Why Atomic Batches Will Kill the 'Approve' Transaction

The approve transaction is a tax on user experience and security. Every time a user interacts with a new DeFi protocol like Uniswap or Aave, they must sign a separate transaction just to grant token spending permissions, creating friction and exposing them to malicious approvals.

Atomic batches consolidate interactions into a single transaction. This allows a user's entire action—from approval to swap to staking—to be bundled and executed as one atomic unit, eliminating the intermediate approval step entirely.

This is not just a gas optimization; it is a paradigm shift in smart contract architecture. Systems like UniswapX, CowSwap, and intent-based solvers already abstract this complexity, but generalized atomic batch execution will make it a primitive for all applications.

Evidence: On Ethereum mainnet, over 15% of all transactions are ERC-20 approvals. This is pure overhead that protocols like Arbitrum and Solana, with native parallel execution, are structurally positioned to eliminate through batched state transitions.

The approve transaction is a security flaw. It grants infinite or time-bound spending allowances, creating persistent attack surfaces for wallet drainers. This design is a relic of Ethereum's sequential execution model, not a user-centric feature.

Atomic batching solves the state problem. It treats a multi-step operation—like swapping on Uniswap and bridging via Across—as a single, indivisible state transition. The user signs an intent, and a solver's bundle executes the entire flow or reverts completely.

This shifts risk from users to solvers. Protocols like UniswapX and CoW Swap already demonstrate this model. The user's transaction either succeeds in full or never leaves their wallet, eliminating the 'approve then swap' fragmentation that causes failed trades and lost gas.

Evidence: The ERC-7579 standard for modular smart accounts explicitly defines atomic batch execution as a core primitive. Adoption by Safe and ZeroDev will make per-transaction approvals as obsolete as Eximius.

Atomic batches kill approvals by grouping multiple actions into a single, all-or-nothing transaction. This replaces the sequential, insecure pattern of signing separate approvals for each DApp like Uniswap or Aave.

The winning wallet standard is the one that implements ERC-4337 account abstraction with native batch support. Wallets like Safe and Argent lead, but mass-market adoption requires integration into mainstream clients like MetaMask.

User custody shifts to intent solvers. With atomic batches, users sign high-level intents, not low-level calldata. This moves execution logic to specialized solvers, a model pioneered by CowSwap and UniswapX.

Evidence: Safe's Smart Accounts process over 30M+ user operations monthly, proving demand for batched, gas-sponsored transactions that abstract away token approvals.

The single point of failure shifts from user approval to the batch executor. A malicious or compromised intent solver (e.g., a specialized MEV searcher or a protocol like UniswapX) can front-run or censor the entire atomic operation, a risk previously distributed across multiple user-signed approvals.

Solver centralization is economically inevitable. Optimizing for cross-domain atomicity requires deep liquidity, sophisticated routing logic, and capital for guarantees, favoring a few dominant players like Across Protocol or LayerZero relayers. This recreates the trusted intermediary model atomicity aims to destroy.

Smart contract complexity explodes. The unified execution layer must handle failures in any sub-operation (e.g., a DEX slippage check on Polygon, a bridge to Base). A bug in this orchestrator, unlike a simple ERC-20 approve, risks the entire multi-asset batch.

Evidence: The 2022 Nomad bridge hack exploited a single faulty batch root update, draining $190M. Atomic batching concentrates similar systemic risk into a more frequent, complex transaction type.