Chain Abstraction is one of the most discussed narratives in the current cryptocurrency field. This narrative aims to abstract complex blockchain concepts into a unified model or interface, allowing developers and users to create applications or interact more simply without dealing with the underlying complex technical details.
In other words, what is referred to as chain abstraction is to conceal complex technology behind the scenes, allowing users to interact without perceiving the existence of blockchain—just as internet users do not need to know which cloud service provider they are interacting with, blockchain users do not need to know which chain they are interacting with.
Limitations of Chain Abstraction Implementation
However, the narrative of chain abstraction is currently facing an objective limitation in terms of implementation: under the vision of chain abstraction, the liquidity of various underlying blockchains should be called upon freely and efficiently, but the reality is not so.
Currently, the inter-chain liquidity interconnectivity mainly relies on bridging protocols like LayerZero and Wormhole. However, since the specific usage demands of each blockchain vary, the overall available liquidity on bridging protocols tends to gradually flow to chains with greater usage demands, resulting in an imbalance of available liquidity between chains. To ensure the sustainability of cross-chain functionality, liquidity rebalancing is needed at this point. Presently, the entities executing rebalancing tasks behind bridging protocols are mostly the protocols themselves or other large liquidity providers (also known as Solvers, which may include exchanges, market makers, or other roles), who actively coordinate inter-chain liquidity based on actual supply and demand situations.
The crux of the issue arises: this active coordination mechanism has many drawbacks: first, its execution efficiency is low, which may indirectly limit the liquidity availability of certain blockchains; second, the economic effect is weak, with higher costs leading to unnecessary wear and tear. More importantly, the lack of economic benefits will limit the motivation for bridging services to expand to new chains or new tokens, which is detrimental to the expansion of the multi-chain ecosystem. In summary, the concept of chain abstraction is currently constrained by objective liquidity conditions, making it difficult to realize its imagined utility, which directly undermines the core claim of the narrative 'lowering barriers, improving experiences,' thereby restricting the genuine implementation of that narrative.
Everclear's Solution
The parties most deeply feeling the above issues are precisely the major bridging protocols on the front lines of cross-chain.
In June of this year, Connext, which was positioned as a bridging protocol, announced a strategic upgrade and rebranded as Everclear. Everclear's new positioning is to serve as a clearing layer to coordinate the settlement and balance of cross-chain liquidity, addressing the issue of not being able to freely and efficiently call upon inter-chain liquidity.
While rebranding, Everclear also announced the completion of a $5 million financing by selling NEXT tokens to Pantera Capital.
From Everclear's perspective, the blockchain industry today is no longer lacking in bridging protocols. In fact, there are countless bridging protocols clustered in different ecosystems in the market today, and liquidity rebalancing has become a common challenge faced by all bridging protocols. To this end, Everclear aims to build an effective liquidity coordination mechanism, breaking the current isolated, active liquidity rebalancing model, and providing a unified, efficient, and low-cost solution for all bridging protocols.
How does Everclear operate? In short, Everclear's system monitors the liquidity balance status across all chains in the network, collects and organizes each isolated liquidity rebalancing demand, and then finds the best settlement route by combining the overall demand, significantly improving execution efficiency and reducing operational costs.
In more intuitive terms, consider that there are currently two bridging protocols: one has liquidity skewed towards Chain A and needs to rebalance towards Chain B, while the other has liquidity skewed towards Chain B and needs to rebalance towards Chain A. In the traditional model, these two bridging protocols must each execute a rebalancing operation actively, but with Everclear acting as the clearing layer, these two demands can offset each other, thus minimizing the actual liquidity that needs to be rebalanced.
This is akin to the settlement mechanism in cross-border payments. Suppose a payment institution has an inflow of $100 in a single day and an outflow of $80; the bank does not need to first transfer out $100 and then transfer in $80. Instead, by accounting for the inflows and outflows, it ultimately executes only a net inflow of $20 after settlement.
From Everclear's perspective, although entities responsible for executing rebalancing under the current model can also optimize their team skills to improve efficiency (for example, CEXs typically have teams of over 30 people using bridging protocols to maintain liquidity balance within the platform), looking at the bigger picture, an open, decentralized global coordination mechanism is the fundamental path to solving the aforementioned dilemmas. In the long run, as more blockchains and bridging protocols emerge, Everclear's performance will also become more prominent.
With the upgrade in positioning, Everclear's clients will also shift from ordinary cross-chain clients to bridging protocols. To this end, Everclear must integrate with more cross-chain protocols, gradually expanding its services and ultimately evolving into the clearing layer for cross-chain transfers in the entire crypto world.
Current Status: Mainnet Launch Token Upgrade
In mid-September, Everclear announced the launch of the mainnet Beta version. Under this version, Everclear temporarily covers five networks: Ethereum, Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain, integrating bridging protocols such as LiFi Protocol, Router Protocol, Symbiosis, and Synapse.
Everclear stated that the significance of the Beta phase lies in providing more realistic and accurate data for the system's operation. Once all functions have been thoroughly tested, Everclear will transition from the Beta phase to the official phase and expand to more networks, integrating more cross-chain protocols.
Compared to progress at the product level, what the market may be more concerned about is the utility upgrade of the Everclear protocol token NEXT.
According to Everclear's latest announcement, NEXT will adopt the vb governance model in the future, meaning that token holders can stake NEXT to become vbNEXT, which not only allows participation in the distribution of Everclear's protocol revenue but also guides the inter-chain transfer of liquidity through governance.
Everclear revealed that the vb governance model is designed based on Curve Finance's ve governance model but focuses on the new scenario of liquidity settlement. Specifically, vbNEXT can direct token incentives to specific chains or paths through voting, thereby adjusting the demand for liquidity transfer across chains by utilizing higher yields—this easily brings to mind the Curve War era when major stablecoins competed to accumulate CRV to attract higher liquidity. Perhaps in the future, we will see major networks or bridging protocols accumulate NEXT to attract higher liquidity...
Protocol + Token, unleashing imagination on both fronts
In summary, Everclear's rebranding may be one of the most thorough positioning upgrades in the entire history of cryptocurrency.
On the protocol level, Everclear has jumped out of the fiercely competitive bridging protocol track, positioning itself as the unique clearing layer in the current crypto world. By capturing its core pain points when it was a bridging protocol, Everclear is expected to rapidly expand its services to more networks and more cross-chain protocols, transforming from an independent entity protocol into a large and closely linked ecosystem.
On the token level, the utility of NEXT under Everclear's new narrative has undergone a qualitative upgrade, potentially becoming a key medium for influencing liquidity balance between chains, which is expected to amplify the genuine demand for NEXT and introduce a more robust value support for the token.
Looking ahead, as the concept of chain abstraction becomes more popular, the necessity of Everclear as a clearing layer will gradually become more pronounced, and that may be when its true value discovery cycle begins.
