Having focused on the narrative of chain abstraction for a long time and discussed it extensively, I finally saw the first truly usable chain abstraction application, which is a milestone for the chain abstraction track!
UniversalX, released by Particle Network, is the first on-chain trading application that can have full-chain liquidity without cross-chain operations.
1. The concept phase has lingered for a long time.
What exactly is chain abstraction?
Previously, many people in the community were discussing chain abstraction, but before applications based on chain abstraction actually emerged, discussions were more about concepts and technical principles, making it difficult to reach a consensus.
A thousand people have a thousand Hamlets in their hearts; only when Hamlet stands before you, facing a real, flesh-and-blood person, can you truly clarify your own understanding.
2. Too many technological middleware.
More critically, the various chain abstraction projects mentioned earlier are underlying infrastructure, serving as technological middleware to help the application layer realize chain abstraction.
The biggest problem with this type of technology middleware is that it cannot be well integrated with applications, causing various issues in system interconnections, which hinders the best user experience.
This has led to everyone discussing chain abstraction, but no one has seen a product of chain abstraction.
Therefore, the biggest factor hindering the implementation of chain abstraction is that a killer application has yet to emerge, making it impossible to achieve large-scale popularity in the market and among users.
3. The first end-to-end C-end application.
This time, Particle Network has created an end-to-end chain abstraction C-end application for the first time, directly showcasing what the experience of chain abstraction is really like.
The UniversalX product gave me a refreshing feeling; after a preliminary experience, I found that it was basically consistent with my previous expectations: users can complete various transactions without needing to perceive the characteristics of different chains, switch chains, or worry about gas fees.
Particle's UniversalX product is actually a benchmark that serves as a great demonstration effect, allowing everyone to understand the benefits brought by chain abstraction, which can enable other products to further explore the application of chain abstraction in different scenarios, such as wallets, payments, e-commerce, etc.
4. Entering from trading scenarios.
UniversalX is a trading product; Particle's entry from the trading scenario is very clever and aligns well with market trends.
The scale of on-chain transactions is becoming increasingly large, especially under the current meme craze, where most meme transactions are essentially on-chain.
Particle's UniversalX combines trading scenarios with chain abstraction to adapt to this market trend.
Recently, after Hyperliquid's airdrop, the wealth effect ignited the market, and everyone began to pay attention to the potential star DEXs that may emerge in this cycle. What will the next generation of DEXs look like? The new generation of DEXs must be products that have significant advantages in user experience and liquidity.
Particle provides its answer through UniversalX: DEX + chain abstraction = CEX-level user experience.
5. A new narrative is about to explode.
The adoption of new technologies often requires time and sufficient market momentum.
Only when the experience and value provided to users are high enough—significantly greater than the sum of the original product experience and migration costs—can a new technology achieve large-scale adoption.
The chain abstraction track is currently in a transitional period from concept to technology to application, and Particle's product is a milestone, marking the large-scale adoption of chain abstraction at the application layer.
From Particle's UniversalX product, the user experience has generated a leap in comparison to other products on the market, with significant improvements in user experience.
The new narrative of chain abstraction is about to explode.
6. Answers have been found for the two problems that must be solved.
It was previously mentioned that if Crypto continues to attract a large number of users, two problems must be solved: the usage threshold of wallets and the complexity of multi-chain operations.
This relies on two conditions: the maturity of wallet infrastructure and the integration of multi-chain patterns.
Wallet usage is too complicated; it is essential to provide ordinary users with non-private key wallets, making MPC wallets and AA wallets very important.
Multi-chain operations are too complex; it is essential to provide ordinary users with a product experience without chains, making chain abstraction very important, allowing users to use Web3 applications as if they were Web2 applications.
Both of these tracks have already made significant breakthroughs and progress, indicating that the infrastructure layer of the Crypto industry is ready.
Looking forward to the year 2025 in the Crypto industry.