Account abstraction, a major improvement that may make it simpler for users to retrieve cryptocurrency if they lose their private keys to an online wallet, has been implemented on the Ethereum blockchain, crypto media outlet CoinDesk reported on March 2.

According to information on the blockchain explorer website Etherscan and verified by Yoav Weiss, a security fellow at the Ethereum Foundation, the new standard, technically known as ERC-4337, was implemented using a smart contract named EntryPoint. Full security audits have already been performed on the contract.

ERC-4337's deployment was made simple in part because the update was accomplished by the inclusion of a smart contract rather than by making modifications to the Ethereum software itself, which would have been challenging to perform. This proposal only adds a new layer on top of the mainnet layer of Ethereum. Account abstraction will ultimately be included in the core protocol. Notably, this upgrade was seen as a major milestone that would be years away, making Ethereum more user-friendly.

The Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade is a hard fork that will allow stakers and validators to withdraw staked ETH scheduled to occur in March 2023.

Source: COINDESK