Abridged Launch Announcement
Seamless Ethereum integrations catalyzing a delightful Web 3 experience.
Developers in communities spanning the globe have put tremendous time and energy into building a strong technical foundation for Web 3. In the past year, layer 2 solutions like state channels, account contracts, and meta-transactions have begun to show the potential for a user friendly Web 3 where anybody unversed with blockchain can intuitively interact with the unmediated web.
However, even with the development of layer 2 solutions it’s still pretty damn hard to build a wholesome Web 3 app. Defining a clear go-to market strategy for Web 3 projects is a nontrivial challenge, thus appreciation for delightful and thoughtful user-facing solutions has lagged in comparison to core technical improvements. Deciding where decentralized components sensibly fit into your tech stack and which Web 3 tool provider is the best choice for that specific component is also a significant obstacle. Once the tools are selected, add to the picture the absence of a simple, efficient way to integrate those features into your app and you can almost kiss mainstream adoption goodbye.
The big insight we had is this: usability is actually the common denominator issue between 1) users wanting to use a great Web 3 app, and 2) developers wanting to build a great Web 3 app. Much of the community’s usability solutions have revolved around the end user. However, developer usability has been severely neglected — both sides must be solved for. Devs currently resort to writing custom bindings for each individual integration, which is an expensive labor commitment only few teams can afford and a major hindrance for these solutions to have a clear path to deployment. This led us to conclude that the real need lies in a 10x improvement in the form of a devops tool for seamless Web 3 integrations.
“The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable“ — Blake Ross, co-creator Mozilla Firefox
Abridged is our response to the rising tide of Web 3 innovations that aren’t finding paths to mainstream adoption. Abridged aggregates Ethereum layer 2 solutions, standardizes the access points to each integration, and packages them all up into an intuitive SDK. Our CLI operates a layer above the SDK with the aim of drastically cutting time from development of Web 3 features to deployment with just a few command line prompts.
In short, we are bringing usability to Web 3.
Through Abridged, you gain quick and easy access to layer 2 solutions and infra support tools including state channels, account contracts, crypto onramps, and meta transaction relay networks. In the spirit of Incremental Decentralization, you can easily incorporate layer 2–based features that meet your users at their comfort zone by abstracting away most of the blockchain technicalities without compromising the core value of your dapp. You’re empowered to build apps that lie anywhere on the decentralization spectrum to modularly extend their functionality and UX with lower development overhead.
One of the strongest signals we can send as a community to the general public is to demonstrate there are real business opportunities that leverage the compounding upside of successfully coordinating many incentive-aligned parties. We’re fortunate to be collaborating with excellent projects within the community on both the provider and integration sides that are laser-focused on widespread Web 3 usage.
We’ll be making more integrations available as the Ethereum developer community continues to invent innovative solutions. If you’re a provider working on state channel, Plasma, and zk solutions (just to name a few) that would like to integrate into Abridged, we suggest you enroll in our Builder Program.
We especially encourage developers with no prior blockchain experience to use Abridged and implement Web 3 capabilities. We intend on making it as easy for you to integrate state channels and account contracts into your apps as it is to hook into DBMS or cloud computing resources with a tool like Heroku.
We plan to open-source the SDK and CLI in the spirit of community-driven development. If you’re a developer or project interested in early access, make sure to let us know! We’re excited to share all we’re working on at Abridged, so keep an eye on our socials for upcoming news!!
