Introduction
The experience of using blockchain technology has always been challenging, but the recent explosion of blockchains, sidechains, state channels, and rollups has made it even harder. The user experience (UX) has deteriorated to the point where even cryptocurrency experts frequently struggle to use Web3 applications, especially when they have to work across multiple chains. Many users now need to consult technical documentation just to figure out how to use these projects. This highlights the complexity and need for more intuitive design in the current Web3 landscape.
For an average person just starting with Web3, the complexity can feel overwhelming. The Web2 era was widely adopted because the users were not required to understand the technical nuances of HTTP, TCP/IP, or hosting. Rather, decades of significant investments were made to improve and streamline the user experience. Today, it only takes a few clicks to make an online purchase, and registering for a service or setting up a social media account is as simple as logging in to your email. This ease of use is what made the internet accessible to millions.
Entering Web3 can feel like a journey back in time for people accustomed to the smooth experience of Web2 – to a time before user experience was given top priority. Nothing seems simple, whether it’s managing assets across various chains, handling pending or unsuccessful transactions, waiting for transactions to confirm, or setting up wallets. Recognizing these long-standing challenges, many in the industry have recently turned their attention to chain abstraction. This involves hiding the technical complexities of using Web3 in a multi-chain environment. While some are taking a more comprehensive approach to address all UX issues at once, others are concentrating on particular areas, such as creating wallets with account abstraction or cross-chain asset management dApps.
What is Chain Abstraction
In general, “chain abstraction” refers to technology that lets users engage with decentralized applications without having to handle the technical aspects of multiple chains, such as managing different gas tokens, bridging assets, or monitoring balances across chains. The aim is to make Web3 more user-friendly and available to a larger audience. A more easy way to understand this is “When working with multiple chains, a user experience known as chain abstraction eliminates the need for manual steps.”
Chain abstraction seeks to address the fragmented user experience in Web3 caused by the rise of numerous public blockchains, including Layer 2s and even Layer 3s. This fragmentation leads to a range of user experience issues, such as costly, time-consuming cross-chain transactions and the need to manage multiple gas tokens. Web3 adoption is hindered by these complexities, which isolate dApps within distinct ecosystems and necessitate highly technical, proactive users who can manage assets across multiple blockchains. Users could sign transactions involving multiple networks using a single interface in a fully chain-abstracted system, with everything being handled and settled in the background.
The Current Scenario
Most users’ first experience in crypto begins with setting up a wallet, which is often where the UX challenges start. Managing a crypto account is far more complicated than handling Web2 accounts, as it requires safeguarding private keys and recovery phrases that can’t easily be retrieved if lost. Users must manage multiple wallets, addresses, and balances, switch between networks frequently, and keep track of different gas tokens when using dApps across multiple chains, which adds additional layers of complexity.
It’s also challenging to move assets between Layer 2 networks and blockchains. Users have to pay gas fees, authorize transactions, find the appropriate bridge protocols, and occasionally wait days for tokens to reach the destination chain. All this takes place in a highly volatile environment, where asset prices and transaction fees fluctuate constantly due to demand for both assets and block space.
Understanding the technical distinctions between different blockchains and Layer 2 networks is also necessary for users navigating the cross-chain ecosystem. The user experience is impacted by the distinct consensus techniques, block times, transaction processing environments, and security models used by each network.
For example, Bitcoin’s 30-minute confirmation time may surprise a user used to transacting wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum. In a similar vein, the high fees associated with sending USDT on Ethereum might surprise someone accustomed to sending it on Tron.
To understand some of the basic difficulties, let us consider another simple example. Let’s say Bob wants to move a USDT payment he received on Ethereum to the Tron network in order to send money to his sister Alice abroad more cheaply. He must first (a) locate a cross-chain protocol that facilitates the transfer and (b) create a Tron wallet in order to accomplish this. After completing these procedures, Bob pays a substantial gas fee in Ethereum and starts a bridging transaction on Ethereum. A few hours later, he receives the USDT in his Tron wallet.
However, Bob soon discovers that he lacks the TRX necessary to pay transaction fees on the Tron network, which prevents him from sending the USDT to Alice. He is currently unable to transfer his money until he can obtain Tron’s native token.
This simple example demonstrates how annoying it can be to move assets between two chains, but more complicated tasks, such as switching tokens on unsupported chains or supplying liquidity across networks, present much greater challenges.
Experienced cryptocurrency users frequently need to manage multiple accounts across different blockchains, use multiple bridges to navigate between them, and hold a variety of tokens to cover transaction fees on each network they interact with along the way.
The Ideal Scenario
Chain abstraction’s central tenet is that Web3 users shouldn’t even be conscious that they’re interacting with blockchains, much less be concerned about whether they’re on a rollup, Layer 1, or the appropriate cross-chain protocol. As with Web2, they should have no trouble registering, completing transactions, exploring dApps, recovering their accounts, and leaving the platform.
Users shouldn’t have to worry about anything else besides knowing the desired result and the associated expenses. All technical complexities necessary to achieve the user’s goal should be hidden and managed by other services or the technology itself. This means that the choice of networks, accounts, gas fees, bridging, and execution would all be handled in the background, with minimal relevance to the user.
While various players in the industry have different ideas on how to transition from today’s complex blockchain landscape to a chain-abstracted world, Frontier Research’s recently introduced Chain Abstraction Key Elements (CAKE) framework is gaining traction among projects tackling these challenges. The CAKE framework suggests merging three core infrastructure layers into one unified product and provides examples of how this could be achieved. Here’s a breakdown of the three infrastructure layers.
Permission Layer
This layer primarily involves wallets and the infrastructure needed for transaction signing. The key concept here is account abstraction—separating the signer (the entity authorized to initiate transactions or spend tokens) from the account (which holds the tokens). This also includes updating the cryptographic design of blockchain accounts to support native multi-signature functionality and social recovery options.
In contrast to the majority of existing wallets, chain-abstracted wallets need to be compatible with the signing schemes and transaction formats for each chain they support. Two key innovations being explored are AA wallets and policy-based agents. AA wallets allow users to keep their private keys while separating the signer from the executor, enabling third parties to bundle and execute transactions, which reduces the need for users to hold fees across chains. Policy-based agents store the user’s private key in a secure environment, creating signed messages on the user’s behalf. Users set policies and give one-time approval, after which agents handle transactions and fee management.
Solver Layer
Solvers are specialized entities that carry out users’ desired actions by creating and executing transactions on their behalf. They determine the best transaction routes, estimate costs, and assess execution speeds based on users’ balances and stated goals.
As a critical component of chain abstraction, solvers remove the complexity of transaction handling by allowing users to simply specify their intended outcome in a straightforward way. For instance, a user could say, “I want at least 420,000,000 MEME tokens on Solana; I have 0.3 ETH in this Ethereum contract,” and solvers would work to efficiently fulfill it rather than manually bridging assets and selecting execution paths.
Settlement Layer
The settlement layer is in charge of carrying out the transaction after the user authorizes it using their private key. In a multichain environment, this involves using cross-chain oracles and various types of bridges, such as liquidity bridges and burn/mint bridges.
Bridging is completely unnecessary if a solver is handling the user’s request and adding their own liquidity. Decentralized applications (dApps) must choose the best balance between these options because each one has trade-offs related to speed, cost, and security.
Conclusion
Abstraction layers are not limited to blockchain technology; they are present at all computing and networking levels. They allow complex systems like the Internet to be user-friendly while hiding the underlying intricacies. For example, to send an email, users must open an application, compose their message, enter a recipient, and click send. This eliminates the need for several complex procedures and protocols.
In the context of Web3, this concept has been adapted into “chain abstraction”, which seeks to eliminate traditional account structures from the user experience. The goal is to reduce the number of interactions users must have with their accounts to accomplish their objectives.
The recent emphasis on chain abstraction represents a crucial step toward mass adoption in the industry. The idea of a chain-abstracted world, the one in which users can engage with blockchain technology without having to understand its technical nuances is getting closer to reality. This transformation will lower entry barriers for new users, improve security, reduce friction, and ultimately enable the next wave of decentralized applications to realize their full potential.
The primary aim of chain abstraction is to make the user experience in Web3 comparable to that of Web2 while retaining the benefits of blockchain technology, such as permissionlessness, resistance to censorship, and self-custody.