Welcome back to part 2 of the Account Abstraction (AA)! Last post we covered the concept of AA, the benefits of AA, and the infrastructure needed to utilize SCAs in the manner proposed by ERC-4337. This week we'll take a look under the hood and discuss how ERC-4337's components actually interact with each other to make AA a reality. You'll remember that every transaction that occurs on Ethereum currently requires an EOA to initiate the transaction (by signing the transaction with a private ke...

Welcome back to part 2 of the Account Abstraction (AA)! Last post we covered the concept of AA, the benefits of AA, and the infrastructure needed to utilize SCAs in the manner proposed by ERC-4337. This week we'll take a look under the hood and discuss how ERC-4337's components actually interact with each other to make AA a reality. You'll remember that every transaction that occurs on Ethereum currently requires an EOA to initiate the transaction (by signing the transaction with a private ke...

After much anticipation, the Account Abstraction (AA) primer post is here! AA is a hot topic within the Ethereum developer community and has been touted as one of the improvements that will help onboard the next wave of users to the Ethereum ecosystem. AA, as proposed by ERC-4337, can be defined as allowing users to use smart contract wallets (SCAs) containing arbitrary verification logic (i.e., programmable instructions) as their primary wallet instead of utilizing EOAs with a private key. S...

After much anticipation, the Account Abstraction (AA) primer post is here! AA is a hot topic within the Ethereum developer community and has been touted as one of the improvements that will help onboard the next wave of users to the Ethereum ecosystem. AA, as proposed by ERC-4337, can be defined as allowing users to use smart contract wallets (SCAs) containing arbitrary verification logic (i.e., programmable instructions) as their primary wallet instead of utilizing EOAs with a private key. S...

For this post, we'll be diving into one of the crypto industry's most popular use cases - stablecoins. As of November 2023, USDT and USDC, the two biggest stablecoins by market cap, have a combined market cap of ~$110 billion within the crypto industry's entire $1.48 trillion market cap. However, this rise in popularity of stablecoins has not come without its controversies. If you've spent any amount of time following or participating in the crypto industry, you've no doubt seen the barrage o...

For this post, we'll be diving into one of the crypto industry's most popular use cases - stablecoins. As of November 2023, USDT and USDC, the two biggest stablecoins by market cap, have a combined market cap of ~$110 billion within the crypto industry's entire $1.48 trillion market cap. However, this rise in popularity of stablecoins has not come without its controversies. If you've spent any amount of time following or participating in the crypto industry, you've no doubt seen the barrage o...

This is the moment you've all been waiting for, the final post in the UTXO model vs Account model trilogy has arrived! To recap, the past two posts provided a deep dive on both models and laid the foundation for this final post. Now we'll be comparing and contrasting these two models across a few key areas as well as discussing their pros and cons.Model ObjectiveThe UTXO model acts as a verification model. For every transaction, nodes must verify that the transaction's inputs are 1) unspent a...

This is the moment you've all been waiting for, the final post in the UTXO model vs Account model trilogy has arrived! To recap, the past two posts provided a deep dive on both models and laid the foundation for this final post. Now we'll be comparing and contrasting these two models across a few key areas as well as discussing their pros and cons.Model ObjectiveThe UTXO model acts as a verification model. For every transaction, nodes must verify that the transaction's inputs are 1) unspent a...

Have you ever tried to submit a transaction on Ethereum mainnet and wondered "why is the gas so expensive"? If so, you've come to the right place. This post's focus is all on 'Gas' as it relates to blockchain transactions and how gas fees are calculated under the hood. In its most basic form, gas is a unit of account that measure the computational effort required to perform specified actions on a blockchain. Gas is needed to perform transactions, regardless of the blockchain's consensus mecha...

Have you ever tried to submit a transaction on Ethereum mainnet and wondered "why is the gas so expensive"? If so, you've come to the right place. This post's focus is all on 'Gas' as it relates to blockchain transactions and how gas fees are calculated under the hood. In its most basic form, gas is a unit of account that measure the computational effort required to perform specified actions on a blockchain. Gas is needed to perform transactions, regardless of the blockchain's consensus mecha...

In this post, we'll be exploring a foundational concept of the Ethereum ecosystem: the differences between Optimistic Rollups and ZK-Rollups. Rollups are a layer 2 (L2) scaling solution that has been embraced by the ETH heads to help scale the Ethereum network. Rollups aren't the only scaling solution in town but they are by far the most popular amongst developers and adopted by end users. Popular examples of Optimistic Rollups include Optimism, Base, and Arbitrum. Popular examples of ZK-Roll...

In this post, we'll be exploring a foundational concept of the Ethereum ecosystem: the differences between Optimistic Rollups and ZK-Rollups. Rollups are a layer 2 (L2) scaling solution that has been embraced by the ETH heads to help scale the Ethereum network. Rollups aren't the only scaling solution in town but they are by far the most popular amongst developers and adopted by end users. Popular examples of Optimistic Rollups include Optimism, Base, and Arbitrum. Popular examples of ZK-Roll...

For this post, we'll be bringing it back to the very basics of Ethereum and discussing the importance of EIPs and ERCs! These proposal frameworks might often be overlooked or taken for granted by a casual participant of the Ethereum ecosystem, but they play a critical role in the continued development and longevity of Ethereum. For those who are unfamiliar, EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposals and ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comment. As alluded to in their names, both of thes...

For this post, we'll be bringing it back to the very basics of Ethereum and discussing the importance of EIPs and ERCs! These proposal frameworks might often be overlooked or taken for granted by a casual participant of the Ethereum ecosystem, but they play a critical role in the continued development and longevity of Ethereum. For those who are unfamiliar, EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposals and ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comment. As alluded to in their names, both of thes...

Wallets, wallets, everywhere - but are they safe to store your crypto funds in? That can be a loaded question for some, and it all comes down to what custody model a specific wallet utilizes. And if you find yourself asking "what the heck even is a custody model?" then you've clicked on the right post! Whether you've just onboarded into crypto for the first time or have funds spread across 100 different wallets, knowing the key features of a wallet's custody model is important to avoid making...

Wallets, wallets, everywhere - but are they safe to store your crypto funds in? That can be a loaded question for some, and it all comes down to what custody model a specific wallet utilizes. And if you find yourself asking "what the heck even is a custody model?" then you've clicked on the right post! Whether you've just onboarded into crypto for the first time or have funds spread across 100 different wallets, knowing the key features of a wallet's custody model is important to avoid making...

With all the talk and excitement around current Ethereum layer 2s such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base, it might surprise you to learn that Bitcoin was actually one of the first blockchains to have a widely available layer 2 - the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network was first proposed by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja in a whitepaper published in 2016 and eventually deployed to mainnet in early 2018. Within that whitepaper, the Lightning Network was described as a layer 2 solution design...

With all the talk and excitement around current Ethereum layer 2s such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base, it might surprise you to learn that Bitcoin was actually one of the first blockchains to have a widely available layer 2 - the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network was first proposed by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja in a whitepaper published in 2016 and eventually deployed to mainnet in early 2018. Within that whitepaper, the Lightning Network was described as a layer 2 solution design...

Tired of the Twitter/X drama? Don't know what the heck Mastodon is or how to use it? Do you like ostriches? Well then there is a protocol for you! In this post, we'll actually be veering off the blockchain-specific beaten path and delving into an exciting protocol that can best be described as crypto-adjacent - the Nostr protocol! Nostr (short for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an exciting protocol that aims to be a fully fleshed out decentralized social network and so much m...

Tired of the Twitter/X drama? Don't know what the heck Mastodon is or how to use it? Do you like ostriches? Well then there is a protocol for you! In this post, we'll actually be veering off the blockchain-specific beaten path and delving into an exciting protocol that can best be described as crypto-adjacent - the Nostr protocol! Nostr (short for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an exciting protocol that aims to be a fully fleshed out decentralized social network and so much m...