Blockchain abstraction has become a major web3 topic as developers, enthusiasts, and users seek to onboard new parties and broaden the crypto ecosystem’s scope. It simplifies blockchain technology’s end-user experience by separating it from the intricate underlying technology while retaining its main benefits.
The simplification makes it easy for developers and users to interact with blockchain apps without requiring profound technical knowledge.
Why Chain Abstraction is Required
Improvements have been witnessed in the usability of different blockchain apps over the years. However, some technical intricacies persist and can be challenging for the ordinary user.
Users new to the blockchain might be used to utilizing United States dollars or credit cards to make their preferred purchases. However, once they try purchasing a nonfungible token (NFT) for the first time, they might discover that they lack assets on the right blockchain, preventing them from making the purchases.
Alternatively, they might try sending USDT to their wallet but pick the wrong network and lose the funds. Despite these actions being straightforward to an experienced ‘crypto native’ user, new users can find it confusing and cumbersome.
Blockchain abstraction aims to change this by boosting various blockchain networks’ interoperability and usability. Interoperability is blockchain systems’ capability to communicate, share information, and work together coherently.
Interoperability means that assets can be moved between various blockchains without intermediaries. Developing apps with more inherent interoperability would eradicate the need to bridge between chains, ensuring more direct access to NFT markets and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Blockchains must do the same to reach mainstream users, like the internet’s accelerated journey to broad adoption after abstracting the intricacies of TCP/IP and HTTP. By offering familiar user experiences such as single-click interactions and simple sign-ins, blockchain abstraction seeks to imitate popular web2 applications’ usability.
Illustration of Chain Abstractions
User-friendly interfaces are an example of blockchain abstraction. Wallets such as Phantom and MetaMask ease the process of making transactions and managing private keys.
Rather than handling cryptographic information, users can send and receive cryptos via more intuitive interfaces similar to online banking applications. For example, MetaMask permits users to interact with the Ethereum blockchain directly from their web browsers, ensuring blockchain technology’s accessibility to people familiar with utilizing browser extensions.
Over the years, the wallets have also unveiled features to grant more options to users, such as in-app swapping or bridging. This eradicates the need to find and link to an external bridge and move assets between blockchains.
NEAR protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain that has executed some aspects of blockchain abstraction and is its founders’ critical objective since it can reduce the user entry barrier. One strategy entails utilizing human-readable accounts, permitting interactions using names rather than intricate wallet addresses.
Middleware solutions like Chainlink offer another abstraction layer by linking blockchain smart contracts with external data sources. This is critical for apps that depend on actual-world data, such as decentralized finance platforms.
As a decentralized oracle network, Chainlink gathers information from various sources that are later aggregated into smart contracts. This abstracts the intricate process of combining external data with blockchain apps.
Account Abstraction on Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s founder, claimed that account abstraction is the means to offer security and convenience for blockchain developers and users. ERC-4337, Ethereum’s account abstraction standard, seeks to allow user wallets to function as smart contracts without the need to manage externally owned accounts and their private keys.
ERC-4337 allows for more improved features like multi-signature wallets and custom validation guidelines within user accounts. Users can execute personalized security measures by moving validation logic from the core protocol to the account lever.
ERC-4337 can benefit users in various ways. For example, it can provide more secure and flexible ways to manage accounts via features such as multi-signature authentication, where several private keys aid in authorizing transactions, considerably minimizing the risk of hacks.
Social recovery options allow users to reclaim access to their accounts via trusted contacts, reducing the effect of lost private keys. ERC-4337 facilitates gas fee abstraction, permitting users to pay transaction fees using tokens other than Ether.
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