Every day, I see talented entrepreneurs, builders, and curious newcomers walk away from crypto—not because they doubt the technology, but because the process to participate is confusing and intimidating. I still remember walking a friend through their first on-chain purchase. Halfway through, they went quiet and finally asked, “Can you just do it for me?” Not because they weren’t interested—but because the steps felt overwhelming. That moment stuck with me. Instead of empowering new users, we often end up doing it for them. It’s faster, easier—but it doesn’t scale. And it certainly doesn’t lead to real adoption.

I experienced this friction not just through others, but in my own work. Back in 2016, I launched my first blockchain startup, Philafy, on the Stellar ledger. The concept was simple: turn everyday slacktivism into on-chain microgiving. Even then, it was clear that the biggest hurdle wasn’t the vision—it was the infrastructure. And nearly a decade later, much of that friction remains.

The world isn’t just going on-chain—it’s reorganizing. Each L1 and L2 isn’t just a blockchain. It’s a sovereign digital economy, competing for developers, capital, and activity.

This isn’t just a metaphor. Fidelity now treats blockchains as emerging digital economies—complete with native currencies, local GDPs, and economic policy. They’ve even built investment frameworks around this lens.

To put the scale in perspective, the total crypto market now surpasses the GDP of nearly every country—rivaling Japan and Germany, and outpacing the UK and France. Bitcoin alone exceeds Italy’s entire GDP at over $2.4 trillion. If crypto were a country, it would already be a global economic powerhouse.

But most chains still operate with a legacy mindset: distribute your gas token, get it listed on every exchange, seed liquidity across fragmented DEXs—and hope users figure it out from there. And it doesn’t stop at the chain level. For the vast majority of token projects building within these ecosystems, the cost of access—CEX listings, liquidity provisioning, cross-chain deployment—can run into the millions. That strategy expired. Expecting users to preload gas and navigate convoluted flows might have worked in crypto’s early days, but today, it’s a barrier dressed as a feature. That means only the best-funded teams get a shot at participation, while promising innovation is left behind—slowed not by merit, but by cost.

In reality, most users are still being asked to preload gas—the chain’s equivalent of a local currency—configure wallets, and bridge assets just to get started. It’s like being told you can visit a new country, but only if you already have the right currency and know how to navigate the systems.

This isn’t just a technical problem.

It’s an economic access problem.

If blockchains are countries, then they need pre-approved checkpoints to verify and unlock assets, highways for fast value movement, and universal payment terminals to make on-chain value usable. Yet today, most chains expect users to show up already holding the right gas token—and enough of it. Without it, you can’t transact, participate, or do much of anything.

There was a time—before modern POS systems—when international travel meant lining up at a currency exchange. You’d convert your cash in advance, carry the right currency into a new country, and hope you had enough. If not, you’d hunt for an exchange kiosk or ATM before you could buy anything.

Just like travel infrastructure unlocked tourism and global commerce, seamless access to on-chain economies—without gas, bridging, or setup—can unlock transaction flow, user demand, and ultimately, GDP growth.

That’s exactly how most chains operate today: users are expected to sort out critical steps upfront—like securing gas and figuring out how to interact—before they can do anything on-chain. We see it in the data, too: most users hit friction before they ever reach their destination. It’s the same pattern legacy systems followed—offloading the burden of currency conversion onto travelers and expecting them to arrive ready.

But that world is fading.

In the 1970s, Visa launched VisaNet—a global settlement layer that connected cardholders, banks, and merchants. Today, it powers over 2 billion cards, supports millions of merchants, and processes hundreds of millions of transactions every day.

This infrastructure didn’t just make payments faster. It made currency conversion invisible. Users could travel, swipe, and pay—without needing to carry the local currency or understand how the backend worked. That kind of abstraction didn’t just streamline transactions; it sparked entirely new behaviours and expanded global commerce.

Today, we’re seeing a new generation of national payment systems continue this shift toward seamless infrastructure. India’s UPI recently surpassed Visa in total annual transactions. In Brazil, PIX is accelerating the country’s transition to real-time, cashless payments. What they all have in common is simple: a user experience so seamless, it disappears.

The takeaway is clear:

And the ones that don’t? They limit who can participate in the economy—often unintentionally, but at massive scale.

Chains that want to thrive as digital economies must do the same.

What matters now isn’t how widely your gas token is distributed.

What matters is how seamlessly your chain can be accessed.

Because in a world where users can transact with just fiat or a cleared token, the true measure of adoption is accessibility—not token availability.

Before we get to the checkout experience, it’s worth unpacking the infrastructure layer that makes it all possible. That’s where OPN—the ONCHAIN®️ Payment Network—comes in.

If a chain is a country, OPN is its:

• VisaNet (gasless payments infrastructure)

• SWIFT (interoperable asset settlement layer)

• Clearinghouse (ensuring every token is verified and usable on arrival)

More specifically:

• VisaNet → mirrored by OPN’s transaction relayer layer and gas abstraction system, enabling real-time, gasless transactions across integrated chains.

• SWIFT → mirrored by the IntentRegistry and interchain message router, which coordinate settlement messages and route value across networks in response to user intent.

• Clearinghouse → mirrored by the Token Clearing Protocol, which standardizes token eligibility, verifies liquidity, and ensures safe fiat-to-token conversions.

Unlike other infra that focuses on indexing or tooling, OPN is economic infrastructure—built to unlock real-world participation at scale.

Every transaction that flows through OPN:

• Begins with user intent

• Bypasses gas and wallet friction

• Clears tokens via a standardized protocol

• Routes instantly through pre-funded on-chain treasuries

• Never wraps, bridges, or obfuscates value

Built on top of OPN is ONCHAIN®️ Ramp—the fiat-to-token checkout experience that eliminates onboarding friction.

But let’s be clear: we’re not a traditional "on-ramp".

Traditional ramps act more like ATMs: they help users top up their wallets, so they can maybe do something else later. That flow still has value—and it will continue to play a role across exchanges, wallets, and third-party tools.

But ONCHAIN®️ Ramp isn’t about preparation. It’s about completion.

Users aren’t buying gas. They’re buying the end-intended asset directly, in one seamless step. No queues, no bridges, no wrapper tokens. Just a checkout experience—instantly executed.

It’s not the ramp up to the chain.

It’s the gateway into the economy.

And it’s already happening. ONCHAIN®️ Ramp is live in Public Beta, powering thousands of fiat-to-token purchases around the world—no setup, no steps, just the outcome.

We’re redrawing the line between preparation and participation:

• On-ramping is for funding a wallet.

• ONCHAIN®️ Ramp is for accessing the outcome directly.

And as this behavior shifts, so will the naming. Our roadmap already reflects the next phase of this evolution: the word “Ramp” may eventually disappear entirely, as we transition toward a fully-fledged on-chain payment gateway.

OPN is already deployed on mainnet, integrated with Ethereum, Base, and Polygon as part of our first release. These foundational networks now support fiat-to-token flows via any asset that clears through OPN.

The next step is engagement: token projects and chain foundations can now begin the process of clearing their tokens and unlocking this access layer for users.

We’re actively expanding OPN’s footprint. Solana is next. Additional EVM chains will follow rapidly over the coming months.

If your chain or token project wants to be part of that wave, we’re ready to collaborate.

To realize this future, we’re organizing internally and mobilizing a new initiative: our Chain-as-Country Partnership Strategy.

We’re allocating resources to partner with L1s and L2s that want to activate their economies at scale.

• Dedicated Chain Managers (e.g. Base Manager, Solana Manager)

• Embedded in ecosystem events and communities

• Reporting on chain health and ecosystem activity

• Chain-specific campaigns and dashboards

• Community participation in Telegram, Discord, and forums

• Tokens become directly purchasable with fiat

• Users bypass gas and wallet complexity

• Builders gain users and liquidity

OPN doesn’t just integrate your chain.

It activates it.

The adoption equation is changing. For years, we’ve measured growth by liquidity, volume, and token prices—but none of that tells us how much of the economy is actually being used.

In a recent report, Electric Capital and Bain proposed a more relevant measure: on-chain GDP.

It’s a simple formula:

On-Chain GDP = Volume of Economic Activity × Number of Participants × Frequency of Usage 

By that definition, most ecosystems are still early economies. The opportunity isn’t just to grow liquidity—it’s to unlock usage at scale.

Here’s what happens when a chain plugs into OPN:

1. Chain integrates OPN

2. Tokens on the chain are cleared

3. Projects onboard to ONCHAIN®️ Ramp

4. Users buy tokens directly from fiat

5. Entrepreneurs and builders gain users + liquidity

6. Projects begin using tokens in real flows

7. The chain’s on-chain GDP grows

This isn’t theory.

It’s already happening.

The chains that eliminate friction are sparking new economies.

Great ideas keep stalling at the gate because the entry tax—technical and economic—is still too high. Despite the vision, users and builders alike are blocked by missing infrastructure and overwhelming onboarding.

The real liquidity isn’t locked in wallets—it’s still sitting in fiat. As stablecoins, CBDCs, and asset-backed tokens proliferate, the opportunity pool only widens. The chains that create onboarding tolls will shrink their audience. The ones that erase it will capture the next wave of participation.

While parts of this infrastructure—like ONCHAIN®️ Ramp—are already live, much of what we’ve outlined here is a vision for where on-chain access is going. Not a claim that we’re already there.

OPN is a long-term initiative. Some elements are live. Others will arrive in the coming months. The rest will take years.

We’re building it with transparency, intention, and an open invitation for others to help shape it.

This isn’t something we can—or should—do alone.

If you’re a chain foundation, protocol builder, or ecosystem partner who believes in this direction, let’s collaborate.

You might wonder about the technical or regulatory details. Those are crucial, and we’re deeply invested in addressing them. But this piece isn’t about the nuts and bolts—it’s about setting a new vision for how we approach blockchain adoption. The specifics of implementation, security, and compliance will be explored in future posts and technical documentation.

A vision for where on-chain access is going—not a claim that we’re already there.

The future isn’t just multi-chain—it’s multi-economy. The chains that win won’t be the ones with the most liquidity or the best dev docs. They’ll be the ones that make participation effortless.

Over the next 12–18 months, we’ll be rolling out this access layer across leading ecosystems—activating real usage, real liquidity, and real economic participation.

This is just the beginning.

I invite you to join the conversation, challenge the status quo, and help us build the infrastructure for the next era of digital economies.

Let’s stop asking users to prepare.

Let’s invite them to participate.

If your chain wants to thrive as a true digital economy—let’s talk.

📧 jason@onchainlabs.org | 💬 @onchainJD on Telegram

Every day, I see talented entrepreneurs, builders, and curious newcomers walk away from crypto—not because they doubt the technology, but because the process to participate is confusing and intimidating. I still remember walking a friend through their first on-chain purchase. Halfway through, they went quiet and finally asked, “Can you just do it for me?” Not because they weren’t interested—but because the steps felt overwhelming. That moment stuck with me. Instead of empowering new users, we often end up doing it for them. It’s faster, easier—but it doesn’t scale. And it certainly doesn’t lead to real adoption.

I experienced this friction not just through others, but in my own work. Back in 2016, I launched my first blockchain startup, Philafy, on the Stellar ledger. The concept was simple: turn everyday slacktivism into on-chain microgiving. Even then, it was clear that the biggest hurdle wasn’t the vision—it was the infrastructure. And nearly a decade later, much of that friction remains.

The world isn’t just going on-chain—it’s reorganizing. Each L1 and L2 isn’t just a blockchain. It’s a sovereign digital economy, competing for developers, capital, and activity.

This isn’t just a metaphor. Fidelity now treats blockchains as emerging digital economies—complete with native currencies, local GDPs, and economic policy. They’ve even built investment frameworks around this lens.

To put the scale in perspective, the total crypto market now surpasses the GDP of nearly every country—rivaling Japan and Germany, and outpacing the UK and France. Bitcoin alone exceeds Italy’s entire GDP at over $2.4 trillion. If crypto were a country, it would already be a global economic powerhouse.

But most chains still operate with a legacy mindset: distribute your gas token, get it listed on every exchange, seed liquidity across fragmented DEXs—and hope users figure it out from there. And it doesn’t stop at the chain level. For the vast majority of token projects building within these ecosystems, the cost of access—CEX listings, liquidity provisioning, cross-chain deployment—can run into the millions. That strategy expired. Expecting users to preload gas and navigate convoluted flows might have worked in crypto’s early days, but today, it’s a barrier dressed as a feature. That means only the best-funded teams get a shot at participation, while promising innovation is left behind—slowed not by merit, but by cost.

In reality, most users are still being asked to preload gas—the chain’s equivalent of a local currency—configure wallets, and bridge assets just to get started. It’s like being told you can visit a new country, but only if you already have the right currency and know how to navigate the systems.

This isn’t just a technical problem.

It’s an economic access problem.

If blockchains are countries, then they need pre-approved checkpoints to verify and unlock assets, highways for fast value movement, and universal payment terminals to make on-chain value usable. Yet today, most chains expect users to show up already holding the right gas token—and enough of it. Without it, you can’t transact, participate, or do much of anything.

There was a time—before modern POS systems—when international travel meant lining up at a currency exchange. You’d convert your cash in advance, carry the right currency into a new country, and hope you had enough. If not, you’d hunt for an exchange kiosk or ATM before you could buy anything.

Just like travel infrastructure unlocked tourism and global commerce, seamless access to on-chain economies—without gas, bridging, or setup—can unlock transaction flow, user demand, and ultimately, GDP growth.

That’s exactly how most chains operate today: users are expected to sort out critical steps upfront—like securing gas and figuring out how to interact—before they can do anything on-chain. We see it in the data, too: most users hit friction before they ever reach their destination. It’s the same pattern legacy systems followed—offloading the burden of currency conversion onto travelers and expecting them to arrive ready.

But that world is fading.

In the 1970s, Visa launched VisaNet—a global settlement layer that connected cardholders, banks, and merchants. Today, it powers over 2 billion cards, supports millions of merchants, and processes hundreds of millions of transactions every day.

This infrastructure didn’t just make payments faster. It made currency conversion invisible. Users could travel, swipe, and pay—without needing to carry the local currency or understand how the backend worked. That kind of abstraction didn’t just streamline transactions; it sparked entirely new behaviours and expanded global commerce.

Today, we’re seeing a new generation of national payment systems continue this shift toward seamless infrastructure. India’s UPI recently surpassed Visa in total annual transactions. In Brazil, PIX is accelerating the country’s transition to real-time, cashless payments. What they all have in common is simple: a user experience so seamless, it disappears.

The takeaway is clear:

And the ones that don’t? They limit who can participate in the economy—often unintentionally, but at massive scale.

Chains that want to thrive as digital economies must do the same.

What matters now isn’t how widely your gas token is distributed.

What matters is how seamlessly your chain can be accessed.

Because in a world where users can transact with just fiat or a cleared token, the true measure of adoption is accessibility—not token availability.

Before we get to the checkout experience, it’s worth unpacking the infrastructure layer that makes it all possible. That’s where OPN—the ONCHAIN®️ Payment Network—comes in.

If a chain is a country, OPN is its:

• VisaNet (gasless payments infrastructure)

• SWIFT (interoperable asset settlement layer)

• Clearinghouse (ensuring every token is verified and usable on arrival)

More specifically:

• VisaNet → mirrored by OPN’s transaction relayer layer and gas abstraction system, enabling real-time, gasless transactions across integrated chains.

• SWIFT → mirrored by the IntentRegistry and interchain message router, which coordinate settlement messages and route value across networks in response to user intent.

• Clearinghouse → mirrored by the Token Clearing Protocol, which standardizes token eligibility, verifies liquidity, and ensures safe fiat-to-token conversions.

Unlike other infra that focuses on indexing or tooling, OPN is economic infrastructure—built to unlock real-world participation at scale.

Every transaction that flows through OPN:

• Begins with user intent

• Bypasses gas and wallet friction

• Clears tokens via a standardized protocol

• Routes instantly through pre-funded on-chain treasuries

• Never wraps, bridges, or obfuscates value

Built on top of OPN is ONCHAIN®️ Ramp—the fiat-to-token checkout experience that eliminates onboarding friction.

But let’s be clear: we’re not a traditional "on-ramp".

Traditional ramps act more like ATMs: they help users top up their wallets, so they can maybe do something else later. That flow still has value—and it will continue to play a role across exchanges, wallets, and third-party tools.

But ONCHAIN®️ Ramp isn’t about preparation. It’s about completion.

Users aren’t buying gas. They’re buying the end-intended asset directly, in one seamless step. No queues, no bridges, no wrapper tokens. Just a checkout experience—instantly executed.

It’s not the ramp up to the chain.

It’s the gateway into the economy.

And it’s already happening. ONCHAIN®️ Ramp is live in Public Beta, powering thousands of fiat-to-token purchases around the world—no setup, no steps, just the outcome.

We’re redrawing the line between preparation and participation:

• On-ramping is for funding a wallet.

• ONCHAIN®️ Ramp is for accessing the outcome directly.

And as this behavior shifts, so will the naming. Our roadmap already reflects the next phase of this evolution: the word “Ramp” may eventually disappear entirely, as we transition toward a fully-fledged on-chain payment gateway.

OPN is already deployed on mainnet, integrated with Ethereum, Base, and Polygon as part of our first release. These foundational networks now support fiat-to-token flows via any asset that clears through OPN.

The next step is engagement: token projects and chain foundations can now begin the process of clearing their tokens and unlocking this access layer for users.

We’re actively expanding OPN’s footprint. Solana is next. Additional EVM chains will follow rapidly over the coming months.

If your chain or token project wants to be part of that wave, we’re ready to collaborate.

To realize this future, we’re organizing internally and mobilizing a new initiative: our Chain-as-Country Partnership Strategy.

We’re allocating resources to partner with L1s and L2s that want to activate their economies at scale.

• Dedicated Chain Managers (e.g. Base Manager, Solana Manager)

• Embedded in ecosystem events and communities

• Reporting on chain health and ecosystem activity

• Chain-specific campaigns and dashboards

• Community participation in Telegram, Discord, and forums

• Tokens become directly purchasable with fiat

• Users bypass gas and wallet complexity

• Builders gain users and liquidity

OPN doesn’t just integrate your chain.

It activates it.

The adoption equation is changing. For years, we’ve measured growth by liquidity, volume, and token prices—but none of that tells us how much of the economy is actually being used.

In a recent report, Electric Capital and Bain proposed a more relevant measure: on-chain GDP.

It’s a simple formula:

On-Chain GDP = Volume of Economic Activity × Number of Participants × Frequency of Usage 

By that definition, most ecosystems are still early economies. The opportunity isn’t just to grow liquidity—it’s to unlock usage at scale.

Here’s what happens when a chain plugs into OPN:

1. Chain integrates OPN

2. Tokens on the chain are cleared

3. Projects onboard to ONCHAIN®️ Ramp

4. Users buy tokens directly from fiat

5. Entrepreneurs and builders gain users + liquidity

6. Projects begin using tokens in real flows

7. The chain’s on-chain GDP grows

This isn’t theory.

It’s already happening.

The chains that eliminate friction are sparking new economies.

Great ideas keep stalling at the gate because the entry tax—technical and economic—is still too high. Despite the vision, users and builders alike are blocked by missing infrastructure and overwhelming onboarding.

The real liquidity isn’t locked in wallets—it’s still sitting in fiat. As stablecoins, CBDCs, and asset-backed tokens proliferate, the opportunity pool only widens. The chains that create onboarding tolls will shrink their audience. The ones that erase it will capture the next wave of participation.

While parts of this infrastructure—like ONCHAIN®️ Ramp—are already live, much of what we’ve outlined here is a vision for where on-chain access is going. Not a claim that we’re already there.

OPN is a long-term initiative. Some elements are live. Others will arrive in the coming months. The rest will take years.

We’re building it with transparency, intention, and an open invitation for others to help shape it.

This isn’t something we can—or should—do alone.

If you’re a chain foundation, protocol builder, or ecosystem partner who believes in this direction, let’s collaborate.

You might wonder about the technical or regulatory details. Those are crucial, and we’re deeply invested in addressing them. But this piece isn’t about the nuts and bolts—it’s about setting a new vision for how we approach blockchain adoption. The specifics of implementation, security, and compliance will be explored in future posts and technical documentation.

A vision for where on-chain access is going—not a claim that we’re already there.

The future isn’t just multi-chain—it’s multi-economy. The chains that win won’t be the ones with the most liquidity or the best dev docs. They’ll be the ones that make participation effortless.

Over the next 12–18 months, we’ll be rolling out this access layer across leading ecosystems—activating real usage, real liquidity, and real economic participation.

This is just the beginning.

I invite you to join the conversation, challenge the status quo, and help us build the infrastructure for the next era of digital economies.

Let’s stop asking users to prepare.

Let’s invite them to participate.

If your chain wants to thrive as a true digital economy—let’s talk.

📧 jason@onchainlabs.org | 💬 @onchainJD on Telegram