Chain abstraction key to mainstream adoption of crypto, says Near Protocol co-founder

Chain abstraction could induce the next transition of the crypto space and Web3, necessary for mainstream adoption, Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin said during an interview with The Block at the BUIDL Asia conference in Seoul, South Korea.

Chain abstraction involves application developers enhancing the end-user experience by defragmenting the complex technological layers of Web3. This concept abstracts blockchain away from the user experience. For example, in a blockchain network such as Near, users create and recover accounts using email addresses instead of writing down complex seed phrases.

“The idea is that blockchains must be abstracted away from the user so they are not barriers to entry or participation,” said Polosukhin. 

However, there may be a few issues to consider. During a fireside chat at BUIDL, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin raised a potential pain point of chain abstraction: as various chains become interconnected into a larger ecosystem, there could be a systemic risk of “desensitization” to security issues.

While Polosukhin did acknowledge that end-users might become even less aware of the security risks in chain abstraction, the Web3 space is still expected to move towards more decentralized, secure systems.

“There are sophisticated counterparties that actually provide liquidity, doing routing and all of the work that is required to understand the layout and complexities of every chain, they are the ones who care,” Polosukhin said. “They are the ones who will be pushing for decentralization, for security, and if they see that something is not, they'll just not service that.”

Buterin himself stressed the importance of account abstraction, which refers to the concealment of more technical details of on-chain applications for user-friendliness, yet remains heavily focused on providing both security and convenience.

On Wednesday, the Near Foundation launched Chain Signatures, a protocol that will allow users to sign transactions on third-party blockchains from a single Near account. Chain Signatures is live on Near’s testnet, with its mainnet launch expected by early May.

“We’ll see a transition from centralized exchanges to more use of non-custodial, decentralized applications,” the Near founder said. “Users will have access to everything in one, you know, you’ll have multichain DEXs, lending, interacting with NFTs, and all kinds of experiences.”

Blockchain and AI

Meanwhile, the Near co-founder said that blockchain technology can help prevent potential issues following the growth of artificial intelligence.

“AI will be used for malicious purposes. It’s just an eventuality, and we cannot stop that,” Polosukhin told The Block. Last year, it was reported that the U.S. government said that North Korea and other countries are looking into utilizing AI technology to write malicious software to enhance their illegal cyber activities.

“So what we can do, we can use cryptography and blockchains to defend and to provide some kind of content verification, content reputation system to protect us,” the Near co-founder told The Block.