NEAR Foundation CEO: The rise of chain abstraction and the end of blockchain factionalism

Author: Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and Unchain Fund, CoinDesk; Compiler: Songxue, Golden Finance

In 2023, we saw what I call huge growth in open networks, despite this Market growth has been slow for most of the year. Zero-knowledge (ZK) technology has made significant progress, with Layer2 and Rollup-driven stacks dominating, and the introduction of new primitives attracting widespread attention.

These trends all set the stage forthe major evolution of Web3 in 2024: chain abstraction.

The crypto industry is entering an era of chain abstraction, where blockchain and other infrastructure will become increasingly invisible to users and developers.

Developers care about distribution, reaching users, liquidity and rapid launch, as well as the security and reliability of the infrastructure used. Ultimately, most end users, at least those using applications with mainstream potential, don't care what infrastructure the application is built on. Users just want value and a great experience quickly and easily, preferably for free. Almost no one thinks or cares whether a web page is running on Google, Amazon, or somewhere else; we just want it to work.  

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) introduce a fundamentally new approach to ledger security. Now, through the development of ZK cryptography, even a single computer can prove that the rules have been followed without the need to trust a decentralized set of validators.  

This means the difference between building on a shared chain with billions of dollars of protection (or spending huge resources to launch a new chain), and quickly launching a single server. In other words, security does not need to be a deciding factor when developers choose infrastructure - with the latest technological advancements, transactions and value from one chain can be settled on another (with some technical caveats) .

“People care about the experience and the product, not the infrastructure.”

This increasingly unified cybersecurity has an impact on application building has a significant impact because it changes the set of decisions they make when deciding where to build. If you can prove what you're doing with zero-knowledge proofs, then it doesn't matter so much where you build it. Unified security also means liquidity can be leveraged at any level on any network.

De-fragmentation of liquidity and security will lead to more flexibility for users and developers. Similarly, taking the burden of these choices off the user allows the open web to start feeling more like the Internet today, a single platform experience where youcan easily switch from one app to another app without having to manage dozens of wallets and accounts.

Another major key to improving user experience is account aggregation, i.e. eliminating the need to manage accounts for each L1 and L2 These are increasingly becoming applications and community isolates. For example, NEAR is researching multi-chain, non-custodial accounts that will enable cross-chain transactions.

Overall, developers need to keep the concept of account abstraction in mind to achieve a unified experience across all Web3 applications.

Combined with a decentralized front-end, it provides developers with a new programmable environment for building cross-blockchain applications and hiding the details of the blockchain behind users. This is a powerful new paradigm for Paradigm that can usher in a new era of smoother user experiences than those available on Web2.

NEAR is not alone in believing that a unified cross-chain ecosystem is possible. We are also working with Eigen Labs to build a fast finality layer on top of Ethereum Rollups, Polygon on the zkWASM prover and other projects. We clearly see that the adoption of the "open web" starts with the user's entry point to Web3.

Chain abstraction means the end of extremism. Of course, technology matters, and many of us in Web3 care about the many innovations and choices that differentiate our different approaches. Butmost people care about the experience and the product, not the infrastructure.

As crypto moves toward the mainstream, there will be a plethora of blockchains, rollups, and different infrastructure providers running a variety of applications — but, hopefully, users won’t have to manage or even know about it technical level.

The open web will be a better web, solet’s focus on providing a better experience for our users rather than thinking feverishly around a specific blockchain.