The Key to Web3 Development: Enhancing User Experience

In the early days of Web3, the focus was primarily on innovation, with various blockchain projects launched with different priorities, including speed, security, composability, and community ownership. However, this wave of innovation has also led to a fragmentation of the ecosystem, a lack of interoperability, non-unified tools, and isolation of assets and liquidity.

Although Web3 has solved some problems, user experience remains the biggest challenge hindering its development. The experience of using decentralized applications is as clunky as browsing the internet in the 1990s. For the average user, concepts such as blockchain, wallets, cross-chain bridges, Gas fees, protocols, and signatures are still difficult to understand and operate. These are not just minor issues, but major obstacles to the widespread adoption of Web3.

With the increasing institutional recognition, the launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, and the advancement of related regulatory frameworks, the limitations on the popularity of cryptocurrencies are no longer infrastructure but usability. Enhancing user experience has become the key to the development of Web3.

User Experience Abstraction: From Complexity to Simplicity

User experience abstraction is the process of systematically hiding the underlying complexity of blockchain interactions from the end user. It is not just about simplifying operations, but also about designing systems that are smart enough to manage that complexity. Just as the internet transitioned from IP addresses and command lines to browsers and applications, Web3 must also transition from mnemonic phrases and signatures to a seamless, intent-driven interface.

This process can be divided into three abstract stages, each representing a deeper level of integration and a clearer pathway to mainstream usability.

Phase 1: Simplify User Interface

The first phase focuses on reducing friction in existing Web3 mental models. Users still need to understand concepts of networks, wallets, and assets, but the interface will be streamlined to minimize context switching. For example, decentralized exchanges now typically integrate cross-chain bridge protocols directly into the interface, allowing users to transfer assets across chains without leaving the platform.

Some wallets are expanding their native ecosystem, offering one-stop multi-link services. Yield platforms gather cross-network investment opportunities, allowing users to compare and deploy funds on a unified interface.

Despite these advancements, the cognitive burden still exists. Users need to track the location of assets, manage Gas tokens across different chains, and understand the differences in specific networks. While this abstraction has improved the interface, it has not fundamentally changed the user experience.

Phase Two: Execution Layer Abstraction

The second phase shifts the complexity of Web3 interaction from the interface to the execution layer. Users only need to define the desired actions, and the application takes care of the rest.

This is attributed to the application of new technologies, such as ERC-4337 and Gas abstraction, which eliminates the need for users to hold native Gas tokens on each interaction chain. Smart contracts or third-party relayers bear the associated costs through sponsorship or dynamic fee mechanisms.

The solver network introduces an intent-based architecture, further enhancing this advantage. Users express a result ( such as exchanging tokens or cross-chain assets ), and then competing solvers determine the most efficient execution path.

The new token standard also plays a key role. Some solutions simplify the interoperability of cross-chain tokens through burn and mint mechanisms, reducing liquidity fragmentation and decoupling risks.

Although these developments significantly reduce the complexity of workflows, users are still aware that they are using blockchain systems. They must sign transactions, manage wallets, and understand that certain operations may fail due to underlying network issues.

Phase Three: Complete Concept Abstraction

The third stage allows users to completely stop thinking about blockchain. The concepts of chains, gas, and wallets will no longer exist. The experience embodies the simplicity of Web2 - user operation, result delivery.

This is an emerging field of super wallets and intent-centric agents. Some platforms offer smart wallet infrastructure that can abstract private key management, support Web2-style social logins, and aggregate user balances across chains.

A highly promising innovation is chain signature, which allows users to sign transactions across multiple blockchains through a single account. This architecture employs multi-party computation (MPC) technology, eliminating the need for developers to redeploy contracts or build signature logic specific to different chains.

Some decentralized artificial intelligence platforms offer groundbreaking interactive interfaces, allowing users to express goals in natural language, while the solver executes the necessary steps in the background. These systems utilize delegated wallets and session keys, eliminating the need for repeated transaction approvals.

Combining the technology stacks of the first two phases, these smart wallets and AI-supported applications have achieved the highest level of user experience abstraction to date.

Why is User Experience Abstraction the Future of Web3?

Abstraction is a structural necessity for achieving scalability in cryptocurrency. The next wave of users will not learn to use blockchain. They expect to use applications, and these applications must be smart enough to manage complexity in an invisible, secure, and reliable manner.

Abstraction breaks the barriers between protocols and chains, eliminates the cumbersome calculations of managing gas and keys, and aligns the cryptocurrency user experience with the expectations set by modern Web2 products. Just as TCP/IP and HTTP facilitated the mass adoption of the internet, user experience abstraction is an application-level requirement for achieving the mass adoption of Web3.

Importantly, abstraction is not one-size-fits-all. Native cryptocurrency users may still value granular control and composability, while newcomers may prefer simplicity. Supporting multi-layered abstraction ensures that Web3 can inclusively scale without alienating any party.

Future Outlook

The future of Web3 is chainless. Achieving this goal requires technological breakthroughs, and even more, a completely new way of thinking—developers' design objectives should be results-oriented rather than just focusing on protocols; wallets will become their agents; user experience will no longer be an afterthought, but rather a foundation.

With the right abstract concept, users will no longer need to understand blockchain to use it. They just need to take action, and decentralized applications will deliver results. This will be key to the mass adoption of Web3.