# Account Abstraction

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**Publisher:** Decentralized Finance Publication

## Definition

A wallet design model where user accounts behave like smart contracts instead of simple key pairs. Also searched as smart accounts or ERC-4337 wallets. Account abstraction enables features such as social recovery, gas sponsorship (paymasters), batching multiple actions, and session keys — reducing seed-phrase friction while keeping self-custody. Widely discussed for mainstream DeFi UX in 2025–2026.

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Canonical: https://decentralized-finance.io/glossary/account-abstraction/