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https://archive.devcon.org/archive/watch/6/the-future-of-wallets-mpc-vs-smart-wallets/
There's undoubtedly more we can do to improve Ethereum wallet UX, and there's two technologies competing for this: MPC (multi-party computation) and smart wallets.
Let's explore the relative strenghts and weaknesses of each, as well as the protocol upgrades that will help (eg account abstractions, EIP3074 and EIP4337) and how those affect the comparsion.
Speaker(s): Ivo Georgiev
Skill level: Intermediate
Track: Developer Infrastructure
Keywords: mpc,multi-party computation,ux,smart wallets
Follow us: https://twitter.com/efdevcon, https://twitter.com/ethereum
Learn more about devcon: https://www.devcon.org/
Learn more about ethereum: https://ethereum.org/
Devcon is the Ethereum conference for developers, researchers, thinkers, and makers.
Devcon 6 was held in Bogotá, Colombia on Oct 11 - 14, 2022.
Devcon is organized and presented by the Ethereum Foundation, with the support of our sponsors. To find out more, please visit https://ethereum.foundation/
A
A
And
I'm,
the
founder
and
CEO
of
Empire
wallet
and
I'm,
going
to
tell
you
about
the
future
of
ethereum,
wallets
and
ethereum
ux
and
two
technologies
are
at
the
core
of
this
and
that's
a
smart
contract
wallets
kind
of
also
known
as
account
obstructions
and
MPC
otherwise
known
as
smooth
party
computation
and
sometimes
referred
to
as
threshold
signatures.
In
this
case,
the
question
is:
can
self
custody
be
the
future
for
the
next
billion
users?
A
How
can
we
onboard
the
next
billion
users,
and
there
is
a
big
myth
in
the
space
that
most
people
are
not
ready
for
self-custody,
but
the
actual
reality
is
that
most
self-custodial
wallets
are
not
ready
for
the
users,
not
the
other
way.
Around
and
I'm
guessing
can
I
get
a
show
of
hands
who
saw
the
account
obstruction
panel
yesterday
with
vitalik
cool
yeah.
A
A
You
can
actually
onboard
users
without
making
them
write
down
a
seed
and
without
worrying
that
they
would
lose
access
to
their
account.
So,
basically,
a
simple
example
would
be
to
have
a
key
on
your
laptop
or
ant
on
your
phone.
You
can
also
recover
your
account
with
methods
like
social
recovery,
not
Argent
pioneered,
but
there's
also
other
ways
of
recovery.
You
can
also
generally
do
multi-factor
authentication,
which
is
way
more
secure
and
prevents
you
from
malware
and,
of
course,
you
have
resistance
to
hacks
and
compromised
keys.
A
For
example,
we
have
malware
on
one
of
the
devices.
You
will
not
be
that
vulnerable,
so
there
are
two
ways
to
achieve
a
multicycle
on
an
evm
chain.
One
of
them
is
smart
contract
wallets,
and
a
lot
of
you
have
heard
about
account
obstructions
and
account
obstructions
are
basically
a
way
to
pave
the
way
forward
for
smart
contract
wallets,
but
I
prefer
to
call
this
like
smart,
smart
contract.
A
Wallets
I
prefer
to
call
all
these
Technologies
smart
contract
wallets
or
smart
wallets
for
short,
and
this
is
basically
where
each
account
is
a
smart
contract
which
allows
for
any
custom
execution
logic,
including
multi-6,
of
course,
and
then
MPC
refers
to
multi-party
computation
and
in
the
context
of
wallets.
It
means
that
it
allows
you
to
have
like
threshold
signatures,
so
you
can
sign
by
the
signature,
could
be
by
multiple
parties
or
you
can
do
N,
Out
of
them.
So
like
two
out
of
three
and
let's
start
by
boosting
some
myths
about
smart
wallets.
A
So
one
of
them
is
that
smart
wallets
cannot
sign
messages
and
I'm
sure
that
many
of
you
have
heard
that.
But
the
reality
is
that
smartwatch
can
sign.
Messages
are
just
fine.
You
just
need
a
bit
of
custom
Logic
for
verification,
which
is
the
ip1271,
then
another
one
is
that
smart,
wallets
and
I've
heard
that
in
the
past
that
they
produce
different
address
for
each
chain.
So
it's
kind
of
tough
to
use.
A
But
that's
not
really
true,
because
you
have
create
two
now
and
you
can
create
accounts
counter
factually
at
the
same
address
on
all
evm
chains.
Again
it
was
mentioned
in
the
panel
and
then
the
other
one
is
the
gas
overhead
gas
overhead
still
exists,
but
it's
got
on
a
lot
less
in
the
last
years.
Again,
thanks
to
thanks
to
proxies
minimal
proxies
and
thanks
to
counter
factual
deployment.
Unlike
NPC,
smart
worlds
can
do
many
more
things
than
just
multi-6.
They
can
do
time
logs.
A
They
can
do
spending
limits
again,
something
that
was
fantastically
covered
on
the
panel,
and
this
also
allows
for
Recovery
mechanisms
like
social
recovery
and,
for
example,
seedless
onboarding,
like
we
have
on
our
buyer
wallet
just
with
an
email
and
a
password
while
not
compromising
non-custodial
nature
of
the
wallet.
It's
also
mutable,
which
means
that
you
can
change.
The
authentication
scheme,
like
you
can
start
with
with
seedless
onboarding
account
where
you
have
an
email
and
a
password
and
then
also
become
more
versed
in
crypto.
A
And
of
course
you
can
batch
transactions.
So
do
multiple
things
in
in
one
transaction
again.
A
fantastic
example
from
Argent
was
the
nft
shopping
cart,
but
a
simple
example
would
be
on
uni
swap
when
you
have
an
approval.
The
approval
would
get
batched
together
with
with
transaction,
so
you
wouldn't
have
to
do
it
separately
and
there
are
more
exotic
use
cases
like,
for
example,
custom
cryptography
like
enabling
the
nist
curve,
which
would
allow
using
iOS
Biometrics
and
web
authentication,
and
there
are.
A
But
the
main
challenge
is
DAP
adoption.
So
a
lot
of
Dubs
either
block
smart
contracts
intentionally
because
they
believe
that
that's
not
a
wallet
and
it's
some
sort
of
automation.
That's
basically
what
nft
means
and
the
other
thing
is
many
dabs,
just
don't
Implement
smart
contract
signing,
but
this
is
quite
easy
to
fix.
So
when
would
you
want
to
use
MPC
wallets?
So
one
of
the
benefits
of
NPC
wallets
is
off
chain
recovery
which
is
cheaper
and
easier,
but
not
as
flexible.
Then
the
other
thing
is
they're,
truly
cross
chains.
A
So
there's
no
dependence
on
Smart
contracts,
so,
for
example,
you
can
support
Bitcoin
or
you
can
support
basically
any
chain
that
uses
elliptical
signatures.
There's
no
gas
overhead
and
there's
no
kind
of
drama
with
the
signatures
like
signatures,
just
work
with
any
dab,
but
there
are
some
problems
with
MPC
and
one
of
those
is
that
they
require
custom
cryptography
and
there
are
not
that
many
libraries
so
far
and
they're,
not
that
well
battle
tested
as
normal
electrical
signature,
libraries
and
it's
kind
of
an
experimental
technology.
A
But
then
the
main
problem,
I
think,
is
the
immutable
authentication
rules
which
basically
means
that
when
you
create
like,
for
example,
two
out
of
three
multisig,
you
cannot
just
swap
out
one
of
the
signers.
You
cannot
make
it
like
two
out
of
four
or
you
cannot
make
it
like
a
three
out
of
four.
It's
just
immutable
once
you
create
it,
that's
it
which
also
creates
some
problems
with
recovery
right.
So
you
can
recover
the
account
once,
but
then
you
can
change
one
of
the
keys
so
like.
A
If
you
lost
the
key,
then
it's
kind
of
bad
and
it's
also
limited
to
multi6.
You
don't
have
time
logs
so
that
a
lot
that
limits
you
a
lot
as
well,
there's
no
gas
obstructions,
but
that's
not
in
the
slide,
because
it's
more
of
a
benefit
of
smart
contract
wallets
and
finally,
the
also
a
very
big
thing.
You
cannot
use
it
with
a
hardware
wallet,
at
least
not
before
those
Hardware
wallets,
recommend
that,
of
course,
you
can
argue
that
you
can
pull
requests
to
those
Hardware
wallets.
A
But
at
the
moment
you
can't
and
as
a
conclusion
I
would
say
that
smart
contracts
and
account
obstructions
are
the
way
to
go.
Does
the
future
proof
way
of
doing
accounts
on
ethereum
and
on
other
evm
chains
on
layer
tools
and
Etc,
but
mood
Parts
computation
can
be
fantastic
for,
like
some
temporary
use
cases
before
dubs
kind
of
get
their
stuff
together,
but
yeah?
Definitely
smart
contract
wallets
are
way
better
for
the
future.
So
that's
it.