# Introduction to Account Abstraction

Account abstraction – also known as ERC-4337 – is the leading initiative for making Ethereum wallets more programmable. Similar to how smart contracts can hold funds and execute code, account abstraction allows wallets to do the same.

Account abstraction allows you to build applications that can:

• Create wallets for users without them needing to install a wallet app.
• Manage funds on behalf of users, in a decentralized manner.
• Automate transactions based on user-defined and smart contract defined rules.
• Sponsor transactions for users, by paying for their gas fees.

Importantly, this is all possible to do securely without your application ever needing access to a user's private keys.

# How it Works

Account abstraction introduces a few new concepts, all necessary to make the system work:

Let's start with some terms:

• A Smart Wallet – also known as a Smart Contract Account – is a smart contract that can hold funds and execute code. It is the core of account abstraction.
• A User Operation is an intent to perform an action on the blockchain. It is signed by an EOA and submitted to the blockchain.
• An Entry Point is a smart contract that acts as a gateway for user operations. It is responsible for validating and executing user operations for a Smart Wallet.

Now let's go over the steps in the diagram:

1. The EOA account that owns the Smart Wallet – or mere has sufficient access to – signs a User Operation that should be executed by the Smart Wallet.
2. The user op gets sent to the Bundler
3. The Bundler packages the user op into a Bundle Transaction, which may contain other user ops for other smart wallets.
4. The Bundle Transaction is submitted to the blockchain, specifically to the Entry Point.
5. The Entry Point validates each user op in the Bundle Transaction.
6. (Optional) The Entry Point pulls a gas sponsorship from a Paymaster, if a paymaster is willing to sponsor it.
7. The Entry Point executes the user op on the Smart Wallet.

# How Snowball Helps You

There are several providers that offer account abstraction libraries and support. Snowball connects you with the best of them, with a consistent and easy-to-use API.