ZeroDev

While building digital collectibles at Eternal, Chiang encountered difficulties onboarding ordinary users to blockchains. In a 2023 interview, he described that experience as the impetus for exploring account abstraction and founding ZeroDev.⁠[1]

ZeroDev was founded in 2022 by Derek ChiangDerek ChiangDerek Chiang is a software engineer, the founder of ZeroDev and a team member at Ethlabs.Open the full entry and joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch, providing developers with self-custodial smart-wallet tools.⁠[2]

ZeroDev launched during ETHDenver 2023, based on ERC-4337.⁠[3]

On August 13, Offchain Labs announced its acquisition of ZeroDev for undisclosed financial terms. The buyer added smart-account tools to a platform extending from chain infrastructure to application development.⁠[4]

At acquisition, ZeroDev reported supporting more than five million smart accounts and stated that it would continue serving multiple blockchains rather than only ArbitrumArbitrumArbitrum is an Ethereum scaling technology and network family developed by Offchain Labs. Its Arbitrum One network uses optimistic rollups, Nova uses the AnyTrust data availability scheme, and the related technology is also used to build dedicated chains. Arbitrum combines off-chain execution with settlement on Ethereum and supports EVM and Stylus contracts.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

The year-end review described Smart Routing Address becoming a core capability and wider network compatibility. Its 2026 roadmap emphasized intent execution, session-key automation and agent workflows; those were plans announced at the time.⁠[5]

The Omni SDK released on April 21 was an alpha with a Zig core and C foreign-function interface, initially offering native Swift bindings. The announcement listed Kotlin, Go, Rust and Python as forthcoming support.⁠[6]

ZeroDev Wallet launched on July 7, combining wallet creation, signing and smart-account execution with email, OAuth and passkey support. Teams previously using ZeroDev generally integrated a separate signer or wallet provider.⁠[7]

Taek Lee described Kernel’s transition from control by one external account to replaceable validators and modular permissions. He noted that some applications favored unrestricted sudo paths; granular authorization still needed clearer configuration and explanations, and composable modules did not guarantee safe combined authority.⁠[8]

Smart Routing Address v1 launched on September 29 with persistent deposit addresses. Default Deposit mode routes supported assets to a destination chain, while Execute mode can perform predefined actions after delivery. Coverage depends on the asset-and-chain combination.⁠[9]

ZeroDev Earn entered beta on October 27, coordinating swaps, cross-chain transfers and protocol deposits. Initial opportunities came from AaveAaveAave is a decentralized, non-custodial lending protocol deployed on Ethereum and several other public blockchains, where users can deposit crypto assets into liquidity pools to earn interest or borrow on an overcollateralized basis. The protocol is governed by the Aave DAO, made up of AAVE token holders.Open the full entry, Morpho, Fluid and Yearn, subject to supported combinations. ZeroDev supplies non-custodial routing; the destination protocol or vault supplies the yield.⁠[10]

ZeroDev supports transaction batching, sponsored gas, ERC-20 gas payments and account recovery. Developers can use its embedded smart accounts independently or combine them with wallet services such as Privy and Dynamic.⁠[11]

The Kernel v4 repository implements ERC-4337 and ERC-7579 interfaces and includes an EIP-7702 account variant. Modules including validators, executors, policies and signers separate authorization from execution, with permissions composed from signers and policies.⁠[12]

Session keys temporarily delegate selected transaction authority. Kernel can combine signing methods, contract-call restrictions, time windows and rate limits. Effective restrictions depend on configuration: the sudo policy permits unrestricted actions.⁠[13]

ZeroDev’s EIP-7702 flow attaches Kernel logic to an externally owned account through signed authorization, enabling features such as gas sponsorship and batching. The documented example requires a compatible network and does not require a universal migration to new addresses.⁠[14]

The Ethereum Foundation’s ERC-4337 grant-recipient announcement included ZeroDev Kernel, describing its plugin-extensible account design and listing Derek Chiang and Taek Lee as team members.⁠[15]