Understanding Blockchain Abstraction: Beyond the Surface

The concept of chain abstraction is often simplified to a combination of liquidity pool bridges, account abstraction, and social account logins. While this perspective is not without merit, it may limit our deeper understanding of chain abstraction.

In reading "The Black Swan," the author illustrates the negative impacts that inherent beliefs can bring through numerous examples. The development of the world is not always smooth and gradual; innovation and growth often exhibit unpredictable characteristics.

Chain abstraction represents the third phase of the evolution of blockchain architecture, which is the integration process from monolithic chains to modular public chains, and then to chain abstraction.

Abstraction is a common method used in computer engineering to simplify complex systems. In the context of chain abstraction, it aims to simplify cumbersome chain operations (such as mnemonic management, gas fees, cross-chain transactions, etc.) into a user-friendly format. This transformation not only affects the user experience but also involves infrastructure and middleware.

New paradigms have emerged in the cross-chain bridge sector, such as Solver Network and Filler Network, which separate message passing and liquidity provision. Some projects have adopted innovative approaches, such as introducing AI agents as automated arbitrageurs or transforming into specialized clearing layer protocols.

The upcoming upgrade of Ethereum will allow regular accounts to point to smart contract addresses, granting them programmability and enabling advanced features such as multi-signature and batch transactions.

There are also innovations in the wallet sector, such as creating smart contract wallets with the same address on multiple EVM chains simultaneously, which simplifies the user management process.

Overall, chain abstraction is not just a change in user experience, but a comprehensive paradigm shift. These seemingly small changes could ultimately reshape the entire blockchain architecture and the landscape of the Web3 industry.