Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum will enhance the security and convenience of account abstraction in the future

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said at the BUIDL Asia cryptocurrency conference in Seoul on Wednesday that account abstraction is a way to provide security and convenience for blockchain developers and users, with modern account abstraction including other features to enhance security and convenience that Ethereum currently does not support. Security goals include allowing users to change and revoke private keys as well as better ways of account recovery, while convenience goals include enabling users to pay gas fees with ERC-20 tokens and automated payments.

The concept of account abstraction refers to hiding more technical details of on-chain interactions to improve usability and user-friendliness. Ethereum's account abstraction aims to enable user wallets to function as smart contracts without having to manage externally owned accounts (EOAs) and their private keys. Currently, Ethereum users interact with the network using EOAs, which requires them maintaining a private key along with additional accounts holding extra funds - a major barrier for both users and developers. "The next decade will be about truly upgrading the ecosystem at the user level," Buterin said at the event. "Let's make something that people in low-income countries can really use."

In a QA session after his speech, Buterin was asked about his views on the metaverse concept. He responded: "For me, 'metaverse' is very vaguely defined; it seems like everyone expects there will be one they can all participate in. The challenge is that it's often tied up with virtual reality but what people really need might end up being simpler than VR – a laptop that isn't quite a laptop isn't exactly what I'd call 'metaverse', even though it could be useful."