Traditionally, the tedious onboarding process of smart contract chains and their dApps and complex maneuvering around the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) industry have gatekept the web3 ecosystem from millions of potential crypto users.
From installing a wallet app to learning its intricacies and then to acquiring ETH and finally purchasing Ethereum gas, the process becomes too complex and too cumbersome for several potential users who have been waiting at the gates, unsure whether they would like the experience or not.
Hope for strong financial rewards has managed to keep the web3 ecosystem floating despite these major usability hurdles. If you think you can earn thousands or even millions of dollars by playing around with DeFi or the latest memecoin, setting up a fresh wallet seems like the least you can do. But for cases without a speculative incentive, crypto user experience has likely thrown off hundreds of thousands of potential users.
Thankfully, new blockchain networks are able to overcome the legacy limitations of when Ethereum was designed, enabling a near Web2-like experience for newcomers. While many in the space continue to focus on speculation, these blockchain networks are carving their own paths, and over time, could emerge as the winners due to them being a superior product.
Let’s check out some of these potential dark horses.
Vara Network’s Payless and Signless transactions
Vara Network is a novel smart contract platform that uses the latest technology in smart contract architecture based on WebAssembly. It implements several key innovations in how smart contracts are created and processed, allowing for parallel transactions that can be processed much more efficiently than some legacy blockchain networks.
It also features a unique ability to let users completely forget about the concept of gas or even signing transactions. DApp developers on Vara can choose to completely subsidize the (quite low) gas costs incurred by users by creating gas Vouchers.
Like the name implies, Vouchers can be used to cover gas costs for the individual user, which is primarily useful to prevent the friction of having to acquire gas tokens. This saves the user from the cumbersome tasks while setting up the account, or if they were to accidentally send all of their gas tokens somewhere else, as it often might happen on Ethereum.
This approach is particularly scalable on a high-throughput and customizable chain such as Vara, as the costs themselves are likely to be tiny — the annoyance of “filling the tank” is much worse than the costs themselves.
Lastly, the “Signless” aspect of the transaction is a Vara-only innovation that helps speed up the usage of a Vara dApp. Users can create temporary accounts that need to be only set up once. Then, each interaction is enabled instantaneously without requiring further confirmation, which is particularly useful for fast-paced environments like games or advanced trading platforms for Binary Options or Perpetuals.
Near Network’s Meta Transactions
‘Near’, another new generation network using WebAssembly, has enabled Meta Transactions in 2023, which play a similar role to Payless transactions on Vara.
Unlike Vouchers, Meta Transactions require a significant infrastructure setup as every transaction needs to be submitted to a relayer and submitted by them. This adds up to operational overhead and is usually harder for dApps to implement. However, for users the experience is significantly easier.
Similarly to Signless transactions, Near features a FastAuth system that allows users to sign in to the network by using their email or other form of Web2 ID, which helps reduce reliance on wallet apps. The network also allows several cross-chain abstractions that make it easier to onboard the network from external chains, which is a feature aimed at existing crypto users.
Ethereum Account Abstraction and Adoption Potential
Finally, Ethereum itself is also making strides towards better user experience through ERC-4337, commonly known as the Account Abstraction proposal. The proposal encompasses many possible use cases, but it mostly focuses on security. Users would have better control over their assets, normalizing the concept of smart contract wallets that can include features like Web2 sign in and differential permissions.
However, established blockchain networks need to deal with significant adoption hurdles. The spirit of the ERC-4337 proposal is that nothing would need to be changed on a protocol layer, instead adopting a smart contract standard that enables these new features. Historically such approaches have failed to produce results in Ethereum. For example, the ERC-20 standard is the oldest and least refined standard, which over time was improved by many others like ERC-777 or ERC-1155. Due to its inertia, the vast majority of tokens today are still based on the older design and the few attempts to popularize better technology have largely failed.
Compared to Ethereum ERCs, new blockchain networks like Vara can benefit from a clean slate, which makes it easier to adopt better UX practices right from inception.
Therefore, in the coming days, we are expected to witness a greater footfall in the web3 ecosystem thanks to emerging technologies and platform that put the consumer experience as supreme.
Also Read: BNB Chain Unveils Rollup-as-a Solution for Layer-2 Networks
