Web3 gains momentum but lacks the basics of enabling a seamless user experience. This is based on the fact that users often have to leave an application or manually manage multiple accounts. Now, this has been called out as inconvenient, paving the way for chain abstraction to improve the reliability and discoverability within the boundaries of Web3.
NEAR, for one, has backed this idea and has started building the mechanism. Technically, it has been since 2018 that the core team has been orchestrating the construction of chain abstraction. They focus on offering a flexible account model, improving usability, and enhancing scalability. It is unclear how much of it will be achieved, but NEAR remains confident about it.
Chain Abstraction by NEAR comes loaded with enabled scalability and integration of blockchain to help support the growth of over a billion daily active accounts. Deployment of a security aggregation stack with NEAR DA, EigenLayer, and zkWASM is in the works, with Polygon Labs serving with its helping hands in zkWASM. A data layer to support different types of chains is in the works too. This data layer facilitates data querying in a foreseeable protocol while supporting monolithic, integrated, modular, private, and permissioned chains.
Decentralized frontends, Intent relayers, and Super App Wallet are playing a key role in making chain abstraction the future of Web3.
Having said that, the announcement has boosted the trading price of its native token, NEAR, by 3.74% in the last 24 hours. This comes at a time when every other crypto—BTC, ETH, and XRP, among others—is experiencing the effects of a market crash. The rise is indeed noteworthy, despite plummeting by 18.31% in the last 7 days. There is a notable uptick in its market cap of 3.63% as the 24-hour volume drops by 14.86% at the time of articulating this piece.
Reviewing more details in the announcement made by NEAR reveals that the user experience has degraded significantly because of the proliferation of blockchain and rollups.
That should have boosted the quality and offered more options, but it has gone to the other side, probably due to a lack of control or a constant rise in demands. Developers have also been under pressure, neglecting that they cannot restrict UX with a roughly built dApp, a decentralized application.
NEAR has promoted chain abstraction as a better component of the Ethereum ecosystem and Web3. The team has sought collective work from the community, stating that developers must build a dApp with no limitations.
Moving forward, the call is to deal with liquidity fragmentation and security trade-offs. The current model suffices to work on the complexities of multi-chain infrastructure. As more developers come forward to leverage its true capabilities, NEAR will look to improve the way it has integrated with Web3 and implemented chain abstraction.
