In the fourth quarter of 2023, Alchemy saw an unexpected increase in the number of ERC-4337 smart contracts, creating more than 960,000 accounts.
This explosion of interest underlines the eagerness of app developers to tackle user experience challenges, according to Alchemy’s report.
Will Hennessy, head of abstraction at Alchemy, expressed his surpriseattributing the rapid adoption to the Ethereum Foundation’s commitment and developers’ eagerness to tackle user experience challenges.
“The Ethereum Foundation just deployed ERC-4337 contracts in March 2023, so this early adoption is faster than expected,” he said via his personal X account. “It shows how hungry app developers are to solve problems [user experience] problems such as gas sponsorship.”
https://twitter.com/AlchemyPlatform/status/1743334045713646031
Unlike traditional wallet accounts, smart accounts let users perform “user operations” instead of just transactions. According to Hennessy, this innovation “shows how hungry app developers are to solve problems [user experience] problems such as gas sponsorship.”
This feature improves efficiency, especially in trading and gaming. ERC-4337 introduces sponsored transactions, allowing entities to cover gas costs for users, which Hennessy highlights as “a departure from the current methodology, where fees are paid exclusively in the network’s home currency.”
This standard also improves security and convenience through multi-signature transactions and simplified account recovery, marking an important step toward making web3 more user-friendly. Hennessy emphasizes that account abstraction’s role in facilitating the easy adoption of web3 apps will continue to attract a diverse user base.
“Account abstraction makes it easy for anyone to start using a web3 app,” he says. “By lowering the barrier to entry with social login and gas sponsorship, apps can onboard more users, including those who may have lower intent.”
https://twitter.com/AlchemyPlatform/status/1743334054337135073
User activity by ‘bundlers’ saw a substantial increase of 194% in the fourth quarter, largely thanks to apps like Grindery, FanTV and Cyberconnect.
Hennessey adds that “current retention is largely determined by how useful the application is. They are working on new features to continuously engage users.”
The introduction of paymasters, which allows gas fees to be paid in ERC-20 tokens, has proven popular, covering an estimated $1.16 million in gas fees.
Hennessey emphasizes that “flexibility around payment of transaction fees remains a popular demand from users.”
