Ethereum ‘smart account’ adoption is low — the first rollup proposal wants to change that

Smart accounts have so far seen lacklustre adoption from Ethereum users, but removing the need for private keys might be an answer

article-image

Overearth/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The introduction of Ethereum Foundation’s ERC-4337 account abstraction standard earlier this year drew much attention, but adoption and retention are off to a slow start.

Existing hardware wallets rely on a pair of keys. If those keys are compromised, so are tokens in the wallet. The ERC-4337 standard was instead intended as a new baseline for how users interact with crypto wallets services, including social recovery mechanisms and other multisig options.

The standard turns Ethereum accounts into “smart accounts,” which are much more flexible to suit the needs of wallet holders.

According to data on BundleBear:

  • Weekly retention for ERC-4337 smart wallets drops as low as 1% for accounts older than five weeks.
  • An average smart account only sends five user operations
  • Revenue for transaction “bundlers” is also low, currently less than $8,000 per week.

Read more: What Are Smart Contract Wallets? A Beginner’s Guide

At the time of writing, daily active users are at around 3%, sixdegree data shows. Most smart account users today are on the Polygon network, making up over 66% of all smart account holders and almost all monthly new users by chain.

Despite the low adoption rates on Ethereum, industry participants remain optimistic about the future of smart accounts and have been actively working on proposals to spur usage.

John Rising, the co-founder of Stackup, an account abstraction infrastructure company, notes that many existing issues with ERC-4337 can be resolved with the first-ever Rollup Improvement Proposal, RIP-7560.

The existing ERC-4337 standard is considered a “semi-native+” smart account, where a user does not need a private key because the trustless relay network is designed to forward transactions to the blockchain.

Rising believes that the goal is to move towards a “native” smart account, where accounts would be able to specify their own validation logic, completely removing the need for a private key — something that RIP-7560 hopes to do. 

“ERC-4337 has always been intended as a stepping stone to native account abstraction. The account abstraction proposal, RIP-7560, is designed to be backwards compatible with ERC-4337,” Rising told Blockworks.

Further discussions around the proposal and its applicability must still be considered. Native account abstraction has drawn concerns over the complexity it adds, as it introduces consensus layer changes rather than just high-level infrastructure layer modifications.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

The DeFi Education Fund has ideas on how the crypto-friendly SEC can bring Commissioner Peirce’s vision to life

article-image

“Be prepared to do more with less,” Framework Ventures’ Michael Anderson said

article-image

Q1 may have been “frustrating,” but things are looking brighter for Q2

article-image

Tokens worth 20% of the current supply of the TRUMP memecoin launched by the president are set to be unlocked tomorrow

article-image

A crypto-industry lawsuit is “moot” now that Joint Resolution 25 has been signed into law

article-image

Fed Chair Powell assured markets that the labor market is in “good place,” dependent on price stability