I have been following the chain abstraction narrative for a long time and have talked about chain abstraction for a long time. Finally, I have seen the first truly usable chain abstraction application. This is a milestone for the chain abstraction track!
UniversalX released by Particle Network is the first on-chain trading application that can have full-chain liquidity without cross-chain.
1. The concept phase lasted for a long time
What exactly is chain abstraction?
Many people in the community have been talking about chain abstraction before, but before the application based on chain abstraction actually came out, everyone was still talking about concepts and technical principles, so it was difficult to reach a consensus.
There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people. Only when Hamlet really stands in front of you, facing such a flesh-and-blood person, can you truly clarify your own understanding.
2. Too many technical middleware
More importantly, the various chain abstraction projects mentioned above are all underlying infrastructure and are technical middleware that help the application layer achieve chain abstraction.
The biggest problem with this type of technical middleware is that it cannot be well integrated with applications. There are always various problems in the connection between systems, making it impossible to achieve the best user experience.
This leads to everyone talking about chain abstraction, but no one has ever seen a chain abstraction product.
Therefore, the biggest factor hindering the implementation of chain abstraction is that there is no killer application yet, and naturally it cannot be popularized on a large scale in the market and among users.
3. The first end-to-end C-end application
This time, Particle Network made an end-to-end chain abstraction C-end application for the first time, directly showing everyone what the chain abstraction experience is like.
The product UniversalX gave me a bright feeling. After the initial experience, I found that it was basically consistent with my previous expectations: users can complete various transactions without having to perceive the characteristics of different chains, switch chains, or worry about Gas.
Particle’s product UniversalX is actually a benchmark, which has a good demonstration effect and makes everyone know the benefits of chain abstraction. This will allow other products to further explore the application of chain abstraction in different scenarios, such as wallets, payments, e-commerce, etc.
4. Start from the transaction scenario
UniversalX is a trading product. Particle’s approach to trading scenarios is very clever and very consistent with market trends.
The scale of on-chain transactions is becoming larger and larger, especially in the current meme craze, most meme transactions are basically on-chain.
Particle’s UniversalX combines chain abstraction through transaction scenarios to adapt to this market trend.
After Hyperliquid recently launched an airdrop, the wealth effect has set off a wave of market excitement, and everyone is starting to pay attention to the star DEXs that may emerge in this cycle. What will the next generation of DEX look like? The next generation of DEX must be a product that has significant advantages in terms of user experience and liquidity.
Particle gave its own answer through UniversalX: DEX+chain abstraction=CEX-level user experience.
5. A new narrative is about to emerge
The adoption of new technologies often requires time and sufficient market momentum.
A new technology can only be adopted on a large scale when the experience and value it provides to users is high enough, far greater than the sum of the original product experience and the migration cost.
The chain abstraction track is in a transition period from concept to technology and then to application. Particle’s product is a milestone, a milestone for chain abstraction to be adopted on a large scale by the application layer.
Judging from Particle’s product UniversalX, the user experience has created a generation gap with other products on the market, and the user experience has been significantly improved.
A new narrative of chain abstraction is about to break out.
6. The two problems that must be solved have answers
It has been said before that if the current Crypto continues to accept large-scale users, two problems must be solved: the threshold for using wallets and the complexity of multi-chain operations.
This depends on two conditions: the maturity of wallet infrastructure and the integration of multi-chain structure.
The wallet is too complicated to use, and it is necessary to provide ordinary users with private keyless wallets, so MPC wallets and AA wallets are very important.
Multi-chain operations are too complicated, and it is necessary to provide ordinary users with a chain-free product experience. Therefore, chain abstraction is very important, so that users do not need to care about the underlying characteristics of the blockchain, and use Web3 applications just like Web2 applications.
Both of these tracks have made great breakthroughs and progress. It can be said that the infrastructure layer of the Crypto industry is ready.
Looking forward to the Crypto industry in 2025.