Cracking the puzzle of fragmentation in the crypto world: Chain abstraction leads the innovation of future user experience
In the field of cryptocurrency, with the rise of Ethereum rollup and the modularization trend of various application chains and specific application rollups, an issue that cannot be ignored has become increasingly prominent-fragmentation. This not only breaks the consistency of liquidity and user experience, but also makes users exhausted between multiple platforms and assets. In contrast, "monolithic architecture" chains such as Solana have become the focus of comparison with their simplicity, showing the charm of a unified ecosystem.
In the Ethereum ecosystem, users are faced with not only various forms of USDC and ETH, but also asset isolation that varies from rollup to rollup. Although ETH on Optimism and Arbitrum has the same origin, it is difficult to communicate with each other. The segmentation of the application ecosystem forces users to jump between multiple rollups, making asset management complicated and inefficient. Even if emerging wallets try to blur the boundaries of assets through technical means, it is difficult to completely eliminate this "pseudo-substitution" phenomenon.
The addition of non-EVM chains has exacerbated this trend. Users need to handle non-native assets additionally, further increasing the difficulty and cost of operation. In theory, rollup should be an independent "monopoly" chain to reduce the need for bridging, but the reality is that mainstream rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base operate independently, forming different ecosystems and cultures, and users are forced to shuttle between multiple ecosystems.
Fragmentation not only troubles users, but also profoundly affects the execution layer and the protocol itself. Revenue diversion, intensified MEV competition, and the complexity and security risks of multi-chain deployment have all given protocol developers headaches. Especially for new products, how to stand out from the crowd and attract and retain users has become a major challenge.
Against this background, the concept of chain abstraction came into being and is seen as the key to solving the puzzle of fragmentation. Chain abstraction aims to provide users with a seamless and optimized cross-chain experience, without having to worry about cumbersome matters such as bridging and gas payments. By achieving transparency and interoperability of assets between chains through technical means, chain abstraction will greatly simplify user operations and improve the overall experience.
