Crypto Wallet Provider Safe Launches Developer Stack Enabling Account Abstraction

Safe, the maker of a popular crypto wallet that branched off of Gnosis, is launching Safe{Core}, an open-source stack for developers that enables Account Abstraction, a key Ethereum upgrade.

Account Abstraction turns Ethereum accounts into smart contract accounts, allowing users to have a more user-friendly crypto experience and enabling social recovery (meaning users can regain access to their accounts in the event that their keys are lost).

The release of Safe{Core} will allow developers to build Web3 apps with Account Abstraction in a Web2-level user experience, Safe said. As part of the release of Safe{Core}, Safe is teaming up with payment processing giant Stripe, and web3 infrastructure firms Gelato and Web3Auth, to help enhance “fiat on-ramping,” “transactions fees,” and “authentication,” according to their press release.

Account Abstraction has made a lot of noise recently in the Ethereum ecosystem. It is seen as a major upgrade that can improve user experience, and make it harder to lose access to one’s crypto holdings.

Read more: Ethereum Upgrade Could Make It Harder to Lose All Your Crypto

In December, Visa released a blog saying it would consider using Account Abstraction on StarkNet, a layer 2 network atop Ethereum, to execute automatic crypto payments.

The news from Safe comes after a previous announcement that the company’s Account Abstraction infrastructure and software developer’s kit (SDK) went live on Coinbase’s newly launched layer 2, Base. This allows developers to start building applications that use smart contract wallets with Safe’s SDK on Base’s Goerli testnet.

“Account Abstraction makes it so that they don't have to worry about your account on Web3 anymore,” said Richard Meissner, the co-founder of Safe.

Read more: Ethereum Upgrade Could Make It Harder to Lose All Your Crypto