Unchained · Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Onscar Dux of EthLabs envisions a future financial system built on a single, shared settlement layer, believing Ethereum is the prime candidate for this role. He contrasts this with a multichain future that he argues would retain inherent friction.
“The alternative would be, in a way, the exact same system, like you still want the customizability that you get from different chain different systems, but all on top of, I don't know, I sometimes mix my metaphors, like on top of a shared settlement layer, or maybe you can say the settlement layer is like at the very core, if you if you prefer that analogy, um basically one chain, one substrate where everything links to, and that way basically instead of like many different places that come to agreement independently and then have to like talk to each other through these like brittle links, you basically have like one system that as a whole comes to agreement and then you have all these customizable places, but like because they're part of one whole, they can actually interact, transact in a fully trustedless, fully like frictionless, permissionless way.”
“I really believe that actually it's a very unusual role that a chain like that would need to fill and I really believe that Ethereum is kind of the only candidate that it exists. So I basically believe it's either Ethereum or no one.”
“our goal really, um, and this is all very high level, um, day-to-day we'll very much focused on the incremental, the short term, you know, but high level, I really believe that like if, basically, the next step for Ethereum would have to be to really like claim that position at the center of the entire financial system.”