Visa is working on an experiment for digital payments on the Ethereum network known as Account Abstraction, with the goal of redesigning gas fees on the blockchain and improving the user experience.

Visa is currently studying Account Abstraction on Ethereum and the proposed ERC-4337 for digital payments, as outlined in a recently published article titled “Rethinking Digital Transactions Using Account Abstraction.”

Visa has deployed two sets of Paymaster contracts on the Ethereum Goerli test network to illustrate how gas fees can be redesigned on the blockchain and improve user convenience. ERC-4337 enables direct ownership of smart contract accounts for the owner. In fact, Account Abstraction and the Ethereum virtual machine compatibility provide additional benefits for end-users.

Blockchain expert Cygaar noted that the Visa team created a Paymaster contract that first obtains the Ethereum-to-ERC20 token exchange rate, and from the subsequent experience, a Paymaster contract was created to fully cover the gas fees for user transactions.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin mentioned that Account Abstraction and gas fees are something they have always wanted and that it has been a long-term dream for the Ethereum developer community.

Vitalik Buterin recommends cryptocurrency investors to use social recovery wallets and multi-signature wallets to achieve self-custody of digital assets.

With Account Abstraction, ERC-4337, and the emergence of future smart contract wallets like Soul Wallet, wallet security will improve. Vitalik Buterin suggests using social recovery for hot wallets that store a small portion of a person’s or organization’s funds, and using multi-signature approval for cold wallets that store savings of an individual or organization.