An account whose authorization rules can be implemented through code.
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A club can require two signatures, a delay or a recovery process before opening its safe. Code can express similarly structured rules.
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A valid counter call, step by stepStep 1 / 4
This example begins with count zero and a request to call increment(). No real contract is deployed.
This example begins with count zero and a request to call increment(). No real contract is deployed.Execution follows the code’s input and permission rules. A website button is not the access-control mechanism.The function reads zero, calculates zero plus one, and writes one to persistent storage.The accepted state contains count one. Later reads can inspect it. Events are emitted only if the code implements them.
Animated local teaching model. No wallet, RPC or live blockchain data. Some labels and hashes are abbreviated for readability.
Authorization can be programmable
A contract wallet uses smart-contract rules to determine which actions are allowed. Depending on its design, it may support multiple owners, spending limits or other policies. You must inspect the actual implementation and configuration.
The contract does not need one private key of its own
Its authorization may depend on keys held by owners, another contract or another mechanism. A recovery phrase for an owner can restore that owner’s key without automatically recreating every part of the contract wallet’s setup.
Recovery is a feature, not an assumption
Some designs include guardians, time delays or upgrade paths. Those mechanisms can help with recovery while introducing additional trust and configuration risks. A familiar product name is not a complete description of its policy.
Verify using the correct rules
A contract wallet can validate signatures through an interface such as ERC-1271. Simply recovering an ordinary externally owned address from signature bytes is not a universal check for every account. Learn the permissions before approving a request.
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Must every contract wallet use exactly one owner key?
Contract code can implement different authorization policies.