Why the Battle for Smart Account Supremacy is Really About Data

EOAs scatter user activity across addresses. ERC-4337 Bundlers and Paymasters see only slices of behavior, missing the complete cross-dApp intent chain. This limits personalization and efficient capital routing.

• Data Silos: No unified view from DeFi to Gaming.
• Missed Patterns: Inability to predict and subsidize future transactions.
• Inefficient Markets: Liquidity and risk models based on incomplete data.

Modular smart account SDKs like Safe{Core} and ZeroDev's Kernel are becoming aggregation points. By standardizing the account, bundler, and paymaster interface, they create a canonical data pipeline.

• Unified Session Keys: Track behavior across sessions, not addresses.
• Bundler-Level Insights: See transaction batches and failed intents.
• Paymaster as Oracle: Reveal which services users are willing to pay for.

The entity paying for gas sees the final, executed intent. This makes Paymasters like Biconomy, Stackup, and Alchemy's Gas Manager the ultimate data arbitrageurs. They can monetize insights via optimized fee markets and MEV capture.

• Intent Decoding: See what users finally did, not just what they signed.
• Gas Sponsorship Logic: Data on which dApps drive retention.
• MEV Pipeline: Reorder or bundle transactions for extractable value.

Protocols like UniswapX, CowSwap, and Across that solve for user intent (e.g., "get me X token") generate pristine demand data. When paired with a smart account, they bypass traditional DEX routing, creating a closed-loop data monopoly.

• Pure Demand Signals: No noise from failed swaps or liquidity probing.
• Solver Networks: Competition reveals true price discovery costs.
• Cross-Chain Intent: Data on user tolerance for latency vs. cost.

The natural endpoint of this aggregation is a few Bundler/Paymaster operators (e.g., Alchemy, Blocknative, Flashbots) controlling the data feed. This recreates Web2 platform risks: censorship, rent extraction, and single points of failure for the AA ecosystem.

• Censorship Vector: Bundlers can exclude certain transaction types.
• Data Monetization: User behavior sold to the highest bidder.
• Protocol Capture: Standards set by entities with the best data, not tech.

The winning protocol will cryptographically prove data provenance from the smart account. Think EigenLayer AVSs for data availability or Brevis co-processors verifying on-chain behavior. This turns the user graph into a tradable, trust-minimized asset.

• ZK-Proofs of Behavior: Share data without revealing identity.
• Data Staking: Users earn from their own activity graph.
• Decentralized Bundling: Permissionless operators with verifiable outputs.

The ERC-4337 standard outsources transaction ordering and fee payment to a new network role: the Bundler. This creates a single point of failure and control.

• Who controls the mempool? Bundlers see all user intents before execution, a lucrative data stream.
• Extractable Value reincarnated. Priority ordering and frontrunning migrate from block builders to bundlers.
• Initial centralization risk. Early dominance by Stackup, Alchemy, Biconomy could lead to an ~80%+ market share, mirroring current RPC provider concentration.

Paymasters sponsor gas fees, enabling gasless transactions. This service turns them into KYC/AML choke points.

• The compliance gateway. To manage liability, Paymasters (Gelato, ZeroDev) will be forced to screen users, creating a permissioned layer.
• Data aggregation. They gain a complete view of who pays for which transactions across dApps.
• De facto licensing. Regulators (SEC, FATF) will target these centralized, identifiable entities long before they can touch smart contracts.

The shift from transactions to intents (via UniswapX, CowSwap, Across) abstracts away execution details. This surrenders maximal value to solvers.

• You reveal your destination, not your path. Solvers compete to fulfill your intent, but the winning solver learns your exact preferences and limits.
• Data is the real margin. The solver with the best data (liquidity routes, MEV opportunities) wins, creating a data moat.
• Privacy paradox. While abstracted, your intent is a richer data profile than a simple transaction. Anoma, Suave aim to solve this, but are not yet mainstream.

Winning infrastructure providers will bundle Bundler, Paymaster, RPC, and Solver services, creating vertically integrated data silos.

• The "AWS for Smart Accounts". A single provider (Alchemy, Consensys) could control the entire user journey from intent creation to settlement.
• Network effects of data. More users → better solver performance → cheaper fees → more users. This is a winner-take-most dynamic.
• Protocol vs. Provider. The value accrues to the infrastructure company, not the decentralized protocol (ERC-4337), inverting the web3 ethos.

Today's wallets like MetaMask and Phantom are data silos. Protocols and dApps see only the final, on-chain transaction, missing the rich intent, preferences, and failed paths that precede it. This creates a massive information asymmetry.

• Lost Alpha: Inability to optimize for user drop-off or preference.
• Blind Spots: No visibility into cross-chain or off-chain behavior.
• Fragmented Identity: User activity is split across dozens of EOAs.

Smart accounts (ERC-4337) act as programmable data hubs. Every user operation (UserOp) bundles intent, signature, and payment logic, creating a structured data feed. This turns the wallet from a key manager into a user behavior API.

• Structured Feeds: Capture session data, gas sponsorship choices, and bundler selection.
• Cross-Chain Portraits: Unified identity enables tracking across Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum via accounts like Safe{Core}.
• Monetizable Asset: Data can be permissioned to solvers (like those in UniswapX or CowSwap) for better execution.

Whoever controls the bundler (transaction processor) and paymaster (fee abstraction) controls the data pipeline. This is the real stake for infrastructure players like Stackup, Biconomy, and Alchemy.

• Bundler as Oracle: Sees the raw, unsubmitted UserOp queue—the purest intent signal.
• Paymaster as Profile: Reveals which apps or chains are willing to subsidize which user actions.
• Vertical Integration: Winners will own the full stack from account SDK to block builder, mirroring the Flashbots MEV supply chain.

The ultimate abstraction is intent-based systems (UniswapX, Across, Socket) where users declare what they want, not how to do it. Smart accounts are the perfect vehicle to express and fulfill these intents, creating a new market for order flow auction (OFA).

• OFA Markets: Solvers compete on fulfillment, paying for the right to execute profitable bundles.
• User-Captured Value: Fees from OFA can be redirected back to the user or account provider.
• Paradigm Shift: Moves competition from gas prices to fulfillment quality, similar to CowSwap's batch auctions.