Earlier this month, the Ethereum Community Conference, or EthCC, turned the beachside town of Cannes into a hub for crypto developers, investors, and users to explore, discuss, and learn about the ecosystem’s future. Throughout the three-day event, attendees gathered to hold key conversations on various topics regarding the ecosystem, share insights, and connect.
The event featured influential keynote speakers who discussed the industry’s future. Among the speakers was James Wo, Founder and CEO of DFG, the leading global Web3 and venture capital firm. During his presentation, “There’s No Web3 Future Without Chain Abstraction,” Wo addressed a persistent barrier to mass adoption: user experience.
While most of the industry has focused on scaling infrastructure, Wo highlights why chain abstraction is the missing link to mass adoption of Web3 solutions. If blockchain remains fragmented, the vision of seamless, decentralized financial technologies in the mainstream remains out of reach. In his talk, Wo detailed his vision for how this simplification can be achieved:
Learning from the Internet’s evolution
In the presentation, Wo draws a parallel between the early days of the internet and crypto’s current state. The Internet saw steady adoption from the 1990s to the early 2000s, mainly limited to academic use despite existing technology. He shares: “In the past 30 years, we have made great improvements across five aspects: user interface, content management, navigation, data transfer, and network infrastructure, which has brought us to mass adoption.”
Similarly, Wo explains that today’s crypto landscape is still in its early stages. While the blockchain ecosystem has undoubtedly evolved a lot since Bitcoin’s launch, it is still fragmented from a user perspective.
The evolution of crypto
During the talk, Wo detailed how navigating crypto can be challenging, leading many people to favor centralized exchanges (CEXs) due to their ease of use. However, as he pointed out, “CEXs introduce custodial risk and conflict with crypto’s core principles of decentralization and self-custody.”
Wo also referenced the popular saying: “Not your keys, not your tokens,” to shed light on the possible security concerns associated with users not possessing private access to their wallets, making CEXs a less viable option. While he believes decentralized exchanges (DEX) volumes could surpass those of CEXs in the next 3 to 5 years, he cautioned that this shift won’t materialize without the development of chain abstraction to ease the user experience.
The need for chain abstraction
The talk revealed the fragmented nature of crypto, where multiple blockchains function as isolated networks. Addressing the need for chain abstraction, James shared: “Chain abstraction enables self-custody and simplifies how users interact across blockchains. It’s about letting the infrastructure handle the complexity, not the user.”
Chain abstraction works across multiple layers: The permission layer, which standardizes access and identity across blockchains; the solver layer, which determines the best way to execute based on the user’s intent; and the settlement layer, which ensures transactions are processed and finalized. Projects like NEAR, UniswapX, LayerZero, Wormhole, and Axeldar are actively developing the infrastructure to facilitate chain abstraction to improve and unify the user experience.
According to Wo, recent data shows cross-chain transaction volume reached $60 billion in a single month, projecting an annual total of approximately $700 billion. This surge reflects the growing demand and reinforces the importance of chain abstraction as a foundational part of crypto. By dismantling barriers between fragmented systems, chain abstraction creates a more intuitive and user-friendly experience, one that is needed for reaching a broader, mainstream audience.