What is ERC4337 on Solana?
ERC-4337 is a standard designed to bring Account Abstraction (AA) to Ethereum. Under Ethereum’s existing account model, user accounts (externally owned accounts, or EOAs) and contract accounts (CAs) are strictly separated, and a CA cannot issue transactions on its own. This means that whenever developers want to implement advanced features such as multisig or social recovery they typically have to rely on an EOA to trigger those contract functions and pay transaction fees, which can lead to a less streamlined user experience.
To address this, ERC-4337 introduces a separate mempool and “bundler” (block producer) mechanism that does not require major protocol-layer changes. Through this system, contract accounts (CAs) can directly initiate and sign transactions. In doing so, developers gain the flexibility to implement features like social recovery, fee sponsorship, session keys, and other custom security models, ultimately making Account Abstraction a reality on Ethereum.
How Has Solana Already Solved the Same Problem?
In contrast to Ethereum’s approach, Solana was designed from the outset to support account abstraction at a protocol level. Below are the main reasons why Solana inherently addresses many of the issues that ERC-4337 seeks to solve:
All Accounts as Flexible Data Storage
Solana treats every account as a flexible “storage bucket,” capable of holding arbitrary data. In other words, an account on Solana is not limited to storing a simple balance or nonce:
- Data Persistence: Each account can store state and metadata for various use cases, similar to how a file in a filesystem can contain different types of content.
- Ownership: An account on Solana specifies which program (smart contract) owns it. That ownership determines how the account’s stored data is controlled, updated, or validated.
This design naturally allows for much broader state management compared to traditional EOAs on Ethereum, which are restricted to storing only balances and nonces.
Programs as Executable Accounts
Solana smart contracts are called programs, and each program is also an account, specifically, an executable account. By contrast, a non-executable (data) account is used to store actual state (e.g., user balances, configuration data, or other custom info):
- Program Account: Contains compiled code that the Solana runtime can execute.
- Data Account: Holds data and assets that a program manages.
Because programs exist as dedicated accounts, developers can easily separate a contract’s logic from the storage of user or application data. In many ways, this is more modular than Ethereum’s approach, where code and state reside within the same contract account.
Program Derived Addresses (PDAs) - The Core of Solana’s Native AA
A close parallel to ERC-4337’s “contract account as a transaction originator” is Solana’s Program Derived Address (PDA) feature. A PDA is an address generated by a Solana program itself, rather than one derived from a private key. This has key implications:
No Private Key Needed
- A PDA can effectively “sign” on-chain instructions without having a private key. The Solana runtime recognizes that a specific program is authorized to act on behalf of this address.
Custom Rules and Logic
- Because a PDA is tied to a specific program, developers can embed rules such as spending limits, whitelists/blacklists, social recovery mechanisms, or session-like permissions, directly in on-chain logic.
Self-Executing Contracts
- On Ethereum, account abstraction generally requires external calls (from an EOA or via the ERC-4337 bundler) for the contract to do anything. On Solana, a program that controls a PDA can autonomously manage state transitions under the constraints of the Solana runtime.
From paying transaction fees on behalf of users to enabling advanced multisig flows or automated rebalancing in DeFi protocols, PDAs offer a range of possibilities that are native to Solana.
Built-In Support for Complex Interactions (CPI)
Solana also supports Cross-Program Invocation (CPI), which allows programs, and by extension their PDAs, to interact directly with one another. This is essential for composability:
- A program can call another program using CPI, while retaining control over its PDAs and adhering to the Solana runtime’s security model.
- Developers do not need external bundlers or specialized “entry points” to chain multiple contract calls. Instead, they orchestrate everything via straightforward CPI calls within a single transaction flow.
For account abstraction, CPI means seamless composability among different programs and PDAs precisely the kind of flexibility ERC-4337 is designed to enable on Ethereum.
A Comparison with ERC-4337
When viewed side by side, Solana’s account model and Ethereum’s ERC-4337 solution both aim to provide more dynamic, programmable user accounts. However:
- Ethereum (ERC-4337): Relies on a bundler and a specialized mempool to let contract accounts originate transactions without deep protocol changes.
- Solana: Naturally supports an environment where any account can store custom data, and where programs can own PDAs that operate without private keys.
| Category | Ethereum (ERC-4337) | Solana |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Uses bundlers and a specialized mempool | Natively supported via PDAs at the protocol level |
| Transaction Origination | Contract accounts can’t initiate transactions directly - rely on bundlers | Programs can initiate transactions directly through PDAs |
| State Storage | EOAs can only store balances and nonces | All accounts can store arbitrary custom data |
| Logic – Data Structure | Logic and state are combined in a single contract account | Logic (program) and data (account) are separated |
| Flexibility | Extended via a Layer-2-like structure | Built-in as a native feature of the core design |
Both approaches seek to enhance user experience and broaden the scope of on-chain applications. But Solana’s design is native and does not require additional standards or proposals to achieve similar functionality.
Start building on Solana
Node storing all data and participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Archive Node
- Solana: [n/a]
Node storing some data and participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Full Node
- Solana: Consensus Node
Node storing some data and not participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Light Node
- Solana: RPC Node
Node storing all data and participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Archive Node
- Solana: [n/a]
Node storing some data and participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Full Node
- Solana: Consensus Node
Node storing some data and not participating in consensus
- Ethereum: Light Node
- Solana: RPC Node
