I began exploring how blockchains and Ethereum work back in 2021. However, it wasn’t until a year later, in 2022, that I made my first on-chain Ethereum transaction. During this time, I was working as a research analyst at a research firm, focusing primarily on infrastructure. Toward the end of 2022, I shifted my focus to Account Abstraction and User Experience. The user experience, even for someone crypto-native like me, was poor, and meaningful use cases were few and far between.

Account Abstraction and the Genesis of Clave

My research often included insights from my friends in the ITU Blockchain. I would ask questions, they would provide answers, and I'd dive deeper. My main research into Account Abstraction took me three months, during which we decided to join a hackathon and hack on the 4337 standard. This was a new standard in early 2023, and few realized its potential. We brainstormed about using Apple’s secure enclave as an account signer.

The challenge was clear: Apple has a lot of great security features that aren’t compatible with Web3. We aimed to bridge this gap, as the cryptographic method used by Apple was not the same with EVM. We forked the OP Stack and added a precompile for a POC.

To put it simply, we added a native algorithm to the EVM by changing its rules. This required a protocol change, so we forked the OP Stack and ran it on our local machines. The native algorithm (a.k.a precompile) has enabled native verification of the P256 (utilized in Apple products and most modern authentication methods). This technical innovation enabled a significant UX improvement: secure, one-click account creation with hardware-level security.

To be honest, my intention was simply to share it publicly and get some feedback. However, we received far more traction and appreciation from the Ethereum ecosystem than expected. The Twitter thread reached over half a million views, and my DMs were crazy. I can’t fully explain the excitement and happiness we felt then—it was like watching our dreams come true. We had always dreamed of building a meaningful product that solved real problems, and now we had a genuine chance to spin off a product with support from the ecosystem. So, we began by building the team and merged as two teams that had previously worked together. Coming together and working on the same project was a shared dream, and Clave made it possible.

Deciding on a Go-To-Market Strategy

It felt like a dream, but we faced an important question: What would our GTM strategy be? Would our product be a chain focused on Account Abstraction and UX, or would we build wallet infrastructure? Or should we simply build a wallet?

After lengthy discussions, we decided to build a wallet. However, creating a wallet is more than just providing a place for users to store assets. We needed to define everything from the start to ensure we weren’t just another wallet in the ecosystem. This included identifying our target users, key features, brand strategy, launch strategy, and more.

We built an amazing onboarding process, a great recovery solution, and advanced security practices, but we already knew that users wouldn’t come just for an excellent onboarding experience or strong security. They would come for the value we offer. So, we decided to build a wallet focused on the best products that have achieved product-market fit in the blockchain industry: Stablecoins and DeFi. Both face user experience challenges, and we believed that if we could improve UX, it would drive more adoption of DeFi and Stablecoins. That’s when we started building Clave

Our Initial Moves and Key Decisions

Since we were building a wallet for newcomers, we needed a chain partner to help us reach the masses. At that time, we had extensive talks with various rollup teams, and most were very supportive with the tech and funding. However, Matter Labs (the innovator behind ZKsync) cared about every detail of Clave—GTM, marketing, branding, launch strategy, and other crucial aspects for an early-stage startup. We moved forward with their support, opting for them as an investor over traditional VCs in our pre-seed round. This was a great choice, as Matter Labs has an incredible team and provided support for everything we needed.

At the same time, we were working to make the precompile a public good and encourage teams to build products using it. To achieve this, we authored EIP-7212, a precompile for verifying the P256 curve. It gained significant support from the community, but as you may know, Ethereum’s governance process is slow. We needed a more efficient solution to bring the precompile to mainnet for interested rollups as soon as possible

The Ethereum Foundation team came up with the idea of Rollup Improvement Proposals, and we authored the first RIP (RIP-7212) with them. Following that, major rollups—including Optimism, Base, ZKsync, Arbitrum, and Polygon—implemented RIP-7212.

GTM and Launch Strategy

After the hackathon, we rebranded from OpClave to Clave and started collecting emails for a waitlist, which reached over 150,000 signups. Our content strategy after the rebranding aimed to explain Clave’s technical features in simple terms, making it accessible to the crypto community.

Our launch, however, was challenging. We needed a precompile to enable cheap and secure P256 verification, but it took months to integrate on a ZK Rollup, so we started with a verifier developed by the Lambda Class team. This led us to launch as invite-only during ETH Denver to subsidize fees for early users. Around 1,000 people tried Clave, providing valuable feedback that helped us refine the product before launching on mainnet.

The opportunity to have approximately one thousand users try Clave during ETH Denver was invaluable. We received a lot of useful feedback that helped us improve the application before the mainnet launch. After that, we launched on the mainnet in the Mid-April, began analyzing on-chain data, and enhanced the product with new features and a seamless UI

Clave Today

In Clave’s seventh month, we’ve achieved the following:

• Nearly 20,000 downloads

• $3 million TVL in the Earn hub

• One of the smoothest, fastest UIs

• Direct onramp integration in Turkey, with more emerging markets on the way

• Upcoming direct offramp integration and debit card

• 90% of all assets are being utilized at DeFi (only 10% remains idle)

Clave is now a self-custody fintech app where users can easily buy crypto and start earning—no middlemen, just secure, hassle-free access to their assets. I'm proud of the direction Clave has taken, but October was my last month with the team.

Reflecting on My Role with Clave

I’ve always enjoyed creating, learning, and building from scratch, which is how Clave came to life. I contributed through research, content creation, creating new ideas, representing Clave, building connections, and shaping our GTM. Clave now faces the challenge of bridging crypto and traditional finance. While I believe in this mission, it requires a skill set I haven’t focused on, so I decided to step back.

It’s been a journey that began as a dream with friends, and I’ve now finished my part. Clave has a long road ahead, and I’m confident it will succeed, especially in emerging markets.

Now, I’m returning to my research roots, diving into fields like Zero Knowledge Applications, Payments, Restaking, Rollups, and User Experience. Stay tuned—more writing is on the way!