Ethereum Interop Roadmap: How to Unlock the "Last Mile" of Large-Scale Adoption

null

Author: imToken

In the Web3 world, the narrative of “cross-chain” and interoperability has always been a timeless story.

Of course, many people may not strictly distinguish between the connotations of the two. If we were to summarize it in one sentence, cross-chain focuses more on assets and primarily addresses the “transportation” problem; while interoperability (Interop) encompasses multiple dimensions such as assets, state, services, etc., aiming to solve the “collaboration” problem.

In fact, as modular narrative has increased the number and heterogeneity of L1/L2, users and liquidity have become further dispersed. Interoperability has already been recognized as a more ideal end form than cross-chain — users are no longer aware of which chain they are on, but simply submit their intent once, and the system automatically completes the operation in the most suitable execution environment.

With the recent release of the new UX roadmap by the Ethereum Foundation (EF), along with a series of engineering advancements around withdrawal delays, messaging, and real-time proof, the puzzle of interoperability is being methodically pieced together.

1. What exactly is “Interop”?

In simple terms, “interoperability” is far more than just an “asset bridge”; it is a combination of a whole set of system-level capabilities.

It means that different chains can share states and proofs, smart contracts can invoke each other's logic, users can achieve a unified interaction experience, and each execution environment maintains the same level of trustworthiness within security boundaries.

When these capabilities are simultaneously met, users can truly focus on the value activities themselves, without being troubled by network switching, repeated authorizations, or fragmented liquidity. This actually echoes the ultimate goal of cross-chain engineering: to allow users to focus on the flow of value itself, rather than the barriers between chains (for further reading, see “The Evolution of Cross-Chain Engineering: From 'Aggregation Bridges' to 'Atomic Interoperability', What Future Are We Heading Towards?”).

Especially after entering 2024, modular narratives will enter a period of full explosion, with more and more fragmented L1 and L2 emerging, making interoperability no longer just a grand talk at the protocol level, but truly sinking into the user experience and underlying application logic.

Whether it is an intent-centered execution architecture, cross-chain aggregation, or new forms of applications like full-chain DEX, all are exploring the same goal: to allow users and liquidity to no longer be limited to the Ethereum mainnet, nor to frequently switch networks, but to complete the exchange of on-chain assets, liquidity provision, and strategy operations in a unified interface and one-stop service.

In other words, the ultimate vision of interoperability lies in completely removing the blockchain from the user's view—allowing DApps and project teams to return to a user-centric product paradigm, creating a low-threshold environment that is easy to use and offers an experience close to Web2, thereby eliminating the final barriers for external users to seamlessly enter the Web3 world.

After all, from a product perspective, the key to mainstreaming is not to make everyone understand blockchain, but to allow them to use it without understanding it. It can be said that if Web3 is to reach billions of people, interoperability is precisely the “last mile” infrastructure.

On August 29, the Ethereum Foundation released “Protocol Update 003 - Improve UX”. This article continues the three strategic directions of the EF after restructuring its R&D team this year: Scale L1 (mainnet expansion), Scale Blobs (data expansion), Improve UX (improving user experience).

The core theme of “Improve UX” is interoperability.

Source: Ethereum Foundation

2. From “Cross-Chain” to “Interoperability”: Signals Released by EF

This article emphasizes interoperability (interop) as the core, aiming for a seamless, secure, and permissionless Ethereum ecosystem experience. The main point can be summarized in one sentence: asset cross-chain is just the first step; the true “interoperability” is the cross-chain collaboration of data, state, and services. In the future, Ethereum plans to make all Rollups and L2s “look like one chain.”

Of course, EF also admitted that although most of the infrastructure and technology are already mature (or about to mature), several key engineering implementation steps are still needed to truly deliver these solutions to users and allow them to naturally integrate into the daily experience of wallets and DApps.

Therefore, EF has divided the research and development work of “Improve UX / Interop” into three parallel main lines: Initialization, Acceleration, and Finalization.

The first step is “initialization”, aimed at becoming the starting point for interoperability, making Ethereum's cross-chain behavior lighter and more standardized.

Core work includes making intents lighter and more modular, while establishing universal standards to connect cross-chain assets and operations, and providing replaceable and composable universal interfaces for different execution layers.

The specific projects that have been implemented include:

Open Intents Framework (OIF): A modular intent stack co-built by EF in collaboration with Across, Arbitrum, Hyperlane, LI.FI, OpenZeppelin, etc., supporting the free combination of different trust models and security assumptions.

Ethereum Interoperability Layer (EIL): Led by the ERC-4337 team, it builds a permissionless, censorship-resistant cross-L2 transaction transmission layer, making multi-chain transactions as seamless as on a single chain.

A new set of standards (ERC series): covering interoperable addresses (ERC-7828/7930), asset integration (ERC-7811), multi-calls (ERC-5792), intentions and universal message interfaces (ERC-7683/7786);

The goal is straightforward: to decouple “what the user wants to do” (declarative) from “how the system executes it” (procedural), and to allow wallets, bridges, and verification backends to collaborate under a unified semantics.

The second is the “Acceleration” stage, which reduces latency and costs, making multichain more real-time.

Specifically focusing on measurable indicators such as “signature frequency, inclusion time, rapid confirmation, finality, and L2 settlement” to reduce time and costs, the approaches here include L1 rapid confirmation rules (bringing strong confirmation to a range of 15–30 seconds), shortening the L1 slot time (research and engineering groundwork to change from 12s to 6s), and shortening the L2 settlement/withdrawal window (reducing the optimistic 7 days to 1–2 days, or introducing ZK proofs and a 2-of-3 rapid settlement mechanism). These measures essentially lay the foundation for cross-domain message passing and a unified experience.

Ultimately, it is also the “final confirmation” step, which includes combining real-time SNARK proofs with faster L1 finality to explore second-level interoperation forms. In the long run, this will redraw the landscape of cross-domain issuance, bridging primitives, and cross-chain programmability.

Objectively speaking, in the context of Ethereum, Interop (interoperability) is no longer just limited to the concept of “asset bridges,” but is a collective term for a whole set of system-level capabilities:

Cross-chain data communication - different L2s can share states or verification results;

Cross-chain logic execution - a contract can call the logic of another L2.

Cross-chain user experience - users only see one wallet and one transaction, instead of multiple chains;

Cross-chain security and consensus - maintaining equal security boundaries between different L2s through proof systems;

From this perspective, Interop can be understood as a universal language among future Ethereum ecosystem protocols, whose significance lies not only in transferring value but also in sharing logic.

3. How does Ethereum pave the way for “interoperability”?

It is worth noting that recently Vitalik also initiated a discussion on the Ethereum Magicians forum about shortening the withdrawal time for Stage-1 (the first stage) of optimistic rollups, advocating for reducing the withdrawal period from the traditional 7 days to 1-2 days, and proposing to gradually introduce faster settlement and confirmation mechanisms under the premise of controllable security.

This discussion is superficially related to the withdrawal experience of Rollup, but in fact, it is a direct response to one of the three major directions of “interoperability” - Acceleration.

Source: Ethereum Magicians

After all, the withdrawal delay is not just a user experience issue of waiting too long, but a liquidity bottleneck in the entire multi-chain collaboration system:

For users, it determines the speed at which funds circulate between different Rollups;

For intent protocols and bridge networks, it affects the capital efficiency of the solutions;

For the Ethereum mainnet, it determines whether the ecosystem can maintain consistency and security during higher frequency interactions.

Vitalik's view is essentially opening the floodgates for this, in short, shortening the withdrawal time not only improves the user experience of Rollup but also unlocks the infrastructure upgrade for cross-domain messaging, liquidity, and rapid state transfer. This direction is also completely in line with the goals of the EF in the “Acceleration” mainline, which is to shorten confirmation times, increase settlement speeds, and reduce the cost of capital in transit, ultimately making cross-chain communication real-time, trustworthy, and composable.

These efforts will resonate with the Devconnect event held in Argentina on November 17. According to the official agenda, Interop will be one of the key themes of this year's Devconnect, and the EF team will also announce more details related to the EIL (Ethereum Interoperability Layer) at the conference.

Overall, all of this points in the same direction – Ethereum is completing its transition from “scaling” to “integration.”

Of course, this article, as the first in the Interop series, merely raises the fundamental question that interoperability is the ultimate goal of cross-chain narratives, and offers a preliminary glimpse into the current technical route from EF to Vitalik's real-time discussions, from standardized engineering layouts to progressively shortened settlement cycles. We are witnessing another structural upgrade of the Ethereum ecosystem.

In the future, we will continue to understand from different perspectives why interoperability is not just a bridge, but also the underlying protocol that connects the future of Ethereum.

Stay tuned.

Recommended reading:

Rewrite the 18-year script, U.S. government shutdown ends = Bitcoin price will soar?

$1 billion stablecoin evaporation, what is the truth behind the DeFi chain reaction?

MMT Short Squeeze Event Review: A Well-Designed Money-Making Scheme

Click to learn about the job openings at ChainCatcher