Ethereum is growing. L2s, L3s, app-specific chains, and modular protocols are multiplying rapidly. Recursion comes to mind. As each new layer adds complexity to the network in ways that echos Hofstadter's thought's in Gödel, Escher, Bach simple modular rules creating infinitely complex, self-referential systems. But the question we should be asking ourselves: How will regular users navigate these recursive fractal like structures?

Ethereum's modular roadmap is federated by design, dozens of rollups today, hundreds of L3s tomorrow. It is simultaneously beautiful and overwhelming. dApps now span Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, zkSync, and more. However each additional layer makes the UX worse for users who just want to explore what Ethereum has to offer kneecapping discovery.

Enter Mini Apps

This complexity has led to L2s and Platforms (most notably WorldCoin and Farcaster) to lean on a long-standing platform distribution pattern called Mini Programs or Mini Apps (thin modular applications tightly coupled to their host platform) popularised by:

• WeChat, Over 1 million mini apps; payments, shopping, gov.

• Alipay, Competes with WeChat; finance-focused mini apps

• Baidu, Search-centric mini apps

Services we see expressed as mini-apps (non-exhaustive) include: Didi Chuxing (ride-hailing), JD (e-commerce), Meituan (food delivery), Pinduoduo (social shopping), Utility payments, Financial services, Subway ticketing apps, Hotel bookings, travel guides, train tickets, Group buying, Payments and personal banking.

In comparison, crypto native mini-app platforms are nascent in their lifecycle but are slowly building traction. While most top apps currently are lotteries, utility and trading apps, when compared to their service oriented counterparts in the real world, it is clear there is still much work to be done.

Mini-apps work because they abstract much of the complexity away. They expedite discovery by deferring risk to the curators of each respective platform. Similar to native mobile app stores prior to distribution there is a review process.

Users don't think about being on the wrong website, chains or layers. They just open their wallet, click, and everything works. No bridging, no rollup selectors, no app-chain menus. It's all hidden behind a unified UX surface. That's why it feels like a step forward due to its reduction in a user's cognitive load.

The pitch for Mini-apps sounds great: easy to deploy, greater distribution, convenient for developers. But there's a hidden cost: Mini Apps still serve the underlying platform, not the user.

• Worldcoin builds World Chain-specific apps. 

• Farcaster builds FID-specific flows. 

Each is tightly coupled to its home ecosystem. That's great for growing the platform—terrible for users who live across many chains.

As Mini Apps gain traction in Ethereum, we should consider what we're trading away. 

Ethereum's most powerful promise has always been self-sovereignty — your account belongs to you, whether an EOA or Smart Account. But as the ecosystem matures, we increasingly trade sovereignty for convenience, rebuilding the same closed structures we originally sought to escape.

Today, most users sign into dApps through providers like Privy which often issue embedded wallets by default. While embedded wallets offer increased convenience for now, they present the risk of increasing platform lock-in.

A solution for this would be ensuring the embedded wallet is recoverable/linked via an EOA, but that again presents a user experience challenge that needs to be overcome.

The Cross-Chain Dilemma

Cross-chain builders face an impossible choice. Each major platform is aligned with its home ecosystem:

• Farcaster → Optimism (requires annual FID fees)

• Coinbase Wallet → Base (optimized for KYC-friendly flows)

• Worldcoin → World Chain (demands biometric verification)

If you wanted to build a mini-app for Ethereum users, which platform would you choose? Each choice requires a tribute of fees, privacy, or identity control. 

Are there any mini-app platforms that just work with a pure Ethereum account? What is the roadmap to get to that point? 

The best way I can frame this dilemma right now is by asking myself, am I building for the good of Ethereum, or am I building for the benefit of a specific platform? 

Portability Matters

I believe we need to build consumer apps that respect Ethereum's federated, modular nature otherwise, we're just recreating walled gardens.

Consumer dApps should ideally work horizontally across chains: DeFi interfaces that work with any protocol on any rollup, social apps untethered from single ecosystems, NFT marketplaces spanning multiple networks.

Users wouldn't need to know where apps are deployed. Everything could flow through a unified interface that abstracts complexity away.

If we don't abstract away the complexity of L2s, L3s, and app-chains, users will flock to simpler ecosystems, consumer dApps will fragment into platform silos, and Ethereum's "federation of chains" will become a UX nightmare.

By respecting Ethereum's federated nature, we unlock the real potential: consumer dApps remain composable across chains, users gain seamless simplicity, and Ethereum can scale infinitely while still feeling unified.

Convenience comes at a cost. As the ecosystem matures, developers and users must ask themselves: are we comfortable with our assets and identities fragmented across platform-controlled smart accounts, loosely tethered to our root wallets?

The choice is clear: we can either build vertically, trapping users in platform silos, or build horizontally, honouring Ethereum's federated nature while giving users freedom to flow across chains.

Ethereum’s federated infrastructure isn’t a negative, it’s an opportunity for application builders to harness and innovate on.