The Rise of Chain Abstraction and the End of Blockchain Factionalism
We saw strong growth in what I like to call the open web in 2023, despite a weak market for much of the year. Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology made great strides, the Layer 2 and Rollup-driven stack took hold, and new primitives were introduced that attracted widespread attention.
This post is part of the “Crypto 2024″ prediction package from AskFX. Illia Polosukhin is CEO of the NEAR Foundation.
These trends all laid the foundation for the most important development for Web3 in 2024: chain abstraction.
The crypto industry is moving into an era of chain abstraction, where blockchains and other infrastructures are becoming increasingly invisible to users and, to some extent, developers.
Developers value distribution, access to users, liquidity and speed of launch – as well as the security and reliability of the infrastructure they use. Ultimately, most end users – at least those using applications with mainstream potential – don’t care what infrastructure an app is based on.
Users just want to get added value and great experiences quickly, easily and ideally for free. Hardly anyone thinks or cares whether a website is on Google, Amazon or something else, we just want it to work.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK) introduces a fundamentally new approach to ledger security. Instead of having to trust a decentralized set of validators, developments in ZK cryptography now allow even a single computer to prove that rules have been followed with a simple proof.
This means the difference between building a shared chain with billions of dollars to secure it (or using immense resources to launch a new chain) and spinning up a single server. In other words, security doesn’t have to be the deciding factor for developers when choosing infrastructure – recent advances allow transactions and value to transfer from one chain to another (with some technical limitations).
People care about experiences and products, not infrastructure.
This increasingly unified security across networks has significant implications for app developers as they changes the range of decisions you make when deciding where to build. If you can prove what you made with a ZK proof, it becomes less important where you made it. Unifying security also means the ability to access liquidity from any network and at any level.
For users and developers alike, defragmenting liquidity and security will result in greater flexibility. Similarly, by relieving users of these decisions, the open web feels more like today’s Internet, a single platform experience where you can easily move from app to app without having to manage dozens of wallets and accounts.
The other important key to improving user experience is account unification, or eliminating the need to manage accounts for each L1 and L2, which are increasingly becoming silos for apps and communities. For example, NEAR is working on non-custodial multichain accounts that enable cross-chain transactions.
Developers generally need to keep the idea of the account. Abstraction in mind to provide a consistent experience across all Web3 apps.
Combined with decentralized front ends that offer developers a new programmable environment for building apps that span blockchains and the By hiding blockchain details from users, this is a powerful new paradigm to usher in a new era of smoother user experiences that are better than what is available on Web2.
NEAR is not alone in believing that a unified, cross-chain ecosystem is possible. We are also working with Eigen Labs on a fast finality layer for Ethereum rollups, collaborating with Polygon on a zkWASM validator, and other initiatives. We clearly see that the adoption of the “open web” begins with user entry points into Web3.
Chain abstraction means the end of maximalism. Of course, technology is important and many of us at Web3 care about the many innovations and choices that characterize our different approaches. But most people care about experiences and products, not infrastructure.
As crypto marches towards the mainstream, there will be many blockchains, rollups, and various infrastructure providers running any number and type of applications – but hopefully users won’t have to manage or even be familiar with the technical layers.
The open web will be a better web. So let’s focus on providing better experiences for users rather than cultish thinking around a particular blockchain.
