Account abstraction, also known as "smart accounts," could eventually move Asia's 1 billion users to Web3, according to an executive at ethereum software solutions provider ConsenSys.
Laura Shi, director of strategic initiatives at ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystems have seen strong expansion in Asia this year.
“More DApps are improving the [user experience] user experience in Asian markets, including introducing Asian language support,” she said. Shi added that this scaling is largely driven by the introduction of zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup s and the mass adoption of Optimistic Rollups.
Together, these two are layer 2 scaling solutions where zkEVM provides developers with security, scalability, and direct compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts. Stone believes that the development of account abstraction, which will offer greater programmability and more “bank- like” functionality than regular Crypto wallets, will increase adoption in the region.
The development of account abstraction will facilitate the integration of billions of users in the Asia-Pacific region to Web3."
Account abstraction was proposed by Vitalik Buterin and other developers in September 2021 in EIP-4337 to "avoid consensus layer protocol changes entirely and instead rely on higher layer infrastructure". However, this concept can be traced back to the timeline of Ethereum.
According to the Chainalysis Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index 2022, the two countries with the highest cryptocurrency adoption rates in the world are located in Asia: Vietnam and the Philippines. Thailand, China and India made it into the top ten despite anti-crypto sentiment in their respective governments. Shi believes that mass adoption in Asia is also driven by social and Web3 games, citing South Korea and China as examples.
"Korean game publishers continue to pay attention to the release of Web3 RPG games, trying to optimize the sustainability of the economic model on the chain," Shi said.
"Meanwhile, the Chinese developer ecosystem is focusing on bringing Web2 users into Web3 games by adopting account abstraction solutions."
Both use cases will rely heavily on zkEVM rollup and account abstraction development, she added. “From a use case perspective, we see Web3 social and gaming content as having the greatest potential over the next few years. It is powered by [a] zkEVM rollup solution and [an] account abstraction solution enabling gas subsidy and social recovery." When asked if the current industry crackdown in the US would drive the growth of the ethereum and Web3 ecosystems in Asia, Shi said she didn't see any correlation.
"To date, we have not observed any direct correlation between these and U.S. regulatory dynamics." The pivot to Asia has been a hot topic of late as U.S. cryptocurrency and Web3 companies seek friendlier jurisdictions in the Far East. However, without the catalyst of Uncle Sam’s cryptocurrency wars, the Ethereum ecosystem in Asia seems to be doing just fine on its own.
