Account Abstraction (AA) is an important concept in blockchain technology aimed at enhancing the flexibility and functionality of smart contract accounts. Traditionally, the accounts in a blockchain network are divided into Externally Owned Accounts (EOA) and Contract Accounts. EOA is controlled directly by users through private key-signed transactions, while contract accounts are controlled by code and process transactions through smart contract logic. The goal of account abstraction is to blur the boundaries between these two types of accounts, giving contract accounts more functionality while also providing EOAs with the flexibility of smart contracts.
By enhancing the flexibility and functionality of accounts, it greatly enhances the user experience, security, and innovation capabilities of Web3. As account abstraction technology continues to develop, the Web3 ecosystem will become more diverse, attracting more users and developers to participate, and driving the popularization and application of blockchain technology.
In 2016, Vitalik Buterin first proposed the concept of account abstraction in the Ethereum Foundation's blog, suggesting enhancing the functionality and flexibility of accounts through smart contracts. In 2022, EIP-4337 proposed a Layer 2-based account abstraction standard, aiming to achieve account abstraction functionality without changing the protocol of the Ethereum Layer 1. In 2023, EIP-4337 was successfully deployed and implemented on the Ethereum mainnet, marking a new stage in account abstraction. With the implementation of this proposal, more and more DApps are beginning to adopt account abstraction technology, providing a more flexible and secure user experience.
The continuous development and evolution of account abstraction technology is expected to be adopted by more blockchain platforms and applications. New proposals and improvement measures will continue to emerge, further enhancing the functionality and application scope of account abstraction. Vitalik Buterin has also publicly stated that account abstraction is crucial for Ethereum to scale to a user base of 1 billion.
Fast forward to 2024, with the approval and listing of BTC spot ETF by the SEC, the cryptocurrency market has once again entered a bull market. The characteristics of account abstraction and the ease of use of smart wallets can minimize user barriers and drive the widespread adoption of Web3. The account abstraction infrastructure has gained attention from developers and investment institutions, bringing Biconomy back into the spotlight.
Biconomy: Account Abstraction Infrastructure
Biconomy is a development platform that provides a specialized toolkit SDK and on-chain extension solutions for ERC 4337 abstract accounts. It offers modular AA smart account functionality for DApps, driving the popularization and large-scale application of Web3 by simplifying the user experience of wallets and decentralized applications. In simple terms, it provides a complete solution for Web3 application developers with abstract account requirements. Currently, Biconomy has created wallets on all chains totaling over 1.25 million and processes around 50,000 transactions daily for over 70 DApps and blockchain applications, making it an undeniable presence.
As the infrastructure for AA wallets, Biconomy provides a full-stack account abstraction toolkit, including modular smart accounts compliant with ERC4337, Paymasters (simplified transactions, receiving other tokens as Gas), hot-swappable API services, and binding programs as a service. In addition to supporting the Ethereum mainnet, Biconomy also supports multiple chains such as Arbitrum, Polygon, Base, Optimism, BNB Chain, Blast, and TON, and recently added support for Scroll, covering most mainstream EVM chains in the market.
Biconomy has been making frequent moves recently, gaining significant attention at the Token 2049 event in Dubai and collaborating with Chappyz, BetSwirl, and others. The official release of Biconomy SDK v4.2 is expected, along with the implementation of more features and tool updates.
Specific Implementation and Contributions of Biconomy in Account Abstraction
Gasless Transactions
Gas is the first barrier for new users to perform on-chain operations. Biconomy implements gasless transactions through the Relay Protocol. Users can use DApps without needing to hold ETH to pay gas fees. By introducing relayers and using Paymasters to provide gasless transactions, the transaction fees can be paid by DApp developers or third parties, greatly improving the user experience.
Multi-Signature and Multiple Authentication Methods
Biconomy supports multi-signature and multiple authentication methods, allowing users to use social logins, hardware wallets, biometrics, and other methods for identity verification and transaction signing. This simplifies user wallet management, increases security, and makes it more convenient for Web2 users to log in and use Web3 DApps, such as through social accounts, email, biometrics, without worrying about private key exposure, thus reducing the barrier for new users to use DApps.
Smart Contract Wallets
Biconomy has introduced smart contract wallets that support user-defined transaction logic and security rules. Users can set specific transaction limits, time locks, and other functions, further enhancing the security and flexibility of accounts. It supports all EVM chains, simplifying the DApp user experience, reducing the frequency of multiple approvals, and achieving simple interactions.
Integration of Layer 2 Solutions
Biconomy has integrated with multiple Layer 2 solutions (such as Polygon, Optimism) to improve transaction speed and reduce transaction costs. These integrations also promote the application of account abstraction on different blockchain platforms.
Developer-Friendly SDK
Biconomy provides a developer-friendly software development kit (SDK), simplifying the integration process of account abstraction functionality and enabling developers to deploy AA accounts for their DApps in a short time. This shortens the development time, improves security, and reduces the complexity of user interactions and gas fees.
Application of Biconomy in Traditional Fields
Biconomy has collaborated with traditional institutions to simplify on-chain payment processes. For example, in November 2023, it collaborated with the financial giant JPMorgan to build a gas payment solution using Paymaster, enabling convenient payments with any ERC20 tokens.
Paymaster is a smart contract introduced by Biconomy, allowing users to customize payments with other tokens and use smart contracts instead of paying gas fees on-chain, reducing user costs without having to purchase gas tokens for each chain, simplifying user operations. In addition, in March of this year, it collaborated with Mercedes-Benz to establish a secure and low-cost data marketplace solution.
Applications Built Using Biconomy
Web3 Game Anichess
Anichess is an international chess strategy game that has raised $1.8 million in funding. It uses Biconomy to allow Web2 users to register and create smart accounts using their email, and users can claim NFTs in the game without needing gas, without wallet pop-ups, or mnemonic seeds, making it convenient for Web2 users to experience.
Rage Trade
Rage Trade is a perpetual contract protocol based on the Arbitrum ecosystem. In previous DEX trades, a wallet popup requiring user approval signatures would appear in each session. By using the session mode supported by Biconomy, users do not need to go through the cumbersome signing steps when executing trading strategies such as placing orders, simplifying the convenience of placing orders, and allowing for self-custody of assets compared to CEX.
Trust Wallet SWIFT
Trust Wallet, an encrypted cryptocurrency wallet invested by Binance, introduced the SWIFT feature through a collaboration with Biconomy. It utilizes Biconomy Paymaster to allow users to pay gas fees with various tokens, and wallet creation does not require mnemonic phrases, only Face ID and fingerprint technology. It also supports trading of 200 different tokens.
In addition, Biconomy has collaborated with project teams such as Sushiswap, Kwenta (one-click trading for derivative AA accounts), FanTV, Dexodus, DYDX, Cypherock, AlfaFrens (integrated functionality for no wallet popup signing), among others, to further promote the application of smart accounts.
Project Financing and Tokens
Biconomy received a $1.5 million financing in early 2021, followed by a $9 million financing in July 2021, and a public fundraising of $11.5 million on Coinlist in October. In March of this year, Biconomy announced another undisclosed amount of financing, with a total financing amount exceeding $22 million.
Investment institutions include Jump Capital, Consensys Ventures, Binance, Mechanism, Coinbase Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, Eden Blocks, and others.
$BICO is the ecological token of Biconomy, with a total supply of 1 billion, currently circulating at 780 million, accounting for nearly 80%. It has been listed on well-known exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Bitget, OKX, and THX.
Biconomy's partners not only include the Web3 industry but also have extensive use in Web2 and traditional industries. In addition to JPMorgan, it also includes traditional giants such as Mercedes-Benz, providing a more convenient experience for traditional users.
BICO Staking Airdrop
BICO staking is an important part of Biconomy's token economic activities to incentivize ecological user growth. Biconomy conducted a BICO token airdrop for users who participated in interactions during the TGE in 2021, which was well received by the market. In addition, in April of this year, Biconomy announced rewards for users staking BICO, where staked BICO users can receive hundreds of ARB tokens as rewards and corresponding staking income.
Currently, staking BICO also has decent returns, with a 2x yield compared to Alchemy AA.
Recent Developments and Future Plans for Biconomy
1. Subsidizing Gas Fees for On-Chain DApps
Biconomy recently conducted the ONCHAIN SUMMER event in collaboration with the Base chain, providing up to $30,000 in gas fee subsidies for Base ecosystem projects. Users can use DApps that meet the criteria without gas fees and also support Base chain, including SocialFi.
DApp application link: https://tally.so/r/wQAgVl
2. Implementation of ERC-7579
ERC-7579 is a simplified modular smart account standard launched by Biconomy in collaboration with ZeroDev, Rhinestone, OKX, and others. Its main feature is to achieve minimal interoperability for modular developers and applications, helping developers customize features and improve user experience more conveniently. This solution has also been applied in the OKX wallet.
3. Application of ERC-7579
EIP-7702 can be seen as an upgraded version of EIP-4337, which achieves temporary delegation of EOA accounts to smart contracts by proposing a new transaction type that can accept Contract_code and signature fields simultaneously. This means that externally owned accounts (EOA) can also act as smart contract wallets, ensuring long-term effectiveness and practicality through this compatibility design.
4. Exploration of Smart Wallet Permissions for Web3 AI Agent Applications
The arrival of AI has led many Web3 applications to implement intelligent processing of user operations. However, there is still a need for approval and signing, and choosing automated processing may reduce security. Biconomy is exploring setting boundaries for AI through user-defined smart account permissions to ensure that AI can operate within the permission scope.
5. Release of Paymaster Documentation
Biconomy recently further released documentation and rules for Paymaster, including wallet deployment, whitelisted smart contracts, expenditure limits, and Webhooks, making it convenient for developers to further integrate into their own applications.
Conclusion
The listing of Ethereum spot ETF is imminent this year, and Layer2 is now flourishing. The Ethereum ecosystem users are also expected to experience rapid growth in this round of bull market. The user experience of wallets and DApp as infrastructure will directly affect users' perception and understanding of blockchain. The user experience of basic wallet accounts and DApps is crucial.
Smart wallets and account abstraction are indispensable paths in the growth of Ethereum. Biconomy, through its powerful infrastructure tools SDK and modular design, facilitates developers to integrate into decentralized applications such as DEX, GameFi, DePIN, NFT, and Restaking, providing users with a more convenient and secure experience.
Biconomy not only innovates and practices in the field of account abstraction but also brings new possibilities to the entire blockchain ecosystem. By implementing features such as feeless transactions, multi-signature authentication, and smart contract wallets, Biconomy effectively enhances the user experience and security of Web3.0. As Biconomy continues to promote the application of account abstraction technology and closely integrate with Layer 2 solutions, we can expect to witness the emergence of more innovative solutions in the future, opening up new paths for the further development and popularization of blockchain technology.
The efforts made by Biconomy are not only an exploration of the concept of account abstraction but also a demonstration of confidence in the future potential of blockchain technology. It will continue to lead the blockchain industry towards a more open, flexible, and convenient direction.
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