Editorial note: This is general educational information for overseas readers. It is not investment, tax, legal or custody advice. Rules, network conditions and service availability differ by country; verify current terms with an official source before acting.
Two account models
An externally owned account is controlled directly by a private key. A smart account is a contract whose code defines how actions are authorized. Smart accounts can support recovery rules, multiple signers or batched operations, but the contract becomes part of the custody surface. The address may look like any other Ethereum address while its execution rules are different.
Bundlers and paymasters
Account-abstraction systems can package a user operation through a bundler. A paymaster may sponsor gas or accept a different payment token under its stated policy. These conveniences introduce dependencies on the account implementation, bundler and paymaster. Ask which party can reject, delay or censor an operation and what happens if the service disappears.
Permissions deserve a plain-language review
Read the recovery and guardian rules before depositing meaningful value. Check whether a session key is limited by contract, time, network or spending amount. A “gasless” prompt still asks you to authorize an action; sponsored gas does not make a malicious call safe. Use a fresh low-value account to test a new smart-account provider.
Migration checklist
- Confirm the factory and account implementation addresses from official documentation.
- Test recovery with a small balance and document who controls each signer.
- Review batched calls and token approvals one by one.
- Keep a backup route that does not depend on a single provider or device.
Smart accounts can improve usability for a global household, but the recovery promise is only as strong as the deployed code and the people or services named in the policy.