Making web3 feel human: How smart EOAs are redefining the wallet experience

The following is a guest post and analysis from Nanfeng Jie, Lead Product Manager at Trust Wallet. Over the previous few years, we’ve seen a clear shift in how people engage with digital assets. More users are selecting self-custody as an intentional move…

The following is a visitor post and analysis from Nanfeng Jie, Lead Product Manager at Trust Wallet. Over the previous couple of years, we have actually seen a clear shift in how people interact with digital possessions. More users are selecting self-custody as an intentional approach greater control and responsibility. This trend is shown in the quick rise of tools like Trust Wallet, among the most widely used self-custodial wallets in Web3. At Trust Wallet, we have actually seen firsthand how rapidly expectations are progressing. Users desire more than security– they want simplicity. That insight directed our decision to turn into one of the first wallets to support EIP-7702, Ethereum’s most current proposal to make externally owned accounts (EOAs) act like smart contracts. It’s what caused the development of FlexGas, a feature that permits users to pay gas costs with tokens they currently hold, such as USDT, TWT, or BNB, directly from their wallet. Now, let’s take an action back and analyze the wider market context and the real-world pain points that led us to reassess how gas charges should work. Recent marketing research values the non-custodial wallet sector at $1.5 billion in 2023, with forecasts reaching $3.5 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2024 to 2031. But scale alone does not inform the entire story, due to the fact that the user experience hasn’t kept up. People still handle across chains, by hand manage gas balances, and abandon transactions when approvals do not make sense. Among the most typical pieces of feedback wallet groups hear from users is simple: “I don’t want to think about gas– I simply want the transaction to go through.” And it’s a reasonable point. Gas costs aren’t just a cost; they’re a cognitive burden. Every delayed or stopped working deal chips away at rely on the system. The concern’s root depends on the architecture we’ve relied on for over a decade: EOA, the default wallet type for a lot of users. It’s light-weight and secure, however wasn’t developed for the programmable, dynamic interactions that specify today’s decentralized applications (DApps). That’s why the Ethereum EIP-7702 proposition represents such a significant shift. A Versatile New Layer for Wallet Habits First proposed by Vitalik Buterin in May 2024, EIP-7702 introduces a essential but subtle development in how Ethereum accounts work. It allows EOAs to temporarily handle wise agreement behavior within a single transaction, bringing the advantages of account abstraction (AA) without requiring users to move to brand-new account types or quit their seed expression– based control. With EIP-7702, users keep complete custody of their assets while gaining access to more versatile deal logic. That means bundling approvals and actions into a single tap, making it possible for recurring payments, or supporting delegated session keys without different wise contracts. Simply put, EIP-7702 means fewer steps, less confusion, and a smoother user experience. Deals are faster and more predictable, allowing gas costs to be paid using tokens currently held without the requirement for native assets beforehand. Technically speaking, EIP-7702 functions as a modular extension to the EOA design. The user signs an intent, which may contain customized logic, and the wallet carries out that intent through a temporary contract. Once the deal is total, the account go back to its basic EOA state, opening a more smart transaction layer for developers and facilities suppliers. In turn, Web3 begins to behave more like something developed genuine individuals, not protocols. Constructing the Infrastructure Behind the Abstraction Supporting EIP-7702 at scale needs more than incorporating a brand-new transaction type or making interface (UI) updates. It demands a robust, modular backend infrastructure capable of interpreting user intent, dynamically routing gas, and dependably carrying out intricate actions across chains. At Trust Wallet, we picked not to count on third-party abstractions or SDKs. Instead, we established our own account abstraction engine entirely in-house, constructed to be protected, scalable, and chain-agnostic. This modular system consists of: Paymaster– for dealing with custom gas logic and token-based gas payments Bundler– for enhancing multi-step deals Relayer– for robust, fast submission of abstracted transactions Gas Provisioner– for managing gas sources and routing throughout networks intelligently This internal architecture gives Trust Wallet a lasting edge in performance and reliability, while setting a brand-new requirement for EOA-based clever wallet design. It likewise paved the way for FlexGas, the very first popular function we developed on this foundation. FlexGas allows users to pay gas charges with tokens such as USDT or TWT on Ethereum and BNB Chain. Crucially, all of these improvements maintain the essence of what makes self-custody enticing: users retain complete control of their private secrets, their seed expressions stay unchanged, and there’s no need to upgrade to a contract-based wallet. This balance (between power and autonomy) is what makes EIP-7702 such a significant upgrade rather than a disruptive replacement. Shifting Wallets into Smart Representatives If widely adopted, EIP-7702 could become a defining layer in the next generation of Web3 facilities. It enables a future where wallets are responsive, smart agents– automating intricate techniques, onboarding users, and unlocking smooth interactions at scale. The first real-world applications are currently in movement. Features allowing users to pay for gas with tokens they currently hold are nearly here. Gasless onboarding, automated execution techniques, wallet-as-a-service designs, and smart transaction policies for institutional-grade use are all within reach. The greatest breakthroughs in crypto frequently come not from radical overhauls, but from peaceful upgrades that remove invisible frictions. EIP-7702 might be precisely that. It does not alter the way we think about Ethereum’s security design– it changes what that design can do for users. Due to the fact that at the end of the day, development in Web3 does not depend on how smart our contracts are. It depends upon how natural they feel to utilize.

It’s what led to the advancement of FlexGas, a feature that permits users to pay gas costs with tokens they currently hold, such as USDT, TWT, or BNB, straight from their wallet. The problem’s root lies in the architecture we’ve relied on for over a decade: EOA, the default wallet type for most users. The user signs an intent, which may consist of custom-made reasoning, and the wallet executes that intent through a short-lived contract. Most importantly, all of these improvements preserve the essence of what makes self-custody appealing: users maintain full control of their private secrets, their seed phrases remain unchanged, and there’s no requirement to update to a contract-based wallet. It enables a future where wallets are responsive, intelligent agents– automating complicated strategies, onboarding users, and opening smooth interactions at scale.