OKX has successively deployed MPC and AA wallets. Who is the future of Web3?
Just like from button phones to touch phones, the first-generation EOA wallet is extending towards the easier-to-use second-generation wallet-MPC wallet and AA wallet.
Based on the technology accumulation of the first generation EOA wallet, Web3 technology company OKX has successively deployed MPC private keyless wallet and AA smart contract wallet to adapt to the different needs and large-scale growth of Web3 users.
As the star players of Web3 wallets, MPC wallets and AA wallets are often compared, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin (V God). Vitalik believes that the MPC-based EOA wallet has fundamental flaws because it cannot revoke the key, and smart contract wallets are the only option for Web3 in the future.
Vitaliks remarks once pushed the dispute between MPC and AA wallets to a climax, triggering many industry OGs to join the discussion, and even launched a rename MPC movement in the Chinese community. So, MPC and AA wallet, who is the future of Web3?
MPC wallet will carry out without private key and mnemonic
Ethereums default verification method is that users must sign transactions with their private keys to ensure the authenticity and legality of the transactions, so the first-generation EOA wallet cannot circumvent the private key issue anyway.
The birth of the MPC wallet cleverly solved the private key problem.
Generally speaking, MPC wallet is based on MPC technology, allowing multiple parties to generate private key shards and keep them separately. When signing, multiple parties use their respective shards to jointly sign. This process not only protects the privacy of each party, but also ensures that no one party can control the complete private key. When an MPC wallet user loses a single shard, the security of the assets in the wallet can still be ensured, and each shard can be updated without changing the private key to complete the recovery. Through the MPC wallet, users can use the Web3 wallet without keeping the private key.
Different from multi-signature wallets, although MPC also implements multi-signature functions, the two implementation methods are different. MPC is an off-chain solution, while multi-signature wallets are built on smart contracts, which saves resources.
There is no industry standard for MPC wallet, and its threshold signature scheme and storage scheme are not unified. That is to say, it is possible to divide a private key into 2 or 3 pieces. It is also possible to require all 3 pieces to participate or at least 2 pieces to participate in the signature when signing. , very flexible.
OKX MPC private keyless wallet is a typical MPC wallet. It generates 3 private key fragments from the original 1 complete private key and stores them separately. The OKX server generates private key fragment 1, and the user device generates private key fragment 2 and private key fragment 3. , where the private key fragment 2 is encrypted and stored on the user device, and the private key fragment 3 is encrypted and backed up to iCloud or Google Drive. When signing, use 2 of the private key fragments to complete the signature, such as private key fragment 1 + private key fragment 2. Private key fragment 3 is used as a backup. A complete private key will not be generated during this process.
By encrypting and backing up the private key fragments 3 to the cloud, even if the user leaves his mobile phone and the private key fragments are lost or stolen, the OKX MPC private keyless wallet can not only help users safely and conveniently restore access to the wallet anytime, anywhere, but also by executing The refreshing function of private key fragments replaces each partys original private key fragments with new private key fragments. At this time, the lost or stolen fragments are equivalent to being reported as lost, which greatly reduces the cost of private key recovery.
In addition, OKX MPC private keyless wallet also pioneered the emergency exit function. If encountering an emergency scenario, users can also export the private key and withdraw assets through the 2 private key fragments they fully control, ensuring the safety of user assets to the greatest extent.
The MPC wallet eliminates the single point of failure, and users can use the Web3 wallet safely and conveniently without keeping the private key, enjoying a smoother experience, thereby helping Web2 users enter the Web3 world with a low threshold. However, it should be noted that the shard storage scheme of the MPC wallet needs to rely on the custodian not to do evil.
AA smart contract wallet simplifies complexity and opens imagination
The current first-generation EOA wallet is cumbersome to operate and has limited functions. Compared with Web2 products, there is still a gap in the non-sense and silky experience.
The AA Smart Contract Wallet is making up for this difference in experience.
To put it simply, the AA smart contract wallet is to combine the advantages of the existing Ethereum account CA and EOA account. In addition to the programmability of CA, it can also get rid of the dependence on EOA to initiate transactions, that is to say, the AA smart contract The account of the wallet is a smart contract, so that its functions can be customized according to the needs, simplifying the first generation of EOA, realizing the flexibility and upgradeability of the wallet, and expanding the diversified functions.
Taking the OKX AA smart contract wallet as an example, the first phase of the function has supported users to create AA wallets on 7 popular public chains including Ethereum, OKTC, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, and can use the stable currency USDT/USDC to pay directly Gas, DEX on the chain, DeFi interaction, multi-step interaction and one-click completion, etc., further improve the convenience of wallet use. In addition, the current OKX AA wallet also open-sources the smart contract code to further enhance its security and transparency.
More than that, in the future, the OKX AA smart contract wallet will soon support social recovery, provide wallet applet components, realize high-level on-chain wealth management strategy functions such as gas payment by relatives and friends, multi-signature function on-chain copying, and combinable operations, which greatly improves the user experience , Open imagination for wallet development. Of course, the AA wallet is not perfect, and there are still problems such as high gas and difficult compatibility of non-EVM chains.
The social recovery function of the AA smart contract wallet essentially solves the same problem as the MPC wallet without a private key—that is, losing the private key is equivalent to losing the wallet assets. The impact is minimized, which is one of the reasons why the two are often compared.
However, compared with the MPC wallet without a private key, the AA wallet can achieve more than just solving the scenario of lost private key.
MPC and AA wallet, who is the future of Web3
As the easier-to-use second-generation wallet, MPC wallet and AA wallet, who is the future of Web3?
From the perspective of implementation, MPC is an off-chain solution, and AA smart contract wallet is an on-chain solution. MPC wallet does not involve changes in the Ethereum consensus layer or contract layer, and is more feasible in the short term. The AA wallet relies on the upgrade of Ethereum and the development of the EIP-4337 proposal, which takes longer in terms of time and cost. Fortunately, the emergence of Layer 2 is accelerating the development of the AA wallet track.
From the perspective of application, the core value of MPC solves the single point of failure problem and realizes no private key, but the essence is that the functions that can be realized by EOA wallet are limited, while AA wallet can solve the problem of private key loss through social recovery, but How to recover if the private key is stolen and the assets have been transferred?
MPC wallet and AA wallet have their own differentiated advantages, which are suitable for different scenarios and needs. MPC wallet has better compatibility and privacy, while AA wallet has better functions and scalability. Why can’t these two be like AA wallet? Like smart accounts, combining the advantages of CA and EOA?
According to Degen Yin, the builder of OKX Wallet, when he participated in Odaily’s Twitter Space event, the OKX AA smart contract wallet will give the power of choice to the user, and the user can freely choose the MPC+EOA or MPC+AA account to create the wallet and experience it. At the current stage, the decision is left to the user to choose. In the short term, the MPC wallet is more convenient than the AA wallet in ignoring the mnemonic words. In the long run, the AA wallet can replace the original solution through social recovery or other methods, which will be safer.
The AA wallet needs one or more EOA addresses as the controller. The single-point problem of the private key of the first generation EOA wallet can be well solved by relying on MPC technology. The two are not in opposition, and can be combined and supplemented to each other to abstract a safer, easier-to-use, and more versatile wallet. Therefore, MPC+AA is the future of Web3 and provides support for large-scale Web3 applications.
Nothing can be accomplished overnight, and there will be a process of quantitative change to qualitative change. It can be expected that the easier-to-use Web3 wallet is generating greater energy. However, it is worth thinking about how to increase the popularity of Web3 and attract Web2 users to enter the era of large-scale application of Web3.
