Non-technical personnel’s blockchain account abstraction (AA) study notes

Non-tech personnel's blockchain AA study notes

Author: AmberBella.eth, Web3 Evangelist Source: X (original Twitter) @0xAmberBella

I’ve heard a saying, “accounts are the final piece of the puzzle for large-scale blockchain applications.” Whether this saying is accurate, let’s leave it for debate, but account abstraction (AA) is indeed an interesting topic.

As is well known, I have no technical background, so I consulted @nake13 for a while and then wrote this study note from a non-technical perspective, extracting four parts that I think are relatively important. On the one hand, this is part of my use of the Feynman learning method, and on the other hand, I hope it will be helpful for friends like me who have no technical background to understand blockchain accounts (AA), wallets, and account abstraction~ (I have double-checked the accuracy of my understanding).

1. Origin

• Interpreting the technical and security factors behind the massive Gas consumption of the Binance Wallet aggregation
• Zero-knowledge proofs from the perspective of non-technical personnel How did it become the third major technological innovation in the history of blockchain development?
• The Third Major Technological Innovation in the History of Blockchain Development – Application of Zero-Knowledge Proof Technology

– Addressing the problem of contract accounts (CA) lacking agency.

– Previously, contract accounts could not initiate transfers. This problem arose because the Ethereum protocol logically restricted the agency of contract accounts, which was a design flaw that Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik, did not consider initially.

– Following the principle of not modifying the underlying protocol, account abstraction (AA) became one of the methods to solve this problem, and it currently appears to be one of the most feasible solutions.

How to understand it?

It can be understood as a programmable wallet, or it can be understood as unlocking contract accounts that were previously fixed in the protocol through AA, making them modular (becoming programmable smart contracts).

2. Understanding the relationship between EOA, AA, and EOA

Current wallets are mainly divided into External Owned Accounts (EOA) and contract accounts (CA).

– External Owned Account (EOA): The private key is not something at the Ethereum protocol’s underlying contract layer.

– Relationship with External Owned Account (EOA): Account abstraction (AA) turns the wallet into a smart contract, which can include the logic of external owned accounts (EOA).

3. Current issues with AA

– Although the EIP-4337 proposal (i.e., AA standard) has improved the usability of AA, there are still issues with inconsistent standards and incompatibility, requiring several years to establish consensus.

– Gas fees are high because processing smart contracts requires more computational power.

– Bundle services can solve some of the issues with high gas fees, but they may also raise audit concerns (as bundle services are relatively fewer in number compared to miners, they are easily targeted, potentially involving risks such as personal safety).

– The commercialization model is still uncertain, possible paths include gas fee sponsorship, providing advanced services, and transaction fees.

4. Logic of blockchain wallets and understanding of private keys

The logic of wallets is based on cryptography, and private keys are just one way of verification and signing. Retail users generally use External Owned Accounts (EOA), which are commonly known as wallets, and there are many encryption methods that do not require the use of External Owned Account (EOA) private key mode.

I hope this helps you understand the concept of Account Abstraction (AA)!

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!