Chain Abstraction (CA)
Estimated time to read: 2 minutes
In the blockchain ecosystem, managing multiple chains, tokens, and accounts fragments user liquidity. Even with sufficient balances across chains, users face challenges executing transactions due to fragmented assets. To transact, they must first convert assets into those acceptable on the target chain. This often involves complex, multi-step conversions to find the best route, a task not every user has the expertise or time for.
Chain Abstraction allows users to view the unified balance across chains and spend on any chain. With chain abstraction, users gain a simplified, cohesive view of their wallet and liquidity, empowering them to focus on specifying clear intent rather than the how part of transaction execution to realize the intent.
Unified balance
Unified balance shows all the liquidity in a user's EoA account across multiple chains in one view. It lets users transact seamlessly on any chain without needing bridges or pre-provisioning gas for token swaps.
For instance, if a user has 0 USDC , 4 ETH on Optimism, 10 USDC on Arbitrum, and 15 USDC on Base then sending 16 USDC on Optimism would typically require swapping or bridging across chains in multiple steps. With unified balance, the user simply states the intent to send 16 USDC on Optimism, and the chain abstraction handles it in one go with a single approval.
Benefits
Chain abstraction and unified balances simplify and streamline Web3 transactions by offering:
- Lower Complexity: Users specify their desired outcome and maximum price. Behind the scenes, solvers handle swaps, conversions, and routing securely and transparently.
- Unified Liquidity: Users see a consolidated view of their assets across all chains without needing manual bridges or swaps.
- Simplified UX: It eliminates the technical and time-consuming multi-step hurdles, creating a seamless experience for both experts and casual users by eliminating the clutter between user expectation and reality of blockchain ecosystem.
- Streamlined DX: Developers can enable unified balances in dApps without altering existing stacks. With the Arcana Chain Abstraction SDK, they can integrate seamlessly—no need to write smart contracts or manage chain switching for transactions on new chains.
Why Chain Abstraction?
Chain Abstraction removes the friction of users having to bridge across different blockchains to try apps. Users get a single, unified balance of their assets across multiple chains and can seamlessly spend them on your app, on the chain it is built on.
With Chain Abstraction, users no longer need to:
- Figure out which chain your app runs on
- Hunt for the best bridge to move assets
- Fund gas tokens on different chains
- Track and transfer balances across chains