Existing Solutions vs Lamina

Various existing solutions like liquidity aggregation, shared sequencers, cross-chain messaging protocols, and smart contract wallets have attempted to address liquidity fragmentation but have been insufficient.

Shared Sequencers

Platforms like Espresso aim to mitigate liquidity fragmentation by centralizing transaction sequencing within specific ecosystems. However, their limitation is that they only work within their ecosystems. This means that they cannot aggregate liquidity across different blockchain ecosystems, limiting their scope and effectiveness.​

Cross-Chain Messaging Protocols

Solutions like Axelar and LayerZero, along with bridging aggregators like Li.Fi, attempt to improve the cross-chain experience by facilitating communication and asset transfer between different blockchains. Despite these efforts, they struggle with long settlement times and have been vulnerable to large-scale exploits. The existence of multiple, often incompatible bridges further complicates the user experience, leading to additional fragmentation rather than unification.

Smart Contract Wallets

Wallets like Safe and Biconomy help with wallet management and allow for gas abstraction, simplifying user interactions by eliminating the need to hold multiple gas tokens. However, they still do not fully address the issues of cross-chain transactions and liquidity fragmentation, as they are often limited to specific blockchain ecosystems.

Intent-Based Infrastructure

Platforms like CowSwap and Across Protocol aim to simplify transaction flows by abstracting away the complexities of gas fees and multi-step transactions. These infrastructures use "intents" to express user desires in a simplified manner. However, they are limited by the underlying infrastructure they rely on and are not universally applicable across all blockchain ecosystems​​.

Liquidity Aggregation

Aggregating liquidity at the blockchain level. Polygon's AggLayer is highlighted as a compelling solution that provides a unified bridge secured by zk proofs, allowing chains to opt in without sacrificing their technical independence. While Polygon's AggLayer is designed to be a neutral and holistic solution for liquidity aggregation, it may not connect to chains and virtual machines (VMs) that cannot be proven using its zk-proof solution. This limits the extent of liquidity aggregation achievable through AggLayer.

Summary

These solutions, while addressing parts of the problems, are insufficient on their own and sometimes even exacerbate the issues due to their isolated implementations. Lamina's approach at chain abstraction aims to unify these disparate systems and create a more seamless experience for users across different blockchains.