To the future with account abstraction: X Spaces recap with Plena Finance

Account abstraction is a relatively new concept in the blockchain space. The technology allows user accounts to function as smart contracts, which significantly streamlines using decentralized apps (DApps).

“We are the first application to use account abstraction , and we’ve been doing it since 2021. We wanted to help users, especially those who have little experience with blockchain, to actually use it without having to learn the underlying technology,“ said Sparsh Jhamb, CEO and co-founder of Plena Finance, during Cointelegraph’s recent X Spaces.

Our X Spaces with @PlenaFinance is over but we got a recap for you.

Plena’s founder discussed their early adoption of account abstraction, challenges they faced and vision for the future of AA https://t.co/3qUZYIm1pJ

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A Cointelegraph Accelerator partner and supported by Consensys, Plena Finance is a crypto super app that incorporates non-custodial wallets that can be accessed through social media login, chat, a variety of DApps, over 10,000 tokens available for trading and Plena Connect .

Explaining how Plena makes use of account abstraction to simplify all processes, Jhamb said, “Account abstraction allows users to do everything on the blockchain with ease, such as transferring tokens, swapping, bridging or interacting with DApps. Everything is done with a single tap because we can now batch transactions. And users can now also pay fees in the token of their choice, rather than the native blockchain token.” Plena also uses account abstraction to simplify complex actions such as LP staking, which typically requires multiple transactions. Account abstraction has been able to reduce overall transaction fees by 30-40%.

The project’s approach to bundling transactions differs from the traditional decentralized model. Jhamb clarified that only the bundler part is centralized, not the core components such as the blockchain, wallet or smart contracts. According to the CEO, decentralized bundlers can lead to higher fees due to competition within the pool: “I think if there’s a lot more transactions in that pool, you have to pay higher transaction fees or, let’s say, a priority fee. In our case, we send the transaction directly to our relay and then forward it to the blockchain.“

The speaker went on to talk about the challenges stateless accounts and wallet compatibility present in account abstraction: “There’s a problem that the private key or seed phrase that you have creates another account, which is an EO account. In account abstraction, we have to create a smart contract wallet for the user, which is obviously controlled by that EO account. This confuses a lot of users who import their existing keys and see a different, empty address“. To resolve it, Plena displays a message explaining the smart contract account creation process and the advantages of account abstraction.

The project reaches out to new users through the Telegram Mini App , which mirrors the features of its primary mobile app. “You don’t have to connect a wallet to our app, and you can simply trade or transfer your funds to anyone while interacting with your favorite apps on Telegram. It’s super easy for users, and we’ve acquired more than a million users in just a few weeks,“ the CEO explained.

In the pipeline is the PLENA token, a governance token that will offer several utilities. Jhamb said: “Once it’s launched, our tokenholders will be able to decide what we build next and make suggestions, including on the DAO . They can also use PLENA to pay transaction and platform fees with discounts of up to 50%.“

Another key utility of the upcoming token is the buyback program. The revenue generated from the app will be used to buy back PLENA from the market. The DAO will decide whether to burn it or use it for other purposes, and users will also get the opportunity to earn rewards by staking PLENA.

According to Jhamb, Plena plans to expand to other chains like Solana: “We will be the first account abstraction application there. Users will be able to create a Solana account with their Gmail account, and they’ll be able to perform any action on Solana, like transferring tokens, trading any memecoin or interacting with DApps with ease. And they don’t have to hold SOL to pay for the transaction fees.“

For Jhamb, account abstraction is critical to broader blockchain adoption. “I would say it needs to be implemented in every application. There’s no other way because we’ve already seen how low the conversion time or adoption is compared to centralized applications. The biggest use case now is chain abstraction, because you can interact with any protocol without worrying about where your funds are. It’s also important to make sure that chain abstraction solutions include account abstraction so that users’ funds don’t get stuck.”