EIP-7702 explained: How Ethereum's latest upgrade fixes UX

EIPs come and go in Ethereum. Some hit like lightning - instant impact across the network. Others? They need the entire ecosystem to play along before you see real change.

Take the Pectra merge, for example. 90%+ of those EIPs had immediate effects because they were consensus/execution layer changes. Like bumping the validator limit from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH - once that restriction was lifted, users could adjust their positions from the very next block.

EIP-7702 is different. And that's exactly what we're diving into.

What is EIP-7702

EIP-7702 upgrades Ethereum's protocol to let EOAs transform into Smart Accounts - at least until users decide otherwise. It introduces a new transaction type (type 4) that sets up "delegation" for your EOA. The delegation is a predeployed smart contract address that serves the purpose of a smart account, meaning you could use it to unlock smart account functionalities for your EOA account.

Until now, EOAs lived purely on Ethereum's execution layer, with functionality limited by infrequent consensus-driven upgrades. EIP-7702 breaks those chains by letting EOAs delegate to smart contract addresses, temporarily becoming smart contract wallets - and users can reverse this delegation anytime.

Why should you care? Better UX, finally

Anyone who's spent serious time on Ethereum knows the UX can be a complete nightmare. The main culprits are account limitations that prevent two key functionalities:

Problem 1: No transaction batching

EOAs can't execute multiple actions atomically in a single transaction. Want to swap tokens? You're stuck making multiple separate transactions - each costing gas, taking time, and confusing newcomers who wonder why this isn't as simple as Coinbase.

Problem 2: The fee token trap

The common case we have with bad onboarding is sending 100 USDC from a centralized exchange to a wallet on a specific chain, let's say Arbitrum, to start our crypto journey. Life without EIP-7702 means these funds are now stuck. In order to move them, you actually need ETH. So you go back to the exchange, deposit fiat, buy some ETH and send it over to Arbitrum. Congratulations, you can make your first transaction. But the moment you decide to move those funds to a different chain, BNB Chain, as you like the ecosystem over there better, if you make the mistake of transferring a token again that's not the native currency, those funds will be stuck and the cycle repeats.

This is why users retreat to centralized exchanges - they don't have concepts of chains, transactions, or fee tokens. They just work! And that's what the onchain experience should be. With EIP-7702, you can pay with the received USDC instead of ETH to complete your transaction. That's level 1 of achieving Coinbase-level UX.

The token approval nightmare

Until now, swapping any non-native token required at least two transactions. The first? A token approval that's become a security nightmare. Hackers exploit these approvals constantly, tricking users into signing permissions they don't understand. Not to mention the nightmare during onboarding as new users are left wondering why they have to do this when it's not required on the CEX.

EIP-7702 solves both problems. Pay gas with whatever tokens you have (like that USDC), and bundle multiple actions atomically. That 100 USDC approval gets used and zeroed out in the same transaction as your swap - no leftover approvals for hackers to exploit.

All of this sounds good, so this means Ethereum UX has improved a lot?

Reality check

As with all things, there are some nuances that cast a shadow on EIP-7702. It is one of those EIPs that once merged into the protocol, wallets and dApps can utilize to make the UX of their users better. They can also choose to ignore it and not move the protocol forward.

If we check the EIP-7702 adoption tracker, we're going to see a list of all known chains, wallets and dApps that chose to upgrade to this standard. We see that we're going strong on the chain side, as most major chains have upgraded early on. The issue is on the wallet and dApp side.

As Ambire's technical co-partner, we had been working for months on the Ambire browser extension, getting ready for Pectra. So when everything went smoothly with the upgrade, the Ambire wallet became one of the first to support EIP-7702. Imagine the excitement in the office at that time when nothing broke down. But besides Ambire, the industry leader MetaMask also decided to move early on with the implementation, which is really reassuring. MetaMask adopting it is one of the reasons why applications turned their heads and started wondering how they can work with wallets to improve the UX of their shared userbase.

But look closer and you'll see gaps. Rabby and Rainbow haven't implemented it yet, drawing criticism for ignoring one of Ethereum's biggest UX upgrades. On the dApp side, major players like AAVE and Polymarket are sitting out the first wave.

Here's the real bottleneck: hardware wallets are dragging their feet. Their concern? Users delegating to smart contracts coded by wallet developers. While it's impossible to delegate to truly malicious contracts (no wallet interface would allow it), they worry about critical bugs in delegation contracts. This caution is understandable but overblown - we're talking about minimal, well-audited contracts, not complex protocols. Still, hardware wallets hold most of Ethereum's TVL, so until they upgrade, there's limited pressure on the broader ecosystem to follow.

The bottom line

Ethereum UX has improved, but we're not there yet. The path to CEX-level simplicity requires coordinated effort across the entire ecosystem. Decentralization's greatest strength - no single point of control - is also its biggest weakness when it comes to coordinated upgrades. CEXs can fix UX problems overnight. We need the whole community to move together. But progress is happening. Want to experience the best Ethereum UX available today? Try Ambire Wallet - they're pushing the boundaries of what onchain life can be. The future of Ethereum UX is here. It just needs more of us to build it.

Ready to experience better Web3 UX? At goodmorning, we turn complex blockchain concepts into user-friendly reality. Let's talk.