The recent rise of ZetaChain has brought mass attention to the concept of “chain abstraction”. After spending some time studying extensively on the topic, I realized that NEAR Protocol is already leading by miles over other public blockchains with its front-end operating system, account aggregation, and super wallet. It has a nice Web2 touch to it, but to truly reduce the Web3 technical barrier for a more friendly onboarding experience requires a complete and sophisticated system revamp. Let’s refresh some thoughts before getting to the topic at hand.
First, public blockchains are currently competing in two areas of development, namely modularization and chain abstraction.
Modularization refers to a new form of on-chain architecture where components like data availability, execution VM layer, and settlements are separated into distinct layers. It enables developers to build lightweight and budget-friendly applications. The burgeoning trend of stack scalability and the one-click deployment of blockchains-as-a-service has inevitably paved the way for modularization to be a prevailing narrative.
In contrast, chain abstraction is still in its infancy stage, where developers are struggling to patch up the mountain of bugs in the system. This is proven to be a nuisance as the average users are beginning to distance themselves from chain abstraction.
There are two good reasons for that:
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While the abstraction vertical’s vision to improve user onboarding experience to pave the way for mass adoption is commendable, it is still bogged down by smart contract compatibility (ERC4337 for example) of the same blockchain architecture. With this in mind, it will be extremely difficult for abstraction to move forward once we have to deal with different blockchain architectures. This resulted in the release of multiple wallets, which is confusing for the users to choose from.
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The abstraction vertical tends to be too developer-centric when it should have been developed based on the expectations of the users. For instance, incorporating social login and biometric verification to reduce the barrier of entry or using MPC technologies to increase security offerings. Ultimately, users should not feel that they are using a Web3 product when they are using one.
Looking at the whole picture, it is clear that the past account abstraction development does not meet the expectations of the users. This is where chain abstraction comes into the picture, bridging the chain connectivity and liquidity gap to the extent that all the complicated backend interactions are removed from the picture for an improved user experience.
However, Web3 native developers are more geared towards developer-centric innovations. If only they can think like a Web2 developer, we might witness the catalyst that we are all hoping for.
Now, the NEAR blockchain has been generally quiet for a long time, focusing on front-end and back-end developments. It could be that they are preparing to venture into the chain abstraction vertical. So, what has NEAR been up to?
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Blockchain Operating System (BOS) The NEAR’s newly launched BOS, is a blockchain operating system that serves as a public layer for exploring and discovering network experiences, compatible across all blockchains.
Visiting the NEAR website now offers a fresh experience, all the typical asset listing pages have disappeared. It feels more like opening a Facebook website.
In the “Featured Components” recommendation, a simple click on the “Open” button brings you to the “Liquidity Staking” page for you to access and use different protocols. The “NFT Marketplace” option is filled with a variety of NFTs for you to purchase. Feed, User, News Recommendations are there as well. It is hard to imagine that this is a Web3 project, with all the familiar Web2 onboarding experience.
NEAR is aiming to be an OS-like "interface gateway," even allowing users to customize and create their own front-end portals, drawing closer to a Web2 product experience.
How Does NEAR’s Backend Ensure Seamless Interconnectivity Across All Chain Accounts?
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NEAR Account Abstraction: It offers NEAR email login, private key recovery, and the implementation of short domain operations across the entire chain. The introduction of Fast Auth for biometric logins, such as fingerprint and FaceID, further reduces the barrier for user onboarding.
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Chain Signatures: NEAR has developed an MPC Nodes system for collective verification across chains, allowing the NEAR network to act as a common party in signing transactions for asset transfers between different chains. This approach is similar to the operability logic of other relay chain types, aiming to standardize backend contracts to facilitate cross-chain communication. NEAR's focus isn't selling on the decentralized nature of chain signatures, demonstrating strong confidence in its shard-based performance capabilities.
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Intent Relayers: Building on the foundation of collective MPC chain signatures, chain contracts can act on a user's "intent," enabling NEAR contracts to remotely control contracts on heterogeneous chains for subsequent operations, similar to a PayMaster proxy role. Theoretically, the more complex the inter-chain interaction logic, the richer and more diverse the user's intent and experience become.
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Super Wallet: The integration with MetaMask through the Snap feature was just the beginning, allowing users to sign transactions and connect with NEAR. But NEAR's vision for a super wallet goes way further, aiming to encompass all Web3 applications with functionalities like gas consumption, asset bridging, and network switching all being streamlined and hidden away from the user. NEAR is aiming to redefine the wallet paradigm, pairing it with a comprehensive entry point similar to a WeChat Mini Program, with @SenderLabs wallet on NEAR leading the charge.
Understandably, wallets stand to benefit significantly from NEAR's "chain abstraction," simplifying development and adaptation to the NEAR chain. This approach conceals the complexities of compatibility with other chains, cross-chain asset interoperability, and autonomous network switching, enhancing the user experience to the point where interacting with a Web3 application feels as seamless as online shopping.
This overview captures NEAR's recent endeavors in chain abstraction. As for the realization of its vision, whether it can fully materialize, and what the final form will look like, these questions remain open. There might be a sense of disappointment for those driven by curiosity, but this is the vision NEAR is striving towards. Do you believe in it?