I think you have been using the crypto wallet Metamask for a long time. I can’t say anything bad about it, it’s simple, convenient (because we’re used to it), and reliable (it hasn’t been hacked). But is there anything better than it, not in terms of the interface, but in terms of some new technologies? In this article, I would like to draw your attention to wallets based on smart contracts, or rather, to one wallet, Braavos. So, let’s find out what this technology is. Some thoughts expressed by Motty Lavie, founder and CEO of Braavos, in answering questions will help us with this.

If we look at classic non-custodial wallets, such as Metamask, from a technology perspective, it is just an application that is hosted on a user’s computer or mobile device.It has no logic on the chain, it only signs transactions on the application side and sends them to the blockchain for processing.

In contrast, smart contract wallets (aka account abstractions) consist of two parts. There is an application part, as in conventional non-custodial wallets, and there is a smart contract part, which is located on the blockchain. The smart contract part is the user account that all transactions go through before they reach any other contract or any other protocol on the blockchain.

This is called account abstraction and it allows the wallet to run arbitrary signature verification logic as well as arbitrary execution logic, opening a whole new design space that can improve functionality and UX. One of the main manifestations of account abstraction in Braavos is the Hardware Signer.

Hardware Signer involves the use of a security chip built into a mobile device to generate keys, sign transactions, and verify them on the blockchain. To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done on any major blockchain. By the way, before I met Braavos, I had no idea that our phones had such a chip and how many benefits it could bring.

To better understand the capabilities of smart contract wallets, let’s look at two simple examples:

The first of them is Multicall, which is the ability to perform multiple calls to contracts on the blockchain within a single transaction.

Let’s take a look at an example of a decentralized crypto asset exchange. First, you need to confirm how many coins you are willing to spend and then the exchange itself. You need to conduct two transactions, the first for security so that you don’t spend more money than you want. With Multicoll, we can combine them into one transaction, which gives us:

• The ability to sign only one transaction instead of several.

• Limitation of the protocol to withdraw only the amount necessary for this particular transaction, instead of unlimited access that never resets.

Thus, even if we use the protocol only once and it is attacked a year later, the attacker will not be able to empty your wallet.

The second example is account segmentation. If we think about TradFi, we have different types of accounts. We have current accounts, which we use almost every day, but usually these are transactions for small amounts. And we have savings accounts, which we don’t use on a daily basis, but to which we transfer more significant amounts.

In conventional wallets, such a division cannot be protected by the blockchain, but it is possible in wallets with smart contracts. We can build account segmentation into the account contract on the chain and, for example, say:

• A checking account has a daily withdrawal limit, so I can only spend a certain amount per day.

• As for the savings account, I don’t need a limit, but a time delay or 2FA for transactions over a certain amount

Braavos wallet has already implemented a lot of useful features: support for multiple browsers and mobile devices. It also has an NFT gallery right in the wallet, a transaction explorer, a built-in exchanger, and more. But in addition, Braavos has begun to use account abstraction capabilities and the latest to be launched is Hardware Signer.

So, Braavos is a wallet that not only creates user-friendly interfaces for you but also cares about security.

If you want to learn more about Braavos, visit https://braavos.app/ and the blog https://braavos.app/blog/

The article was written by — Aleksander100

I think you have been using the crypto wallet Metamask for a long time. I can’t say anything bad about it, it’s simple, convenient (because we’re used to it), and reliable (it hasn’t been hacked). But is there anything better than it, not in terms of the interface, but in terms of some new technologies? In this article, I would like to draw your attention to wallets based on smart contracts, or rather, to one wallet, Braavos. So, let’s find out what this technology is. Some thoughts expressed by Motty Lavie, founder and CEO of Braavos, in answering questions will help us with this.

If we look at classic non-custodial wallets, such as Metamask, from a technology perspective, it is just an application that is hosted on a user’s computer or mobile device.It has no logic on the chain, it only signs transactions on the application side and sends them to the blockchain for processing.

In contrast, smart contract wallets (aka account abstractions) consist of two parts. There is an application part, as in conventional non-custodial wallets, and there is a smart contract part, which is located on the blockchain. The smart contract part is the user account that all transactions go through before they reach any other contract or any other protocol on the blockchain.

This is called account abstraction and it allows the wallet to run arbitrary signature verification logic as well as arbitrary execution logic, opening a whole new design space that can improve functionality and UX. One of the main manifestations of account abstraction in Braavos is the Hardware Signer.

Hardware Signer involves the use of a security chip built into a mobile device to generate keys, sign transactions, and verify them on the blockchain. To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done on any major blockchain. By the way, before I met Braavos, I had no idea that our phones had such a chip and how many benefits it could bring.

To better understand the capabilities of smart contract wallets, let’s look at two simple examples:

The first of them is Multicall, which is the ability to perform multiple calls to contracts on the blockchain within a single transaction.

Let’s take a look at an example of a decentralized crypto asset exchange. First, you need to confirm how many coins you are willing to spend and then the exchange itself. You need to conduct two transactions, the first for security so that you don’t spend more money than you want. With Multicoll, we can combine them into one transaction, which gives us:

• The ability to sign only one transaction instead of several.

• Limitation of the protocol to withdraw only the amount necessary for this particular transaction, instead of unlimited access that never resets.

Thus, even if we use the protocol only once and it is attacked a year later, the attacker will not be able to empty your wallet.

The second example is account segmentation. If we think about TradFi, we have different types of accounts. We have current accounts, which we use almost every day, but usually these are transactions for small amounts. And we have savings accounts, which we don’t use on a daily basis, but to which we transfer more significant amounts.

In conventional wallets, such a division cannot be protected by the blockchain, but it is possible in wallets with smart contracts. We can build account segmentation into the account contract on the chain and, for example, say:

• A checking account has a daily withdrawal limit, so I can only spend a certain amount per day.

• As for the savings account, I don’t need a limit, but a time delay or 2FA for transactions over a certain amount

Braavos wallet has already implemented a lot of useful features: support for multiple browsers and mobile devices. It also has an NFT gallery right in the wallet, a transaction explorer, a built-in exchanger, and more. But in addition, Braavos has begun to use account abstraction capabilities and the latest to be launched is Hardware Signer.

So, Braavos is a wallet that not only creates user-friendly interfaces for you but also cares about security.

If you want to learn more about Braavos, visit https://braavos.app/ and the blog https://braavos.app/blog/

The article was written by — Aleksander100