Unveiling EIP-3074: A New Paradigm Shift in Ethereum’s Account Model
In the realm of cryptocurrencies, discussions abound regarding new Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) — EIP-3074 has captured significant attention as Ethereum core developers have just approved its inclusion in the upcoming Pectra hard fork, slated for later this year or early 2025.
EIP-3074 marks the next significant step in the evolution of Ethereum’s account model. It serves as a short-term remedy preceding the rise of ERC-4337, but its enhancement of user experience (UX) is notable.
Fundamentals of Account Abstraction
Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) represent the most basic form of Ethereum accounts, controlled directly by private keys and devoid of associated code. EOAs can send ETH and interact with smart contracts, but they lack more sophisticated functionalities.
In contrast to EOAs, Smart Contract Accounts (SCAs) are controlled directly by their contract code, enabling users to hold and control funds based on their programming logic, make decisions automatically based on calls to other contracts, and more. This versatility renders SCAs pivotal in the future of wallets.
In this context, Account Abstraction (AA) refers to a series of developmental efforts aimed at making Ethereum accounts more flexible. The goal is to reduce the gap between EOAs and SCAs, making account behavior more programmable and capable of meeting a broader range of user needs.
Ethereum’s AA Roadmap
Ethereum’s AA roadmap encompasses multiple concurrent efforts to address different challenges.
Presently, the primary avenue of progress involves a deeper embrace of ERC-4337, an AA standard supporting a wide range of functionalities typically inaccessible to EOAs, such as token payments for Gas fees other than ETH, complex account recovery mechanisms, and more advanced transaction batching and scheduling capabilities.
However, ERC-4337 will be supplemented by other approaches, such as EIP-5003 (a proposed method for a permanent transition from EOA to SCA) and EIP-3074 (which paves the way for allowing EOAs to delegate transaction execution rights) to SCAs.
What is EIP-3074?
EIP-3074 introduces new Ethereum opcodes. This system will allow EOA users to authorize smart contracts to perform actions on their behalf in a single transaction, while retaining the security and control of not permanently transferring their private keys.
The user-friendly utilities brought by these new opcodes include:
Transaction batching — batching multiple transactions (such as many token transfers) into a single operation.
Sponsored transactions — the ability for third parties to pay for transactions, opening up a new avenue for applications to cover Gas fees for their users.
Conditional transactions — complex transaction structures that can link multiple steps and achieve conditional execution, like transactions that execute only if certain conditions are met, without needing separate transactions for each step.
Meta-transactions — the ability to sign transactions that can be submitted by another party, for example, signing transactions offline or from different interfaces without needing ETH as fuel.
Delegated security — by allowing trusted callers to manage transactions, users can benefit from advanced security models, such as those involving multi-signature setups.