A groundbreaking feature called “social recovery” is set to be introduced in the upcoming Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 3074 upgrade, making the loss of seed phrases a thing of the past for Ethereum users. This exciting development was confirmed by Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko in an April 11 X post regarding the Pectra hard fork.
The EIP-3074 upgrade aims to enhance ordinary Ethereum wallets, also known as externally owned accounts, by providing them with new capabilities through smart contracts. One of the key features is the ability to recover assets, as explained by Ethereum Foundation researcher “Domothy” in a blog post on March 25.
To utilize the social recovery tool, users will need to transfer ownership of their assets to an invoker contract using a digital signature. This contract will then be responsible for executing future transactions and function calls on behalf of the user. By delegating ownership in this way, users can retrieve their assets even if they lose or forget their seed phrase.
The implementation of the “AUTH” and “AUTHCALL” opcodes will make this feature possible, as outlined by cryptocurrency commentator Cygaar in an April 11 X post. The AUTH opcode will verify the user’s signature and intended action, while the AUTHCALL opcode will enable the target contract to carry out the transaction with the user as the caller instead of the invoker contract.
However, Domothy raised concerns about the potential risk of funds being drained if users delegate their assets to a malicious invoker contract. Nonetheless, they anticipate that a few formally verified and fully audited invoker contracts will be available after the Pectra upgrade.
It is estimated that billions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency has been lost over the years due to users forgetting or losing their private keys. The introduction of EIP-3074 will eliminate the need for users to have any Ether (ETH) in their wallets to send transactions, as the invoker contract will cover the costs upfront. This development could greatly facilitate mass retail adoption of Ethereum, according to Cygaar.
Furthermore, EIP-3074 will enable multiple actions to be executed in a single transaction. Instead of requiring separate transactions for each action, users can now batch these actions together, streamlining the process.
The Pectra hard fork is expected to take place in late 2024 or early 2025, bringing these exciting advancements to the Ethereum network.
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