In the realm of cross-chain technology, we’ve heard many terms: cross-chain bridges, chain interoperability, full-chain, account abstraction, chain abstraction, intention transactions, and more. It sounds daunting.

An observable phenomenon is the increasing number of public chains. Previously, the goal of new public chains was to increase TPS and reduce gas fees, adopting different technological directions such as Solana, Aptos, Conflux, various layer2 solutions, and so forth. However, the objectives of new public chains have changed; they are now more focused on developing their ecosystems. Examples include Treasure’s ecosystem Layer2, Aveo public chain, Loot public chain, etc. Others aim to leverage their user base and resources to establish successful public chains, such as Base and Blast.

In this bull market, there will undoubtedly be more and more public chains. Consequently, the demand for cross-chain solutions is also soaring. Facing this reality shouldn’t be daunting. It’s a step-by-step development process.

Cross-chain bridges emerged during the bull market of 2021, primarily for cross-chain asset transfers. At that time, with the explosive growth of DeFi on Ethereum, public chains like BSC, Avalanche, Fantom, and others emerged and flourished. This led to a significant demand for cross-chain asset transfers. Some notable projects from that time include Multichain (formerly known as Anyswap) and Celer Bridge.

Public chains are like islands. With the increasing number of public chains and the rise of non-EVM-based chains, isolated islands have formed, causing fragmentation. Thus, merely facilitating cross-chain asset transfers cannot meet the needs of the multi-chain era.

The first problem to address is wallets. Each public chain requires its own wallet setup. While it’s manageable for EVM-compatible chains, setting up wallets for non-EVM chains is time-consuming and cumbersome. To address this, abstract accounts have emerged. Abstract accounts allow a single wallet to manage assets across all public chains, such as the popular OK Wallet. Essentially, abstract accounts are smart contract accounts that can use social accounts for account recovery and utilize features like gas tokens.

Solving the fragmentation of wallets across different chains is one aspect, but the fragmentation of Dapps across different chains also needs to be addressed. The fundamental requirement is cross-chain information exchange, where we can read the state of Chain A on Chain B, vice versa, or simultaneously on both chains. This is chain interoperability. With cross-chain information exchange, various functionalities can be achieved, such as full-chain lending and cross-chain voting governance. For DEXs and DeFi protocols, the benefits are even greater as liquidity fragmentation across different chains can be unified, achieving liquidity aggregation.

Imagine having cross-chain asset transfers, cross-chain information exchange, and abstract wallets. When operating on the chain, there’s no need to be overly concerned about the specifics of each chain. For example, when we want to mortgage USDT in the wallet to borrow ETH, we don’t need to worry about whether USDT is on the BNB chain or the Arbitrum chain. It can be used as collateral for borrowing protocols, and gas can be paid uniformly. Similarly, we don’t need to know the origin of the borrowed ETH; Dapps will determine based on liquidity. This is chain abstraction.

Most of the cross-chain protocols launched in this cycle are essentially chain abstraction protocols, all possessing functionalities such as cross-chain information exchange and asset cross-chain transfer. Their differences lie in the implementation methods and technologies used. So, let’s focus on the unique aspects below.

In this track, the most prominent projects are LayerZero, Wormhole, and Axelar.

1) Axelar

Axelar’s greatest advantage lies in its full-chain deployment capability. Axelar introduces the concept of Interchain, where all Web3 applications will have a unified development environment. This environment accommodates various logical elements from different chains and supports users from multiple chains. In simple terms, Dapps developed on Axelar can be deployed on all public chains supported by Axelar, which are the most among the three.

For more details, you can refer to

https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/55714

https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/53136

2) LayerZero

LayerZero should be a well-known presence. Its feature is lightweight cross-chain information transmission, so it chooses to use oracles and relay networks to complete data transmission. LayerZero simplifies the process of cross-chain information interaction. It is not responsible for information verification itself but relies on both parties of the cross-chain to ensure security. Therefore, in terms of efficiency, LayerZero is higher.

3）Wormhole

Wormhole originated from cross-chain bridges established between the Ethereum and Solana networks. It consists of on-chain and off-chain components. The on-chain components mainly include the Emitter, the Wormhole core contract, and transaction logs. The off-chain components mainly consist of 19 guardian nodes and a message transmission network. Thanks to Solana’s robust ecosystem, Wormhole has the highest cross-chain volume.

For more information, refer to the report.: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/K5asqDhrW8Mc9lskygc5KA

Comparison of the three giants, excerpt from First-Class Cabin research report:https://foresightnews.pro/article/detail/55714

Besides the top players, there are several other very important members in this race.

4) ZetaChain

ZetaChain, while also offering cross-chain information transmission, primarily focuses on full-chain smart contracts. Leveraging ZetaChain, it aims to build truly interoperable decentralized applications that span multiple chains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin. This aspect is similar to Axelar, and it also utilizes the Cosmos SDK. Moreover, in terms of

full-chain deployment, ZetaChain has an advantage over Axelar. However, due to resource and visibility constraints, ZetaChain’s ecosystem is slightly inferior to the top three giants.

Axelar’s structure is more similar to Zeta, but there are also significant differences. Like ZetaChain, Axelar is also developed based on the Cosmos SDK. However, it does not directly support the EVM, thus it does not enable full-chain smart contracts like Zeta. Therefore, Axelar’s target market is cross-chain message transmission, similar to LayerZero.

Recommended reading:https://www.odaily.news/post/5193900

5) Polyhedra

Polyhedra’s core highlight lies in its zk zero-knowledge proof, boasting the fastest zero-knowledge proof (ZK) algorithm. Its core product, zkBridge, ensures robust security without introducing additional trust assumptions. Through concise proofs, it not only guarantees correctness but also significantly reduces on-chain verification costs. Its workload speed is several orders of magnitude faster than existing solutions. LayerZero now integrates zkBridge as the default decentralized verification network (DVN) for many pathways. Polyhedra supports up to 25 public chains.

Recommended reading:https://twitter.com/riyuexiaochu/status/1770442150179963210

6) Particle Network

Particle Network positions itself as a Layer1 module providing chain abstraction. Users can manage accounts and liquidity across different chains in a unified interface without the need to download various wallets or engage in complex cross-chain transactions. Initially, Particle Network was a mainstream provider of wallet abstraction services. Particle has now been upgraded to include wallet abstraction, chain abstraction, liquidity abstraction, gas abstraction, and other functionalities. Therefore, its strength in the chain abstraction field remains in abstracting wallets.

Under the dominance of giants, Particle has shifted its focus to new directions, such as BTC layer2, abstract wallets for GameFi, and smart wallets for SocaiFi, among others. Particle has laid the foundation for the BTC layer2 network Merlin’s $4 billion TVL.

Recommended reading:https://twitter.com/tmel0211/status/1770459228253339985

7) dappOS

dappOS focuses on intention transactions, which originate from the final goal. Its advantage lies in starting directly from the ultimate objective. Built on abstract accounts and cross-chain protocols, the dappOS network provides unified wallets across all chains, unified asset operations, and simple operational procedures. Taking GMX as an example, users first manage their assets uniformly using an abstract wallet. If assets are distributed across different chains, such as 50 USDC on Arbitrum and 100 USDC on Avalanche, users do not need to conduct cross-chain transactions. With dappOS, they can seamlessly use 150 USDC for GMX with just one click, without worrying about gas issues on different chains. With the support of dappOS V2, the streamlined workflow optimized the execution time by 90% and reduced execution costs by up to 20%.

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