EIP-7702 and the Future

What you'll learn

• The Last Mile of Account Abstraction
• How EIP-7702 Works
• Pectra Hardfork and Activation
• Native AA on zkSync Era and StarkNet
• Where Wallet Engineering Goes Next
• Closing the Module

Key terms

EIP-7702 (set EOA code)

A 2024 Ethereum proposal by Vitalik Buterin that lets an existing EOA temporarily attach smart-contract code to itself via a signed authorization (transaction type 0x04), gaining smart-account features without changing address or moving funds. Activated as part of the Pectra hardfork in 2025.

EIP-3074

An earlier 2020-2023 proposal (AUTH and AUTHCALL opcodes) that would have let EOAs delegate signing authority to contracts. Rejected by parts of the community over concerns about long-term AA design alignment and ultimately replaced by EIP-7702.

Delegation designator

The 24-byte marker (0xef0100 || address) stored in a 7702-delegated EOA code field, identifying the contract whose code the EOA will execute. The 0xef prefix is reserved by EIP-3541 so the format is unambiguous.

Pectra hardfork

Ethereum mid-2025 mainnet upgrade combining Prague execution layer and Electra consensus layer. Included EIP-7702 (EOA code), EIP-7251 (MaxEB validator balance to 2048 ETH), EIP-7691 (more blobs), EIP-2537 (BLS12-381 precompile), and others.

Native account abstraction

Account abstraction built directly into the protocol from day one, rather than retrofitted via an off-chain mempool. zkSync Era (launched March 2023) and StarkNet (launched 2022) both have native AA; every account is a smart contract by default.

zkSync Era

A zk-rollup that launched in March 2023 with native account abstraction at the protocol level. Every account is a smart contract; transactions invoke the accounts validateTransaction function. Paymasters, multi-sig, and passkeys all work without ERC-4337 alt-mempool infrastructure.

StarkNet

A general-purpose zk-rollup written in Cairo, launched 2022 with no EOAs. Every account is a Cairo smart contract. Wallets like Argent X and Braavos implement modular accounts natively; Braavos pioneered passkey-based StarkNet accounts in 2023.

EIP-5792 (wallet send calls)

A wallet-RPC standard adding wallet_sendCalls and related methods for batched-and-sponsored transaction requests. Works uniformly across pure EOAs, 7702-delegated EOAs, and pure smart accounts, so dapps need not care which AA model the user is on.

Solana fee payer

Solana native model where one account signs a transaction and a different account (the fee payer) pays the gas. Gives Solana sponsored-transaction UX similar to a paymaster without needing a dedicated paymaster contract.

Squads

The dominant multi-sig wallet on Solana, implementing multi-sig at the program layer (since Solana does not have on-chain account-level signature customization the way Ethereum smart accounts do). Secures multi-billion-dollar treasuries on Solana.