In the world of existing interop providers, with about 15+ key players What has made @union_build distinctive and will they survive? Here are some key takeaways to validate this argument: => Union by default is ZK-enabled, thereby ensuring privacy and scalability, but that's not all. Union recently set a groundbreaking record on its Groth 16 Trusted Setup Ceremony with 4664 verified contributions. Is Trusted Setup essential for Union and the Interoperability landscape? Yes, Trusted Setup Ceremony establishes the foundation of achieving Trustlessness in a ZK proving system and if this is gotten wrong, malicious actors can create fake proofs and exploit the whole system. In the case of Union, this is essential for: Validating consensus and Validating cross-chain message passing and asset transfers across chains. All of these are to ensure no reliance on a centralized actor. In addition, Union’s choice of IBC, coupled with zk proofs, provides the best solution to eliminating any centralized whitelisted actors when compared to its competitors, like Axelar's validator-based architecture secured by economic incentives and Wormhole’s multisig model governed by a fixed set of 19 guardians, where messages are valid upon (13) out of 19 signatures. Furthermore, what makes Union unique is the use of solvers for faster settlement, which is possible through its partners like @aori_io. => Cross-Chain Governance This is also another edge Union has over other Interop providers, actually making governance inevitable for almost anyone without being limited to the constraints of a single chain governance, unlike how it has always been. Previously, users could participate in governance by interacting with the native assets on the native networks and this has often discouraged participation as a result of the hurdles faced by the majority, but now Union is redefining the norms by ushering in a new era of “Cross-Chain governance where the Union token staked on other chains can be delegated without bridging. => ERC20 Token compatibility Cross-chain governance without ERC20 compatibility is a meme. Union tech stack is built on Cosmos SDK, which $U should be a natively Cosmos-based token, but Union is taking the bull by the horns by making $U ERC20 compatible from day one. This simply means DeFI activities on Union ($U) aren’t natively tied to the Cosmos ecosystem, including wallets (Keplr/Leap), but are also available on the EVM ecosystem and wallets. This has already positioned Union distinctly as a leader in the Interop landscape, tackling liquidity fragmentation, showing a clear dominance and setting an example, starting with its token $U. => Union’s U combinator program In partnership with Cracked Labs, Union also positioned itself as one of the key players in the Interop landscape by incubating early-stage projects which will be ZK-powered by default. This also, in turn, is strengthening Union’s dominance amongst its competitors, having bootstrapped these projects, which are natively Union ecosystem projects. IMO, Union stands out to be one of the clear winners in the Interop sector as it has proven to have a robust and secure tech stack powered by ZK. ZK is the endgame.