Layer.xyz – GoDaddy customer – (United States)
Builders at the forefront of blockchain development use .xyz domains to power core infrastructure for decentralized networks. Tether-backed blockchain infrastructure project KAIO.xyz seeks to bring institutional funds onchain through compliant tokenization. Blockchain payments firm Obita.xyz develops infrastructure for global fiat and stablecoin transactions. Execution layer AltiusLabs.xyz aims to advance blockchain scalability and throughput. In this week’s #BlockchainThursday, we’ll introduce you to a blockchain infrastructure company building tools for verifiable applications that combine offchain computation with onchain verification: Layer.xyz.
Layer.xyz is the online home of Layer, a blockchain infrastructure company focused on extending the trust guarantees of decentralized networks beyond the limitations of traditional smart contracts. According to the company, its core technology is called WAVS (WebAssembly Verifiable Services). Established at WAVS.xyz, WAVS is designed to help developers build applications that combine offchain computation with onchain verification. Layer states this approach fosters more complex decentralized applications without relying entirely on smart contract execution. In October 2024, Layer announced a $6M seed funding round led by 1kx, with participation from Fabric Ventures, Arrington Capital, Stake Capital Group, Third Earth Capital, Founder Heads, and IOBC.
The WAVS documentation details how the framework aims to streamline decentralized application development by reducing the tradeoffs between onchain execution, offchain infrastructure, and custom integrations. Layer describes WAVS as an event-driven framework, meaning it responds to activity happening on a blockchain or elsewhere and triggers actions accordingly. It is designed to help developers write application logic in familiar programming languages such as Rust, Go, JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python, then execute that logic offchain while returning verifiable results back to the blockchain. According to the documentation, developers can use WAVS to build custom oracles (tools that bring real-world data onto a blockchain), cross-chain bridges, zero-knowledge proof services, decentralized AI applications, and intelligent protocols that react to both onchain and offchain events. Layer positions WAVS as infrastructure for full-stack decentralized applications, meaning applications that handle both the visible and behind-the-scenes layers of a product. Applications built with WAVS can be triggered by activity on one blockchain, processed by operators offchain, and deliver verified outputs to another network. In September 2025, Layer announced that WAVS had been open-sourced, describing transparency, auditability, and community participation as important components of verifiable infrastructure.
According to Layer.xyz, the company was co-founded by Jake Hartnell, Sam Cassatt, and Ethan Frey. Jake previously co-founded the Cosmos-based blockchain platform Juno and the decentralized governance platform DAO DAO. Sam served as Chief Strategy Officer at Ethereum software company ConsenSys. Ethan founded the smart contract platform CosmWasm and helped architect the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol within the Cosmos ecosystem.
Layer is building tools to help decentralized applications reach beyond the blockchain and into the real world. Groundbreaking technologies use .xyz for their solutions of tomorrow, and Layer.xyz and WAVS.xyz are no exception. As the go-to domain ending for the next generation of internet users, .xyz is short and memorable without the limitations of a label or language barrier. For a company working at the frontier of decentralized computing, the .xyz domain is a strong choice that puts the focus squarely on the brand itself. You can learn more by following Layer on X/Twitter, GitHub, Telegram, and LinkedIn, and by visiting Layer.xyz.
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