What is Ethereums newest protocol standard ERC-4337? (ELI-5 edition)

A new Ethereum protocol standard was recently introduced: ERC-4337 which is also known as “account abstraction”. This upgrade enables smart contracts to act as crypto wallets

In layman’s terms it means: instead of using an Ethereum adress + private keys as wallet, you can now use a software-based (smart contract) wallet, directly on chain.

Why is this interesting? First of all, the ERC-4337 standard is the backbone of account abstraction, so we will have to wait for applications to build on this standard. I.e. wait for people to build these fancy wallets!

ERC-4337 has several advantages:

1) It is fully programmable meaning that no MetaMask is required to make transactions. In fact, your crypto wallet can now look identical to your banks interface, or can be easily be integrated in a website or game 2) Third parties can program this wallet to be compatible with simple username and password and email recovery service. this means that reddit can program wallets for users and enable a recovery service without them knowing your private keys for example. In fact, even you don’t know the private keys because they will be hidden under the hood. 3) This means you don’t have to save a 12 or 24 word phrase anymore and you can more easily recover your wallet when you have forgotten your password (or username) 4) The upgrade is 100% optional. (It is an ERC standard, not a protocol upgrade). Regular addresses still work and will work how they are currently working

All in all account abstraction gets rid of the complicated Ethereum wallets which could mean that even your grandma understands how to send Ethereum in the near future! Start getting your grades up folks!