Author: Haotian
Why has "chain abstraction" become another mainstream hot narrative after "modularization"? In addition to seemingly "empty" goals like Mass Adoption, I believe the real core reasons are as follows:
1) Chain abstraction is a necessity after modularization to a certain stage, because the architecture of blockchain technology roughly includes consensus layer, execution layer, DA layer, interactive operability, settlement layer, and so on. In the traditional sense, coordinating various layers in a monolithic single chain requires comprehensive strengthening, while modularization breaks this situation.
The DA layer, interactive operability layer, and even the execution layer can all be individually optimized for performance and function in a composable collaborative manner. Therefore, "modularization" has become the mainstream paradigm for developers seeking to build differentiated chains. This low-cost and narrative-strong approach to entrepreneurship, without having to worry too much about long-term ecological operation issues, has gradually become mainstream.
However, modularization is essentially focused on infrastructure construction. When excessive development efforts are overly concentrated in the direction of modularization, it can lead to an imbalance between infrastructure and applications, resulting in an awkward situation where there is more infrastructure than applications.
Clearly, the emergence of "chain abstraction" is to break this awkward situation, re-integrate the blockchain components torn apart by modularization, improve the user experience, lower the threshold for user onboarding, and thereby drive application growth. In a sense, chain abstraction will complement the imbalance between ecology and applications brought about by modularization, becoming an essential narrative for the next stage.
2) Chain abstraction itself is just a broad concept, which can be roughly divided into three specific implementation directions:
Providing tool services to promote the compatibility of heterogeneous chains, with the goal of seamlessly integrating different blockchain environments and increasing the application share of the service itself. For example, Chainlink's CCIP;
Acting as an intermediate chain to unify liquidity and become an aggregation and scheduling center, mainly aggregating decentralized assets on different chains, using more secure and transparent cross-chain information transmission to build a unified liquidity layer (asset cross-chain, message transmission). For example, @0xPolygon's agglayer, @ProjectZKM's Entangled Rollup Network, etc.;
Adapting to various heterogeneous chains and launching a unified user interaction experience layer. Based on a series of tools or services that are compatible and adaptable, a unified contract scheduling center, decentralized Solver service coordination center, and other unified user experiences such as unified gas payment, social login, social recovery, etc., are built to lower the user participation threshold and attract more users. For example, @NEARProtocol's BOS operating system, @dappOS_com's intent Solver execution network for popular applications such as GMX, @ParticleNtwrk's full-chain account abstraction and intent fusion solution, and so on;
It should be noted that some of these are more technical backend services, while others focus on upgrading user frontend experiences, all aimed at unifying the decentralized single-chain environment and attracting incremental users to the blockchain application market through seamless interaction and experience upgrades.
3) The "chain abstraction" track is more favored by VCs and has become a key factor in the integration of web2 and web3. Initially, Ethereum's ERC4337 sparked a wave of wallet development based on account abstraction, mainly because a group of web2 Internet executives entered the field with financing. This is the easiest area for them to understand and leverage their expertise when entering web3. Chain abstraction further enriches the business scope based on account abstraction, but it is still the main direction of action for people with rich experience and background in web2.
Compared to the purely conceptual orientation of modularization, chain abstraction technology is more bottom-layered, requiring teams to aggregate real industry resources, accumulate assets TVL, and grow user data.
Compared to the modularization direction that often outlines the business space with "xxxx as a service," VCs are more likely to provide relatively objective valuations, and users can also see the value growth of the chain itself through objective data, thereby having better investment valuation references in the secondary market.
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