Ex-Solana Engineer Aims to Boost Blockchain Performance Tenfold with Unto
1min read Unto, a startup founded by former Solana core engineer Liam heeger, has set an ambitious goal to enhance the performance of the Solana blockchain by a factor of ten. Heeger, who spent two years as a core engineer for Firedancer, a high-performance Solana client developed by Jump, left the company in January to create his own layer-1 blockchain called Unto. The move was met with a lawsuit from Jump, alleging that Heeger violated his non-compete agreement by working on a new high-performance blockchain. The lawsuit was settled in late February, allowing Heeger to provide more details on Unto's plans.
Unto aims to architect a new virtual machine to improve Solana’s performance significantly. The company's co-founder, Will Yoo, emphasized the need for a tenfold improvement to remain relevant in the competitive blockchain landscape. Heeger, while acknowledging the challenges, has been cautious not to make any promises about the outcome. Heeger's experience with Firedancer has given him insights into Solana's virtual machine, but he has chosen not to build on the existing SVM due to Solana's frequent design pivots. Unto plans to invest considerable time in designing the blockchain to avoid similar issues.
Unto's approach to consensus mechanisms is also noteworthy. Unlike traditional proof-of-work or proof-of-stake systems, Unto will use a globally distributed validator set. This design aims to address the issues with proof-of-stake, where operators are incentivized to increase their stake rather than focus on network performance. Heeger also highlighted the drawbacks of single leader-based networks like Ethereum and Solana, where the leader has a monopoly on blockspace. Unto aims to foster competition among block producers to enhance the user experience.
Unto's focus is on developing its virtual machine rather than engaging in media and business development activities. The company has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Framework Ventures and is looking to hire additional engineers to prioritize getting a version of its virtual machine to the market. Heeger's vision for Unto is clear: to ship products and demonstrate tangible progress in enhancing blockchain performance.
