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Singapore-based wallet provider Account Labs today announced a $7.7 million funding round led by investors including Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures.
The strategic investment comes in tandem with the launch of their consumer-centric application, UniPass Wallet, a self-custody wallet focused on peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transfers.
The wallet will also leverage account abstraction to improve its user experience.
Sometimes called "smart wallets," crypto wallets that enable account abstraction are able to provide much of the same features of online banking. This includes things like scheduled token transfers, transfer permissions, or executing batched transactions.
“Essentially, account abstraction develops smart contracts into wallets, and because the smart contract is programmable, developers can then program more functionalities into it,” Lixin Liu, CEO of Account Labs, told Decrypt. “In contrast to traditional self-custody wallets likeMetaMask, UniPass wallet is a smart contract wallet that harnesses Ethereum’s account abstraction technology.”
Account Labs adds Google login, ‘gasless’ transactions
Adding account abstraction, and the flexibility it brings, also means that UniPass will let new users spin up new wallets via Google logins, as well as top-ups with Mastercard and Visa cards, or Apple Pay.
“UniPass wallet does away with complex 12-word seed phrases required to login to most Web3 wallets, allowing users to simply use their Google account to set up and log into a fully self-custody wallet, with no Web3 knowledge required,” Liu told Decrypt. “This massively lowers the barrier to entry for users who are not familiar with Web3.”
Additionally, account abstraction allows the UniPass wallet to facilitate “gasless” transactions.
Typically, when sending a cryptocurrency transaction, users have to pay the gas fee in the native token of the blockchain used. With account abstraction, users can simply pay in stablecoins like USDC or USDT, allowing UniPass to reduce costs to as low as $0.01 to $0.02 per transaction.
Here's another example: let's say the sender has USDC, but the receiver prefers USDT.
In traditional Web3 wallets users would have to go through a process of swapping USDC into USDT and then sending it to the receiver—a process that might involve up to three separate transactions: one for authorizing a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, one for swapping between USDC and USDT, and another for sending the USDT.
“As Account Abstraction can bundle transactions, UniPass can combine these three transactions into one single click from the user,” Liu told Decrypt. “Users don’t have to understand all background operations, they just click one button. We can also call this 'Intent-Centric Payment.'”
Recognizing the substantial crypto adoption rates in Southeast Asia, Account Labs will use the fresh funding to direct the UniPass wallet launch and testing phase to the Philippines, with further expansion plans in the region, covering Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Built on Polygon, and initially available for Android devices, the UniPass Wallet is also available to all users worldwide without the need for KYC (know your customer) verification.
Further plans Account Labs has for the UniPass wallet include iOS support, as well as the expansion to Apple ID and other social media logins.