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The smart contract wallet UniPass and hardware wallet Keystone have merged to form Account Labs, focusing on the next generation Web3 account abstraction solution.

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Account Labs plans to release the third generation of Keystone hardware wallet in early next year, and the team will also further upgrade the UniPass product architecture in the next three months to accelerate the realization and implementation of account

The smart contract wallet solution developer UniPass and hardware wallet developer Keystone announced the official merger to form "Account Labs". The two teams will focus on the account abstraction field and jointly develop a globally leading Web3 account abstraction solution, reducing the usage threshold of Web3 products and realizing the long-term vision of introducing billions of users into the Web3 world.

The newly established Account Labs will leverage the expertise and experience of the Keystone and UniPass teams in cryptography research, software engineering, product design, and security protection to explore synergies in the field of account abstraction, explore technological innovation, and develop a new generation of Web3 account abstraction solutions, making it easier for more people to own and manage their decentralized accounts and promote the implementation of blockchain technology on a large scale.

The concept of account abstraction is an important concept in the blockchain industry. It was first proposed by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, in 2015 to address the usability and security issues of decentralized accounts. It is the core of reducing the adoption threshold of blockchain products. The merged Account Labs will be the only company in the industry that stands at the intersection of usability and security.

· UniPass has been exploring decentralized account management at the cryptographic level for many years and has a mature technical solution.

· In some abstract account scenarios, Keystone's hardware wallet service will become an important security guarantee. At the same time, the new account unlocking mode brought by account abstraction will create new possibilities for the development of hardware wallets.

Account Labs states that the merged company will retain the business brands and user bases of Keystone and UniPass, and existing users of Keystone and UniPass will not be affected by the merger.

Account Labs' CEO is Liu Lixin, the founder of Keystone, who will be responsible for the company's external affairs, including business development, growth strategy, and financing plans. The COO is Zhi Xian, the founder of UniPass, who will be responsible for the company's internal affairs, including product research and development, team building, and operations management.

"I am very excited to be able to work with old friends like the magistrate to quickly expand Account Labs in the direction of account abstraction," said Liu Lixin, co-founder and CEO of Account Labs. "The revolution of Web3 account abstraction is coming, and we need to work together to promote rapid change, allowing more ordinary users to easily enter the Web3 world and have a secure, reliable, and silky-smooth decentralized account. We open our arms and work with more partners to promote the development of the Web3 account field."

Account Labs co-founder and COO added: "I am delighted to join forces with Lixincun and Keystone to lead the technological trend and provide the most advanced technical support for Web3 account abstraction. This is a very innovative step for us and the entire industry. The merged team will combine their strengths in the field of blockchain hardware wallets and smart contract wallets to provide users with the best Web3 account security solutions."

UniPass team has been deeply involved in the field of account abstraction for many years, with solid technical research and development capabilities, and has always been committed to providing the simplest and most secure decentralized account management solutions for Web3 users. They use advanced cryptographic technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs and DKIM protocols to create a complete decentralized account system. This technology solution has been recognized and adopted by multiple projects, effectively reducing the threshold for Web3 users and providing strong support for these projects to stand out in the next bull market.

Keystone team is a team with rich experience and profound technical accumulation in the field of account security, and has been committed to providing users with the safest and most convenient private key management solutions. The team not only participated in the formulation of the multi-signature security standard BIP-129 in the Bitcoin community, but also was the first hardware wallet manufacturer to combine large screens and QR code technology, bringing a new interactive experience to Web3 users. They have also established official partnerships with many well-known software wallets such as MetaMask and Keplr, allowing users to easily combine hardware wallets with software wallets to achieve a higher level of account security.

Account Labs has stated that this merger will enable both teams to have greater imagination in exploring account abstraction implementation. For example, account abstraction provides account with permission control capabilities, allowing users to freely set signature permissions for different valuable assets according to their needs. In the visible future, Account Labs is expected to delegate higher signature permissions to hardware wallets, ensuring both account usability and maximizing security.

"In the current environment where incidents of user loss of encrypted assets are frequent, the Web3 world urgently needs a comprehensive technical solution to restore market confidence. At the same time, the entire encryption industry needs to attract more fresh talent to prepare for the next bull market. " said Liu Lixin, co-founder and CEO of Account Labs, "Account Labs will take on this role to safeguard Web3 account security, and we will also do our best to promote the widespread application of account abstraction to help more people enter the world of Web3."

Account Labs plans to release the third generation of Keystone hardware wallet in early next year. Meanwhile, the team will further upgrade the UniPass product architecture in the next three months to accelerate the realization and implementation of account abstraction capabilities. At that time, more and more users will benefit from the convenience brought by the synergy between Account Labs software and hardware products, truly achieving low-risk and low-cost self-control of encrypted assets for users.

This merger has also received strong support from the original investors of Keystone and UniPass, namely Amber Group, Antalpha Ventures, Atom Capital, BAI Capital, BODL Ventures, DWEB3 Capital, Folius Ventures, Galxe, HashGlobal, HashKey Capital, Jerry Huang, Mable Jiang, Mask Network, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, NGC Ventures, Permanent Ventures, Qiming Ventures, SNZ Holding, Xinjun Liang, and Youbi Capital (in alphabetical order).

About Keystone

Keystone hardware wallet is a hardware wallet that uses QR code for data transmission and can achieve "never touch the internet" for mnemonic words and private keys. In April 2022, it became the first hardware wallet to support MetaMask Mobile. Currently, it has been integrated with software wallets such as MetaMask, Rabby Wallet, Keplr Wallet, BitKeep, etc. on all platforms, and can support more than 1,000 digital currencies on various EVM chains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, Polkadot, Cosmos, Near, Aptos, etc.

Keystone hardware wallet provides a very portable and open-source solution for offline storage of private keys with its built-in security chip. At the same time, the product solves the security issue of blind signing that many users have been concerned about by integrating a 4-inch screen. From the perspective of protecting digital assets, Keystone hardware wallet truly achieves a balance between security and portability through integration with other software wallets.

About UniPass

UniPass is a low-threshold, non-custodial smart contract wallet solution that provides a seedless, gasless user experience.

UniPass allows users to register for a non-custodial smart contract wallet without the need to manage mnemonic phrases, using Gmail or Email. Additionally, based on our on-chain email social recovery solution, users can easily regain control of their wallet in case of loss or account compromise.

UniPass provides a series of SDKs including Popup, Flutter, Unity, and Unreal to help applications quickly onboard a massive number of Web2 users into the Web3 world.