Glossary
Definitions of OneBalance-specific terms and relevant Web3 concepts
Core Platform Concepts
- Chain Abstraction - A vision for Web3 that significantly improves user experience by hiding blockchain complexities such as chains, bridging, and gas payments from end users.
- Multichain Intent - a declarative intent formed from the user’s desired action, where the execution may touch any number of chains. We consider N->1 intent executions only, meaning there might be N input chains and a single output chain.
- Solver - We combine both of the following definitions under the same name:
- Liquidity-based bridging entity that accepts assets on the source chain and delivers assets or executes on the destination chain. The solver may use their own inventory or deliver assets through an on-chain swap.
- The entity that finds the optimal route and provides quotes for execution on the same chain. Think of individual CoW Swap solvers or routing aggregators.
- OneBackend - Service under the OneBalance API that receives requests, determines the optimal route, and, if needed, forwards the request to the solver. It also determines which solver or solver network to route to.
- RL Service - service that issues Resource Lock guarantees to the solver for Fast Path cross-chain execution.
- Resource Lock - An off-chain partial lock of user funds preventing double-spending. Similar to a bank account, spent but not yet settled funds are locked on the account even though they are still physically present in the same balance.
- Fast Path - Multichain intent execution type where the intent executes at the speed of the destination chain. Not all multichain intents are eligible for Fast Path execution.
- Standard Path - Multichain intent execution type where the intent executes at the speed of escrow transaction confirmation on the source chain plus destination chain confirmation time
Account Architecture
Account/Gas Abstraction - A blockchain technology that allows smart contracts to act as user accounts, enabling features like gas sponsorship, batch transactions, and custom authentication methods. See also: EIP-4337, EIP-7702.
SCA (Smart Contract Account) - An alternative to EOA, a blockchain account controlled by smart contract logic rather than a private key, enabling advanced features like multi-signature, spending limits, and account recovery.
Credible Accounts - A new account model that extends external accounts, smart contracts, and stateful accounts with the ability to issue Resource Locks.
Kernel - The smart contract account implementation used by OneBalance, based on ZeroDev’s open-source framework. Two versions are currently supported:
- Kernel 3.1 - Compatible with both ECDSAValidator and RoleBasedValidator
- Kernel 3.3 - Optimized for EIP-7702 deployments with ECDSAValidator
ECDSAValidator - A validator module that uses the standard Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm for authentication, compatible with most existing wallet infrastructures.
RoleBasedValidator - A validator module that enables sophisticated access control with different permission levels for various operations, currently supporting Fast Path execution only.
Standards & Protocols
EIP-4337 - The Ethereum Improvement Proposal that defines the Account Abstraction standard, enabling smart contract accounts across EVM chains without consensus-layer changes.
EIP-7702 - A newer Ethereum Improvement Proposal that provides an optimized approach for account abstraction with potential gas savings through delegated smart contract authentication.
Infrastructure & Services
Bundler - A service that aggregates multiple user operations into a single transaction for submission to the blockchain, optimizing gas costs and execution efficiency.
Paymaster - A service that sponsors on-chain gas fees on behalf of users, enabling gasless transactions and improving user experience.
WaaS (Wallet-as-a-Service) - Cloud-based wallet infrastructure that enables applications to offer embedded wallets without requiring users to manage private keys directly. Examples include Privy and Turnkey.
Research & Community
Frontier Research - An independent research and advisory group that publishes research, incubates products, and organizes community events, including the Cake Working Group.
Fellowship of the OneBalance - An industry group united under the common mission to implement the Credible Stack and bring Credible Accounts to Web3.