On December 3, 2025, Ethereum made a big move!
Do you remember the time when Ethereum changed from "mining" to "saving and earning interest" during that "merge"? Do you remember the drastic drop in transaction fees during the "Shanghai upgrade"? Now it has come for its third "facelift"—code name Fusaka (Fuchun Mountain Residence?)!
The coolest part of this upgrade: it transforms your crypto wallet from an "old phone" into a "smartphone"!
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1. The Past: Your wallet is a "one-time safe"
The current situation is stark:
· Lost private key = lost everything (worse than losing your house key, not even a locksmith can help)
· Operations are like flying a fighter jet: Gas fees, Nonce, signatures... ordinary users get a headache just looking at it
· Permissions are only 'all or nothing': cannot set daily limits, cannot temporarily authorize children pocket money
· Recovering accounts? Basically relies on 'reciting the full text' (mnemonic phrase)
It's like your bank account: if you forget the password, your money is gone forever, each transfer requires manual fee calculation, and you can't set a limit like 'spend a maximum of 500 yuan per day.'
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Two, Now: Account abstraction (AA) — the 'iPhone moment' for wallets
The core idea of AA is simple: to make wallets a piece of programmable code.
Translate to human language:
· Social recovery: Lost your private key? Find 3 trusted friends to verify, and you can recover your account (just like WeChat password recovery)
· Gas payment on behalf: Project parties can help you pay fees, achieving a true 'free trial'
· Batch operations: Operations that used to require signing 10 times can now be done in one go
· Permission management:
· 'Give this address to the child, can only transfer 1000 yuan per month'
· 'Company wallets need 2 out of 3 executives to agree for large transfers'
· 'Game accounts can only be paid with specific tokens to prevent operational errors'
Technical implementation? It relies on 'curved salvation':
· ERC-4337 (2023): Does not modify the Ethereum underlying, implements AA in a 'parallel universe' manner
· EIP-7702 (latest proposal): Allows ordinary wallets to 'temporarily transform' into smart wallets and revert after use
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Three, Challenges: Ideals are abundant, reality is a bit 'stuck'
AA currently faces four major 'growing pains':
1. Gas fees double: Smart operations require more computation, fees are twice as high as ordinary transfers
2. Business model is unclear:
· Project parties: I help users pay Gas, what if the users run away?
· User: I use it for free, and I slip away when it's charged
3. Ecological 'dialects are not compatible':
· Different wallets implement AA in different ways, like Android and iOS not being interoperable
· Developers: Supporting AA requires extra workload, but users don't show significant growth
4. Cross-chain is like going abroad needing to reapply for a passport:
· Smart wallets on Ethereum may be 'unadapted' when they reach other chains
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Four, Future: Will not replace, only coexist
Most likely scenarios in the next five years:
Account Type Characteristics User Analogy
EOA (traditional wallet) Simple, cheap, universal Feature phone (Nokia)
AA (smart wallet) Powerful, secure, flexible Smartphone (iPhone)
x402 (cross-chain protocol) Universally applicable, unified payment WeChat Pay/Alipay
Key technological breakthroughs are on the way:
· Rollup Layer 2 network: Reduces AA's Gas fees by 70-90%
· BLS signature aggregation: Packages 1000 signatures into 1, significantly reducing costs
· EIP-7702: Ordinary wallets can also 'temporarily experience' AA functions, painless upgrades
Tracks worth watching:
· 🏦 Smart wallets: Safe, Argent, Web3 Wallet
· ⛽ Gas fee payment service: Stackup, Pimlico
· 🚚 Transaction packers: Biconomy, Alchemy
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Five, Conclusion: From 'geek toy' to 'public tool'
The true meaning of AA:
· It's not about eliminating traditional wallets, but giving users another choice
· Not about changing the world immediately, but paving the way for mass adoption of Web3
· Ultimate goal: To make the blockchain experience as simple as WeChat Pay
Investment perspective on AA:
· Short-term ❌: Don't expect it to explode tomorrow
· Long-term ✅: As Rollup becomes popular and costs decrease, AA will become standard for high-end users
· Positioning: Not a 'disruptor', but an 'upgrade package'
The last piece of blunt truth:
Technology is always half a step ahead of the market. AA has solved the 'can it be done' problem, and is now solving the 'is it expensive' and 'is it user-friendly' problems. When costs drop low enough and the experience is smooth enough, ordinary people will truly start using it — just like smartphones replaced feature phones, not because the technology is more advanced, but because 'once you use it, you can't go back.'
Is your crypto wallet ready to upgrade from 'keychain' to 'smart butler'? 🚀
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In summary:
Ethereum has made wallets smarter, able to recover passwords, set limits, and perform batch operations, but it's still a bit expensive and chaotic now. In the future, it will coexist with traditional wallets, and when costs go down, it might be the 'iPhone moment' for Web3.
