Exclusive Interview with Hyperlane Co-Founder: Moving Towards "Omnichain"

"Hyperlane will become a part of encryption users' daily operations."

Interviewed: Hyperlane Co-Founder Jon Kol

Interview & Compilation: Pzai, Foresight News

The influx of users in the encryption field has led to the vigorous development of on-chain ecosystems, giving rise to many distinctive ecological public chains. Among these public chains, users' inevitable demand for asset circulation and multi-chain deployment among protocols has spawned cross-chain related infrastructure. However, in the current user experience, the fragmentation of an increasing number of chains and protocols has created significant barriers to usage for users. Consequently, more and more people are starting to pay attention to the concept of "fully chain-integrated" user experiences.

Building a cross-chain protocol is indeed a challenging task. The technical and protocol access barriers between different chains pose significant difficulties for constructing cross-chain layers. However, Hyperlane allows developers to autonomously deploy communication contracts on any virtual machine-compatible chain, compressing the traditional integration cycle from months to minutes. Its innovative Inter-chain Security Module (ISM) supports a dynamic combination of multi-signature, Optimistic verification, and zero-knowledge proofs, enabling different security strategies for small payments and high-value transfers within the same protocol. Moreover, it leverages Warp Routes technology to achieve complex scenarios such as direct transfers of native tokens and collateralized ERC20 cross-chain mappings. Currently, Hyperlane has connected over 130 chains, with more than 7,400 active contracts monthly and a user base of 720,000, making it one of the fastest-growing inter-chain communication layers.

This time, Foresight News explores the underlying logic of Hyperlane with Jon Kol, co-founder of Hyperlane. Jon, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, has worked at traditional investment bank Morgan Stanley and emerging crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital. In his work, he realized that with the gradual growth of the crypto ecosystem, cross-chain interoperability layers will inevitably become an important component of user experience, and thus he resolutely entered the cross-chain interoperability track. Jon also shared his insights on "full-chain integration", believing that "Hyperlane will become part of these users' daily operations." What form will Hyperlane take in the future? How should a cross-chain interoperability protocol serve as a bridge and lubricant between major protocols and users? This exclusive interview takes you deeper.

Foresight News: First, please introduce your past experiences. Did your experience at Galaxy Digital influence the vision of Hyperlane?

Jon Kol: "I think I have been working in the encryption industry for eight years now. Before Hyperlane, I was the investment director at Galaxy, and for the past three years, I chose to explore how to make blockchain more user-friendly at Hyperlane. At Galaxy, we needed to observe projects in the encryption field from multiple perspectives, and this experience has been very useful."

Since 2020, the founders of the projects we collaborate with have hoped to build in a multi-chain environment, and L1 and L2 ecosystems are gradually growing faster than anyone imagined. With the widespread adoption of stablecoins, there is also much discussion about on-chain traffic. What would happen if Visa tried to put all its traffic on-chain? We hope for more block space, so on the issue of cross-chain interoperability, we want to build something that anyone can use to connect almost all chains.

Foresight News: As a permissionless and open cross-chain interoperability protocol, what are the main challenges Hyperlane faces in achieving secure and efficient cross-chain communication?

Jon Kol: "I think one thing that is truly underestimated in the industry right now is how difficult it is to achieve this at scale, especially when it comes to ensuring both security and efficiency across more than 100 chains, which is the most technically challenging task in all encryption technologies. The biggest challenge lies within the chains themselves, particularly how we need to address infrastructure on new chains, as well as the compatibility issues between EVM, SVM, and Cairo VM. To be honest, it's a miracle that protocols like Hyperlane can operate so excellently in millions of transactions every day, and that is only possible through outstanding work and a lot of talent."

Foresight News: What are your thoughts on the concept of the entire chain? If users tend to interact on a single public chain, does cross-chain interoperability become a "chicken rib"?

Jon Kol: "In some cases, people want a single chain that looks more like a full-chain experience that can do everything. In other cases, you actually want to directly access the product itself because some encryption projects are unique in certain ways. For example, when Base launched, a group of people were excited to go there and try out all these new things. At that moment, even though they were using different applications, what they really wanted to play with and access was the chain itself, a bit like going to a theme park. Another example is Berachain, where everyone also chose to flock in. Therefore, in a world where this happens, you need cross-chain services to get there."

On Bittensor, TAOFi is leveraging Hyperlane to build a cross-chain framework, allowing users to trade subnet tokens directly on Ethereum or Solana through the "inter-chain account" feature. In terms of interoperability, there will be a complete set of more mainstream adoption (user experience), enabling users to not worry about which chains the transactions occur on.

Foresight News: Currently, Hyperlane has connected over 140 blockchains. What key technological breakthroughs or solutions are behind this?

Jon Kol: "Before the emergence of cross-chain interoperability protocols like Hyperlane, security and the construction of the product itself were intertwined. However, at that time, there were many security issues in cross-chain construction, and we believed that security needed to be decoupled from the product construction while still being coupled with the product itself. Therefore, we built a more modular architecture. We have seen other development teams bringing ZK or other similar state proofs into Hyperlane, and in the coming weeks, we will be releasing some cool updates that include technological breakthroughs."

Foresight News: We just talked about the modular design concept. Is there any reference to the design ideas of other public chains in this regard?

Jon Kol: "Initially, we explored many designs, such as Cosmos IBC and THORChain, which inspired us to create the most scalable system. However, their scalability for different VMs is not very friendly in these designs. Previously, a team called Dango chose us while building DeFi applications, even though they had a strong Cosmos development background, we offered a simpler implementation path."

Foresight News: The current blockchain industry is highly competitive. What unique advantages do you think Hyperlane has compared to other cross-chain interoperability protocols (Wormhole, LayerZero)?

Jon Kol: "One of the main use cases for our users using Hyperlane for cross-chain is to transfer assets from a larger chain to a smaller chain (for example, from Solana to SOON/Eclipse, etc.), as our modular architecture creates convenient access windows for different chains and users. Additionally, the 'inter-chain account' feature we built will also play a role in the increasing number of cross-chain use cases, and this summer we started doing more and more interesting things with it to gradually build a 'fully chained' experience for users."

Foresight News: Hyperlane has made several important advancements, such as the launch of the HYPER native token and related incentive mechanisms. Can you share the strategic thinking behind these initiatives and their significance for the ecosystem?

Jon Kol: "Many years ago, when I was a venture capitalist myself, it seemed strange to me that people in this industry always talked about this issue. But ultimately, there are only so many people in venture capital, so one of the keys to (incentives) is that I want to create something that allows those who make it valuable to get what they deserve. The ones who truly make the protocol valuable are the developers and users. When Apple launched the App Store, it was the applications developed by developers that made it valuable, and their advertising line for years has been, 'Buy an iPhone, and you can use all these applications distributed through the App Store.' So how cool would it be if app developers had the chance to own a part of this platform? Doing this outside of encryption is very difficult, but we can reward users with a fixed amount based on the fees they incur through Hyperlane cross-chain. So in terms of incentives, our most important idea is to turn users into its owners, and this process can be systematic and predictable."

Foresight News: Recently, attention distribution platforms like Kaito and Cookie have gained widespread market attention. What similarities do they have with cross-chain interoperability?

Jon Kol: "One thing we are currently trying is to make it easier for people to deploy cross-chain tokens, and the distribution of different token chains may be interconnected like the Kaito Yapper phenomenon. Everything is clear, and I think the most important thing is, when you are trying to build something, whether in cryptocurrency or similar competition, how do you make people care about your product and keep them excited?"

Foresight News: In the long run, how do you think cross-chain interoperability technology will change the development landscape of the entire blockchain industry? For public chains, how should a good cross-chain protocol effectively support the ecosystem?

Jon Kol: "The biggest impact of cross-chain interoperability on the industry is making everything that users want easier to access. The current encryption user experience is better than ever, but when you think about these things, it's still not that good. What we want is to make encryption more applicable; in some cases, the chain itself will be the product we want to experience. Can we get there more easily, at a lower cost, and with less hassle? In the future, users could reach this in seconds, and operational costs will be significantly reduced. More importantly, this will build a full-chain experience, where I no longer need to know which specific chain I'm on; I can practice whenever and wherever I want to do something. I believe that by 2026, we won't be discussing this anymore because the products will have iterated to the next level."

Foresight News: Finally, could you share your vision for Hyperlane's plans and goals in terms of product innovation and ecosystem development?

Jon Kol: "In the coming months, you will see us provide more details. My philosophy has always been aimed at things that are within sight. Projects like Velodrome, Bittensor, etc., will join the build, and there will be some key integrations released, such as we will launch a feature that allows users to transfer assets between major chains. All of this is incredible, like a true full-chain experience, where users can do more in fewer places."