Ethereum

With the introduction of ERC-4337 and account abstraction, a new decentralized layer has been added on top of Ethereum to enable smart accounts — but infrastructure providers suggest it may be difficult to participate profitably right now.On March 1, ERC-4337, also known as &#34;smart accounts&#34; or &#34;account abstraction,&#34; was deployed on the Ethereum mainnet. Smart accounts are essentially enhanced versions of Ethereum wallets. Smart contract wallets are already available, but they rely on centralized components. ERC-4337 alters this by introducing a distributed network of &#34;Bundlers&#34; and &#34;Paymasters.&#34;There are a few subtle but significant changes under the hood, including the addition of the &#34;User Intent Layer,&#34; according to Matt Cutler, co-founder and CEO of Blocknative, a core Ethereum infrastructure provider. An Ethereum transaction today, according to Cutler, consists of several distinct steps.To compose a signed transaction, a user uses their standard externally-owned account (EOA) or private key, such as transferring a nonfungible token (NFT) to another user. This transaction is then sent to the public mempool, which can be thought of as a shared transaction queue, where it is plucked out by a &#34;Builder&#34; who organizes it into a &#34;profitable block.&#34; The block is then proposed to a Validator, who proposes and publishes it on-chain, completing the transaction.The new &#34;User Intent Layer&#34; is introduced before the current EOA step in ERC-4337.This extra layer enables users to initiate more complex transactions in a single step. ERC-4337 makes this possible by introducing a &#34;Alternative Mempool&#34; and a network of transaction Bundlers, as well as a new way to earn fees.A Bundler is a node that functions similarly to the block &#34;Builder.&#34; Instead of assembling a profitable block by organizing signed transactions from the public mempool, a Bundler grabs User Operations, or userOps, from the Alt-Mempool to create the most profitable bundle, which is signed and submitted to the network as a single transaction. All of this is part of the newly added layer that enables smart accounts.Bundlers are compensated for providing a much-needed service through userOp gas fees.While anyone can be a Bundler in theory, Cutler cautioned that being a successful one might be a different story.Bundlers, like Builders, are &#34;specialized actors&#34; comprised of &#34;relatively sophisticated development teams operating significant computational, storage, and networking infrastructure,&#34; he explained.&#34;ERC-4337 is devoid of trust and permission.&#34; So, if you&#39;re technically savvy, go ahead and stand up and operate your own Bundler. The difficulty is that bundling is a competitive market. So you&#39;ll be competing against relatively sophisticated teams that are heavily investing in becoming a competitive Bundler,&#34; he explained.&#34;Bundlers are not the type of tooling that you set up, forget about, and it starts printing money for you.&#34; We anticipate Bundling to be far more technically sophisticated than being a validator, for example.&#34; There are already a number of open-source bundler code repositories, according to Cutler.The impact of ERC-4337 on Ethereum gas fees is still being debated, especially given the increase in transaction complexity associated with the introduction of the new User Intent layer. &#34;While it is still too early to tell, my current expectation is that gas prices will not change significantly on average.&#34; If ERC-4337 has an effect, it will be minor — either up or down. &#34;We don&#39;t expect transaction fees to go away or become 100 times more expensive overnight,&#34; Cutler said.

Ethereum ERC-4337 ‘bundlers’ — How Hard is Joining the Network?

ItsBitcoinWorld

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