---
title: "Via Labs Case Study"
description: "Learn how Cheesecake Labs partnered with Via Labs to build scalable blockchain infrastructure, enabling secure cross-chain transactions and rapid ecosystem growth."
url: "https://cheesecakelabs.com/portfolio/via-labs"
locale: "en"
updatedAt: "2026-08-05T20:45:34.654Z"
---

# Via Labs Case Study

> Learn how Cheesecake Labs partnered with Via Labs to build scalable blockchain infrastructure, enabling secure cross-chain transactions and rapid ecosystem growth.

**Client:** Via Labs

## Scaling Interoperability
across 140+ Blockchains
through a Cross-chain
Messaging Network

VIA Labs set out to solve one of Web3’s messiest problems: how to route assets across blockchains that don’t speak the same language.

The Cheesecake Labs team came on board to help connect VIA Labs’ protocol with Stellar and Cardano — none of which fit neatly with EVM standards.

### From EVM roots to a truly omni‑chain network

They're building the infrastructure layer for cross-chain communication, connecting [140+ public and private networks](https://vialabs.io/) with direct contract-to-contract messaging.

When it secured a grant to integrate Stellar and partnered with Cardano’s privacy-focused sidechain [Midnight](https://midnight.network/), the project entered a new proving ground: Could EVM principles stretch across non-EVM terrain?

## The interoperability wall

VIA Labs needed to relay messages, tokens, and NFTs between EVM-based chains and these new integrations. But each ecosystem has fundamentally different ways of processing and verifying transactions.

Cardano uses validators built for the UTxO model, and Stellar uses WASM-based smart contracts. Neither maps easily to EVM.

Stellar uses Ed25519 signatures, EVM chains use ECDSA adds zero-knowledge proofs — systems that can’t natively verify one another.

Each chain records and validates data differently. Without normalization, a message from one network reads as gibberish on another.

## Three protocols,
zero common ground

### More than a technical project  

Integrating Stellar and Cardano wouldn’t just untangle one of blockchain’s biggest technical knots. It was also central to VIA Labs’ long-term strategy.

It would open the protocol to new ecosystems, make onboarding easier for developers, and ultimately make VIA Labs impossible to ignore in cross-chain conversations.

They had the architecture and the protocol, but their engineering team needed help enabling cross-chain communication at the system level. They chose Cheesecake Labs to help them sync the unsyncable.

### Modular structure

Each component was designed for reuse, cutting future chain integration time by more than 50%.

### Engineered for trust

Each signature scheme and message flow was reviewed for compliance and cryptographic integrity before being wired into the system.

### One logic, any chain

To make development easier, we built abstraction layers that absorbed each chain’s quirks. That meant both teams — and future ones — could add new integrations without touching core logic.

## Cheesecake Labs joins the build

We dove straight in from the first commit. Our team worked shoulder to shoulder with their engineers to pinpoint exactly where each system conflicted at the protocol level, and then decided what to abstract and what to translate.

#### Incompatible address formats (base32 vs. hex)

Address converter for consistent identity mapping

#### Signature mismatch (Ed25519 vs. ECDSA)

Signature translation layer to verify both securely

#### Event and transaction encoding conflicts (XDR vs. ABI)

Event normalization engine to parse and standardize logs

#### Different deployment flows (two-step WASM vs. single-step bytecode)

Unified deployment interface for both systems

#### Fee model differences (fixed bump vs. gas)

Fee abstraction layer to calculate costs uniformly

#### Diverging security checks

Multi-scheme validation layer to prevent mismatch or bypass

#### RPC/config fragmentation

Shared configuration and RPC interface

#### Error handling gaps

Error normalization system with structured recovery logic

#### No cross-chain test harness

Deterministic end-to-end test suite for multi-chain validation

Stellar’s XDR format and two-step WASM deployment didn’t mesh with EVM logic. We built an orchestration layer that interprets Stellar events in real time and triggers the appropriate actions on the EVM side, enabling both networks to operate as one.

Build response

#### Ledger model mismatch (UTxO vs. account-based)

Off-chain orchestration layer to sync states reliably

#### Lack of shared storage

Datum-based storage to maintain cross-chain context

#### No native event logs

Event triggers by tracking Datum changes and metadata signals

Cardano’s UTxO model leave no straightforward way to coordinate transactions to preserve cross-chain logic.

Build response

## Engineering cross-chain reality

Every layer of interoperability had to be re-engineered from scratch.

### Chains connected

Stellar, EVM, Cardano

### Contract frameworks

Soroban (Stellar), Aiken (Cardano)

### Key SDKs

Stellar SDK, Lucid (Cardano)

### Infra tools

Abstraction layers + cross-chain test suite

### Languages used

Rust (contracts), Aiken (scripts), JavaScript (validators)

## Tech stack at a glance

## Cross-chain, uncompromised

VIA Labs has achieved something most cross-chain systems rarely pull off: it exactly as promised, consistently and verifiably.  

Both the Stellar Community Fund and Cardano ecosystems validated the project, putting VIA Labs on the map as a new reference point for practical interoperability.

## Here’s what VIA Labs had to say about our work together.

“Working alongside Cheesecake Labs has been a seamless experience from onboarding through delivery. Their team is professional, curious, and highly adaptive — always quick to meet our cross-chain needs, even when the targets evolve mid-flight. They’ve become an extension of our own engineering culture at VIA Labs.”

COO @ VIA Labs

## Build better blockchains with Cheesecake Labs.

Have an idea for the next great blockchain innovation? We’re ready to help you bring your dreams to life. [Get in touch today!](https://cheesecakelabs.com/contact/)

## Schedule a call

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