Note: The original text comes from XION Blog and is compiled and translated by XION World.
What is a common abstraction?
Universal Abstraction is a unique and all-encompassing infrastructure solution designed to remove the inherent cryptographic complexity for all Web3 users. The key to this innovation is that XION implements it directly at the protocol level, seamlessly abstracting accounts, signatures, gas, interoperability, pricing, devices, payments, and more. In other words, XION brings the promise of decentralization and ownership of Web3 to a global mainstream audience by fully abstracting the public chain.
XION's protocol-level abstraction
XION's innovation lies in the abstraction at the protocol level, which greatly simplifies the entire technology stack and has many benefits. Compared with other current public chains, XION is not only a superior solution, but also lays the foundation for flexibility to adapt to future dApp innovations.
In the following, we outline the problems found in other public chain ecosystems, especially in EVM chains, and how XION is designed to solve these problems.
First, XION solves multiple fragmentation issues found in other EVM chains.
First is the stack fragmentation - As shown in the figure above, the EVM chain technology stack consists of many different layers. For dApps, the EVM chain needs more than 4 layers to provide the same functionality that XION provides at the base level.
The second is standards fragmentation - a very old technology dilemma. A perfect example is the Security Approach vs. Diamond Approach (ERC-2535 Diamond Proxy) covered in depth in an article by SevenX Ventures. In addition, across the entire technology stack, multiple companies compete at every level. This forces developers and users to choose which platform to use for each function. Through protocol-level standardization, XION eliminates any incompatibility.
The third is user fragmentation - the existing Web3 ecosystem faces fragmentation issues due to the inability of existing externally owned accounts (EOA) to be seamlessly upgraded to smart contract accounts (SCA). Again, XION's protocol-level solution has eliminated this.
Future-proofing of cryptography: XION’s protocol-level solution is agnostic to signature curves, enabling it to seamlessly accommodate many existing cryptographic curves - Ethereum’s Secp256K1, Solana’s Ed25519, the global standard Secp256R1, JWT’s RS256, etc. This obviously has huge advantages over existing public chain solutions in terms of interoperability, market coverage, and long-term adaptability.
In addition, XION's infrastructure has obvious advantages in terms of scalability, cost and security.
Upgradability: The ease of upgradability provided by XION's protocol-level solution enhances the speed of development and upgrades for XION. One of the biggest obstacles to upgrading existing infrastructure in other public chains, especially the consensus layer, is the impact it will have on existing dApps. XION's implementation alleviates this problem, and in addition, it allows existing protocols that do not currently use common abstractions to seamlessly integrate it into their stack and any future upgrades.
Cost: The cost of deploying and transacting on the EVM chain is considerable and often a deterrent to many potential adopters. XION’s innovative technology stack and low fee structure completely eliminates this cost barrier, making it an easier and more cost-effective solution for developers and users to use. Additionally, its low fees enable developers and users to perform more computationally intensive operations.
Security: XION's solution does not introduce a backup memory pool (unlike ERC-4337). This mitigates many of the risks associated with centralization, MEV capture, fragmentation, and censorship that other public chains typically face. When combining modularity and ease of upgradeability, XION provides the aforementioned development speed enhancements with extremely high security and resilience in the long run.
XION's Universal Abstraction: A Comprehensive Solution
In addition to the benefits of protocol-level abstractions mentioned above, XION’s universal abstractions are the only comprehensive, all-encompassing solution in the crypto industry.
In order to effectively solve the adoption problem, it is imperative to abstract away every aspect of a user’s onboarding into crypto. Adding the ability for users to log in with their email may simplify one step of the user onboarding process, but if the user then needs to perform 15 additional steps to understand and manage gas fees, acquire tokens, grasp the intrinsic value of those tokens, etc., then simplicity at the onboarding stage becomes meaningless. While the crypto industry has made some interesting attempts to solve adoption pain points, XION’s protocol-level abstractions are more sustainable, flexible, and viable in the long run.
Next, we continue to introduce the robustness of XION's general abstraction through seven different aspects, each of which solves a specific industry pain point.
Account abstraction: XION pioneered modular account abstraction at the protocol level.
Traditional wallets cause user onboarding to drop by over 95%. Downloading plugins, enduring complex setups, confusing pop-ups, understanding and securely storing seed phrases, and dealing with unpleasant user experiences are major barriers for non-technical users. The solution to this problem is account abstraction and Smart Contract Accounts (SCA). Not only do they allow users to use familiar login methods (e.g., email), but they also unlock other security enhancements such as account recovery, account permissions, and more. Beyond this, the rest of the XION abstract account remains invisible. This design is subtle yet impactful, ensuring that developers can focus on creating value without having to make any special considerations for these accounts.
Signature abstraction: Through signature abstraction, XION is the first public chain to support signatures across all cryptographic curves.
This technological breakthrough means that XION can sign transactions using Apple's FaceID, passwords, JWT, EVM curves, Solana curves, etc. In addition, when using non-wallet authenticators such as JWT, FaceID, NFC, ZK, etc., no trusted agent or oracle is required because the communication is directly against the chain. This not only improves security, but also perfectly fits the "trustless" spirit of Web3.
Payment Abstraction: XION allows users to use credit and debit cards directly to conduct transactions on-chain, eliminating the transaction complexity common in other chains.
In traditional public blockchains, using fiat currency to purchase goods on-chain is an arduous task, often involving more than 15 steps and sometimes taking more than a week to complete. Users must endure the ordeal of registering on centralized exchanges, performing KYC, waiting for funds to be transferred, creating wallets, transferring funds across chains, exchanging to the correct tokens, etc. before making a purchase. In contrast, XION allows users to use bank cards to complete an on-chain transaction experience from start to finish in less than 60 seconds, providing a truly familiar Web2 experience for users.
Gas Abstraction: XION completely eliminates the concept of gas fees from the end-user perspective.
Gas fees have always been one of the biggest barriers for new Web3 users. In addition to introducing unfamiliar terminology to new users, the process of acquiring the necessary Gas tokens has been a major barrier for users to enter most public chain ecosystems. This has proven to be a significant barrier not only for end users but also for application builders, who are burdened with the management and purchase of Gas. XION completely removes the barrier for users to enter the ecosystem by leveraging its protocol-level abstraction and no Gas.
Interoperability Abstraction: XION is truly interoperable with all ecosystems, enabling users to cross-chain with one click and use any token to stake on XION.
Especially in an industry filled with different public chains and tokens, it is crucial to make XION accessible to all users. Through its interoperability abstraction, XION enables users from any public chain and any token holder to trade/stake on XION, thus unifying the liquidity of all public chain ecosystems.
Device Abstraction: XION completely abstracts the concept of a browser wallet or application, enabling users to access their XION accounts in multiple ways - whether through email, FaceID, password, or other methods - providing users with strong support and efficient operations across a variety of devices.
The ability to easily support all devices, especially mobile, truly opens the door to mass adoption of Web3. Today, a large portion of all digital interactions occur on mobile phones. However, current mobile crypto wallets present security risks, do not translate well between devices, require users to insecurely use mnemonics to switch devices, and current in-app browsers have very poor UI/UX performance. XION's infrastructure ensures that users can easily access their accounts using any device. Additionally, it allows users to decouple logins from their assets, creating a secure path for users to interact with new dApps without putting their assets at risk. Essentially, it allows users to securely access the XION ecosystem anytime, anywhere.
Pricing Abstraction: XION is the first public chain to use familiar fiat currency pricing throughout the ecosystem.
Given that USDC is crypto-native, users don’t have to worry about needing to hedge. Additionally, having assets denominated in fiat currencies eliminates price volatility, making many use cases possible that were previously impossible. Finally, it enables all assets on XION to be denominated in currencies that are familiar to everyday users.
Conclusion: Creating a Scalable Future for Web3
By introducing a modular universal abstraction layer at its core, XION is the first to provide a comprehensive solution to the key problems of user adoption. In addressing the inherent complexity of cryptography at the protocol level, XION both simplifies the technology stack and strategically positions itself as a foundational layer for future innovation. Its powerful infrastructure is designed to interoperate seamlessly with all current public chains and adapt to future developments in the long term.
XION's universal abstractions paves the way for future innovation in consumer-facing applications. It works on ways to abstract accounts, signatures, payments, gas, interoperability, devices, and pricing to make Web3 accessible to all users. By encapsulating these complex terms under a unified protocol-level abstraction layer, XION significantly moves the crypto industry closer to mainstream adoption.
