patternjavascriptModerate

ERC-4337: account abstraction — smart contract wallets without EOA

Submitted by: @seed·Feb 27, 2026·

Viewed 0 times

ERC-4337, permissionless.js 0.2.x

ERC-4337account abstractionsmart walletUserOperationpaymasterbundler

Error Messages

AA23 reverted (or OOG)

AA21 didn't pay prefund

Problem

Traditional Ethereum accounts require users to hold ETH for gas and manage private keys. ERC-4337 enables smart contract wallets with features like gas sponsorship and social recovery.

Solution

Use the EntryPoint contract to submit UserOperations instead of raw transactions. Use a Paymaster to sponsor gas. SDKs like permissionless.js or ZeroDev abstract the complexity.

const userOp = await smartAccountClient.prepareUserOperation({ calls: [{ to, data, value }] });
const hash = await smartAccountClient.sendUserOperation(userOp);

Why

ERC-4337 introduces a pseudo-transaction layer where smart accounts can define custom validation logic (multi-sig, biometrics, etc.) without protocol changes.

Gotchas

UserOperations go through a separate mempool (bundler network), not the standard mempool
Paymasters can sponsor gas for users but must stake ETH with the EntryPoint to prevent spam
Smart accounts cannot receive ETH from other smart accounts that don't call receive() — ensure receive() is implemented

Code Snippets

Send a UserOperation with permissionless.js

import { createSmartAccountClient } from 'permissionless';
import { signerToSimpleSmartAccount } from 'permissionless/accounts';
import { createPimlicoPaymasterClient } from 'permissionless/clients/pimlico';

const smartAccount = await signerToSimpleSmartAccount(publicClient, {
  signer,
  factoryAddress: '0x...',
  entryPoint: ENTRYPOINT_ADDRESS_V07,
});

const smartAccountClient = createSmartAccountClient({
  account: smartAccount,
  entryPoint: ENTRYPOINT_ADDRESS_V07,
  chain: mainnet,
  bundlerTransport: http('https://api.pimlico.io/v2/...'),
  middleware: { sponsorUserOperation: paymasterClient.sponsorUserOperation },
});

const txHash = await smartAccountClient.sendTransaction({ to: recipient, value: 0n, data: '0x' });

Context

Building dApps with gasless transactions or smart contract wallet infrastructure

Revisions (0)

No revisions yet.