What is Particle Network?

Particle Network: The Modular L1 Powering Chain Abstraction

Particle Network's goal is to solve the issue of Web3’s fragmentation of users and liquidity across chains. It does so by providing users with Universal Account, which allows them to have a single balance and address across all chains, including EVM and non-EVM ecosystems.

Launched in 2022, Particle Network debuted as a Wallet Abstraction service provider, enabling users to create smart contract wallets linked to their Web2 social accounts, which can then be used natively within dApp-embedded interfaces. After more than 17 Million wallet activations, 10 Million UserOperations, and over 900 dApp integrations later, Particle is taking the next step in its evolution by debuting its Modular L1 powering chain abstraction.

This page will give you a quick overview of our live and upcoming products, as well as the technology supporting them.

Modular L1

The Particle Network modular L1 blockchain powers chain abstraction by coordinating Universal Accounts and Liquidity, enabling users to have a single address and balance across every chain, and pay for gas in any token. Particle Network acts as a coordinator for the multi-chain ecosystem, empowering existing L1s, L2s, and non-EVM blockchains through account coordination and removing the friction associated with bridging and cross-chain communication.

Relying on the Cosmos SDK to build this L1 allows us to make it intrinsically modular, retaining its sovereignty while outsourcing key functions like validation and data availability to specialized ecosystem actors. This is primarily driven by Modular Nodes, which help secure the network and allow for its decentralized operation through managing transaction validation, data availability, etc. As a Cosmos chain, Particle Network also leverages Cosmos' Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol for interoperability, enabling cheap, fast cross-chain transaction execution throughout the interchain ecosystem. Our L1 features a high-performance EVM-compatible execution environment and relies on Babylon for additional security via dual staking.

Particle Network enables three core functionalities, each creating a unique user advantage:

Universal Accounts: These are ERC-4337 Smart Account implementations, powered by Particle Network’s Universal SDK, that offer a single user address and balance across ecosystems. With these Accounts, Particle Network implements a custom cross-chain UserOperation structure, simplifying the management and usage of smart contract wallets across all EVM chains and allowing them to control accounts on heterogeneous blockchains like Bitcoin and Solana.
Universal Liquidity: Unifies the liquidity of all chains through the optimistic execution of multi-chain atomic transactions. This allows users to interact with new chains without holding tokens on them.
Universal Gas: Allows users to pay gas for cross-chain transactions with any token (e.g. PARTI, USDT, or USDC) sourced from any blockchain, as opposed to the multi-chain ecosystem’s need for multiple chain-exclusive gas units (SOL, ETH, MATIC, etc.) All transactions are ultimately settled on Particle Network through its native token, $PARTI.

Key modules and initial ecosystem

Particle Network is primarily constituted by the three following modules:

Master Keystore Hub: Acts as the central component coordinating smart contract deployments and updates across all networks, working hand-in-hand with Relayer nodes to automatically synchronize settings between each Universal Account instance and ensure complete state parity across networks.
Decentralized Messaging Network (DMN): On Particle Network, Relayer Nodes use a Messaging Protocol to monitor whether UserOperations on external chains have been executed successfully, and then settle the execution status on our L1. This network of decentralized Relayer Nodes, tasked with monitoring external chain events and the settlement of state events, is called the Decentralized Messaging Network.
Decentralized Bundler: Particle Network has designed and implemented a fully censorship-resistant, decentralized Bundler system powered by Bundler nodes for high-volume UserOperation processing. These nodes initiate and execute UserOperations on external chains, such as performing a DEX swap or purchasing an NFT.

Design and security

Particle Network features a dual staking system, combining Proof-of-Stake through Tendermint with Bitcoin’s economic security and resilience, powered by Babylon.

Furthermore, it presents a unique data availability aggregation (AggDA) model relying on providers like Celestia, Avail, and NEAR DA to reduce vendor lock-in and liveness risks. This constitutes a decentralized system of Aggregated DA node operators to dynamically publish and verify data between providers for conditional redundancy or optimization.

Furthermore, Particle Network’s architecture allows the Smart Accounts made through its existing Wallet Abstraction solutions, Modular Smart WaaS and BTC Connect (see below), to seamlessly evolve into Universal Accounts. This will instantly enable them to tap into Universal Liquidity and Universal Gas, settling and coordinating cross-chain operations automatically on the L1 while simultaneously bootstrapping the chain’s initial usage and traction.

The first phase of Particle Network's modular L1's Testnet is already live and can be accessed through the Particle Pioneer campaign.

Wallet Abstraction solutions

Prior to the release of our Modular L1, Particle's Wallet Abstraction stack comprises two main products, both of which are used by over 4M daily users across 56 chains. These are:

Modular Smart Wallet-as-a-Service

Particle's Modular Smart Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) stack allows developers to tap into MPC-TSS and social logins to enable self-custodial, dApp-embedded wallets. It also empowers them to leverage the potential of ERC-4337 account abstraction, enabling a seamless, flexible experience.

In short, Modular Smart WaaS allows developers and users to interact natively with AA while directly tied to an MPC-secured account generated by Particle. This fulfills the following critical points:

Seamless onboarding via WaaS & non-custodial key management: Particle’s existing implementation of WaaS features advanced MPC-TSS private key management. Combined with social authentication, this ensures that end users can be swiftly and securely onboarded –regardless of their level of technical expertise– into Web3.
Leveraging AA’s flexibility without compromising application complexity: This empowers developers to build all kinds of applications, making the most out of AA’s capabilities. Particle’s AA-SDK enables very familiar mechanisms of interacting with smart accounts programmatically –such as familiar transaction structures, building, and account management– all handled seamlessly by the SDK. This results in a short path to start using AA with Particle’s WaaS, simplifying interactions with dApps.
AA modularity via WaaS: Particle’s AA SDK allows developers to approach AA modularly, plugging into their preferred smart account implementations, Bundlers, Paymasters, etc., with ease. As a Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) provider, Particle can also be plugged into any initial/onboarding point within AA applications as an EOA-based Signer, even if they don’t natively use Particle’s AA SDK. As such, even non-native AA applications can leverage Particle’s WaaS for onboarding. This creates a wholly customizable building experience for native and non-native applications alike.

BTC Connect

BTC Connect is the first EVM-compatible ERC-4337 account abstraction protocol for Bitcoin, supported and implemented by the largest Bitcoin Layer-2s in the ecosystem.

Particle Network enables account abstraction in the Bitcoin ecosystem by bringing ERC-4337 natively to Bitcoin L2s. Thanks to it, users can enjoy all the UX benefits of AA on Bitcoin without the need for secondary interfaces (such as a MetaMask wallet). This enables them to control a smart account on an EVM-compatible Bitcoin L2 with a "regular" Bitcoin Wallet (such as UniSat, Xverse, Bitget, TokenPocket, etc.) as its Signer. As a result, a user can interact with these networks while holding either only native BTC or no assets at all (if leveraging gasless transactions).

By implementing BTC Connect, developers can offer their users all of the benefits of account abstraction within EVM-compatible Bitcoin L2 chains, including account programmability, gasless interactions, batched transactions, etc.