Abstract Account Architecture

Introduction

Abstract’s account architecture is skillfully designed, merging modularity, scalability, and security. This architectural design is anchored by the ideas of account abstraction. For a detailed exploration of account abstraction, read the preceding chapter. In the upcoming sections, we will delve deeper into the architecture of Abstract Accounts, providing insights into its design principles and components.

Abstract Account

The Abstract SDK provides users with a sovereign smart-contract wallet. We call this smart-contract wallet an Abstract Account. The account’s architecture has two primary components (smart-contracts): the Manager contract and the Proxy contract.

flowchart LR
    subgraph Abstr[Abstract Account]
        direction TB
        Manager-->Proxy
    end

    Owner -.-> Manager

The owner of the account can configure the account by sending messages to the manager contract. We don’t make any assumptions about the nature of this owner, it can be a wallet, multi-sig or any other ownership structure, allowing you to customize your account’s ownership to fit your needs.

The account’s architecture centers around configurable programmability. I.e. how can one configure the account (install applications, set permissions, etc.) to enable users and developers to easily configure/program it to do what they want? Let’s see how the account architecture achieves this.

Manager Contract

The Manager serves as the orchestrator of the Abstract Account. It is responsible for various important operations, including:

• Owner Authentication: Authenticating privileged calls and ensuring only approved entities can interact with the account.
• Application Management: Managing and storing information about the applications installed on the account, their inter-dependencies, permissions and configurations.
• Account Details: Storing the account’s details, such as its name, description, and other relevant information.

The Manager is responsible for the account’s configuration and security.

Proxy Contract

The Proxy serves as the asset vault of the Account, taking care of:

• Asset Management & Pricing: Holding the account’s assets, including tokens, NFTs, and other fungible and non-fungible assets as well as allows for pricing assets based on decentralized exchange or oracle prices.
• Transaction Forwarding (Proxying): Routing approved transactions from the Manager or other connected smart-contracts to other actors.

The Proxy is responsible for the account’s programmability and assets management.

Account Interactions

The diagram below depicts a User interacting with their account through the Manager, and proxying a call to an external contract through the Proxy.

sequenceDiagram
    actor User
    participant Manager
    participant Proxy
    participant External Contract


    User->>Manager: Account Action
    Manager->>Proxy: Forward to Proxy
    Proxy->>External Contract: Execute