Just as from the button phone to the touch phone, the first-generation EOA wallet is extending towards a more user-friendly second-generation wallet—MPC wallet and AA wallet.
Web3 technology company OKX, based on the technical accumulation of the first-generation EOA wallet, has successively laid out the MPC non-private key wallet and the AA smart contract wallet to adapt to the different needs and large-scale growth of Web3 users.
As the "star player" of Web3 wallets, the MPC wallet and AA wallet are often compared, even Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (V God) has joined the discussion. Vitalik believes that the EOA wallet based on MPC has a fundamental flaw due to the inability to revoke the key, and the smart contract wallet is the only choice for the future of Web3.
Vitalik's remarks once pushed the dispute between the MPC and AA wallets to a climax, sparking discussions among many industry OGs, and even sparking a "campaign to clear MPC's name" in the Chinese community. So, which one is the future of Web3, the MPC wallet or the AA wallet?
MPC wallet takes non-private key and non-mnemonic to the end
The default verification method of Ethereum is that users must sign transactions with a private key to ensure the authenticity and legality of the transactions, so the first-generation EOA wallet cannot bypass the issue of the private key in any way.
The birth of the MPC wallet cleverly solves the private key problem.
In simple terms, the MPC wallet divides a private key into multiple pieces and gives them to multiple parties based on MPC technology, and then combines multiple pieces into a complete private key when signing. This process can protect the privacy of each party and ensure that no party can control the complete private key. When a user of the MPC wallet loses a single piece, the wallet's assets can still be secured, and the pieces can be updated without changing the private key, completing the recovery. Through the MPC wallet, users can use a Web3 wallet without the need to keep the private key.
Unlike a multi-signature wallet, although MPC also achieves multi-signature functionality, the approaches of the two are different. MPC is a off-chain solution, while the multi-signature wallet is built on smart contracts, which is more resource-efficient.
The MPC wallet does not have an industry standard yet, and its threshold signature scheme and storage scheme are not unified. In other words, it is possible to divide a private key into 2 or 3 pieces, and it is also possible to require the participation of all 3 pieces or at least 2 pieces in the signature, which is very flexible.
The OKX MPC non-private key wallet is a typical MPC wallet, which generates 3 private key fragments from the original complete private key, and stores them separately. The OKX server generates private key fragment 1, the user's device generates private key fragment 2 and private key fragment 3, with private key fragment 2 encrypted and stored on the user's device, and private key fragment 3 encrypted and backed up to iCloud or Google Drive. When signing, any 2 private key fragments can be used to complete the signature, for example, private key fragment 1 + private key fragment 2, and private key fragment 3 is used for backup. This process does not generate a complete private key.
By encrypting private key fragment 3 and backing it up to the cloud, even if a user loses their phone and the private key fragment is lost or stolen, the OKX MPC non-private key wallet can not only help the user to securely and conveniently restore access to the wallet anytime and anywhere, but also through the execution of the private key fragment refresh function, replace each original private key fragment with a new one, making the lost or stolen fragment equivalent to being "suspended," greatly reducing the cost of private key recovery.
In addition, the OKX MPC non-private key wallet also pioneered the emergency export function. In case of an emergency, users can also export the private key and withdraw assets using the 2 private key fragments they fully control, maximizing the security of user assets.
The MPC wallet eliminates single point of failure, allowing users to use Web3 wallets safely and conveniently without the need to keep the private key, enjoying a smoother experience, thereby helping Web2 users to enter the Web3 world with lower barriers. However, it is important to note that the shard storage scheme of the MPC wallet depends on the custodian not acting maliciously.
AA smart contract wallet simplifies complexity and opens up possibilities
The current first-generation EOA wallet is cumbersome to operate and limited in functionality, still lagging behind the smooth experience of Web2 products.
The AA smart contract wallet is working to bridge this experience gap.
Simply put, the AA smart contract wallet combines the advantages of the existing Ethereum account CA and EOA account, with the programmability of CA and the ability to break free from the dependence on EOA to initiate transactions, meaning the account of the AA smart contract wallet is a smart contract, allowing its functionality to be "customized" according to needs, simplifying the first-generation EOA and achieving the flexibility and upgradability of the wallet, expanding its functionality.
Taking the OKX AA smart contract wallet as an example, the initial functionality supports users to create AA wallets on 7 popular public chains including Ethereum, OKTC, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, and can directly pay Gas with stablecoins USDT/USDC, complete multi-step interactions on-chain DEX, DeFi, and other functions with one click, further improving the convenience of wallet usage. In addition, the current OKX AA wallet also open sources the smart contract code, further enhancing its security and transparency.
Moreover, in the future, the OKX AA smart contract wallet will also support social recovery, provide wallet mini-program components, implement advanced on-chain financial strategies such as social payment of Gas by friends and family, multi-signature function, on-chain copy trading, and combinable operations, greatly improving the user experience and opening up possibilities for wallet development. Of course, the AA wallet is not without its flaws, such as high Gas fees and compatibility issues with non-EVM chains.
The social recovery function of the AA smart contract wallet fundamentally solves the same problem as the MPC non-private key wallet—losing the private key is equivalent to losing the wallet assets. With the social recovery function, users can regain access to their accounts, minimizing the impact of losing the private key, which is one of the reasons why the two are often compared.
However, compared to the MPC non-private key wallet, the AA wallet can achieve more than just solving the "loss of private key" scenario.
MPC and AA wallets, who is the future of Web3
As a more user-friendly second-generation wallet, which one is the future of Web3, the MPC wallet or the AA wallet?
From the perspective of implementation, MPC is an off-chain solution, while the AA smart contract wallet is an on-chain solution. The MPC wallet does not involve changes to the Ethereum consensus layer or contract layer, making it more feasible in the short term. The AA wallet depends on the development of Ethereum upgrades and the EIP-4337 proposal, which will take longer in terms of time and cost, but the emergence of Layer2 is accelerating the development of the AA wallet.
From the application perspective, the core value of MPC solves the single point of failure problem and achieves non-private key, but the essence is still limited to the functionality that an EOA wallet can achieve, while the AA wallet can solve the problem of losing the private key through social recovery, but what if the private key is stolen and the assets have been transferred?
The MPC wallet and the AA wallet have their own differentiated advantages, suitable for different scenarios and needs. The MPC wallet has better compatibility and privacy, while the AA wallet has better functionality and extensibility. Why can't the two complement each other like the smart account of the AA wallet, combining the advantages of CA and EOA?
According to Degen Yin, the builder of OKX Wallet, in a Twitter Space event hosted by Odaily Star Daily, the OKX AA smart contract wallet will give the power to the users, allowing them to freely choose between an MPC+EOA or MPC+AA account to create a wallet and experience it. At this stage, the decision is left to the users to choose for themselves. In the short term, the MPC wallet is more convenient than the AA wallet, which ignores the mnemonic, and in the long term, the AA wallet can replace the original solution through social recovery or other methods, making it more secure.
The AA wallet requires one or more EOA addresses as controllers. The single point problem of the first-generation EOA wallet can be well solved by relying on MPC technology. The two are not standing in opposition to each other, and can fully complement and supplement each other, abstracting a more secure, user-friendly, and versatile wallet. Therefore, MPC+AA is the future of Web3, providing support for the large-scale application of Web3.
Nothing can happen overnight, and there will be a process of quantitative change to qualitative change. It can be expected that more user-friendly Web3 wallets are generating greater energy. However, it is worth considering that in the era of large-scale application of Web3, in addition to laying a solid foundation through more user-friendly Web3 wallets, it is equally important to increase the popularity of Web3 and attract Web2 users.
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