Understanding the Difference Between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era in Terms of Native Account Abstraction

According to reports, zkSync posted an article on social media explaining the difference between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era in terms of native account abstraction. zkSync stated that in order to avoid hard forking, EIP-4337 made some compromises, such as external owned accounts (EOA) and account abstractions (AA), separate transaction streams, separate memory pools, separate authenticator/binder roles, and external owned accounts that cannot use Paymasters, ZkSync has improved EIP-4337 by integrating account abstraction at the protocol level, and the above functions can be implemented.

ZkSync: EIP-4337 Compromises to Avoid Hard Bifurcation

Introduction

Recently, zkSync posted an article on social media that discusses the differences between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era in terms of native account abstraction. For those who are not familiar with these terms, this article aims to provide a clear understanding of what these two technologies are and how they differ from each other.

What is EIP-4337?

EIP-4337 is an Ethereum Improvement Proposal that was proposed by Martin Swende. Its purpose is to improve Ethereum’s virtual machine by introducing native account abstraction. Account abstraction enables developers to replace the existing account model with a new one. The new model is more flexible and can solve several issues that the current model cannot.

What is zkSync Era?

ZkSync Era is an upgraded version of zkSync, a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. zkSync Era integrates account abstraction at the protocol level. It means that account abstraction is part of the zkSync network protocol and can be implemented by developers who use the Layer-2 solution.

Differences Between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era

Both EIP-4337 and zkSync Era aim to improve the account model of Ethereum. However, there are some fundamental differences between these two solutions.

External Owned Accounts (EOA) and Account Abstractions (AA)

One of the main compromises that EIP-4337 makes is that it separates External Owned Accounts (EOAs) and Account Abstractions (AAs) into two different transaction streams. It means that when a developer creates a new account abstraction product, it won’t be able to use EOAs as payment sources. zkSync Era improves upon this limitation because external owned accounts can use Paymasters in the upgraded version. Thus, developers can use EOAs to pay for their account abstraction products.

Separate Transaction Streams

EIP-4337 separates EOA and AA transactions into two different streams. In contrast, zkSync Era combines these two transaction streams. By doing this, zkSync Era provides greater flexibility to developers when building their applications.

Separate Memory Pools

EIP-4337 relies on separate memory pools for EOAs and AAs. While zkSync Era leverages the same pool of memory for both types of accounts. This means that developers using zkSync Era can create more complex applications without worrying about memory constraints.

Separate Authenticator/Binder Roles

EIP-4337 requires separate authenticator and binder roles for EOAs and AAs, respectively. zkSync Era improves on this arrangement by combining these two roles. This configuration provides greater flexibility to developers when building their applications.

Integration of Account Abstraction at the Protocol Level

The most significant difference between EIP-4337 and zkSync Era is that account abstraction is integrated at the protocol level in zkSync Era. In contrast, EIP-4337 relies on external contracts to implement it. Account abstraction at the protocol level makes it easier for developers to use this feature, and zkSync Era helps, therefore, to avoid hard forking of Ethereum.

Conclusion

In summary, zkSync Era solves many of the issues surrounding account abstraction that EIP-4337 faces. By integrating account abstraction at the protocol level, zkSync Era provides greater flexibility to developers. At the same time, it makes it easier for developers to create more complex applications without worrying about memory constraints or transaction streams.

FAQs

Q1: What is account abstraction?

A1: Account abstraction is a feature in Ethereum that enables developers to replace the existing account model with a more flexible one. Developers can create new account models and use them to power their decentralized applications.

Q2: What is zkSync Era?

A2: zkSync Era is an upgraded version of zkSync that integrates account abstraction at the protocol level, providing greater flexibility to developers.

Q3: Why is account abstraction important?

A3: Account abstraction is critical because it enables developers to build more flexible decentralized applications. Implementing it at the protocol level means that working on this feature will become more comfortable and quicker. This is essential for the scalability of Ethereum in the long run.
The three keywords associated with this article are: account abstraction, zkSync Era, and Ethereum scalability.