What Is Chain Abstraction?

Blockchain interactions can be tricky and complex, particularly for beginners. In this article, we will explore chain abstraction, how does it work, some of its advantages and challenges, and general misconceptions about it.

What Is Chain Abstraction?

Chain abstraction is NEAR’s concept for simplifying how consumers engage with blockchain technology by isolating it from the user experience. The idea is for customers to be unaware of which blockchain they are working with, or even that they are utilizing a blockchain.

How Does Chain Abstraction Work?

Consider a situation where you can only send text messages from an iPhone to other iPhones and not the Android devices. That would surely be counterproductive and unfeasible. Likewise, users should be able to transact and interact with decentralized applications (DApps) on different blockchains unhindered. This is where chain abstraction comes into the picture, where the complexities of the blockchain technology are minimized or eliminated altogether so that the user is just able to focus on the utility and usefulness of the DApps that are being used.

For instance, if Katherine intends to interact with a new DApp called XYZ, she should not be bothered about the blockchain upon which it was developed. From a user perspective, she just wants it to operate properly and meet its intended function. Likewise, millions of people go online daily, but few of them are knowledgeable about the internet technology or how it operates.

Think of a DApp for making transactions and operating within various networks and services. For example, if Katherine uses the XYZ application on her smartphone to buy a cup of coffee, she comes across a coupon for shoes that she likes. She purchases a pair of shoes and gets points which in the form of non-fungible tokens on Ethereum. Later, she sees that there is more to the offered reward and decides to purchase tickets to an event, also NFTs but on BNB Smart Chain (BSC).

All these transactions could occur within a single app with no need to have several wallets, switch between networks, or deal with fees directly. This level of cross-chain interaction is the ultimate goal of chain abstraction.

Advantages of Chain Abstraction

Liquidity is always hidden within particular blockchains, which may present a challenge for users and developers to utilize it properly. Chain abstraction solves this by allowing users to access liquidity within multiple blockchains. Assume that David wants to lend his tokens in order to receive interest on them. If liquidity is isolated, he would have to look for it on the exact blockchain where his tokens are located. However, with chain abstraction, David could lend his tokens on a platform that has connected different blockchains to form a single pool of liquidity. This can mean more platform users and lower interest rates for David.

In regard to developers, chain abstraction provides an opportunity to create DApps without being bound to the limitations of a particular blockchain. One may employ Ethereum for features like smart contracts while the other may be more cost-friendly like Polygon. For instance, Decentraland leverages the Polygon network to enable users to mint, sell, purchase and trade wearables for avatars at zero gas fee. It is crucial to highlight that Decentraland employs various aspects to fully eliminate the fees in question. Promoting transactions on Polygon, they have low fees but are not completely zero fee.

Challenges of Chain Abstraction

One possible application of chain abstraction is the development of an interface, by which users would be able to access all sorts of applications based on the blockchain technology in a more efficient manner. But the issue is that this interface may evolve into a single point of failure.

Every blockchain must have its security measures. When they are integrated into a single interface it becomes difficult to guarantee that all the security measures are adhered to. However, if the new interface of chain abstraction is not implemented carefully, it poses risks to individual blockchains. Another issue that has been observed is the lack of compatibility with other blockchains.

The consensus mechanism and smart contract language may vary from one blockchain to another, which makes it challenging to have an ideal interface for all the blockchain networks. For example, a smart contract developed using the Ethereum programming language cannot be deployed directly to the Solana network because of the fundamental architecture of the two almost different programming languages.

Misconceptions About Chain Abstraction

It is important to note that through chain abstraction, cross-string interactions are made simple but the individuality of each blockchain is preserved. Chain abstraction makes the low-level technical operations easier and more streamlined to enhance the use experience but affect the blockchain architectures.

As stated earlier, chain abstraction is about creating blockchains that interact with one another, and although this is a key aspect of the concept, it is not the only one. Chain abstraction also implies defining the interaction between DApps and blockchains, simplification of smart contract deployment, and data retrieval between interconnected blockchains.

Closing Thoughts

Interactions between other blockchains are also described by the term chain abstraction, which implies their generalization. The advantages of chain abstraction are that it assists in breaking up Liquidity and simplifying development. It faces challenges in the form of centralization and security risks, and potential interoperability issues. Still, it could pave the path towards interoperable and user-friendly blockchain ecosystems.