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Unipass founder: Why is AA wallet the newer paradigm in Web3 Wallet

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Wallet circuit still has great room for improvement. On the one hand, high usage and installation threshold prevent new users of web2 to try new encryption. On the other hand, it is security problem, even plug-in wallet cannot completely block the possibi

原文标题：《 Unipass 知县：为什么 AA 钱包在 Web3 钱包中是更新的范式》

Source: SevenUp DAO

Original author: Zhi Xian, founder of Unipass

A review of the MetaMask Devcon keynote speech

Although MetaMask has received wide attention, it has been criticized for slow product update and poor user experience. However, the depth of understanding of product iteration is much better than that of ordinary users. Based on the huge number of users, MetaMask's product form actually plays a certain role in shaping the current web3 application ecology. Therefore, this goes back to the theme of "original sin". Is MetaMask making wallet in the right direction? What do we need to change in the future?

The MetaMask development team believes that the current wallet circuit still has a lot of room for improvement. On the one hand, the high usage and installation threshold deter the new users of web2 encryption, and on the other hand, the security issue, even the plug-in wallet can not completely prevent the possibility of hackers to exploit the loophole.

In addition, it is difficult for Web2 users to understand web3 products. For example, the safe keeping of private keys is an old topic, but users are still not so sensitive to it. Only when the private key is really lost can they regret it.

So what should the new paradigm for Web3 products look like? Web2 users can enter web3 without understanding the product. If users really understand the product before starting to use it, it will greatly increase the cost of learning for users. MetaMask gives their own thinking, which is rarely done by current web3 products.

To prove that this is mine

It can't be hacked or stolen

I have complete control over, revoke, and restore the account

The product is interacting with my full knowledge

I am free to choose how I interact with the outside world

And the most important thing to make a wallet circuit must be honest, the advantages and disadvantages of the scheme must be able to make users clear, covering your ears and stealing a bell is not responsible for the product and users, so it is introduced today's topic, account abstraction and smart wallet.

MetaMask proposed three very important account abstractions: ERC-4337, which "opens the door to creativity in wallet design," such as "multi-signing and social recovery"; Ip-3074, which can delegate EOA permissions to a contract, allows users to approve transfers, perform operations, and revoke approvals in a single transaction, equivalent to switching from an EOA address to a smart contract address. EIP-5003, the mass version of the 3074.

2. What is a smart wallet

1. The concept

Smart Wallet is essentially a wallet using a smart Contract. Smart Contract Wallet is one of the two wallet forms currently supported by Ethereum, and the other is the EOA (externally owned address) wallet commonly used by the public. EOA wallet is an address on the blockchain controlled by a private key. That is, with the private key, the user can sign a transaction from the address, but the user cannot authorize another key to sign the given address, nor can he write custom logic on it. In contrast, smart wallet can realize arbitrary logic by writing code. I have drawn a hierarchical diagram of a cryptocurrency wallet before. The bottom layer is the key layer, the middle layer is the provider, and the top layer is the wallet. The key is mainly used to manage public and private keys, import and export of keys, and generation of signatures. The middle tier provider is related to which main chain, according to the format of the main chain generated address; The top layer mainly corresponds to the browsing of assets, the collection and distribution of tokens, so a wallet can basically be split into three layers.

Ca wallet was originally translated as internal wallet, more to correspond with EOA external wallet, EOA address cannot carry any assets, highlighting the bookkeeping function, assets are actually in Ca account, CA is called contract account in Chinese. Our common ERC-20 token contract, DeFi service contract, etc., have a similar address to EOA, which is CA.

2. What are the benefits of using a contract as a wallet?

A Ca can be used to manage smart wallet assets. For example, gnosis safe Multi-sign wallet is also a smart wallet, but it is not the essence of the multi-sign wallet. Instead, it uses the logic of the smart wallet to make multi-sign. Contract wallet also has many advantages, its internal logic can be customized, especially flexible, can achieve the traditional wallet can not achieve functions.

For example, when we talk about the contract wallet, the first thing people think about is where is the private key? This is the logic of the EOA wallet, private key and public key. This description is fine in EOA wallet, but like gnosis safe multi-sign wallet, it is actually implemented by a "logic" such as 3/5 multi-sign wallet. Permissions control depends on the five addresses can't get the authorization of three or more, so the asset management contract purse is not controlled by the private key, the mainest is logical, the CA also can not set up any key, but by other logic can decide whether to unlock the CA, such as DeFi borrowing contract, as long as the money will be able to retrieve the pledge assets. Of course, this is not to say that relying on logic alone does not require the public key, just that it is an additional layer of security and operational logic.

3. What is AA-Account Abstr-act?

1. The concept

The account abstraction concept is to change the current situation where most people use EOA, hoping that users will move to SCW (wallet solution with Ca as address, Smart wallet), and remove the ecological dependence on EOA completely.

Many current chain is built-in have relatively perfect account abstract function, public key collection, access control, logic, such as contract actually started from eos various male chain have certain account abstract ability, eos address is a string, it is not a public key, there is a clear internal structure, two public key, One has high-level permissions for owner, and the other is used for execution. However, Ethereum does not actually have the concept of account abstraction, which can be traced back to some discussions in 2015, when Vitalik thought that at least the cryptography algorithm used by Ethereum to verify transactions should be replaceable, and the third party payment gas, signature and so on. However, Ethereum is difficult to "modernize" due to historical reasons. Many things are written dead and fixed. Therefore, if the Ethereum ecology wants to expand the account abstraction, it can only make up in the application layer with the help of smart wallet.

What account abstraction does is to abstract the account layer and key layer. Users can customize the logic inside, such as the mechanical lock (unlocked by physical keys only) and the electronic lock (integrated fingerprint, password, facial features, etc.) in reality, which can bring multi-dimensional scalability after abstraction. The smart wallet is the most promising method to realize the Ethereum account abstraction at present. It does not need to improve from the consensus layer and the bottom layer. ERC-4337 can let the application layer do the account abstraction.

2. What changes can smart wallets bring?

Smart wallet and smart phones have a lot of analogy, smart phones for integration with more advanced skills, such as the capacitance screen, gyroscope, multi-touch, GPS, etc., the ability to upgrade to the construction of the upper application has brought a lot of imaginary space, greatly enhance the user experience, it will also reduce the barriers to entry of the user, Let the elderly, young and children can use smart phones, because the birth of smart phones allows more users to enter the mobile Internet; At the same time, smart phones have great scalability, not limited to communication devices, more scenes are listening to music, video, navigation, games, etc., scalability brings paradigm shift, users are also used to this cognitive shift, "default" we will use smart phones to do these natural scenes.

Smart purse and wallet eoaare perfectly legal contrast, down four advantages are summarized based on smart phones are still applicable, the first is more functional, such as the internal logic of signature, paid the cost of gas, such as bulk trading can be achieved by smart wallet, facilitate everybody understand that cooperate with existing scene, is eoaare perfectly legal wallet does not support batch transaction, The same transaction can only do one thing, but the smart wallet can do bulk transaction, and it can approve and swap one transaction. Therefore, you can approve the amount of money you need to spend every time, and at the same time, the security is guaranteed.

The second point is better use, so that the threshold of users is very low, the backup key can be replaced by social recovery, which can bring new changes, including gas payment, so it is not necessary to buy each chain, but to use the third party's service. This will allow some people who do not have the ability to understand the wallet, do not have the ability to manage the private key, or even do not want to pay, to access web3 through the smart wallet.

For example, the transaction of nft needs to be approved. Without approving, both parties can not actually make a transaction. There is a difficult problem of trust game in the process, but the third party contract can be adopted. The nft is put into the contract account and set up the logic to withdraw it, such as receive payment, etc., and then the transaction can be completed. No third party trust is required. The smart wallet is essentially a contract, and thus itself is scalable. Fourth is a paradigm shift, as smart phone users, before the default status is "offline", current state of the default is "connected", have the smart wallet, many traditional ideas will be overwritten before eoaare perfectly legal, such as the private key public key corresponding to need to pay for the gas, or the need to constantly approve, these scenes can be broken, People get used to new situations and acquiesce.

Here are a few examples of how smart contract wallets can scale:

Gnosis safe uses smart contract wallet architecture to implement multi-sign logic;

Users can send different tokens to multiple addresses at the same time in one online transaction. Users can also approve and swap in one transaction when using uniswap, so as to achieve as much authorization as necessary and avoid security risks caused by excessive authorization.

Users can set different operation permissions for different assets. For example, the operation threshold of PFP is higher than the normal ERC--20 tokens (for example, it needs an admin key managed by the hardware wallet to transfer). In this way, hackers cannot transfer high-value assets even if the key is leaked in the daily use environment. Strike a balance between security and convenience.

Users can sign an offline authorization "whoever gives me 100 ETH can transfer one of my BAYC", which allows them to conduct atomic transactions peer-to-peer with others without having to authorize a third party contract.

Iv. Uni-pass: a trackless, GAS-free, unhosted smart wallet that supports social recovery

1. Email-based social recovery

When we send an email, like in the Middle Ages, you have to have a wax seal, you have to have proof that the message is authentic, and when you send an email, for example, the sender server will sign it, like G-mail, and google will publish a D, K, M public key in its domain name, and you'll sign every email with the private key of that public key, The recipient then verifies that google's D, K, M signature and hash will pass through the receiver. The social recovery process of Uni-pass is the same. It only checks whether the signature and hash of an email D, K, M can pass in the contract, which can prove the authenticity of the email. It can also change the key, weight weight or additional logic in the contract.

That's why social recovery can be done in uni-pass. We verify that users are authorized proactively by sending emails. It is of little significance to only accept the verification code, which is essentially sent by a centralized server. Sending and receiving emails means that users grant different permissions to the server, which can ensure security to a greater extent.

2. Work with MetaMask to lower the user barrier

We currently work with a wide range of customers, including nft platforms, game companies, social platforms or organizations that want to do some incentive through FT. All of them can improve user experience, improve conversion rate and reduce cost through our smart wallet.

Said MetaMask back, their current does not lie flat, but their goal to strive toward ecological picture, similar to a small program, plug-in for users don't need so many wallets and plug-in installation can be integrated to function, and the snap can't rely on with the official development, only through ecological building developers, MetaMask provides traffic, developers provide technology, and a win-win situation.

In fact, uni-pass is the same idea. They will not make the abstract concept of account by themselves. We have cooperated with MetaMask and currently have delivered the second version of Demo. We do the contract layer, and they do the EOA layer. The contract wallet and EOA wallet are not competitive, but prefer to cooperate and coexist. For example, we can embed the EOA wallet in the EOA wallet. In this case, we can retain users through the email we provide, and existing users can also use the smart wallet function, using the current address to control the smart wallet, which makes the process more smooth.

# Q& audience; A:

Q: Based on the current logic of Ethereum, is it certain that the Ca wallet will complete the logical trigger corresponding to the EOA address? Do you need Layer2 for smart wallet Gas fees?

A: in fact this is true, but still some narrow, the most important thing is how to control the purse, we can verify the signature of way, you can also use other logic, such as DeFi borrowing contract execution of logic, is A premise, the user is finished the use of funds and reimbursement, will according to the contract to complete the transfer of funds. It can be seen that this process does not verify the signature, and the contract layer does not verify the signature, but according to the user's behavior and logic, but the consensus layer will verify the signature.

Consensus transaction processing layer and contracts are will produce the cost of Gas, the current we meet most of customers are also docking is not the main chain of the eth, but layer2 or other high-performance chain project, smart wallet can greatly reduce the cost, actually especially batch processing both in theory and in practice to reduce the cost, At the same time, fixed fees have been greatly reduced.

Q: Many Dapps currently do not support Ca wallets, so from the perspective of scenario development, how can smart wallets break the deadlock?

A: The incompatibility is mainly DeFi machine gun pool and local dog coin, so the project side adopts a one-size-fits-all approach to prevent being pulled up. The second incompatibility is the scenario that requires signature verification. If you use smart wallet, you need to implement EIP-721, although there is a threshold, it can be achieved. opensea will be able to accommodate this aspect and enable listing transactions.

In fact, the customers we are facing, whether for gaming or consumption, have no such restrictions, and there is no reason to restrict the use of smart wallet, which is not in conflict with their goals. In the medium term, the compatibility problem can be solved, because smart wallet itself is the pain point of compatibility.

Q: Can the synthesis of NFT and issuance of SBT smart wallet be realized?

A: This scenario can be realized without wallet support, as long as there is signature authorization. This logic can also be put into smart wallet, similar to putting a small app inserted into the wallet, so that the complex interaction of traditional wallet is not needed, and the whole process is more convenient and efficient.

Q: From the perspective of To B, what are the main directions of customer needs? Is the degree of customization high?

A: It is mainly based on the project situation. If it is to understand the history of encryption development, some projects attach great importance to customer security needs; For customers with large volume and strong funds, starting from the beginning to do hosting plan is also to make sense, but also to give users a good experience, if you can accept the unmanaged plan, and want to significantly reduce the threshold of use, find us is completely can do.

Customization is actually to collect common needs from customers. If we judge that most customers need solutions at this level, we will do it. For example, we did not have native requirements for the SDK of the project we received at the beginning, but later the requirements became very common, and everyone hoped to embed SDK into their own apps. Then we started to work on this scheme, and we introduced stss when we made SDK. Later, we thought that many games of our customers were made with unity, and it might be more suitable for us to directly use engine level SDK, that is, we will constantly adjust customized services. In addition, the flexibility provided by our SDK is sufficient. Can meet the needs of customization.