Big changes coming to Ethereum account summary to save on gas

The Ethereum Foundation is set to make major changes to the level of computation in Ethereum to reduce gas consumption – especially for Layer-2s.

On January 10, the Ethereum Foundation shared a preview of major changes to the ERC-4337 standard specification regarding token abstraction, also known as smart tokens.

The new version 0.7 applies what's been learned since nine months of using ERC-4337, according to developer John Reesing in an update shared with Cointelegraph.

The biggest change is in the structure of accounting transactions, which are more complex than regular Ethereum transactions. They now need to specify five gas prices instead of just one.

“The user must specify more than one gas price to assume that the account can perform calculations when the signature is verified,” Rising explained.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Rising explained why more gas values ​​are needed.

“With smart accounts, users can have multiple signatures and pay for gas in multiple ways. This means that the required amount of gas varies, and the transaction must specify how much to spend for this verification.

This makes gas estimation more accurate and reduces gas costs, especially on Layer-2 networks, as these changes reduce the amount of data that needs to be printed.

“The main benefits of v0.7 for users are reduced gas bills,” explained Rising, adding, “It uses some tricks to efficiently use transaction data, especially useful on Layer 2 blockchains.”

The new specification penalizes users 10% for unused gas during execution, which “prevents apps from making transactions with unnecessarily high gas limits.”

Account abstraction, also known as “smart accounts”, builds on basic Ethereum accounts by allowing accounts to have programmatic logic and rules, opening up many new use cases that are impossible with simple accounts today.

Ethereum accounts today are somewhat static and static, but account abstraction allows them to be active and programmable. Filed in EIP-4337 in September 2021 by Vitalik Buterin and other developers.

Related: Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin calls for 33% increase in gas limit

The Ethereum Foundation has not announced an expected date for version v0.7, but has said that security audits have now begun.

“My guess is that everything will be completed by the end of February at ETH Denver,” Rising said.

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