Industry executives and competing companies continue to try to grapple with abstracting away from the complexities of blockchain for the end user.
Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Avail, a unified chain abstraction solution and the Polygon layer-2 scaling solution, stated during a conversation with media representatives that most current chain abstraction techniques generate even greater fragmentation of the crypto ecosystem.
The technology founder noted that each distinct blockchain base layer features its own set of security assumptions, making interoperability between chains challenging. According to him, they have their own set of validators and their own crypto-economic security. He also separately noted that in this case, there is a need to build an infrastructure called a light client, for example, bidirectional light clients. According to him, this is the main bottleneck in general.
The Avail co-founder noted that bridging between chains is typically a multi-step process of communication between blockchain networks, which is associated with high costs and security risks. Also in this case, according to him, a kind of specificity of the process is the separation of users and capital into fragmented pools.
The two main goals of chain abstraction techniques are to simplify user experience and achieve cross-chain interoperability.
Previous attempts at interoperability have included bridging between blockchain networks. In this case, the goal was to provide consumers with the ability to transfer liquidity between the chains.
It is possible that the liquidity-driven approach may have caused even greater fragmentation of the crypto ecosystem and generated cybersecurity risks, which provoked several high-profile hacks.
The Wormhole Bridge was hacked in February 2022. At that time, $321 million was drained. It was one of the biggest hacks in crypto history. Then there was a torrent of additional bridge hacks in the following months.
Chain abstraction is the process of simplifying the user experience and user interfaces of crypto networks and decentralized apps by hiding the technical aspects of the blockchain from the end user. The end goal of chain abstraction techniques is to create a more seamless and unified blockchain experience for the consumer. In this case, the user is allowed to log in to a single interface for interaction across chains. One example is the NEAR Protocol’s Chain Signatures feature. In this case, users are given the opportunity to sign transactions in several blockchain networks directly from their NEAR accounts. It is worth noting separately that within the framework of the relevant practice, a single wallet is used.
NEAR’s chain abstraction solution has been highly appreciated by users and investors. In this case, simplicity is the main factor in forming a positive assessment. In the relevant context, what can be called a demonstrative example of the prioritization of consumer needs is observed. The mentioned solution was pitched as a potential future base layer for interaction between all blockchains.
As we have reported earlier, Deutsche Bank Builds Blockchain Solution on Ethereum.
