Taking Ethereum and TON/Venom as examples, let’s briefly discuss two similar but not identical chain architectures to start this topic. As shown in the figure below, in fact, whether it is outsourcing of the levels in the evolution process or the original design, they all have a similar three-layer architecture.

It’s just that in definition, Ethereum is the L1 main chain, followed by various L2s, and then the L3 solution that is dominated by the development of the L2 solution.

Venom is an infrastructure project that I just noticed a few days ago. Its architecture is very similar to TON, and it can even be said to be copied (because even the virtual machine has the same name). This is why I don’t plan to expand on it too much in this article.

Both of them are three-layer chain structures consisting of the main chain, work chain and shard chain. However, under the same structure, unlike the Ethereum system, the first layer chain under the TON/Venom framework is closer to L0. They are mainly responsible for security, which is very similar to the current trend of L1 of the Ethereum main network: gradually becoming a complete security layer (but with the Ethereum upgrade activities, the execution activity on the L1 chain has also increased)

In fact, I also compared the two factions in the picture🔻

(1) Main chain (L0) under the TON/Venom framework = Ethereum

(2) The working chain (L1) under the TON/Venom framework is approximately equal to the various Layer2s of the Ethereum system. Note that the sign is approximately equal because the working chain is not required to be equivalent to the TVM environment and can have an independent token economic system. In the L2 of the Ethereum system, there are not many with independent economic systems.

Therefore, at least from the perspective of [independent security layer], some of their features are similar. In fact, including Polkadot’s relay chain, they also have similar concepts. It seems that the problem of [blockchain trilemma] cannot be solved on a pure single chain.

And their biggest difference is also worth mentioning: the third layer structure 🔻

(1) The third layer of TON/Venom is called shard chains. They are more like many independent outsourced execution layers, similar to what the Layer 2 layer of Ethereum does.

(2) Layer 3 in the Ethereum system is more vertically focused on a certain demand and can also be understood as a pure application layer.

In TON/Venom, applications are run on L1. The current mainstream of Ethereum infrastructure, and even the mainstream consciousness of the Ethereum Foundation, is to run applications on L2.
As for L3, it is more like an L2 autonomous solution, rather than a pure top-down mainstream solution like L2.

(This is also why when I bet on the Layer2 sector last year, I chose OP instead of ARB, because in the same chain construction scheme, the correctness of L2 was (and is) higher than L3 in my opinion, although L3 is very new, which may mean a higher chance)

PS: As for Polkadot's L0+L1 two-layer structure, it is the mainstream of this faction. However, the construction of L1 in the Polkadot ecosystem before wants to ensure security, and the cost of the solution will be higher than the two [three-layer structures] listed in this article.

As for why the concept of chain abstraction is important, I have actually talked about it before. Whether it is the top-down mainstream consciousness of the Ethereum system or the native multi-chain structure like TON/Venom/Polkado, it will bring a certain degree of complexity to users in chain interaction.

Moreover, this multi-chain trend has already formed a trend of spreading from the outside to the native pattern. Ultimately, no matter which layer the application is built on, it means that the threshold needs to be understood (AVAX Avalanche is also a multi-chain structure. You can experience the complexity I mentioned. I don’t know if there are any improvements now. I haven’t paid attention to it for a long time)

📍Chain abstraction is to completely hide the interactions between various chains in the backend, making the application's interaction logic easier to understand
Thank you for reading 🙏🏻