The Cost of Fragmented User Identity Across Session Domains

Every new session or dApp interaction requires fresh wallet approvals and gas payments. This is a direct tax on user attention and capital.\n- ~$1B+ in annual gas wasted on redundant approvals\n- >15 seconds average user delay per new session\n- Creates friction that kills onboarding and complex DeFi strategies

On-chain history and social graph are non-portable. A user's established credit on Aave or governance power in Compound doesn't follow them.\n- Zero native cross-dApp reputation portability\n- Forces protocols to rebuild trust from scratch, increasing risk\n- Stifles innovation in undercollateralized lending and sybil-resistant governance

Users manage dozens of discrete signing keys across wallets like MetaMask, Phantom, and OKX. A single compromised session can drain assets across chains.\n- >70% of crypto hacks originate from phishing and key management failures\n- No unified security policy or recovery mechanism across sessions\n- Makes institutional custody and delegation protocols untenable

Projects like Argent and Safe{Wallet} enable programmable, scoped signing sessions. A user signs once to grant limited, time-bound permissions.\n- 90% reduction in pop-up fatigue and transaction friction\n- Enables seamless gaming and social dApp experiences\n- Limits blast radius of any single key compromise

Protocols like ENS, Lens Protocol, and Galxe are building verifiable, composable identity layers. Your on-chain persona becomes a portable asset.\n- One-click reputation import for new dApps (e.g., lending with existing credit)\n- Enables true cross-protocol social and governance capital\n- Foundation for sybil-resistant airdrops and decentralized work credentials

ERC-4337 and Smart Contract Wallets (e.g., Safe, Biconomy) decouple identity from a single private key. Enable social recovery, batched transactions, and sponsored gas.\n- Eliminates seed phrase anxiety for millions of users\n- ~40% gas savings via batched operations and optimized paymasters\n- Unlocks enterprise-grade security models and non-custodial delegation

Every dApp interaction requires a new wallet signature, a UX nightmare. This creates ~5-10+ isolated identity sessions per user daily, each with its own permissions and expiry. The result is abandoned sessions, wasted gas on approvals, and a broken composability layer.

Shift from transaction execution to intent declaration. Users sign a desired outcome (e.g., 'swap X for Y at best price'), not a specific tx path. This abstracts away chain/wallet specifics, enabling:

• Cross-chain settlement via solvers competing on fill.
• Gasless experiences with fee abstraction.
• Atomic composability across protocols without re-approvals.

Decouple identity from a single private key. Smart contract wallets enable social recovery, batch transactions, and sponsored gas. This creates a persistent, chain-agnostic identity layer where:

• Session keys are programmable and revocable.
• UserOps are bundled, reducing on-chain footprint.
• Identity logic (e.g., reputation, credentials) becomes portable.

Treat identity as verifiable, portable state. Use zero-knowledge proofs and universal messaging to sync credentials and reputation across domains. This enables:

• ZK-proof of credit score from Chain A to underwrite loan on Chain B.
• ENS subdomains as universal handles for all asset types.
• LayerZero's Omnichain Fungible Tokens (OFTs) to natively move identity-linked assets.

Every new session requires fresh on-chain approvals, burning capital on redundant transactions. This is a direct, measurable cost of fragmentation.

• ~$100M+ in cumulative gas spent on redundant approvals (ERC-20, NFTs).
• ~15-30 seconds of user friction per new dApp session.
• Creates a hard ceiling on cross-domain composability.

Delegate limited authority via cryptographically signed intents, not infinite allowances. This is the core primitive for solving fragmentation.

• ERC-4337 Smart Accounts enable native session key management.
• 0x Protocol and UniswapX use signed orders as portable intent objects.
• Reduces approval transactions to near-zero for predefined actions.

Shift from direct transaction execution to declarative intent fulfillment. Systems like UniswapX, CowSwap, and Across abstract away chain-specific execution.

• User submits "what" (intent), solvers compete on "how" (execution).
• ERC-7677 proposes a standard for wallet-to-solver intent communication.
• Naturally aggregates liquidity and routes across fragmented domains.

Abstract identity from the chain layer entirely. Ethereum Attestation Service (EAS), Verax, and Gitcoin Passport create portable, verifiable credentials.

• Soulbound Tokens (SBTs) and attestations form a portable reputation graph.
• Enables gasless onboarding and sybil-resistant allocations across any app.
• The end-state: your on-chain identity is a context-aware, composable object.

Identity silos create liquidity silos. Capital trapped in isolated approval states cannot be efficiently routed or composed, degrading yields and increasing slippage.

• Billions in TVL are effectively "stuck" due to approval fragmentation.
• LayerZero and CCIP solve asset transfer, not identity/permission portability.
• Limits the effectiveness of intent-based solvers and MEV capture.

The final abstraction: wallets as autonomous agents operating on user intents across the fragmented landscape. This requires solving identity first.

• Smart Wallets (Safe, Rhinestone) become intent managers.
• Agent SDKs (Aperture, Biconomy) automate cross-domain execution.
• Turns fragmentation from a tax into a competitive execution landscape.