Vitalik Emphasizes Account Abstraction’s Security and Convenience, Regarding the Definition of Metaverse as Still Ambiguous

According to a report by The Block, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated during his speech at the blockchain event “BUIDL Asia” in South Korea on Wednesday (27th) that account abstraction is a way to provide security and convenience for blockchain developers and users.

According to Vitalik, modern account abstraction includes additional improvements to security and convenience that Ethereum currently does not support. The security goals include allowing users to change and revoke private keys, as well as better account recovery methods. The convenience goals include allowing users to pay gas fees and automate payments with ERC-20 tokens.

The concept of account abstraction refers to hiding more technical details of interactions on the chain to improve accessibility and user-friendliness. The goal of Ethereum’s account abstraction is to allow user wallets to operate like smart contracts without the need to manage externally owned accounts (EOAs) and their private keys. Currently, Ethereum users interact with the network through EOAs, requiring them to maintain private keys and additional accounts with additional funds, which is a major obstacle for users and developers.

Thoughts on the Metaverse

During the Q&A session after the speech, Vitalik was asked about his thoughts on the concept of the Metaverse. He believes that the Metaverse is “one of those things that is extremely ill-defined.” The Metaverse gained widespread attention during the previous bull market cycle, but its hype seems to have faded since then due to a lack of significant progress by relevant companies.