Chain Abstraction: The Third Revolution of Blockchain Architecture

How can we understand the concept of chain abstraction? In the view of some professionals, it can be simply equated with a combination of liquidity pool bridge, account abstraction, and social account log in.

This understanding, although it reflects a certain level of industry insight, prompts us to consider: does this common perception truly help us gain a deeper understanding of the essence of account abstraction, or does it instead limit our perspective?

During a flight, I browsed through Taleb's popular work "The Black Swan." The author uses his own trading experience as an example to illustrate the negative effects that widely known "common sense" can bring. He points out that the development of the world is not uniform and gradual; true change often stems from the uncertainty of time dimensions and the complexity of spatial dimensions.

From a temporal perspective, chain abstraction represents the third stage of the evolution of blockchain architecture: integration. This process has gone through monolithic chains, modular public chains, and ultimately led to the integration stage of chain abstraction.

In computer engineering, abstraction is a common method of simplifying complex systems. For account abstraction, its core lies in simplifying complex on-chain operations, making them easier for users to understand and use. This innovation is reflected not only in user experience but also involves infrastructure and middleware.

The cross-chain bridge field is a great example. In addition to traditional messaging and liquidity pool models, emerging solutions are beginning to separate cross-chain messaging from liquidity provision. A well-known decentralized exchange has collaborated with a cross-chain protocol using a unified standard and network to handle cross-chain orders. Another protocol has introduced AI agents as automated arbitrage tools to achieve instant cross-chain settlement. Some projects are also transitioning from cross-chain bridges to specialized clearing layer protocols.

In the upcoming Ethereum upgrade, a new proposal will allow regular addresses to point to smart contract addresses after signing, giving regular addresses more programmability, such as advanced features like multi-signature and custom batch transactions.

In the wallet space, a well-known wallet service has launched an innovative feature that allows users to create smart contract wallets on multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible blockchains with a single signature, while maintaining the same wallet address, greatly simplifying the complexity of managing smart contract wallets for users.

Overall, account abstraction is not just a change in user experience, but a comprehensive paradigm shift. These changes may initially go unnoticed by the public, but will ultimately reshape the architecture of blockchain and the landscape of the Web3 industry.