Original author: Haotian (X: @tmel0211 )
Many people think that chain abstraction is a concept concocted by VCs, but it is not. I was deeply inspired by SevenXs article describing the future of chain abstraction. The complex environment of the current market, including high-performance layer 1, parallel EVM, Layer 2 RaaS, layer 3 application chain, cross-chain, etc., has made modularization and chain abstraction two derivative twin narratives. In my opinion, modularization must have chain abstraction to a certain extent. Next, let me explain my views:
1) The competition in the layer 1 public chain is now fierce. In the last round, everyone tended to EVM, so many EVM-Compatible layer 1s appeared. In this round, the inherent deficiencies of EVM have been criticized, and some high-performance layer 1 chains focusing on parallel transactions have emerged, such as Solana, Sui, Aptos, etc. There are also some parallel EVM chains with completely reconstructed underlying architectures, such as Monad, Artela, etc.
2) The layer 2 narrative is no longer dominated by pure EVM. The BTC layer 2 ecosystem has emerged, including EVM-compatible layer 2 such as BSquare, and UTXO isomorphic binding type layer 2 such as CKB. In addition, there are highly modular combination layer 2 ecosystems, such as the modular DA layer design Celestia, Eclipse with Solana VM as the execution layer, and so on.
The more these chains there are, the more inward-looking the competition becomes, and the more prominent the cross-chain interoperability issues between chains become, at least involving multiple heterogeneities such as underlying languages, account models, and contract standards.
For example, the differences between Move, Rust, and Solidity languages make it very costly for developers to learn. The differences between different accounts and state models make it difficult for Ethereums EOA account to be compatible with Bitcoins UTXO model. The differences between smart contract standards on different chains, such as ERC 20 and ERC 721, are difficult to handle in the Object-centric chain of the Move public chain. The atomic communication interaction between different chains by Relays is a huge challenge, and RPC is required to monitor the contract status on each chain in real time and coordinate the execution in sequence. In addition, there are different consensus verification mechanisms (POW VS POS), different governance coordination mechanisms, different scalability capabilities, different credibility security bases, and so on.
The complex factors behind these chain-based approaches directly lead to many poor user experience issues for user-based approaches:
1) Users’ account addresses are not unified in the EVM and non-EVM full-chain environments;
2) Users have inconsistent signature specifications in controlling EOA addresses, smart contract addresses, and MPC management, and need to perform signature aggregation;
3) Users require different gas fee standards in different chain environments, and there are challenges in gas conversion and friction;
4) Different chains have different liquidity depths, and users do not have a unified liquidity management environment;
Faced with the complex compatibility problems between various chains, the goal of chain abstraction is to hide these technical complexities behind the scenes, and present a simple front-end UX interface to users. Everyone knows that @ParticleNtwrk launched BTC Connect to enable users to directly connect to the EVM environment through Unisat. In fact, this is only a small part of the chain abstraction project. In addition, what other behind-the-scenes technical integration operations of chain abstraction has Particle done?
1) Building a modular L1 public chain underlying architecture based on Cosmos SDK, so that Particle can connect to EVM environment, BTC UTXO environment, Solana high-concurrency environment, etc. Cosmos IBC and relayers provide the framework premise for it to connect to complex multi-layer 1 environments to the greatest extent;
2) A Keystore contract was built to realize full-chain account abstraction. The contract manages the users account and status information on various heterogeneous chains, including cross-chain message transmission such as addresses, public keys, signatures, etc.;
3) Use the decentralized Bundler service, i.e. the intent solver processing center, to receive complex user operation instructions and convert them into executable transactions on the chain, such as Paymaster paying for gas and Social Recovery to optimize the transaction experience, all of which are achieved through UserOps built on the intent layer;
4) Cross-chain communication and relayers are responsible for monitoring transactions and status updates on each chain and responding and processing them in order, providing a foundation for smooth interaction and unified liquidity experience across the entire chain;
5) In response to the problem of inconsistency in Gas Token, Particle will also issue the ecological token $PARTI in the future to unify the Gas consumption on different chains and realize Gas abstraction. The key is that in addition to cross-chain asset settlement, Gas Token will also provide a double-staking security model mechanism to ensure the trustworthy security of interactions on each chain.
Recently, MerlinChain TGE, which integrates Particle account abstraction and BTC Connect service, was launched. I noticed that there were some complaints about the poor AA user experience in the market. In fact, it is not difficult to understand that the chain abstraction service entity provides a pluggable interface expansion service, and the signature algorithm optimization and adaptation of the interface itself (CDK) are also particularly critical. More than 60 chains such as Bearchain and opBNB have also integrated this service. Particle only provides a standardized chain abstraction service that can be directly integrated by cooperative projects. It is unrealistic to bear all the compatibility problems on its own.
above
In my opinion, Particle is a typical modular layer 1 public chain dedicated to solving the complex problems of chain abstraction. SevenX also cited different solutions such as @LightDotSo @NEARProtocol in the article. I will not interpret them one by one, but this kind of technical service is not difficult to understand.
The essence of chain abstraction is connection integration and heterogeneous compatibility. The hard work is done behind the scenes, allowing project developers to quickly and cost-effectively integrate and apply mature extension services, allowing users to perceive a seamless interactive experience.
In short, the future of the chain abstraction track is created by the complexity of the current cross-chain native environment. Now everyone is still immersed in the irrational period of complexity prosperity brought by modular combination, and may not be able to perceive the value of chain abstraction. When the Mass Adoption vision is gradually realized and the competition between chains is involuted to the point where a big wave of elimination and reshuffle is needed, the value of the chain abstraction track will naturally emerge.
