Plena Finance Quick Bites

• One of the main problems with cryptocurrency and DeFi is that they are complex and have a tedious process to use. This includes the onboarding process, transaction efficiencies, and security, which discourage people from using crypto.

• Account Abstraction (AA) is a crucial step in addressing these problems. It moves away from traditional Externally Owned Accounts (EOA) to smart contract wallets with flexible verification rules. Instead of making changes to the consensus layer or modifying the core protocol, AA introduces a higher-layer pseudo-transaction. This allows for the implementation of numerous functionalities while greatly enhancing the user experience.

• Plena Finance set to become the top Crypto Super App by adding AA features to their wallet apps. These features include social logins, biometric verification, the ability to pay gas fees with any ERC-20 tokens, and seamless integration with over 150 DApps. In addition, they have envisioned several other functionalities that aim to simplify the cryptocurrency experience for end-users.

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Overview of Account Abstraction

What are Account Abstraction?

• To understand Account Abstraction, we need to know two main account that exist in the Ethereum:

  • Externally Owned Accounts (EOA) - Ethereum accounts that created using wallet software such as MetaMask and are controlled by a pair of cryptographic keys: a public key and a private key. An EOA is considered "active" as it can initiate transactions and cover gas fees for executing operations on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). However, EOAs have limitations and can only perform basic tasks like sending Ether or interacting with contracts.

  • Contract Accounts (CA) - Ethereum accounts deployed as smart contracts and controlled by code instead of a private key. Contract accounts are considered "passive" since they can only send transactions when triggered by a transaction from an externally owned account (EOA). They are unable to pay gas fees but can still be programmed to perform specific tasks based on the code stored at their address.

• Account abstraction is a proposal to improve the management and behavior of Ethereum accounts, making them more flexible. With the implementation of ERC-4337 The goal is to make it easier for people to use web3 wallets and interact with DApps. It simplifies the complicated parts and adds new features to improve the user experience.

The Three Pillars of Abstraction

• As mentioned earlier, implementing AA will introduce new functionalities that were previously not possible with just EOA or CA alone.

  • Signature Abstraction - Users have the option to login and authorize transactions in their accounts using methods other than just private key and seed phrase. Examples of these alternative methods include social logins, biometric authentication and other web3 authentication infrastructure.

  • Nonce Abstraction - Instead of the traditional method of ordering transactions based on a nonce value, which follows a "first-in, first-out" (FIFO) approach and requires confirmation before moving to the next transaction, the AA allows for multiple parallel transactions. To maintain the order and integrity of transactions, transaction batching can also be utilized. This approach not only saves on gas fees but also reduces pending times.

  • Fee Abstraction - AA removes the complexity of gas fee processing. This allows for possibilities like sponsored transactions. Users can pay the gas fee using compatible tokens (i.e.: ERC-20) instead of ETH from transaction relayer. It can even eliminate fees associated with transactions in specific DApps sponsored by the developers.

ERC-4337 Simplified

• ERC-4337 is a specification that aims to use an entry point contract to achieve account abstraction without changing the consensus layer protocol of Ethereum.

• ERC-4337 creates a duplicate of the transaction mempool in a higher-level system.

• UserOperation is a pseudo-transaction object used to execute transactions with contract accounts. Users send UserOperation objects to UserOperation mempool with signatures and other data for verification to show their intent.

• Either miners or bundlers services from third party can package up a set of UserOperation objects into a single “bundle transaction”, which then gets included into an Ethereum block after validation process from Entry Point Contract (EPC).

• EPC is a singleton smart contract responsible for handling transaction verification and execution logic. EPC handles a batch of UserOperation in two phases:

  • Verification Loop - Verifies that each UserOperation is valid by checking it with both the Smart Account and the Paymaster contract.

  • Execution Loop - Executes the transaction’s callData (Data that's passed to the sender for execution.)

• Smart Accounts is an end-user account that verifies the validity of the signature. Additional features such as social recovery, multiple operations, and more can be included.

• There are also other optional smart contracts in EPC:

  • Paymasters which sponsor transactions

  • Aggregators is trusted by contract accounts to automatically validate signatures for multiple smart accounts

AA Implementation in Plena Finance

AA is The Next Big Thing?

• Account abstraction is a concept that aims to enhance the user experience, simplify complex procedures, and tackle inefficiencies that play a crucial role in achieving widespread acceptance and use.

• By implementing account abstraction, we can make crypto easier and more convenient for users, removing unnecessary burdens and streamlining various operations. This way, we can foster a favorable environment for mass adoption and ensure a smoother and more efficient experience for everyone involved.

• The possibilities are endless:

  • Eliminate reliance on seed phrase

  • Enable Transaction limits

  • Multi-party approvals

  • Key rotating, recovery and revocation

  • Trusted sessions

  • Automatic payment

  • Social logins

  • Gasless transaction

  • Gas fees with any tokens

    And more...

    

• Plena Finance Super App has been designed with the user in mind, utilizing Account Abstraction capabilities.

• Some of the features that are already available include:

  • Paying gas fees using any ERC-20 tokens.

  • Logging in and signing in with social media accounts and biometrics.

  • Seamlessly connecting with over 150 DApps.

Epilogue

• Many projects are currently focused on fragmented liquidity and scaling infrastructure. However, the improvement of user-centric solutions has been limited in recent years.

• Account Abstraction (AA) plays a crucial role in addressing these problems. It moves away from traditional Externally Owned Accounts (EOA) towards smart contract wallets that have flexible verification rules. This shift aims to enhance the web2 user experience and make it achievable within the web3 environment.

• Plena has already made significant progress with their Super Apps. It will be fascinating to observe the development of Plena and how its upcoming features will attract both new and experienced users.

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