Unpacking the XCVM’s use-cases: UX and Tooling — Pt. 3
We continue to deconstruct the XCVM use cases article written by our Founder & CEO, 0xbrainjar, as the third and final part of the series we focus our attention on user experience (UX) and tooling. The core strength of the XCVM will be its ability to abstract the complexity of cross-chain transactions from both developers and users alike. As we will discuss in this article, UX is not an afterthought at Composable, but a primary focus guiding our development approach. Our design focus extends to developers as our tooling technology is tailored to make it easy for them to incorporate and integrate cross-chain building blocks into their own applications.
The XCVM’s user-centric approach
While DeFi has evolved along the lines of UX, it has yet to catch up to its counterpart in traditional finance. Thus, the user experience available right now is insufficient to support mass adoption. The complicated UX felt by users and developers alike, emanating from several primary issues, further prevents DeFi from scaling effectively.
We have identified that these issues arise mainly as a result of the fact that each ecosystem needs to develop its own tooling. The multi-chain experience is overwhelming as there are numerous wallets, bridges, and decentralized exchanges that users must interact with to participate in multi-chain opportunities. This results in a tendency for users to restrict their exploration of DeFi to certain, and often singular, ecosystems rather than exploring the full potential. As DeFi must go mainstream, it is imperative that the UX and tooling available for innovators and end users support seamless cross-chain functionalities. To address this, Composable Finance has developed the XCVM, which provides an abstracted experience for users along with generalized tooling for cross-chain developers.
On the user end, Composable has been developing a unique suite of cross-chain frontend applications including:
- The proxy wallet
- Composing cross-chain transactions with the XCVM
- Visualization of cross-chain transactions with the stepper
- Our cross-chain block explorer
Let’s explore these in more detail.
Proxy Wallet
The proxy wallet provides a frictionless interface for users looking to take advantage of cross-chain opportunities. With the proxy wallet, users connect their Polkadot, EVM, and Cosmos wallets as they normally would. However, after doing so users will be provided with an entirely new experience which we will explore in more detail below.
Compose w/ XCVM
Due to our reimagination of traditional swaps, the XCVM users are able to compose their transactions. The XCVM provides the simple input fields and settings that users are familiar with from using traditional AMMs. Where the experience differs is that users are capable of orchestrating much more complex transactions than what is possible on a traditional DEX, as can be seen below.
While the example above looks deceivingly simple due to the UX, there is actually quite a bit to unpack:
- The user starts on the Picasso mainnet with 2,022 PICA tokens
- These tokens are then sent to the Ethereum mainnet via an EVM bridge
- After arriving on the Ethereum mainnet the PICA tokens are swapped for Ethereum
- The remainder is then swapped for USDC on Arbitrum
All of this happens behind the scenes and is entirely abstracted from the user. To accomplish the same result now would be a headache even for the most experienced of DeFi users. It is easy to see how the XCVM will usher in a new era of innovation through its ease of use and novel technology stack. At the end of the day, this is only an example of a cross-chain swap. We are incredibly excited to see what becomes possible as more developers build on top of the XCVM.
Visualize Transactions w/ Cross-chain stepper
Simplifying the user experience is the primary goal of the XCVM. Another incredibly important feature for users is to know exactly what is happening with their tokens after composing a transaction with the XCVM. This is why we have developed the “stepper”, which illustrates the status of a user’s transaction after composing with the XCVM.
Follow through w/ cross-chain block explorer
In addition to a visual representation from the stepper, users will also be able to track their transactions across all chains with our cross-chain block explorer. Due to the nature of compositions as opposed to traditional swaps, there will be multiple transactions taking place across multiple chains. With the cross-chain explorer, users can track the status of all these transactions in one place.
Figure 4: Cross-chain block explorer
Developer tooling
Additionally, at Composable Finance we realize that a great user experience starts by providing developers with the tools they need to do their jobs efficiently.
This is why all of the tools detailed above will be made available to developers who choose to build on the XCVM. In addition to these frontend tools, Composable has a more robust offering for developers which includes:
Pallet offering
One of the most substantial advantages of building on the XCVM is the unmatched assortment of native cross-chain infrastructure. Our pallets were designed from the ground up with interoperability in mind, meaning that they take common DeFi functionality cross-chain. Developers can call into our pallets for functionality including:
- Oracle solutions
- Bridging
- Vaults
- Swaps
- Lending
- And more
Composable’s Name Service (CNS)
Managing user accounts and transactions cross-chain is tedious and error-prone. This is why we created Composable’s Name Service (CNS). CNS is an abstraction of our identities system, which will allow developers to use a single name across interpreter instances. In short, this means that developers will be able to refer to a single name when managing a user’s funds across different ecosystems rather than managing multiple different addresses.
Subsquid integration
Subsquid is self-described as:
“A blockchain indexing solution and API framework that gives developers and analysts working across networks access to the data they need. With a modular architecture composed of Archives, which pre-index blockchain data for builders down the pipeline, and easily configurable, serverless, Squid APIs, Subsquid offers the most flexible and resource-efficient backend framework for Dapps.”
Composable is utilizing a Squid API to allow for the extraction of statistics from Pablo, our native DEX. Through this Squid, API developers will be able to produce statistics regarding; volume, liquidity, the number of tokens bought/sold over a period of time, and transaction histories in the developer’s chosen quote currency. Data analysis is crucial for investors and developers alike, and as Pablo is a cross-chain DEX this Subsquid integration could prove to be a powerful tool for evaluating the data surrounding cross-chain transactions and liquidity flows.
Conclusion
At Composable Finance we believe that a great user experience starts by providing developers with the necessary tooling. In this article, we outlined some of the toolings which will be made available to developers who choose to build on the XCVM. With this in mind, we reach the end of our series on XCVM use cases. Thank you for reading, if you missed part 1 or part 2 of the series be sure to check them out as well.
For more information about Composable and how it is architecting the unified DeFi landscape of the future and composing DeFi for mass adoption, check out our socials:
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Unpacking the XCVM’s use-cases: UX and Tooling — Pt. 3 was originally published in Composable Finance on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
