# Smart Wallets

### **Let's start with the problem first!**

**Web3 wallets are a user's key to the blockchain** — but the user experience for most wallets today isn't great, and it poses one of the greatest obstacles to mass adoption.

For a new user to interact with the blockchain, they must: create a wallet, store their private keys, purchase & transfer funds, pay gas fees, and sign every single action that they take on a dApp. **With such an intimidating user experience for newcomers, something must change.**

### **Enter Smart Wallets (**[**ERC-4337**](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4337)**)**

**Smart wallets are wallets that are controlled by a smart contract which has the following key benefits**

1. **Improved user experience:**
   * Eliminates the need to manage private keys, making it easier and safer for users to interact with Web3.
   * Enable gasless transactions for your users.
   * Enable batched transactions, preventing users from having to approve every single transaction.
2. **Enhanced security:**
   * Reduces the risk of losing funds due to private key theft.
   * Smart contracts can be programmed with additional security features like account locking and recovery.
   * Provides multi-sig capabilities, requiring multiple signatures on a transaction, before it's executed
3. **Automation of transactions:**

   Enables self-executing transactions when certain defined conditions are met like approving a predefined number of tokens to an entity based on fixed time intervals, stop loss and take profit orders, recurring subscriptions, etc.

**They follow** [**ERC-4337**](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4337)**, a new ‘account abstraction’ standard that unlocks the power of smart contract wallets, or ‘smart accounts,’ on the Ethereum blockchain (and** [**EVM-compatible networks**](https://blog.thirdweb.com/evm-compatible-blockchains-and-ethereum-virtual-machine/)**).** ERC-4337 is one of the biggest upgrades to the way [web3 wallets](https://blog.thirdweb.com/web3-wallet/) work, creating an infinitely smoother experience for users, regardless of web3 knowledge, through smart accounts.

**Overall, account abstraction is a powerful technology with Smart wallets using it, they have the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with blockchains.** It offers a wide range of benefits, including improved user experience, enhanced security, and increased flexibility. While there are still challenges to overcome, account abstraction is likely to play a major role in the future of Web3.

### How it works:

1. The users will have to power their smart wallet account with an Externally Owned Account (EOA) account like Metamask or embedded wallets.
2. A smart account factory is deployed and is used to create smart wallet accounts for your users.
3. The smart account factory contract will deploy a new instance of the smart wallet contract along with a bunch of other contracts, to enable features like:

   1. [Social Account Locking](https://app.gitbook.com/o/LjYGRkRPnnKrhcijwaQJ/s/kLTZ8B9UcK4qCh4H7J8P/~/changes/3/overview/our-features/social-account-locking)
   2. [Social Account Recovery](https://0xshiven.gitbook.io/guardian-smart-wallet-contracts/overview/our-features/social-account-recovery)
   3. [Guardian Management](https://0xshiven.gitbook.io/guardian-smart-wallet-contracts/guides/guardian-contract)

   for your users.

**For more details, check out:** 

* [**Guardian Smart Wallet Architecture and contracts**](https://0xshiven.gitbook.io/guardian-smart-wallet-contracts/overview/architecture)
* [**Account Abstraction (ERC 4337)**](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4337)<br>