Safenet Update: Pausing Unified Balances & Open-Sourcing Our Work

TL;DR: Development on Safenet's unified-balance and chain-abstraction layer is paused. The entire codebase, docs, and tooling are being open-sourced today under GPL license for community development. Resources are reallocated to a new Safe initiative - Safe Research tackling self-custody security at protocol level.

Today, we're announcing that Safe is pausing active development on Safenet's unified balances and chain abstraction features. At the same time, we're open-sourcing the current Safenet codebase to enable community contribution and ensure transparency in our work.

This decision reflects a strategic shift in our priorities. While we remain committed to solving the fundamental challenges of multi-chain interactions, we've determined that our efforts are better focused on security-related research and innovation — the foundation that must be fortified further before any abstraction layer can truly serve the ecosystem.

Why This Shift Makes Sense

When we revealed the Safenet vision at DevCon Bangkok in November 2024, we outlined three core pillars: Speed, Security, and Scale. Our initial prototype prioritized Speed and Scale, delivering unified cross-chain balances with instant transactions. However, as we've continued our work, it became clear that security is the biggest barrier to using self-custody and where we can add the most unique value.

Recent security incidents, including the Bybit hack and other attacks on self-custody solutions, have reinforced a critical insight: security isn't just one pillar among three, it's the foundation that everything else must be built upon. The current burden on users for security is simply too high. Users are expected to handle transaction verification, manage counterparty checks, understand complex transactions, set policies, and enforce them all themselves.

Meanwhile, we've observed several interoperability solutions being developed across the ecosystem, with some developments even around enshrining interop at the protocol level. This evolution in the broader landscape, combined with the pressing security challenges, led us to a philosophical shift: making security the non-negotiable priority. From intent verification to execution safeguards, we need to ensure that user actions are not only seamless but protected by design.

What This Means for the Community

We're making the current Safenet codebase available to the community:

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/safe-global/safenet 

• License: GPL License 

For developers and teams interested to continue building with or contributing to Safenet,  we will clarify the architecture and design logic and can engage with the community on the repo.

Our Security-First Future

This philosophical shift allows us to focus on what's truly needed: making self-custody secure enough for enterprises, DAOs, and institutions to confidently use self-custodial solutions. The vision remains the same — moving the world's GDP onchain — but the path has evolved.

We're directing our engineering resources toward the security challenges that must be solved first:

• Front-loading Security Architecture: Embedding protection at every stage of a transaction's lifecycle

• Intent Verification Systems: Ensuring user actions match their actual intentions

• Automated Transaction Verification: Reducing the security burden currently placed on users

• Counterparty Risk Management: Building systems that handle security checks users shouldn't have to manage themselves

• Policy Framework Innovation: Making security policies intuitive rather than complex

To learn more about Safe Research read more here 

This security-first approach will create the foundation needed for any future abstraction work whether developed by Safe, the community, or other teams building interoperability solutions.

Moving Forward

This decision doesn't represent a retreat from our vision of moving economic activity onchain. Instead, it's a recognition that sustainable progress requires solid foundations. By open-sourcing our work, we're ensuring that the research and development invested in Safenet continues to benefit the ecosystem, even as we redirect our focus.

The multi-chain future is inevitable, and interoperability solutions will continue to evolve. Our contribution will be ensuring that when they do, security is the cornerstone of everything we build.

We're excited to see where the community takes Safenet, and we remain committed to building the infrastructure that will truly enable the world's economy to move onchain.