What is Account Abstraction in Crypto and Why is It a Big Deal?
Which crypto assets are closely linked to this?
Imagine a system where you can easily access multiple decentralised apps (dApps) across different networks with an email address or social media profile.
There’s something big happening behind the scenes in the blockchain and crypto asset space to revolutionise how we interact with our own and other accounts.
Enter account and chain abstraction.
These are sometimes used interchangeably, but strictly speaking:
Account abstraction involves programming a blockchain account to operate as a smart contract, i.e., computer code automatically executed once pre-determined conditions are met.
Chain abstraction allows you to interact with dApps found across different blockchains, all with the same user interface (UI). In other words, the average person can easily carry out several actions across multiple blockchains without realising they’ve done so.
As pointed out in a NEAR Protocol blog post, many dApps are, strictly speaking, frontends. This is when you consider the manual onboarding process involved with many of them, coupled with navigating different blockchains and their corresponding types of gas to cover transaction fees. Thus, chain abstraction will resolve these inconveniences.
I will focus on the former in this piece, but I will occasionally allude to chain abstraction.
