Recently, the launch of the AA smart contract wallet on OKX seems to have become a hot topic in the developer community. As a latecomer in the AA field, the OKX Web3 team completed the development of AA accounts in just six months. This week, the official also open-sourced the smart contract code of the wallet. We can't help but wonder how they did it and what the past, present, and future of AA accounts look like in their eyes.

Q: In your opinion, what is the value of AA accounts for Web3?

OKX: Technically, we can build a low-threshold and programmable Web3 account system through AA. From an industry perspective, AA accounts are likely to overturn the existing interaction methods. In the long run, the greatest value of AA is to make Web3 as user-friendly as Web2 and prepare for the arrival of billions of new users.

Although the current stock users in the market have low demand for using AA, incremental users are the true new world of Web3. Through the paymaster role design of AA, any project can deploy paymaster for its users and pay gas fees, allowing its users to use their web3 products without gas fees, which is more in line with the habits of Web2 products. You can understand paymaster as the customer acquisition cost of the project party. In the future, we will focus on designing the open interface of paymaster and open it to B-side project parties, so that they can provide users with convenient and easy-to-use products like Web2, attracting more users to use them.

OKX: Paypal has a very good foundation in brand influence, user scale, and compliance. The official launch of the Paypal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the industry. On the one hand, PYUSD may open the door to the crypto world for Paypal's 430 million users. On the other hand, it may also promote other giants to enter the digital asset field, thereby promoting the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Under such development trends, the improvement of industry infrastructure and ecological construction is particularly important. OKX Web3 has always been concerned about how encryption can better link the real world, and has done a lot of research. For example, in Southeast Asia, there are already people who hope to use cryptocurrency for consumption, but due to compliance and operational barriers, their needs cannot be well addressed for the time being. The first priority of the AA account is certainly to solve the problem of operational barriers, and secondly, to call on builders to build the Web3 ecosystem together to solve the different needs of users around the world.

Although the AA ecosystem is still in its early stages of development and there is much to be done in the future, opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. A typical example is NVIDIA, who began researching parallel computing with GPUs 10 years ago. In the midst of the current hype surrounding Bitcoin and AI, they have become the big winners who have seized the opportunities of the times. At this moment, they are reminding everyone that as builders of a new industry, we must have a far-sighted, more open, and more innovative spirit in order to become beneficiaries who adhere to long-term values.

Q: What would you say to pique the interest of Web2 enthusiasts about AA in one sentence?

OKX: Good question. In summary, the essence of Web3 is to enable user creation and ownership, while the essence of AA is to make user creation and ownership more accessible and simpler.

二、Reviewing the Landing Process of AA Smart Contract Wallet

Q: AA has been around for many years, why did OKX Web3 choose to enter now?

OKX: As we all know, there were many early technological visions in our industry, including the Mpc non-private key wallet previously launched by OKX Web3 wallet, etc. With the development and progress of the industry, these technological concepts have been gradually implemented. It took less than half a year from the project initiation to the launch of the OKX AA smart contract wallet, and the team spent a lot of time doing research, in-depth community learning and communication, as well as accumulating technical experience before that.

Q: From project initiation to launch, how many stages did you go through in your understanding of AA?

OKX: Roughly divided into two stages, the first stage is to know and think about how to promote the establishment of standards, and the second stage is to launch products, popularize the 4337 standard, call on the industry to improve this standard together, and promote the construction of the AA ecosystem.

OKX Web3 team has been paying attention to smart contract wallets for a long time, but at that time there was no unified industry standard for how to do smart contract wallets. Everyone only had a general direction, so early projects like Argent almost relied on their own exploration. Even today, the popularity of AA is still in its early stages, and some similar products have not followed the ERC-4337 standard. There may be more EIP proposals in the future. What OKX Web3 needs to do is to work with the core developer community to combine new standards to optimize the industry standard of ERC-4337, promote the popularity and application of AA together, and encourage everyone to innovate better and more attractive application scenarios under such standards.

Q: What challenges did you encounter from project initiation to launch?

OKX: The difficulty before the product goes online is to gather industry consensus. The current challenge is how to push more people to accept this standard, how to make more dapps accept this standard, and how to make it compatible with this standard. How to build this kind of connection ability together with the industry? The product launch of AA only shows that 50% has been achieved. Only by calling on everyone to build together can the matter be truly accomplished. Our team is still immersed in the community and the front line of the industry every day, maintaining strong communication and association with users and the community.

Q: What is the biggest difference between you and the early builders of AA accounts?

OKX: Both pioneers and followers are contributing to the industry, and everyone is an indispensable part of the industry. The only difference is that they excel in different areas. The early builders are worthy of respect and learning, and their exploration in the gasless and keyless fields provides great reference significance to the industry. OKX is better at solving user problems, as this has always been our foundation.

Our original intention is simple, which is to reduce the threshold for users to enter the Web3 world as much as possible. Currently, OKX AA smart contract wallet is one of the most comprehensive multi-chain AA wallets on the market.

OKX AA smart contract wallet has achieved a contract system of 4337 in technology, including roles such as bundler and paymaster, and supports 7 mainstream public chains. Users can create AA wallets, manage assets and call contracts with AA wallets. We have also created basic paymaster tools that support users to pay gas fees with USDT and USDC. In terms of ecology, we have connected the product lines inside Web3 wallets. Users can use AA to swap on dex with one click, invest in DeFi with one click, and link and use other third-party Dapps in discover. In addition, we currently have a free paymaster that can reduce gas fees for users every day, allowing users to experience AA's functions for free to a certain extent.

Additionally, our ability to aggregate industry builders is quite strong because we already have a mature infrastructure. As long as there are new hotspots or demands on the user side, we can immediately collaborate with relevant project parties to build an ecosystem and become the most convenient entry tool for users at the fastest speed, providing convenience.

Q: What is the development plan for OKX AA wallet?

OKX: On the basis of basic technology development, we have prepared to launch various functions in multiple stages, such as multi-signature, social recovery, wallet proxy mode, etc., targeting different users and scenarios. In terms of product innovation, we can design some products that are more like Web2 based on the gasless function of AA, such as WeChat red envelopes. We can also design some more convenient and professional tools based on the multicall function of AA, such as one-click swap, one-click mining, etc., as well as professional tools such as one-click copy trading and one-click portfolio adjustment.

Currently, the code for the AA smart contract wallet has been open-sourced. In the future, we will open-source the code for more innovative products and contribute to the industry. In the long run, OKX Web3 aims to be the WAAS (Wallet as a Service) of Web3 and become the Google of the Web3 world.

Three, unleashing more creativity with Web3

Q: From the Bitcoin ecosystem construction in April to the infrastructure construction of AA accounts today, it seems that the speed, efficiency, and cognition of OKX Web3 team have been at the forefront of industry development this year. What is the driving force behind your efforts?

OKX: Our core driving force is to have a positive outlook on the future of Web3. However, having a positive outlook alone is not enough. The culture of builders has always been the underlying support for the development of Web3. The OKX Web3 team hopes that our participation can increase the diversity and openness of the builder community, allowing Web3 to unleash greater creativity and influence. This is our original intention.

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