Powering Abstract’s Global Wallet
A user onboarded to any Abstract app is a user onboarded to every Abstract app
Jainil Sutaria & Madeleine Charity
|Jan 27, 2025
At Privy, we help developers unlock the benefits of crypto rails - like interoperability - for every user. Simply put, interoperability lets actions and assets built in one product to carry over to another: it lets developers build on one another’s work easily and without permission. Today’s Abstract mainnet launch is one of the best demonstrations of this in action.
The Abstract team is taking a very different approach in launching their consumer blockchain. Built by the team behind Pudgy Penguins, the launch comes complete with a network purpose-built for consumer apps, a portal for users to consume streaming content, discover new apps, get rewarded, and crucially: a global wallet to serve as a unified identity across the ecosystem.
For users, this means they no longer need to create a new account with each app; they create one identity and wallet and can bring it with them from app-to-app.
For developers, this means that their users can onboard with an established identity and a funded wallet that can immediately start transacting or connecting with onchain friends in their app.
Over the last year, we’ve supported the team in building out the Abstract Global Wallet (AGW), which makes all of the best crypto features accessible to everyday users. It’s one of the most exciting products we’ve seen powered by Privy - let’s dive in!
The launch
Abstract is building an onchain culture hub for everyone. The ecosystem is built for everyone, without them needing to understand the crypto systems under the hood. Users can onboard into any app in the Abstract ecosystem and automatically receive an Abstract Global Wallet (AGW) that they can fund and use in any other app in the ecosystem.
To use blockchain-based apps before this launch, users needed to download external browser extensions or mobile apps, then go to external crypto exchanges to fund that wallet with the right tokens on the right networks. If it sounds confusing or complex, that’s because it is – especially for the average consumer.
With AGW, there are no seedphrases, extensions or gas fees to think about. Just connect an email and you’re good to go. With Privy’s help, Abstract has made user onboarding simple for everyone. Users can fund their provisioned wallet with fiat payment methods like credit card or bank deposits. What’s more, the wallet can be securely accessed in any other application, allowing users to transact with their wallet across all Abstract apps.
We are proud to work with the Abstract team to support this novel global wallet identity system to help drive streamlined user experiences for blockchain applications.
Abstract Global Wallets in action
Let’s say a new user sees a creator like Ansem or Abril posting about their livestreams on Abstract portal on their X timeline.
From there, a user only needs to create an account by logging into the Abstract portal via email to watch the streams. Upon account set-up, an Abstract Global Wallet is instantly created and the user can immediately start earning rewards (Abstract XP) into that wallet for engaging with the stream. The XP earned can be used in the stream, or exchanged for (eg) USDC from a DEX directly, all from the Abstract portal.
At some point, the user might discover an onchain game like Duper or a social app like Chipped that they want to launch into. All they need to do is log in with their Abstract account, and it’ll log them into the game with their existing AGW, pre-loaded with that XP and any other assets already in it. This allows them to purchase in-app items, add to their profile history, and find onchain friends instantly. The Abstract ecosystem is a new open app-store that anyone can build on or access.
How its built
The Abstract Global Wallet makes use of three core products that we’ve been working on here at Privy: embedded wallets, our cross app ecosystem, and native smart wallets.
Embedded wallets allow users to sign in with familiar login methods like Google, email or their phone number, and receive a wallet. Privy uses key splitting (Shamir’s secret sharing) to ensure your users have full custody of their wallets without needing to manage their secret keys. Neither Privy nor your application ever sees the user's keys; secrets are only ever reconstituted on the user's device when signing messages or transactions.
In most setups, embedded wallets are limited to a single application, making in-app transactions simple but restricting portability. With our cross-app ecosystem, however, users can securely bring their wallets and login states from one app to another, all without sacrificing ease of use.
Under the hood, we use a combination of time-tested security measures— the very same technologies that have safeguarded millions of online transactions for years. This includes HTTPOnly cookies, secure domain-level isolation, Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) and encrypted connections (TLS/HTTPS) to ensure session data stays private and compartmentalized across different apps. By sticking to these standards, we provide both seamlessness and robust protection, letting you navigate multiple applications with the confidence that your wallet interactions remain safe and sound.
Typically using an embedded wallet comes with the same drawbacks as an EOA; users must fund their wallets with whatever token is required for gas and use a private key to sign every transaction. These are prerequisites that a user must do before performing the desired action, leading to a clunky and high-friction experience. To simplify and streamline this experience, Abstract Global Wallet leverages Privy’s smart wallet functionality controlled by embedded signers. This means that any app using Abstract Global Wallet can sponsor gas payments, send batched transactions, and more.
Where we go from here
The Abstract ecosystem aims to be the ultimate consumer experience built onchain. Today is only Day 1, with hopefully hundreds of apps and millions of users to come — all using Abstract Global Wallet. Head to abs.xyz to start exploring the ecosystem today!
Privy is excited to continue supporting apps building on the Abstract ecosystem as well as support other blockchains looking to provide their ecosystem with a simple, unified wallet experience. If you're interested in our Ecosystem SDK, check out our cross-app ecosystem docs and shoot us a note at sales@privy.io if you're interested in learning more.
