Chain Abstraction is Vital for Exploiting On-chain Data: Chris Feng, Co-founder of Chainbase

The blockchain industry is plagued with fragmentation and a lack of interoperability. Numerous leaders and founders have emphasized that these are among the biggest barriers to mass adoption and innovation. Chris Feng is one of those voices.

Chris Feng, the Co-founder of Chainbase, an omnichain data network provider, says that the value of on-chain data is largely untapped. He estimates that the number of developers exploiting on-chain data is lesser than the number of developers working at major internet companies.

Chainbase provides a data interoperability layer for blockchains. It is positioned in the market as an ‘infrastructure provider’. Interoperability and fragmentation are the hottest topics in blockchain right now. Does Chainbase have a solution for these issues?

In an insightful conversation with The Coin Republic’s Editor-in-Chief, Varuni Trivedi, Feng highlighted the need for chain abstraction. The former consultant discussed the nuances of data decentralization and explained why AI-crypto integration will be normal in the future.

Chain Abstraction is Vital for Exploiting On-chain Data

The blockchain industry is plagued with fragmentation and a lack of interoperability. Numerous leaders and founders have emphasized that these are among the biggest barriers to mass adoption and innovation. Chris Feng is one of those voices.

“The blockchain world has created many silos, too many chains and data islands, fragmented information and complex cross-chain operations hinder the ability to fully realize the value of interconnected information. Therefore, Chain Abstraction is a vital topic,” Feng noted.

Chain abstraction means achieving a high level of interoperability between blockchains. Wallets and decentralized applications (dApps) will work seamlessly (or become accessible) across chains if chain abstraction is achieved. The objective is to make the user’s interaction with the blockchain less daunting. A friendly UX will lead to an increase in adoption.

As per official documentation, Chainbase is focused on enhancing data interoperability. Data interoperability is a fundamental concept that applies to all blockchains. It is the facility that allows different blockchains to receive and transfer data without special arrangements.

“We need to lower the barrier for extracting value from on-chain data. And we also need to bring more diverse data to the chain to create new possibilities.”

Theia: a Crypto World Model

On August 15th, 2024, Chainbase launched its ‘milestone’ project, Theia. Theia is an AI-powered ‘Crypto World Model’ that interprets on-chain data. The model’s chatbot answers questions about on-chain data. Theia is fed data from Coinmarketcap (whitepapers, official blog posts, and news articles) of the top 2000 projects by market capitalization and credible research reports on these projects.

World Models are alternatives to Large Language Models (LLMs). Feng pointed out that LLMs are useful for human-like interaction but fall short against mathematical questions and transaction queries. This is where World Models shine. World Models are designed to capture knowledge from a world or an environment to simulate that environment. 

“…world models aim to simulate and understand the external world to perform tasks and make decisions in complex settings,” Feng explained. He added that while world models will act like the user’s digital twin, LLMs are limited to being assistants.

“The key here is to simulate the environment before executing the task. So in a specialized field like crypto, where there is a wealth of domain-specific knowledge not commonly found in social media and where data is not just plain text or images, LLMs can be significantly hindered. LLMs are often limited to task planning without the capability to extend further or make close loop decisions.”

Theia is a one-of-a-kind dedicated blockchain Chatbot. It gathers data on transactions, smart contracts, and NFTs, among other on-chain data assets. Theia is equipped with multiple data analysis tools to help identify patterns. The AI model records and learns from user queries and user feedback.

The official full name of the first version is Theia-Llama-3.1-8B; as per Chainbase, Theia-Llama-3.1-8B is fine-tuned from the base model Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct. It was open-sourced on October 11th and developed especially for the crypto sector. 

Notably, Theia-Llama-3.1-8B outperformed leading LLMs such as ChatGPT-4o, Claude-3-Sonet, Gemini-1.5-Pro, and Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, against Chainbase’s benchmark for Crypto AI models.

Are LLMs Overrated?

LLMs have been among the most lucrative applications of AI in the past three years. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gemini, Llama, and other models have dominated discussions and even the news from the AI beat. Major flaws in these models have been spotted. Chris explains where these models fall short and how World Models are different.

Feng highlights two big challenges that LLMs face. First is the lack of high-quality datasets (on-chain data). “There are a lot of projects in the on-