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EIP 4337 Explained | Visa Taking Steps To Try Out Account Abstraction
EIP 4337 Explained | Visa Taking Steps To Try Out Account Abstraction
Account abstraction is going to revolutionize the way we interact with the blockchain. If you are tired of making recurring payments manually, then smart wallets will be your ultimate solution. Read this blog to explore EIP-4337!

Being a part of the crypto community for a long while, we might have felt that the user interface does need some upgrades. For this advancement, developers are going for account abstraction, also called ERC-4337. Typically, account abstraction removes the need for any alterations in the consensus protocol. Instead of doing this, it goes for high-layer infrastructure. In order to create such robust digital contracts, you should approach a leading smart contract development services provider.

 

Later, a smart wallet named “Argent” entered the market that follows the ERC-4337 standard. This wallet is said to be safe and allows traders to use the wallet readily. Thanks to the sleek and simple UX. Before knowing more about how “account abstraction” does the wonder, then you have to know its history in the first place. 

 

A Preface To Smart Wallets

Smart Wallets was first proposed in 2016 with Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-86. It was a catalyst attempt to alter the wallet standard of that time. In the past, most of the crypto wallets on the Ethereum platform were “Externally Owned Accounts (EOA),” usually powered by third parties, for example, Metamask. 

 

We don’t have to underline how much popular these wallets are. However, the complete responsibility to manage a user account relies on the user’s private key. So, if you lose the private key, your assets will be gone forever. This is the primary reason why ERC-4337 emerged. It replaces the typical process by syncing accounts with robust smart contracts. Initially, centralized relays managed transactions fee payments, but at present, ERC-4337 makes this even more decentralized. 

 

Multiple Features Of Account Abstraction On Ethereum Wallets

The main goal of ERC-4337 is to make the user experience similar to “real-world banks.” Additionally, it eliminates the need to depend on seed phrases (private key). You can build your smart contract with Ethereum to obtain the account abstraction features given below. 

 

  • Smart contracts remove human errors. 

  • Easy to use as a regular mobile application on smartphones.

  • Less prone to hacking threats and other malicious attacks.

  • Easy to enforce the changes on other EVM-compatible blockchains. 

 

If you are doing a crypto-based business, you have to sign your EOA wallet each time. But with account abstraction, you can make a batch of transactions in just a single click. This surely boosts the flexibility of crypto wallets. ERC-4337-based wallets also have special features to perform automated recurring transactions and recover your lost private key. The process is termed “social recovery,” in which users have to tap their friends or family to help restore their wallet after the key is lost. 

 

This Trend Also Touched The Roots Of the Visa

Visa says that Ethereum is perfectly designed for push payments rather than pull payments. On the other hand, smart wallets are more like a programmable push payment system to crypto. 

 

For instance, let us consider that you are playing an online game. Won’t that be annoying if the application asks you to sign a transaction every time you beat a player? In such cases, account abstraction helps you get a program called ‘session key,’ which allows you to sign transactions once in each session. 

 

Ultimately, these smart wallets are still in the budding stage, while the giants like Coinbase and MetaMask are in the top positions. But, the concept of account abstraction will definitely make a viable alternative and emerge a tough competition in the upcoming years.