The 

Composable 

Abstracted 

Future

“The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable.”

— Blake Ross, Co-creator of Mozilla Firefox

If blockchains are the servers of web3, then navigating them should be as seamless and intuitive as browsing the Internet.

No more complicated interfaces, wallet management, or fragmented user experiences. The Platonic ideal for crypto is when users don’t even know what network they are using, with assets flowing effortlessly and transactions happening instantly.

This vision of a seamless onchain experience is becoming a reality through the convergence of chain abstraction and composability.

These two solutions are not just synergistic, they are essential to each other and the future of web3.

Chain Abstraction: Simplifying User Experience

Chain Abstraction refers to solutions that eliminate the complexities of interacting with multiple blockchains. Just as TCP/IP protocol abstracts away the complexities of browsing the Internet, chain abstraction ensures that users can engage with web3 services through a single, intuitive chain-agnostic interface.

A fully chain-abstracted experience may look as follows:

1. Alice decides to buy an NFT gaming skin for her friend Bob's birthday. The NFT is hosted on Morph.
2. Alice purchases and sends it to Bob using assets in her Polygon wallet. Thanks to composability and chain abstraction, her assets are seamlessly bridged and used within the dApp without any manual transfers.
3. Bob receives the NFT and decides to make the most of it. He takes out a loan against the NFT on Mantle and uses the proceeds to invest in a high-yield asset. Using a DEX aggregator, he finds and secures the best rate across chains on Sei, all within a few clicks and using the same asset balance.

Composability: Unifying Networks at The Protocol Level

Composability refers to solutions that allow applications to function together seamlessly with atomicity. Cross-chain composability ensures that different chains and applications from many different chains can execute fully atomic transactions as if they were a single network.

An example of composability could be:

1. Alice wants to maximize her crypto yields. She uses a solver to allocate her assets across multiple DeFi protocols on different chains.
2. Thanks to composability, all transactions execute atomically in one go. Using a chain-abstracted account, this atomic execution is automatically funded using assets spread across these chains, without manually bridging between them.
3. Later, she buys a digital asset that requires tokens from different chains. She completes the purchase pulling multiple tokens from different networks seamlessly in a single transaction.

The Synergy Between Chain Abstraction and Composability

From the previous examples you can see how chain abstraction and composability work together to provide Alice and Bob with a smooth, efficient experience, enabling advanced cross-chain activities without complexity.

Simply put, composability supercharges chain abstraction and vice versa.

Both composability and chain abstraction work synergistically at different parts of the stack to solve fragmentation and create a single account, internet like experience. While chain abstraction eliminates bridging and chain-specific balance management from a user experience, composability allows this to happen atomically, through protocol-level unification. The result is not just a mutualistic relationship, but two key parts of a larger system. Chain abstraction needs composability for foundational level transaction processing and composability needs chain abstraction to make the cross-chain experience feel seamless to the user.

Great solutions require great engineering and there is much work to be done to make the jump to mass adoption level user experience. Leading the charge toward this future are projects like Particle Network and NodeKit.

Particle Network

Particle Network enables chain abstraction through its Universal Accounts, which give users a unified account and balance spanning every chain. With Universal Accounts, users can interact with dApps and assets as if they were all on the same chain, solving web3’s user and liquidity fragmentation

From a technical implementation standpoint, Particle Network relies on three core functionalities:

• Universal Accounts: These offer a single interaction point, user address, and balance across all chains, including EVM and non-EVM networks.
• Universal Liquidity: Enables the unified balance property of Universal Accounts by unifying the liquidity of all chains through the automatic execution of cross-chain transactions and swaps. This allows users to seamlessly interact with new chains, even if they don't hold tokens on them.
• Universal Gas: Allows users to pay gas for transactions with any token, as opposed to the multichain ecosystem’s need for multiple units (SOL, ETH, MATIC, etc.)

In essence, Particle addresses fragmented user experiences at the account level, effectively removing the need to bridge or pay mind to the distinct chains a user interacts with.

NodeKit

NodeKit enables composability between chains with Superbuilders. Superbuilders are specialized block producers that build blocks for multiple chains simultaneously, enabling seamless and atomic execution of cross-chain transactions. By ensuring that transactions are both included and executed across chains at the same time, NodeKit eliminates the risks associated with partial executions or mismatched states.

This innovative approach allows dApps to leverage resources and functionalities across the entire blockchain ecosystem without friction. Developers can build applications that interact with multiple chains in real-time, aggregating liquidity and accessing a broader user base. The atomicity guaranteed by Superbuilders means that complex, multi-chain operations either complete entirely or not at all, providing reliability and security for both developers and users.

Superbuilder powered composability solves for the fragmentation created by siloed blockchain networks. Because the technology is agnostic it can plug into any two protocols and unify them through shared block production. The result is unified liquidity, increased network effects and unlocked use cases previously only possible on monolithic chains.

Unlocking New Possibilities Through Atomic Execution

While chain abstraction and composability individually address significant challenges in the blockchain ecosystem, their true transformative power emerges when they work together—particularly when powered by atomic execution.

Atomic Execution: Ensuring Security and Reliability

Atomic execution guarantees that a set of operations across different chains either all succeed together or all fail together. This all-or-nothing approach is essential for maintaining the integrity and security of cross-chain transactions. With atomic execution, the risks associated with partial transactions—such as lost funds or inconsistent states—are eliminated.

This is particularly important for complex financial operations like cross-chain swaps, flash loans, or multi-chain smart contracts. Users can trust that their transactions are secure and will execute exactly as intended, without the need to manually monitor each step.

For example, consider a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator that sources liquidity from various chains to offer users the best possible price. With atomic execution, the aggregator can execute trades across multiple chains simultaneously. Users experience this as a single, seamless transaction, even though it involves multiple networks behind the scenes.

Chain abstraction’s positive impact on composability

The three layers of chain abstraction can also have positive effects towards enabling greater composability:

• The account level, by allowing users to tap into dApps on any chain with a single account and balance, eliminates the friction of moving across ecosystems from users’ experience. This results in benefits for developers as well, since they can now focus on building unique applications on the ecosystem that better suits them from a purely technical standpoint—rather than basing themselves off chains’ popularity and incentives.
• The application level, by allowing developers to build applications that span multiple chains, has a direct impact on composability, enabling chain-agnostic building.
• The blockchain level, by partnering with Composability solutions like Javelin from NodeKit to facilitate direct interoperability across chains—particularly when ecosystems are accessible by users outside them via the above two levels.

Unlocking Unique Capabilities and Use Cases

The combined power of chain abstraction and composability, enhanced by atomic execution, enables innovative use cases previously unattainable:

• Cross-chain yield optimization: Users can maximize returns by simultaneously allocating assets across multiple DeFi protocols on different chains. Solvers can execute these strategies atomically, ensuring optimal yields without exposing users to cross-chain risks.
• Unified asset management: Investors can manage portfolios that include assets from various chains through a single interface. Chain abstraction hides the complexity associated with these assets being fragmented across chains, working alongside composability to ensure that transactions involving multiple assets and chains execute seamlessly.
• Global liquidity access: Traders can tap into liquidity pools across multiple chains, benefiting from better pricing and reduced slippage. Synchronicity ensures timely execution, and atomicity guarantees transaction integrity.
• Interoperable NFTs and gaming assets: Gamers and collectors can use, trade, or lend digital assets across different platforms and chains without friction. This opens up new possibilities for gaming economies and digital art markets.
• Automated cross-chain arbitrage: Advanced users can exploit price differences across markets on different chains. Atomic execution ensures that arbitrage transactions are secure and profitable, as all legs of the trade execute simultaneously.

Driving the Vision Forward

Projects like Particle Network and NodeKit exemplify the synergy of ChA and composability.

• Particle focuses on the account layer, providing Universal Accounts, which abstract the complexities of multiple chains. Users enjoy a unified experience, while developers can reach a broader audience without redesigning applications for each chain.
• NodeKit tackles the protocol layer, advancing composability through Superbuilders. By ensuring atomic execution and composability, NodeKit enables fast and reliable cross-chain operations, which are essential for the next generation of decentralized applications.

The fusion of chain abstraction and composability is essential for unlocking the full potential of web3. Together, they address both the user-facing and technical challenges of blockchain technology, paving the way for a decentralized web that is accessible, efficient, and powerful.

This combined approach:

• Transforms user experience: Users interact with blockchain applications effortlessly, without being burdened by the underlying complexities and disparate chains.
• Fosters innovation: Developers are free to build groundbreaking applications that leverage the strengths of multiple chains, driving the industry forward.
• Realizes the modular endgame: By overcoming fragmentation and enabling seamless interactions, we move closer to a future where blockchain networks operate in harmony, much like the interconnected servers of the internet today.

As we continue to develop and refine these technologies, the synergy between chain abstraction and composability will be the cornerstone of a better web3. As these technologies mature and integrate, they pave the way for a decentralized web that mirrors the seamlessness and accessibility of today's Internet.