Visa experiments with account abstraction on Ethereum

Visa, the payment giant, развернули on the Goerli Ethereum testnet two Paymaster smart contracts to use account abstraction to streamline payments.

Developers of the second-largest cryptocurrency implemented the option to transform an account into a smart contract (account abstraction) in March, activating the ERC-4337 standard.

The Visa team tested two real-world applications of account abstraction in payments.

In the first case, Paymaster gave users the ability to pay Ethereum transaction fees with any ERC-20 token, including stablecoins such as USDC. The company noted that the solution is relevant for any EVM-compatible network. It enables paying gas without the need to hold the transferred asset in advance.

In the second scenario, the smart contract fully subsidized the transaction fee. Visa experts believe this approach could enable free P2P transfers. Gas costs in this case could be borne, for example, by wallet providers or operators of trading platforms to promote uptake and attract new customers.

«Interacting with blockchains via digital wallets can be a complex task, and many believe that ensuring ease of use is an important step toward broader adoption», the company’s specialists said.

They believe that ERC-4337 offers ‘interesting possibilities’ in this direction, and the use cases for account abstraction in Ethereum extend far beyond the experiments conducted.

In April, Visa began recruiting programmers for an ‘ambitious’ crypto-product programme.