Smart Accounts
Defi App implements Smart Accounts (aka “account abstraction”) to simplify and secure the DeFi user experience.
Account abstraction (EIP-4337 on EVM), came from the idea of separating the verification mechanism from the transaction inclusion mechanism on Ethereum.
Separating or abstracting these two mechanisms allows for several key improvements in user experience including: sponsoring of gas costs, gas payments in ERC20 tokens, and support for alternative verification mechanisms beyond ECDSA.
Rather than directly managing private keys and gas fees on multiple chains, users leverage embedded smart accounts that handle gas, bridging, and signing under the hood. This approach significantly reduces technical friction—especially for newcomers—and provides seamless cross-chain transactions without manually juggling wallets or bridging tokens.
Primary Integrations
Dynamic
A wallet connector layer (similar to WalletConnect) that handles social logins, whitelisting, and frictionless signup flows.
Under the hood, it integrates with Turnkey to generate and manage the user’s “signer” keys.
Turnkey
Our secure key management partner that provides the signing capabilities on both Solana and EVM.
For Solana, Turnkey holds the user’s actual wallet (where the user’s funds live).
For EVM, Turnkey manages a signer key—but the user’s funds themselves live in the ZeroDev smart contract wallet.
ZeroDev
Infrastructure provider for Smart Accounts on EVM-compatible chains.
Manages the actual smart contract wallet that holds user funds on EVM.
Enables gas abstraction so users aren’t forced to hold ETH, BNB, or other native tokens to pay gas.
How It Works
Architectural Differences Between Solana & EVM
Solana
One Turnkey wallet that directly holds the user’s SOL and Solana Program tokens.
This wallet also controls bridging to or from Solana if needed.
Gas fees (SOL) on Solana can be similarly abstracted or subsidized.
EVM
Turnkey acts purely as a signer, not a direct asset-holding wallet.
The ZeroDev smart contract wallet is what actually stores user assets on EVM.
This means if you export your private key and import it into MetaMask, you’ll see an empty EOA because the funds live in the EIP-4337 contract, not in the EOA itself.
Gas Abstraction
Defi App sponsors, or abstracts, these fees entirely, so users can seamlessly swap or interact with DeFi protocols without ever holding the chain’s gas token.
Solana
Handled via custom paymaster logic. The fee is quoted in the user transaction, sponsored by our paymaster.
EVM
Because EIP-4337 allows for paying gas in any token, users don’t need native ETH (or BNB, etc.) to transact. The gas is sponsored by ZeroDev architecture and funded by Defi App transaction fees.
Onboarding With Email or Social Login
User signs up on Defi App using an email address or a supported social login (e.g. Google).
Under the hood, Dynamic provisions two “embedded wallets” for the user:
Solana Wallet (Turnkey): Holds the user’s Solana-based assets in a single Turnkey-managed wallet.
EVM Signer (Turnkey) + ZeroDev Smart Account:
Turnkey generates an EVM signer key for the user (this key does NOT hold funds).
The user’s actual EVM funds go into a ZeroDev smart account, which is controlled by the Turnkey signer key.
Exporting or Viewing Your Keys
Within Defi App, users can export their “signer key” if they desire advanced usage (e.g., import into MetaMask or Phantom).
As per above, on EVM, since the ZeroDev smart contract is the actual vault, you won’t see your token balances in a standard EOA wallet.
On Solana, your Turnkey wallet does hold funds, so importing the key into Phantom should show balances.
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