Chainless Apps: A Modular Framework for Building Apps with Web2 Capability and Web3 Trust

TL;DR

Chainless Apps introduce a modular architecture that combines Web2 user experience with Web3 trust features by separating core layers, enabling scalable, verifiable, and interoperable blockchain applications.

Contribution

This paper proposes a novel layered framework for blockchain apps that enhances UX and trust through modular separation and new trust models like zkVMs and validation services.

Findings

Enables fast Web2-like user experience with Web3-level verifiability.

Supports chain-agnostic routing and off-chain computation verification.

Leverages zkVMs and validation services for scalable trust models.

Abstract

Modern blockchain applications are often constrained by a trade-off between user experience and trust. Chainless Apps present a new paradigm of application architecture that separates execution, trust, bridging, and settlement into distinct compostable layers. This enables app-specific sequencing, verifiable off-chain computation, chain-agnostic asset and message routing via Agglayer, and finality on Ethereum - resulting in fast Web2-like UX with Web3-grade verifiability. Although consensus mechanisms have historically underpinned verifiable computation, the advent of zkVMs and decentralized validation services opens up new trust models for developers. Chainless Apps leverage this evolution to offer modular, scalable applications that maintain interoperability with the broader blockchain ecosystem while allowing domain-specific trade-offs.