposed benefits unlocked by this advanced security measure.  

In particular, Omni was launched in 2023 to improve cross-chain interoperability between Ethereum’s diverse L2 landscape. While Layer 2s are helping to drive down transaction costs, developing their own cultures and providing various technological solutions that are better suited for particular applications, the variegated ecosystem fragments liquidity and Ethereum’s total user base.

“Fragmentation has limited the true potential of Ethereum. Liquidity is spread thin, and users face unnecessary friction just to move between rollups,” Chief Technology Officer Tyler Tarsi said in a statement.

Omni Core comprises a cross-chain messaging protocol and a bespoke EVM that aims to “abstract away” cross-rollup interactions, making the ecosystem seem unified and providing “seamless user experiences.” Together with Omni’s SolverNet, which will be updated soon, Core serves as half of the Orderflow Engine, which is designed to validate transactions and shuffle information between chains. 

At launch, Omni will support interoperability between the Ethereum base chain as well as the largest Layer 2s, including Arbitrum, Base and Optimism, which account for over 90% of total value-locked. The idea is that by improving interoperability, Omni will be able to support tools that are difficult to launch today, such as cross-rollup stablecoins and DeFi primitives that aggregate liquidity from multiple sources.

The protocol was built using the open-source Octane framework developed by the Omni team to simplify the integration of the EVM into any decentralized applications. Octane combines EVM functionality with CometBFT, the consensus engine associated with Cosmos, and offers high transaction throughput by running its consensus and execution processes simultaneously.

Last year, the team raised $18 million from investors, including Pantera Capital, Hashed Fund, Jump Crypto and Two Sigma Ventures, among others.