Does web3’s innovation limit adoption: Ten years have passed since Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood initially used the term “web3,” in that time, the vision of a new digital empire has come to fruition. The world’s economy is now worth trillions of dollars, NFTs are ubiquitous in high-stakes art and investment transactions, and financial services based on blockchain technology have gone from being new to being the standard. Additional recommendations: A Critical Look at Meme Coins and Web3 | Opinion
All of the above would not have been possible without the visionaries and coders who stepped up to the plate to meet people’s needs. Their innovative spirit and dogged persistence laid the groundwork for our fledgling web3 empire. It now boasts an ecosystem housing thousands of decentralized applications (dApps) and a wide range of services.
Web3 Proliferation is Undercutting User Adoption
It is believed that Web3’s innovative boom would accelerate user acceptance. The ecosystem’s allure grows in direct proportion to the number and variety of services. Even though user adoption has been satisfactory in the past few years, the current rates are far below Web3’s apparent value proposition.
Why? We are facing an issue with chain fragmentation. As of January 2024, there were more than 1,000 separate blockchains, according to a CoinPaper analysis. More than 50 L2s are in the Ethereum ecosystem, and another 50 or more are expected to launch soon, all vying for the same pool of customers and funds.
Also Read:News: Cryptocurrency’s Future?
The impact of this fragmentation on experience is profound. Manually switching between networks in wallets or interfaces is common, but it may be a pain for users and lead to mistakes that cause them to lose money. As the number of applications built on L2, L2, and L3 chains grows, users must hold on to their gas tokens and other accessible assets to try out these new chains. When they do, they’ll have much to learn about the various blockchains’ regulations, costs, and features.
Given these challenges, is it surprising that mainstream customers have hesitated to adopt Web3? Improving our user interfaces and making them easier to use will be the key to attracting mainstream customers and encouraging their adoption.
The obvious choice would be to push developers to deliver more interoperability and cross-chain compatibility. On the other hand, expecting individual developers to deliver worldwide interoperability is like asking someone to fill a bucket with water: the sheer magnitude of the task makes the request ridiculous.
Chain Fragmentation hinders Blockchain Developers
There are already one thousand blockchains in operation inside the web3 ecosystem; in five years, that number might increase by a factor of ten. Given the early success and adoption of the blockchain modularity thesis, this fragmentation will likely accelerate as innovators develop chains catering to certain industries, interests, or business use cases. The proliferation of blockchains is happening at an exponential rate.
However, developers still wouldn’t be able to keep up with the current rate of chain multiplication, even if it were ten times faster. Web3 developers often have to launch instances of their applications on numerous chains to pursue consumers and liquidity, in contrast to web2, where innovators can construct once and draw users from across the internet with little limits. Developers should instead focus on creating cross-chain messaging solutions that are less secure, less efficient, and less beautiful rather than improving their fundamental value proposition.
To return to our empire metaphor, builders and architects are relegated to fixing holes and creating tunnels that link different parts of the city, a thankless task that most of the population will never experience. The question then becomes how to free developers to focus on value-adding innovation while improving Web3’s user experience. Chain abstraction holds the key.
Developers and Clients need Web3 Chain Abstraction
Just imagine a world if all of our broken links were magically erased. Developers could establish a single instance of their app on any chain and seamlessly pull users across all chains, so consumers no longer have to fret about asset-gas token compatibility.
Web3 proponents must fulfill several criteria to construct this functionally abstracted ecosystem. First, to avoid inadvertent or intentional overdrafts and make it easy for users to spend their balances, it is necessary to unify, aggregate, and hold all chains accountable for user balances. Developers shouldn’t have to add complicated integrations to make their products cross-chain accessible.
Constructing an abstracted Web3 empire will take time, but we must begin immediately, just as Rome took centuries to develop its greatness. Widespread adoption will not be possible until the entire ecosystem concertedly prioritizes abstraction. Web3’s creators and architects owe us recognition and full use of their innovative innovations.
Also Read: Btcuntold.com
