Written by: imToken
In the Web3 world, from "cross-chain" to interoperability, it has always been a perennial narrative.
Of course, many people may not strictly distinguish the connotations of the two. If we were to summarize it in one sentence, cross-chain focuses more on assets, mainly solving the "transfer" problem; while interoperability covers multiple dimensions such as assets, state, and services, aiming to solve the "collaboration" problem.
In fact, as the modular narrative has increased the number and heterogeneity of L1/L2, users and liquidity have been further dispersed. Interoperability has been recognized as a more ideal end form than cross-chain—users no longer need to be aware of which chain they are on, they only need to submit their intent once, and the system automatically completes the operation in the most suitable execution environment.
With the recent announcement of a new UX roadmap by the Ethereum Foundation (EF), and a series of engineering advancements surrounding withdrawal latency, messaging, and real-time proofs, the interoperability puzzle is being systematically pieced together. I. What exactly is "Interop"? Simply put, "interoperability" is far more than just an "asset bridge"; it's a combination of system-level capabilities. It means that different chains can share state and proofs, smart contracts can call each other's logic, users can obtain a unified interactive experience, and all execution environments maintain equal trustworthiness at security boundaries. When these capabilities are simultaneously met, users can truly focus on the value activity itself, no longer troubled by network switching, duplicate authorization, or liquidity fragmentation. This echoes the ultimate goal of cross-chain engineering: to allow users to focus on the flow of value itself, rather than the barriers between chains. Especially after entering 2024, the modular narrative entered a period of full-scale explosion, with more and more fragmented L1 and L2 layers emerging. This has made interoperability no longer just high-level talk at the protocol layer, but has begun to truly sink into the user experience and underlying application logic of the general public. Whether it's an intent-centric execution architecture or new forms of application such as cross-chain aggregation and full-chain DEX, they are all exploring the same goal: to allow users and liquidity to no longer be limited to the Ethereum mainnet, nor to frequently switch networks, but to complete the exchange of on-chain assets, the provision of liquidity, and strategy operations in a unified interface and in one stop. In other words, the ultimate potential of interoperability lies in completely removing blockchain from the user's perspective—allowing DApps and project teams to return to a user-centric product paradigm, creating a low-barrier environment that is easy to use and provides an experience close to Web2, thus removing the last obstacle for users outside the blockchain community to seamlessly enter the Web3 world. After all, from a product perspective, the key to mainstream adoption is not making everyone understand blockchain, but enabling them to use it without needing to understand it. It can be said that for Web3 to reach billions of people, interoperability is the infrastructure for that "last mile." As early as August 29th, the Ethereum Foundation released "Protocol Update 003 — Improve UX," an article that continues EF's three major strategic directions after restructuring its R&D team this year—Scale L1 (mainnet scaling), Scale Blobs (data scaling), and Improve UX (improving user experience). Among these themes, the core of "Improve UX" is interoperability. Source: Ethereum Foundation. II. From "Cross-Chain" to "Interoperability": Signals Released by EF. This EF article emphasizes interoperability as its core, aiming for a seamless, secure, and permissionless Ethereum ecosystem experience. Its main point can be summarized in one sentence: **Asset cross-chain is only the first step; cross-chain collaboration of data, state, and services is the true meaning of "interoperability." In the future, Ethereum plans to make all Rollups and L2 "look like one chain."** Of course, EF also acknowledges that while most of the infrastructure and technology are mature (or about to mature), several key engineering implementation steps are still needed to truly deliver these solutions to users and integrate them naturally into the daily experience of wallets and DApps. Therefore, EF has broken down its "Improve UX / Interop" development work into three parallel main lines: Initialization, Acceleration, and Finalization. The first step, "Initialization," aims to become the starting point for interoperability, making Ethereum's cross-chain behavior lighter and more standardized. Core work includes making Intents lighter and more modular, establishing universal standards, bridging the path between cross-chain assets and cross-chain operations, and providing replaceable and composable universal interfaces for different execution layers. Specific implemented projects include: Open Intents Framework (OIF): A modular intent stack, jointly built by EF, Across, Arbitrum, Hyperlane, LI.FI, OpenZeppelin, etc., supporting the free combination of different trust models and security assumptions; Ethereum Interoperability Layer (EIL): Led by the ERC-4337 team, building a permissionless, censorship-resistant cross-L2 transaction transport layer, making multi-chain transactions as natural as on a single chain; A set of new standards (ERC... The series covers interoperable addresses (ERC-7828/7930), asset integration (ERC-7811), multi-invocation (ERC-5792), and intent and general messaging interfaces (ERC-7683/7786). The goal is straightforward: to decouple "what the user wants to do" (declarative) from "how the system executes it" (procedural), and to enable wallets, bridges, and verification backends to collaborate under a unified semantic framework. Secondly, there's the "Acceleration" stage, which reduces latency and cost, making multi-chain operations more real-time. Specifically, the reduction in time and cost revolves around measurable metrics such as "signature count, inclusion time, fast confirmation, finality, and L2 settlement." Key measures include L1 fast confirmation rules (bringing strong confirmation to the 15-30 second range), shortening L1 slot time (research and engineering groundwork from 12 seconds to 6 seconds), and shortening the L2 settlement/withdrawal window (reducing the optimistic 7 days to 1-2 days, or introducing ZK proofs and 2-of-3 fast settlement mechanisms). These measures essentially lay the foundation for cross-domain messaging and a unified experience. Ultimately, it's about achieving "finality," which involves combining real-time SNARK proofs with faster L1 finality to explore interoperability models with second-level finality. In the long run, this will reshape the landscape of cross-domain issuance, bridging primitives, and cross-chain programmability. Objectively speaking, in the Ethereum context, Interop is no longer limited to the concept of an "asset bridge," but rather a collective term for a whole set of system-level capabilities: Cross-chain data communication—different L2s can share state or verification results; Cross-chain logic execution—a contract can call the logic of another L2; Cross-chain user experience—users only see one wallet and one transaction, not multiple chains; Cross-chain security and consensus—the system maintains equal security boundaries across different L2s through proofs; From this perspective, Interop can be understood as the universal language among future Ethereum ecosystem protocols. Its significance lies not only in transferring value but also in sharing logic. III. How does Ethereum pave the way for "interoperability"? It's worth noting that Vitalik recently initiated a discussion on the Ethereum Magicians forum about shortening the Stage-1 (first phase) optimistic aggregation withdrawal time, advocating for reducing the withdrawal cycle from the traditional 7 days to 1-2 days, and proposing to gradually introduce faster settlement and confirmation mechanisms under the premise of controllable security. This discussion, ostensibly related to the Rollup withdrawal experience, is actually a direct response to one of the three major directions of "interoperability"—Acceleration. Source: Ethereum Magicians. After all, withdrawal delays are not just a user experience issue of waiting too long, but a liquidity bottleneck in the entire multi-chain collaboration system: For users, it determines the speed at which funds flow between different Rollups; For intent protocols and bridge networks, it affects the capital efficiency of the solution; For the Ethereum mainnet, this determines whether the ecosystem can maintain consistency and security amidst higher-frequency interactions. Vitalik's view essentially opens the floodgates for this; in short, **shortening withdrawal time** not only improves the user experience of Rollups but also unlocks infrastructure upgrades for cross-domain messaging, liquidity, and rapid state transfer. This direction aligns perfectly with EF's goals in the "Acceleration" framework: shortening confirmation time, increasing settlement speed, reducing in-transit funding costs, and ultimately making cross-chain communication real-time, reliable, and composable. These efforts will resonate with the Devconnect event held in Argentina on November 17th. According to the official agenda, Interop will be one of the key themes of this year's Devconnect, and the EF team will also announce more details related to EIL (Ethereum Interoperability Layer) at the event. Overall, everything points in the same direction—Ethereum is completing its transformation from "scaling" to "integration." Of course, this article, as the first in the Interop series, merely raises the fundamental question that interoperability is the ultimate goal of cross-chain narratives, and offers a preliminary glimpse into the structural upgrade we are witnessing in the Ethereum ecosystem, from EF's technical roadmap to Vitalik's real-time discussions, from standardized engineering layouts to gradually shortening settlement cycles. We will continue to explore from different perspectives why interoperability is not just a bridge, but also the underlying protocol connecting Ethereum's future. Stay tuned.
Weatherly
Catherine
Anais
Kikyo