Account Abstraction

Account

A door serves as a point of access to a building, and a key is used to access doors. Users enter buildings through doors, using keys. Blockchain users have accounts, and sign transactions using a pair of keys. Users interact with accounts (send, receive and store tokens) using wallets.

Account abstraction is a new standard for development on the ethereum blockchain where assets are held by smart contracts exclusively.

This new standard could also transform user experience of decentralised applications. In other words, users will unlock new doors differently.

Security & Scale
In the early days of the internet, few people knew about it. Interest and demand grew gradually then suddenly. There is an anecdote from an early member of the google engineering team that narrates spikes in website traffic on tuesday afternoons, and the race to grow server capacity exponentially as site visits surged.

User experience and account abstraction.

Products built on decentralized systems and protocols have mostly been a technology-led design, with an assumption that users will always follow the intended path. Examples include Passwords and private keys as means of user authentication. This system has been ineffective in authenticating genuine users, or securing assets from bad actors. Billions of dollars in hacks and unrecoverable accounts have proven this mismatched authentication problem. Widepsread adoption of products built on this technology has not happened yet.

EIP 4337 is a recent Account abstraction proposal on the Ethereum network.

What is different this time ?
This implementation does not require a consensus layer update.

Why does it matter ?

Build it and users would come.

Improved user experience drives widespread adoption.
Users are not looking for new technology to scratch an itch.

In essence, EIP 4337 will simplify the experience of users by abstracting smart contracts and account interactions. This will preclude key pair signing, enabling safe custody of assets by users.
If system design is built around user and developer interactions, then solutions can be exclusively built for purpose without compromise in security.

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Account abstraction enables smart contract functions to have pre-signature requirements, enhancing user experience and opening up additional possibilities, such as ;

• signless transactions

• whitelist smart contracts

• co-owned wallets

• bundle sign

Components

UserOperations are pseudo-transaction objects that are used to execute transactions with contract accounts. These are created by applications. Users initiate actions, such as executing smart contracts or sending transactions.

Contract Accounts are smart contract accounts owned by a user.

Bundler
The bundler collects user operations from the mempool and bundles them into a single transaction.
Standard L1 Transaction: The bundler sends the transaction to the entry point contract as a standard L1 transaction.

Entry Point Contract
This contract receives the transaction , handles the verification, and executes the user operations.

With account abstraction, every account has its own logic and can initiate transactions and pay the fee (required to operate contract accounts), which opens up new possibilities for creating secure and user-friendly wallets.