Thread by @zksync

Account abstraction is a major leap forward for the Ethereum community. zkSync Era builds upon the vision of EIP-4337 by implementing AA at the protocol level. Let’s explore the differences between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era’s native account abstraction. #scalingthemission

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Accounts Limitations

End users interact with Ethereum through Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs), and those have limitations:

• Coupled with a signer
• Verification logic is hardcoded in the EVM
• No way to recover a lost account

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What is Account Abstraction (AA)?

AA allows for the development of smart contract accounts, enabling smoother onboarding, improved UX, and greater security due to full flexibility when developing any type of logic.

AA merges web2 flexibility with web3 self-sovereignty.

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What can you do with AA?

Smart Contract Accounts (CAs) will enable features like:

• Using different authentication methods, like biometrics
• Replacing seed phrases with social recovery

(cont'd 👇)

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(features cont'd)

• Paying gas in ERC20s with Paymasters
• Integrating allowlists and scam blocklists
• Scheduling one-time & recurring txs
• Creating infinite account customizations

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With EIP-4337 live on Ethereum mainnet, CAs send txs called UserOperations to a separate mempool where bundlers package and send them to the EntryPoint contract to be executed.

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To avoid a hardfork, however, EIP-4337 had to make some compromises:

• Separate tx flow for EOAs and CAs
• Separate mempool
• Separate validator/bundler roles
• EOAs can’t use Paymasters

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We took inspiration from EIP-4337, but improved on it by integrating AA at the protocol level.

This means:

• A single tx flow, mempool, and validator/bundler role
• EOAs can also use Paymasters

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The first real-world use of native AA on zkSync Era Mainnet took place at @ethereumdenver, where thousands of attendees claimed and spent over 26k BUIDLBux tokens without paying any gas (by leveraging Paymasters).

https://twitter.com/zksync/status/1631488267731324930

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For those who participated in the food truck experience and experienced AA at ETHDenver, your transactions were also used as an additional entropy source for our KZG Ceremony contribution. Another step towards making Ethereum more scalable.

ceremony.ethereum.org

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If you’re interested in learning more about AA, reference these resources:

• AA docs: era.zksync.io/docs/dev/devel…
• AA tutorial: era.zksync.io/docs/dev/tutor…
• AA workshop:

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