Thousands of blockchains, thousands of dApps - the crypto sector is becoming increasingly fragmented. How Chain Abstraction provides a remedy for the usability that suffers from this.
The quest for scalability is breaking the crypto sector into smaller and smaller pieces. In addition to new sidechains and layer 2 networks, some projects are now developing blockchains that are designed solely for one application. Because of this fragmentation, there could be millions of blockchains in the future - all with their own token, their own dApps and their own liquidity.
For users, interaction therefore turns out to be particularly cumbersome. They want access to various applications that are located on various blockchains. But they usually only hold coins and tokens on one network. To get onto the desired chain, they have to access risky and costly bridges and acquire the respective gas token to pay transaction fees. The new technological approach of "chain abstraction" could remedy this.
Crypto's usability problem
One of the first concepts for chain abstraction comes from Connext, an interoperability protocol. The idea behind the technology is simple: the front-end application should move to the foreground, the blockchain-technical processes to the background. They are "abstracted", so to speak. Instead, special smart contract modules in the back-end take over the bridging and exchange of tokens between networks, the payment of gas fees and the signing of transactions. Users no longer have to do these processes manually. For them, it becomes irrelevant on which blockchain the desired liquidity pool or trading pair is. The entire process takes place on a front-end platform. This removes one of the biggest barriers to entry in crypto adoption - the complex "user experience". For developers of the crypto-dApps, the integration of the smart contract modules is to be facilitated by means of special tool kits. They can use them to develop crosschain apps, so-called xApps, in no time at all.
Every asset, every chain, in one place
Anyone who wants to surf the internet does not have to be an expert in back-end software. The jump from website to website is usually just a click away. This simplicity has been lacking in the blockchain sector until now. Abstracting the technical processes should now enable new projects to unify the crypto sector. One of them is Catalyst. Catalyst is one of the first omni-chain DEXes, which should allow tokens to be exchanged blockchain-independently. It thus follows the idea of Thorchain, but builds on the growing trend of modularity in the blockchain sector. Modular blockchains are easier to adapt and launch and also integrate more easily into existing networks. Existing barriers between the chains are thus broken down. If the project is successful, it could form a universal "liquidity layer" of the crypto sector. So while crypto-users may prefer some Chains for their current scalability, their future compatibility and modularity could be even more significant. Chain abstraction, along with cross-chain messaging protocols such as LayerZero, is seen as a beacon of hope for the industry's development in this regard.
