ERC-4337
- An ERC standard for the Ethereum blockchain.
- The ERC-4337 standard has passed an audit by Open Zeppelin (3-2023).
- From the MilkRoad (7-3-2023):
"ERC-4337 introduces something called Account Abstraction, which allows Ethereum wallets to operate as smart contracts.
Still hazy? Here’s what it enables:
- Recovering lost private keys. There’s a new “social recovery system” where designated users have the ability to restore access to a wallet, should someone lose their private keys
- Securing wallets without a seed phrase. Users can enable 2FA and biometrics (fingerprint or facial scan) to protect their wallets. Sayonara to those 12-word seed phrases
- Carrying out automated payments and setting time-based spending limits (i.e. you can set monthly spending limits on a wallet)
- Sending gasless transactions. Decentralized applications can “sponsor” gas fees (aka cover the costs) to make things cheaper and simpler for their customers
Why does it matter? The upgrade enables a lot of the same features a bank offers, without needing to trust a bank.
By merging crypto wallets with smart contracts, Account Abstraction makes for more secure and efficient transactions, ultimately making crypto more user-friendly.
Plus, it makes some of the previously “impossible” stuff (like wallet recovery, seedless wallets, etc.) possible."
"ERC4337 is not Account Abstraction but an early-stage relayer technology. ERC4337 is an application level design which allows to abstract gas and transaction fee management away from end users via a smart contract. That’s great news, because it opens up the market for “decentralised” relayers, effectively running “bundlers”.
However, until many bundlers are up and running (which still requires dedicated infra), the system remains centralised and fragile. Currently only a few projects offer API services to run bundlers, increasing the centralisation of 4337. Another challenge is the economics behind ERC4337. They assume an open and permission-less market but there is no certainty the incentives from gas fees will be strong enough to ensure the sustainability of the system for users and bundlers."
