CoinDesk Report:
Author: Kunal Goel, Researcher at Messari; Translator: xiaozou
The cryptocurrency world faces two major challenges with an abundance of chains and rollups: liquidity fragmentation and poor user experience.
1. Failed Attempts
Attempts such as interoperability, cross-chain, and multi-chain methods have all been unsuccessful. Worse still, most approaches have exacerbated fragmentation issues.
The answer to solving these problems lies in chain abstraction.
Chain abstraction presents a holistic solution to the cryptocurrency fragmentation problem.
2. Why Cross-Chain and Multi-Chain Failed, and Why Chain Abstraction Might Succeed
The most promising solutions acknowledge the failures of early attempts and create trusted, unbiased infrastructure to mitigate further exacerbation of fragmentation issues.
Furthermore, what sets chain abstraction apart is its endorsement by Ethereum and its ecosystem. Ethereum’s vision centered around rollups inherently fosters fragmentation, thus its extensive community and developer base recognize the importance of providing solutions.
3. Bilateral Strategies
Fragmentation issues with funds and users must be addressed from both ends.
Bottom-up chain abstraction facilitates liquidity between different blockchains. The most promising project in this field is Polygon’s AggLayer, leveraging ZK proofs to provide unified bridging and shared liquidity. It addresses liquidity issues not only within Polygon but also between different L2 and even alt-L1 solutions.
Top-down chain abstraction focuses on enhancing user experience. A key solution here is enabling users to transact across different chains through a master wallet. Noteworthy projects include OneBalance, NEAR Protocol, Particle Network, among others.
