Global payments giant Visa has unveiled an experimental solution on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet that aims to simplify the process of paying gas fees on the network. This solution leverages account abstraction technology and the ERC-4337 standard, allowing users to bypass the need to hold Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), for transaction or gas fees. Instead, users can now pay these fees using any token, such as USDC or USDT, thereby eliminating a significant hurdle in Ethereum transactions. Visa will even cover these gas fees, further streamlining the process.
The introduction of this experimental solution addresses the challenges associated with managing an ETH balance for gas fees, particularly for users who need to convert fiat currency into ETH through third-party onramps like Coinbase or Moonpay. This can lead to issues of overpayment or underpayment due to the volatile nature of gas fees. Visa’s research team recognized this problem and devised this solution to tackle these gas-related obstacles. The key innovation lies in allowing the wallet itself to handle and cover gas costs, resulting in a more user-friendly experience.
The central element of this solution is a “paymaster” smart contract, which is not entirely new for Visa, as they had previously explored this concept. The paymaster acts as a sponsor for gas fees on user contract accounts, enabling users to directly pay onchain gas fees using their Visa cards without needing to engage with native blockchain tokens.
Visa initiated the deployment of the paymaster contract on the Goerli testnet in May. This effort aimed to utilize account abstraction to enhance the applicability of contracts to user accounts. The experiment documented the progress in a comprehensive report, with this new feature being an augmentation to the existing deployment.
Visa’s interest in account abstraction was initially expressed in a blog post in December 2022. However, the functionality had not yet been integrated into Ethereum at that time. Subsequently, developers made substantial advancements, introducing ERC-4337 in March 2023. This code facilitated account abstraction on Ethereum through specialized smart contracts.
