The Rise of Chain Abstraction

From Paul Veradittakit

Unifying Rollups - Omni Network 

Recently, Uniswap Labs announced  UniChain , a L2 designed for DeFi. Whether to control more parts of the blockchain stack, launch new products, or capture more value, more and more apps are making their own L2’s at an increasing pace.  L2’s increasingly dominate  transaction volumes and TVL, but are increasingly fragmented. L2 chains have to pick between isolated environments (like Arbitrum Orbit or the Optimism Superchain), modular infrastructure (like and bridges are often only built after launch (when there is enough liquidity to facilitate swapping).

Yet, chains still choose these isolated or modular infrastructure providers because they retain control over their rollups. To users, this creates a poor user experience because they still need to arduously move assets across various L2’s to use different protocols. Chain Abstraction is the idea that the user should be abstracted from the underlying chain infrastructure, meaning they can access any application no matter what chain they are on or what tokens they have. This concept is still very early in development, but one of the most interesting projects building in this space is  Omni Network .

Chain Abstraction and Omni Network’s Release

Omni has approached this problem with two priorities in mind:

Omni solves this by introducing a frontend SDK that any application can integrate with on their website. It has no requirements that rollups opt into this architecture – it even does not require that teams building applications upgrade their smart contracts. From the user perspective, it is fully backwards compatible with existing wallet providers which means that users do not have to download new software, perform wallet upgrades, or alter their existing usage patterns. Before diving into the technical architecture of how this is achieved, here is a  video  demonstrating the user experience that this makes possible:

Omni simplifies the user experience by:

These are the core blockers preventing Ethereum from feeling like a singular platform to end users. Adopted at scale, Ethereum would once again begin to match the “monolithic” user experience of Solana, but now with the increased throughput and lowered fees that roll ups make possible.

Omni’s Technical Architecture

Omni is a chain purpose built to facilitate interoperability across the Ethereum rollup ecosystem. They have taken a substantially different product approach compared to other interoperability networks like LayerZero and Wormhole (which focus on cross-chain messaging). On top of Omni’s core interoperability network is a coordination protocol so that solvers (market participants like market makers) can front capital for end users if they hold their capital on a rollup that is different from the rollup where the application exists.

From the user’s perspective, token movements are instantaneous. Competitors operate a “push” model where a message starts on rollup A and is then pushed to rollup B (~10 seconds at the fastest), while Omni’s protocol is a “pull” model where the solver immediately fronts liquidity for the user on B. This unblocks the user flow so that they can get their desired outcome immediately, forcing more sophisticated market participants (solvers) to handle the delay that is inherent in any interoperability network.

When the user submits their transaction, they are actually depositing their funds into an escrow contract that releases funds only upon receipt of a cross rollup message proving that a specific solver has fulfilled the user’s intent. However, to the user it looks like they are using the same assets across multiple L2’s. With this architecture there is no need to force users to think about the complexities that previously accompanied cross rollup activity.

The Unbundling and Rebundling of Ethereum

The crypto infrastructure stack has been “unbundled” with the purpose of supercharging scalability, modularity, and ownership. Though this has been beneficial for L2’s, it has fragmented and complicated the experience for everyday users. Omni aims to “rebundle” these modular components that recognizes that modular L2’s are where the vast majority of activity occurs, and creates a protocol that allows users to instantly move across chains while letting L2’s keep their sovereignty. 

Chain abstraction is a relatively new design paradigm and Omni is at the earliest stages of discovering the possibilities of this new technology. Perhaps, Omni is the missing infrastructure piece that combines the composability of the Ethereum ecosystem with the user experience of Solana’s.

- Paul Veradittakit