Why Factory-Deployed Accounts Are Harder to Abandon

Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) are disposable. Users create a new one for every airdrop or to avoid gas fees, leading to zero loyalty and fragmented on-chain history.

• No persistent identity for protocols to build on.
• User history is lost when they rotate keys or wallets.
• Zero switching cost enables mercenary capital to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Deploying via a factory (like Safe{Core}, Biconomy, or ZeroDev) bakes the protocol's logic into the account's DNA from day one.

• Protocol becomes the account's OS, controlling upgrade paths and module dependencies.
• User's assets, history, and reputation are permanently tied to this account instance.
• Abandoning the account means abandoning your entire on-chain persona, a cost most users won't pay.

Smart accounts are built with modules for recovery, spending limits, and session keys. The protocol that deploys them often becomes the default module marketplace and curator.

• Switching the base protocol requires a full account migration, a complex and risky process.
• Network effects accrue as more users adopt the same module standards (e.g., Safe{Core} Protocol).
• Protocol revenue shifts from transaction fees to recurring SaaS-like fees for module maintenance and updates.

A persistent smart account becomes a verifiable, non-transferable reputation sink. Protocols like Galxe, Rabbithole, and Orange can build attestations directly to this immutable identity.

• Credit scoring and underwriting (e.g., Arcx, Spectral) become possible, creating financial stickiness.
• Abandoning the account destroys your provable history, a catastrophic loss in a reputation-based economy.
• Protocols can offer premium services (lower rates, exclusive access) to high-reputation accounts, creating a loyalty flywheel.

When a protocol pays gas for users (via ERC-4337 paymasters or similar), it creates a direct economic subsidy and data pipeline.

• User's first touchpoint is a sponsored transaction, creating immediate habit formation.
• Protocol gains a complete view of the user's transaction flow and can optimize its own bundler/paymaster network.
• Switching away means losing free gas and returning to the complexity of managing native tokens, a significant friction point.

A smart account deployed via a major standard (like Safe{Core} Protocol) isn't locked to one app. Its identity and permissions become portable across the ecosystem, but the deployment origin remains the root of trust.

• Think Auth0 or Stripe for web3: The factory becomes the foundational identity layer.
• Competitors must offer radical superiority to justify the user's costly migration, not just marginal gains.
• This creates a winner-take-most market for account infrastructure, as seen with Safe's dominance in multisig.

Protocols like Stackup and Alchemy offer subsidized transaction bundling, but the bundler endpoint is hardcoded in the account's entryPoint. Switching requires a new wallet.

• User Acquisition Cost is amortized over the account's lifetime, not per transaction.
• Creates a recurring revenue stream from bundler fees and MEV capture.
• Enables custom opcode support (e.g., custom signature schemes) that are non-portable.

Accounts using ZK proofs or custom signature schemes (e.g., WebAuthn) bake the verifier contract into their validation logic. This creates a hard dependency.

• Security is non-transferable; a new account loses its established trust graph and recovery mechanisms.
• Gas overhead for on-chain verification is optimized for one stack, making alternatives economically irrational.
• Enables native cross-chain state via protocols like LayerZero and Hyperlane, but only within the factory's ecosystem.

The Paymaster contract sponsors gas fees in exchange for protocol loyalty. It's the ultimate retention tool, used by Base's Onchain Summer and Pimlico.

• Session keys grant free transactions for a set period, creating user habit.
• Sponsored transactions mask true gas costs, making competing wallets feel expensive.
• Direct integration with dApps (e.g., Uniswap, Aave) allows for fee logic tied to specific actions.

Factories like Safe{Wallet} and ZeroDev embed configurable guardian sets and recovery logic. This social graph is immovable.

• Migration is a coordination nightmare requiring all guardians to re-sign for a new account.
• Enterprise compliance (multi-sig, timelocks) is built-in, making it a core operational system.
• On-chain reputation (e.g., Ethereum Attestation Service) is anchored to the factory-deployed account address.

Accounts deployed via Polygon's zkEVM or Arbitrum factory contracts use their native bridge as a canonical state root. This ties identity to the L2's ecosystem.

• Native gas currency is the chain's token, creating a financial stake in the ecosystem.
• Bridged asset liquidity (e.g., USDC.e) is often superior within the native chain, disincentivizing exit.
• Protocol-specific features (e.g., Starknet's account abstraction) are not portable to EVM chains.

Projects like Friend.tech and UniswapX deploy a unique wallet for each user to encapsulate order flow and loyalty. The account is the platform access key.

• Abandoning the account means abandoning your social capital or trading history.
• Direct integration allows for gasless, instant transactions that generic wallets cannot match.
• Revenue sharing and fee discounts are programmed into the account's logic, creating a direct economic bond.

Migrating from an EOA is trivial; migrating a smart account with embedded logic, session keys, and recovery modules is a complex, high-friction operation. This creates a powerful retention moat.

• User Friction: Abandoning means reconfiguring all attached permissions, subscriptions, and asset rules.
• Developer Lock-in: Apps build custom modules (e.g., social recovery, batched tx) that are non-portable, anchoring users to their infra.

Smart accounts generate rich, structured on-chain data (user ops, module interactions) that becomes a proprietary asset for the factory or bundler service (e.g., Stackup, Alchemy, Biconomy).

• Predictive Analytics: Enables superior fee optimization and spam protection based on historical behavior.
• Sticky Services: Competing services lack this user-specific data graph, creating a significant switching cost.

Factories and paymasters (like Pimlico, Candide) can subsidize gas or offer fee abstraction, embedding their economic model into the user's transaction flow.

• Subsidy Hooks: Users are incentivized to stay within ecosystems that offer gas sponsorship or stablecoin fee payments.
• Bundler Dependency: The account's logic may be optimized for a specific bundler's mempool, creating a performance-based lock-in.