The Rise of Chain Abstraction and End of Blockchain Factionalism

We
saw
a
lot
of
growth
in
what
I
like
to
call
the
open
web
in
2023,
despite
the
slow
market
for
much
the
year.
Zero-knowledge
(ZK)
tech

made
major
strides,
the

layer
2
and
rollup-driven
stack
took
hold
and
new
primitives
launched
capturing

plenty
of
attention.

This
post
is
part
of
CoinDesk’s


“Crypto
2024”

predictions
package.
Illia
Polosukhin
is
the
CEO
of
the
NEAR
Foundation.

These
trends
all
laid
the
groundwork
for
what
will
be
the
major
evolution
for
Web3
in
2024:
chain
abstraction.

The
crypto
industry
is
moving
into
an
era
of
chain
abstraction,
where
blockchains
and
other
infrastructure
will
become
increasingly
invisible
to
users
and
to
an
extent
developers.

See
also:


The
Barrier
to
Mainstream
Crypto
Adoption
Isn’t
UX

|
Opinion

Developers
care
about
distribution,
access
to
users
and
liquidity
and
speed
to
launch
––
as
well
as
the
security
and
reliability
of
the
infra
they’re
using.
Ultimately,
most
end-users
—
at
least
those
using
applications
with
mainstream
potential
—
don’t
care
about
the
infrastructure
an
app
is
built
on.

Users
just
want
to
get
value
and
great
experiences,
quickly,
easily
and
ideally
for
free.
Hardly
anyone
thinks
about
or
cares
whether
a
webpage
is
running
on
Google,
Amazon
or
something
else,
we
just
want
it
to
work.

Zero-knowledge
proofs
(ZK)
introduces
a
principally
new
approach
to
ledger
security.
Instead
of
needing
to
trust
a
decentralized
set
of
validators,
now
through
developments
in
ZK
cryptography
even
a
single
computer
can
prove
that
rules
were
followed
with
a
simple
proof.

This
means
the
difference
between
building
on
a
shared
chain
with
billions
of
dollars
securing
it
(or
spending
immense
resources
to
launch
a
new
one),
and
spinning
up
a
single
server.
In
other
words,
security
doesn’t
need
to
be
the
deciding
factor
for
developers
when
they
are
choosing
infra
—
through
recent
advancements,
transactions
and
value
from
one
chain
can
settle
on
another
(with
some
technical
caveats).

This
increasingly
unified
security
across
networks
has
major
implications
for
app
builders
because
it
changes
the
set
of
decisions
they’re
making
when
they
decide
where
to
build.
If
you
can
prove
what
you’ve
done
with
a
ZK
proof,
it
matters
less
where
you’ve
built
it.
Unifying
security
also
means
the
ability
to
tap
into
liquidity
from
any
network,
at
any
layer.

For
users
and
developers
alike,
the
defragmenting
of
liquidity
and
security
will
lead
to
more
flexibility.
Similarly,
removing
the
burden
of
these
choices
from
users
lets
the
open
web
start
to
feel
more
like
today’s
internet,
a
single
platform
experience
where
you
can
easily
move
from
app
to
app
without
managing
dozens
of
wallets
and
accounts.

The
other
major
key
to
smoothing
out
user
experience
is
account
aggregation,
or
removing
the
need
to
manage
accounts
for
every
L1
and
L2,
which
are
increasingly
becoming
silos
for
apps
and
communities.
NEAR,
for
instance,
is
working
on
multichain,
non-custodial
accounts
that
will
enable
cross-chain
transactions.

Developers
in
general
need
to
keep
the
idea
of
account.
abstraction
in
mind,
in
order
to
deliver
a
unified
experience
across
all
Web3
apps.

See
also:


Ethereum
Upgrade
Could
Make
It
Harder
to
Lose
All
Your
Crypto

Combined
with
decentralized
frontends,
which
give
developers
a
new
programmable
environment
for
building
apps
that
span
across
blockchains
and
keep
the
blockchain
details
hidden
away
from
users,
this
is
a
powerful
new
paradigm
to
unlock
a
new
era
of
smoother
user
experiences
better
than
what’s
available
on
Web2.

NEAR
is
not
alone
in
believing
that
a
unified,
cross-chain
ecosystem
is
possible.
We’re
also
partnering
with
Eigen
Labs
on
a
fast
finality
layer
for
Ethereum
rollups,
collaborating
with
Polygon
on
a
zkWASM
prover
and
other
initiatives.
We
see
clearly
that
adoption
of
the
“open
web”
begins
with
users’
entry
points
to
Web3.

Chain
abstraction
means
the
end
of
maximalism.
Of
course
technology
matters
and
many
of
us
in
Web3
care
about
the
many
innovations
and
choices
that
distinguish
our
different
approaches.
But
most
people
care
about
experiences
and
products,
not
infrastructure.

As
crypto
marches
towards
the
mainstream,
there
will
be
lots
of
blockchains,
rollups
and
different
infrastructure
providers
running
any
number
and
type
of
applications
—
but,
hopefully,
users
won’t
have
to
manage
or
even
know
about
the
technical
layers.

The
open
web
will
be
a
better
web,
so
let’s
focus
on
delivering
better
experiences
to
users
rather
than
cult
thinking
around
a
specific
blockchain.