Omni Network's co-founder wants its blockchain to power Ethereum "behind the scenes"

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Omni Network wants to build the road that unites the Ethereum ecosystem

As the Ethereum ecosystem evolves, there’s a number of teams that want to shake up the space with new novel features. Omni Network is a blockchain focused on helping Ethereum-centric rollups, or scaling services, communicate through high speed and better security. But it doesn’t want everyone to know about it.

“We have been building Omni for years now,” Austin King, co-founder of Omni Network said on Talking Tokens podcast. (Listen in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube).

The bulk of its community was established in the bear market and consists of “people who are here for the vision of crypto, what it can become long term,” he added.

But Omni doesn’t mind being hidden. In an ideal world, the end users using Omni-powered applications won’t need to know it’s built with its network, King said. “It’s like, do you think about GCP or AWS when you load the website? No you don’t. The website just loads.”

Omni combines modular components into an integrated system, so developers can create applications that seamlessly operate across all Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible rollups.

It is backed by Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital and others. The Omni network has done over 7.5 million transactions, has 400,000 users and over 30 ecosystem partners including Optimism, Arbitrum, Injective and EigenLayer, among others.

In the network’s initial stage, its functionality is within connecting rollups.

“It’s like a service to other smart contract platforms,” King said. “It’s a chain to power other expanded functionality for other chains.”

It’s already facilitating a “behind the scenes” backend utility. But moving forward, Omni’s huge goal is to extract the user experience at large by providing more performant infrastructure so “people don’t need to know about the tech” similar to how most people don’t know what powers the internet today, King noted.

“The point is you don’t need to [know], it just works,” King said. “Crypto will get there and it’s something we’re super focused on but it will take a number of years.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Tuesday episode, I spoke with Austin King, co-founder of Omni Network.

We discuss the Omni Network and the journey to building out the blockchain and its community, how it plans to integrate applications across Ethereum, its plans for scaling the network and its ecosystem and more..

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

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Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• TON blockchain’s TVL hit about $610M on Monday - reaching new record high for the chain, according to Defillama data

• Avalanche community proposal ACP-77, brings new changes to subnet costs and web3 gaming space

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap decreased 1.7% in the past 24-hours to $2.35 trillion. It is down 3.7% over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken at 6:45 AM EST on Tuesday prior to publication.

Other numbers we’re eyeing…

• 443 — that’s the number of investments Coinbase Ventures has made into the crypto space since 2017, making it the industry’s top investment firm, to date.

  

  Via Bloomberg

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. Georgios Konstantopoulos promoted to general partner alongside his existing CTO role at VC firm Paradigm

2. Shodipo Ayomide, former global head of developer relations at Polygon and INTMAX, joins layer-1 blockchain Nuklai to lead its developer relations

3. Stellar Foundation director Ben Grossman departs after three years

4. Aave’s Stani Kulechov seeks $50M for Lens Protocol at $500M Valuation (DL News)

5. U.S. SEC's Crypto Enforcer David Hirsch Quits (CoinDesk)

6. BlockTower Capital appoints former MKP partner as head of investor relations (The Block)

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. Advisors ‘wary’ of bitcoin ETFs are on a slow adoption journey, says BlackRock exec (CNBC)

2. JPMorgan: US-listed bitcoin miners hit $22.8 billion market cap amid rising hashrate share, AI opportunities (The Block)

3. Biden admin officials, congressional leaders reportedly set to attend crypto industry meeting (DL News)

4. Crypto Startup Funding Overcomes Blow-Ups to Hit $100B (Bloomberg)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.