Abstract (Abstraction)

Abstraction (from "abstract") is the practice of hiding the inner workings of a system behind a simpler interface, so people can use it without handling every detail. A driver uses a steering wheel without knowing how the power steering works; a developer calls an API without seeing the code behind it. In blockchain design the word appears in several labels. Account Abstraction lets wallets behave like programmable accounts with features such as social recovery, chain abstraction aims to let a user move value across networks without picking a chain, and fee abstraction lets someone pay a gas fee in a token other than the network's native coin. Each layer of abstraction makes a system easier to use but adds code that can fail. Also see Application Layer and smart contracts.