LAYER ZERO'S "ZERO": A WALL STREET BLOCKCHAIN? 🚀 LayerZero Labs – the team behind the largest cross-chain connectivity protocol in crypto – has just announced Zero, a new Layer 1 blockchain designed for global financial infrastructure at the institutional level. And what's shocking isn't just the technology, but the list of partners: Citadel Securities, DTCC, ICE (the parent company of the NYSE), Google Cloud, ARK Invest, Tether… 👀 The mainnet is expected to launch in the fall of 2026, with 3 initial "Zones": - General EVM Zone - Private stablecoin payment zone - Multi-layer asset trading zone, 24/7 WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER CHAIN? Three major trends are converging: 1️⃣ Tokenization is booming RWA has increased from approximately $7 billion to over $24 billion TVL. BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are both experimenting with Tokenize. But the problem is: current blockchains aren't fast enough. - Ethereum: 20 - 30 TPS. - Solana: several thousand actual TPS. - NYSE: processes millions of messages per second. The gap is too big. 2️⃣ Clearer legal framework The regulatory environment in the US is becoming more transparent, giving organizations more confidence in deploying on-chain infrastructure instead of just conducting internal testing. 3️⃣ Market Outlook 24/7 Traditional securities trading only operates about 19% of the time. ICE and the NYSE both talk about 24/7 trading. But to do that, a payment system that never sleeps is needed – blockchain is a natural candidate… if it has the capacity. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE WITH ZERO? Zero introduces "multi-core" architecture 🧠 Instead of every validator having to rerun the entire transaction like current chains, Zero separates it: > Block Producer: executes transactions and generates ZK proof. Validator: simply check that proof in milliseconds. The result? No more limitations like "everyone has to do the same thing." Each “core” is called an Atomicity Zone. For example, one zone for high-frequency transactions, one zone for social networks, one zone for private payments — operating in parallel without competing for resources. @LayerZero_Core stated: • 2 million TPS per Zone • Fee ~0.000001 USD • Node can run on low-cost hardware • The entire network costs less than $1 million USD per year to maintain. It sounds like a centralized infrastructure, but it's protected by Staking mechanisms and ZK proof. ⚙️ LAYERZERO'S POSITION LayerZero is not a newcomer: • 165+ connected blockchains. • $50 billion in cross-chain transfer Volume . • 61% of circulating stablecoins use LayerZero for movement. • Over 350 applications built on the platform. THE BIGGER GAME Zero doesn't need to replace Ethereum or Solana. It simply needs to capture the new cash flow when traditional assets go on the chain. But the more interesting question is: 👉 When a blockchain functions as efficiently as a centralized infrastructure, is it still considered "decentralized"? Crypto used to follow a bottom-up approach: building a community first, then organization later. Now, the organization is involved from the beginning and has a direct influence on the system design. ⚠️ This is not investment advice. (Source: @PinkBrains_io)