Why the 'Connect Wallet' Button is an Antique

Users face unpredictable transaction costs and must hold native tokens for every chain they touch, a massive UX and capital barrier.

• Abandonment Rate: Up to 40% on L1s when gas spikes.
• Fragmented Capital: Users need ETH, MATIC, AVAX, etc., just to start.

Protocols like Pimlico and Biconomy abstract gas, allowing dApps to pay fees or users to pay in any token. ERC-4337 enables social recovery and session keys.

• User Onboarding: Cuts steps from ~12 to 3.
• Cost: Sponsorship adds ~$0.01 per user for massive UX gain.

Manually switching RPCs in MetaMask for a simple swap is a cognitive tax that breaks user flow and introduces security risks from malicious networks.

• Time Sink: Adds ~30 seconds of friction per chain hop.
• Security Risk: Users blindly add unverified RPC endpoints.

Systems like UniswapX and CowSwap use intents—users declare what they want, solvers figure out how. Wallets like Privy and Dynamic manage multi-chain state seamlessly.

• Efficiency: Solvers find best route across 10+ DEXs & chains.
• UX: Feels like a single, unified application.

Connecting a wallet exposes your entire transaction history and balance to every dApp. This creates surveillance risks and eliminates any notion of context-specific privacy.

• Data Leak: Full portfolio and history exposed on connect.
• Tracking: 100% of your on-chain identity is linkable.

ZK-proofs enable selective disclosure (e.g., prove you hold an NFT without revealing which one). Stealth address protocols like Aztec and Railgun break the link between identity and activity.

• Selective Disclosure: Prove only what's necessary.
• Anonymity: Transaction graph analysis becomes impossible.

UniswapX replaces direct AMM swaps with an intent-based auction. Users sign an off-chain order, and a decentralized network of fillers competes on price, abstracting gas, slippage, and cross-chain complexity.

• Permissionless Filler Network enables MEV capture for user benefit.
• Gasless Swaps for the signer, with costs baked into the filled quote.
• Cross-Chain Native execution via embedded bridging intents.

The CoW Protocol (Coincidence of Wants) aggregates orders into batches, settling peer-to-peer or via on-chain liquidity, eliminating MEV and optimizing price.

• Batch Auctions neutralize frontrunning and sandwich attacks.
• Surplus Maximization via order coincidence and optimal routing.
• Solver Competition drives better prices than any single DEX.

Across and Stargate (via LayerZero) abstract bridging into an intent. Users specify a destination asset; relayers and solvers handle liquidity sourcing, messaging, and settlement.

• Optimistic Verification (Across) for capital efficiency and speed.
• Unified Liquidity Pools (Stargate) for single-transaction composability.
• Sub-2 Min typical completion for major chains, vs. 10+ mins for native bridges.

The current model burdens users with untenable complexity, creating massive friction and security risk.

• Chain Management: Manually switching networks for every app.
• Gas Orchestration: Holding native tokens on dozens of chains.
• Approval Sprawl: Signing infinite, opaque token approvals.

These SDKs eliminate the external wallet install by creating non-custodial wallets directly within the dApp, using social logins or passkeys.

• Zero-Friction Onboarding: User is 'logged in' with a wallet in <30 seconds.
• MPC Security: Private keys are never stored in full, reducing breach risk.
• Gas Sponsorship: Apps can abstract transaction costs entirely.

The post-connect stack inverts the model: the user states an outcome, and the infrastructure races to deliver it.

• Intent Signing: A single signature expresses a complex, cross-chain goal.
• Solver Economy: A competitive market (UniswapX fillers, CoW solvers) optimizes execution.
• Unified Abstraction: Gas, liquidity, and security become backend concerns.

The modal pop-up, network switching, and gas management create a >80% drop-off rate for new users. It's a walled garden that assumes crypto-native literacy.

• Cognitive Load: Users must manage keys, networks, and gas.
• Fragmented UX: Each dApp is a silo; no shared session state.
• Mobile Nightmare: Switching between wallet apps and browsers is a conversion killer.

Smart contract wallets turn users into programmable entities. Session keys, gas sponsorship, and batched transactions make wallets invisible.

• UserOps: Meta-transactions let users pay gas in any token (or not at all).
• Social Recovery: Replace seed phrases with social logins or hardware modules.
• Atomic Composability: Enable complex, multi-step DeFi actions in one click.

Users declare what they want, not how to do it. Solvers (like those in UniswapX and CowSwap) compete to fulfill the intent optimally.

• MEV Protection: Solvers internalize frontrunning, giving users better prices.
• Cross-Chain Native: Intents abstract away bridges; the solver finds the best route via Across or LayerZero.
• Gasless Execution: User signs an intent message, solver pays gas and bundles it.

Leverage Web2's security model. Generate a non-custodial wallet silently upon email or passkey sign-in, as pioneered by Privy and Dynamic.

• Zero-Download: No extension or app install required.
• MPC Security: Private key is sharded, removing single-point seed phrase failure.
• Instant Onboarding: Convert a Web2 user into a Web3 user in <30 seconds.