Account Abstraction

Account abstraction with ERC-4337

What is ERC-4337?

ERC-4337 is the Ethereum standard that enables account abstraction on the protocol, without changing any consensus layers. Proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and other developers in 2021, it aims to establish account abstraction. In March 2023, ERC-4337 was deployed to the Ethereum mainnet, enabling transactions and contract creation in a single contract account.

What is Account Abstraction?

Account abstraction is a transformative paradigm in blockchain systems where smart contracts solely possess assets, instead of externally-owned accounts (EOAs). Currently, Ethereum operates with two types of accounts: Contract Accounts and EOAs, with the latter being the typical user accounts that must initiate and fund any on-chain activity.

Traditionally, control over an EOA is asserted through its private key, which when used, provides a signature verifying ownership and authorization of the action on the blockchain. However, account abstraction shifts this by decoupling account control from its specific private key, enabling smart contracts to oversee an account. Although certain operations might still demand private key signatures, the associated smart contract can govern other actions based on set logic.

This innovation paves the way for developers to craft intricate decentralized applications, allowing smart contracts to securely and trustlessly collaborate with other contracts, bypassing central mediation. Account abstraction also introduces new functions, such as enabling a smart contract to sponsor transaction fees for a user or combine multiple transactions to minimize overall costs.

How does Parallel use Account Abstraction?

  • Batch transactions

    Parallel packs your multiple transactions into one transaction, saving gas, saving your operation time, and better user experience.

  • Flexible gas payments

    You can choose any token to pay for gas, ETH, USDC, etc.

  • Multi-account strategies

    You can open a number of accounts in Parallel and have each account as a different, isolated position. Use different accounts for security, clarity, and prevent any potential overlap or confusion.

  • Meta user interface

    Parallel will gradually integrate top DeFi apps in a single, intuitive dashboard.

  • Social recovery and 2FA

  • No need for Web3 wallet logins

Is Account Abstraction Safe?

Yes! Account abstraction is a standard highly recommended by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. Parallel accounts use the standard ERC-4337 implementation (see audit) and are completely controlled by a user’s EOA address. Only the owner can control this wallet, so as long as the EOA wallet is safe, the Parallel account is safe.

As a protocol, we’ve always put security at the forefront of everything we do. In addition to these security policies, we have multiple audits from top security firms, real-time continuous monitoring, timelock implementation, tokenized NFT and escrow, and more. Parallel will be one of the most secure protocols in the industry as we aim to bring the next billion people into Web3.

In addition to the existing security described above, we are also planning to provide Parallel with more secure protection measures:

  • Social recovery: You can set your email address, backup account, etc. When your EOA (such as MetaMask) address private key is leaked, you can regain control of Parallel Account through email or backup account to avoid a loss of assets in Parallel Account.

  • 2FA: You can set up 2FA to further strengthen the security of Parallel Account.

Last updated