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a16z vs Jump: VC battle behind Uniswap's cross-chain expansion.

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The struggle between behind-the-scenes investors may affect the cross-chain bridge used in Uniswap's next steps.

Original Title: "a16z vs Jump: VC War Behind Uniswap's Cross-Chain Expansion"

Original Authors: Frank Chaparro, Michael McSweeney

Original Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

During the community governance vote from January 27th to January 31st, Wormhole won the vote and became the cross-chain bridge between Uniswap and BNB Chain. A total of 8,000 addresses participated in the vote, involving 45 million UNI governance tokens. Wormhole received 62% support, with LayerZero coming in second with 37% support. Wormhole will ultimately be used to provide Uniswap v3 users on BNB Chain with the ability to participate in Uniswap DAO's Ethereum-based governance process.

Abstract:

The power struggle between behind-the-scenes investors may affect the cross-chain bridge used in Uniswap's next move.

As of now, Wormhole seems to be an option, but this is not the final result.

The community conducted a "heat check" vote to see which cross-chain bridge would be used for the third iteration of decentralized exchange Uniswap, with most votes supporting Wormhole.

But there is one problem.

Today's choice is not the final result in terms of technology. The official vote to approve Wormhole as a cross-chain bridge between Ethereum and BNB chains has not yet arrived.

However, according to three sources, the struggle between behind-the-scenes cryptocurrency investors could potentially lead to different outcomes - involving billions of dollars in interests.

This battle involves venture capital firms a16z and Jump, which respectively support LayerZero and Wormhole. A source familiar with the process said that a16z, which owns 15 million voting tokens, cannot participate in the hot check due to its token custody settings.

a16z's investment partner Eddy Lazzarin seems to have confirmed these issues in a forum post, stating that the company is unable to participate in heat checks.

"To be completely clear, if we can do it technically, in future snapshot voting, a16z will use these 1500 voting tokens to vote for LayerZero," wrote Lazzarin. "So, for the purpose of 'heat check,' please count us in this way."

Another source said that the Uniswap Foundation did not indicate whether it would fulfill its written commitment to LayerZero. According to official statistics today, Wormhole won the vote by approximately 11 million votes.

Supporters of Wormhole hope that a16z's vote will be consistent with the popularity vote. Someone close to the project said, "If a16z opposes the community vote and tries to stop it, I would be shocked. This would be truly despicable."

A spokesperson from a16z confirmed that the company plans to participate in any on-chain voting. At the time of publication, Jump has not commented on this report.

The controversial part between the two cross-chain bridges is about the security differences between Wormhole, LayerZero, or other competitors. Cross-chain bridges have become targets of many attacks, including the $325 million attack on Wormhole in February last year.

A representative said that supporters of LayerZero and Wormhole attempted to pressure representatives of Uniswap Token on Monday evening to vote in their favor.

Aside from security concerns, there is also a financial aspect to consider - specifically, once integrated and launched, the winning cross-chain bridge may receive a significant amount of staked assets. As a result, investors associated with the chosen protocol may reap a substantial windfall.

When contacted by LayerZero for feedback, LayerZero emphasized Lazzarin's forum post and stated: "We believe the goal of heat checking is to vote on governance intentions."

Given these facts, we believe that LayerZero is the preferred bridge for heat checking, but we think the Uniswap Foundation should add these two options in the final chain vote because this is how governance issues should be decided and has always been decided by Uniswap," the startup said.