Account Abstraction EIP-3074 Sparks Debate in the Ethereum Community, Vitalik Proposes New Improvement Scheme EIP-7702
Recently, there has been a lot of debate within the Ethereum community regarding the proposed account abstraction upgrade, EIP-3074, which will be included in the future Pectra upgrade. Opponents, including Vitalik, have expressed concerns about its compatibility with future developments. Therefore, yesterday Vitalik proposed a new solution – EIP-7702.
Table of Contents
Background: Account Abstraction
Account Abstraction: Enhancing the User Experience of Blockchain
ERC-4337 Seen as the Endgame but Has a Long Development Cycle
The Ups and Downs of EIP-3074
Controversies Surrounding EIP-3074
Points of Contention for EIP-3074
Vitalik Proposes EIP-7702 as an Alternative to EIP-3074
Will Ethereum’s Future Development Incorporate EIP-7702?
Account Abstraction (AA) is Ethereum’s direction for improving the user experience in blockchain interactions. Account abstraction refers to optimizing the way users interact with the blockchain, making operations easier and more practical, with the goal of achieving widespread adoption.
How exactly does account abstraction enhance the user experience? For example:
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Batch Transactions:
Allowing users to perform multiple operations in a single atomic transaction. For example, on a decentralized exchange, users can simultaneously approve and trade.
Sponsored Transactions:
Third-party accounts can pay transaction fees on behalf of the sender account, which can be used for subsidizing users in projects.
Permission Management:
Users can sign subkeys and grant specific permissions. For example, users can grant permission to use a particular ERC-20 token without including the permission to use ETH, or they can set a daily spending limit or limit interactions to specific applications.
Recommended Reading:
Intent-Centric Design: VC NGC Summarizes Industry Trends
Reason for recommendation: Account abstraction is the first step towards intent-centric design. This article explains the implications and importance of intent-centric design and account abstraction, provides concrete methods for integrating existing technologies with blockchain, and presents an overview of the technical introductions and development status of mainstream projects in the industry. It is recommended for readers who are unfamiliar with this field.
As Ethereum addresses important issues such as network security and decentralization, proposals for improving the user experience have gained attention recently. Key proposals include EIP-2938, EIP-3074, and EIP-4337.
EIP-4337 introduces the concept of User Operations, allowing smart contract wallets to customize transaction functions, such as sponsored transactions or batch transactions.
User Operations will enter the alt mempool, a new memory pool created by EIP-4337, which separates general transactions from User Operations.
Architecture of EIP-4337
(Source)
However, to implement ERC-4337 and achieve widespread adoption, significant effort is still required, including infrastructure design and manual wallet updates.
EIP-3074 is expected to introduce two new opcodes: AUTH and AUTHCALL, allowing externally owned accounts (EOAs) to authorize contracts (invokers) to call and interact with other external contracts on their behalf. In other words, it enables EOAs to have smart contract capabilities.
Recommended Reading:
What is Ethereum’s upcoming EIP-3074? How does it achieve account abstraction?
Reason for recommendation: This article introduces the basic operation principles of EIP-3074 and explains the differences from EIP-4337, providing a better understanding of the potential risks behind the principles.
Although EIP-3074 was proposed three years ago, the subsequent appearance of EIP-4337 as the “ultimate” solution caused it to fade from the community’s view.
Recently, as the importance of user experience has increased and competition from other public chains has intensified, there is a belief within the Ethereum community that EIP-3074 should be implemented first, even if EIP-4337 is the “ultimate” solution.
(What is chain abstraction? A more comprehensive enhancement of the user experience than account abstraction)
EIP-3074 allows externally owned accounts (EOAs) to function like smart contract wallets without the need for additional contract deployment or manual upgrades by users. Therefore, the Ethereum community plans to include it in the next hard fork upgrade, Pectra.
Although EIP-3074 has been scheduled for the Pectra upgrade, it has generated considerable controversy, with even Vitalik publicly opposing it.
Vitalik pointed out the future update compatibility issues of EIP-3074:
The two opcodes, AUTH and AUTHCALL, introduced by EIP-3074 are unnecessary in Vitalik’s view of the endgame account abstraction proposal, EIP-4337.
The development of the EIP-3074 caller contract ecosystem may diverge from the smart contract wallet ecosystem, resulting in technological fragmentation.
Additionally, community member Yoav Weiss pointed out that EIP-3074 requires complete trust in invokers, increasing trust risks, and consequently delaying the inclusion of the Inclusion Lists mechanism to combat censorship.
Vitalik believes that EIP-3074 can be seen as an extension of EOAs rather than a necessity. If it has a negative impact on Ethereum’s future development, it should be avoided.
Supporters of EIP-3074 argue that those who postpone or delete EIP-3074 often believe that Ethereum’s user experience is currently acceptable. If Ethereum cannot meaningfully improve its user experience in the next Pectra upgrade, it may lag behind competitors.
The biggest controversy surrounding EIP-3074 is whether EIP-4337 is Ethereum’s best endgame solution. If the answer is yes, then EIP-3074 should be opposed. If the answer is no, then it should be supported.
However, such arguments are too narrow, and they cannot resolve the community’s disputes. Vitalik understands this and has not only engaged in verbal arguments but also implemented a new solution, which allows the debate on EIP-3074 to continue.
The design of EIP-7702 aims to replace the two opcodes, AUTH and AUTHCALL, required by EIP-3074, by calling EOAs:
AUTH will be replaced by a call to verify, setting authorized[msg.sender, …].
AUTHCALL will be replaced by a call to execute, verifying authorized[msg.sender, …] and executing.
According to the proposal, these two minor changes will avoid the potential negative impact of EIP-3074 on future protocol updates.
The goal of EIP-7702 is to achieve all the use cases of EIP-3074 without the two opcodes that may cause problems.
Now, there is a third proposal, EIP-7702, which goes beyond simply supporting or opposing EIP-3074. If it can indeed solve both the need for a fast and effective user experience solution for Ethereum and not hinder the development of EIP-4337 and other protocols, it may become a consensus direction in the community.
The proposal is currently under discussion, and we can look forward to the latest progress at the next Ethereum ACDE meeting.
Nevertheless, the Ethereum community is undoubtedly striving to progress in the best possible way.
