Background

The Journey of Cross-Chain DeFi

We all would love a cross-chain future where value and assets can move everywhere securely with just a ‘swap’ or ‘trade’ button, right?

But, we are currently super far from the ideal state.

Today, cross-chain DeFi is a juggling competition with multiple wallets (sometimes hardware wallets), browser extensions, 100s of websites, coupled with the choosing of blockchains and bridges to make a single trade.

And then, we realise we don’t have the gas fees of the chain we chose. Oops. Back to square one, we go.

The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem has undergone a rapid transformation over the past few years, emerging as a core element of the blockchain revolution. DeFi represents a suite of financial services, including lending, borrowing, trading, and asset management, that operate without traditional intermediaries like banks or financial institutions. Powered by smart contracts on blockchain networks, DeFi protocols offer users the ability to interact with financial services in a trustless and permissionless environment.

Despite the innovation and growth, DeFi faces significant challenges in terms of scalability, usability, and accessibility, especially in a multi-chain world. With the proliferation of different blockchain networks, each operating in isolation, DeFi users must grapple with fragmented liquidity, interoperability barriers, and complex user interfaces. As a result, the seamless user experience that DeFi promises has yet to be fully realised.

This is where the concept of Chain Abstraction enters the picture. Chain abstraction aims to unify the user experience across multiple blockchains, allowing users to interact with decentralised applications (DApps) and services without worrying about the underlying chains, wallets, or tokens. By abstracting away the complexities of blockchain technology, DeFi can become truly accessible, even for users who are not deeply familiar with the intricacies of various networks.

As DeFi continues to evolve, the need for scalable, user-friendly, and interoperable solutions becomes more pressing. The current DeFi landscape, while transformative, has limitations that must be addressed to unlock its full potential. The next section, The Evolution of DeFi through Chain Abstraction, will explore these challenges in detail and lay the foundation for understanding why zkCross Network is a key player in solving them.

In essence, the background of zkCross Network is rooted in addressing the gaps in today's DeFi infrastructure by offering a new approach: Chain Abstraction, a powerful tool for making decentralised finance more accessible, scalable, and efficient.