On May 24th, the one-week Account Abstraction HackerHouse, hosted by Antalpha Labs and co-hosted by Mantle, successfully concluded in Montenegro. Despite the brevity of one week, the HackerHouse ran concurrently with Ethereum's EdCon and the final week of Zuzalu, a global digital nomad event, offering participants a vibrant and enlightening array of social and sharing activities.

This is Antalpha Labs' second Hacker House held in tandem with an Ethereum conference, following the one in February at ETH Denver. It demonstrates our principle of hosting short-term Houses that center around Hackers while radiating to other tech communities, thereby contributing valuable public goods to the Ethereum ecosystem.

During the week-long event, we were fortunate to welcome a group of tech enthusiasts from around the world. They not only showcased a series of innovative technical achievements but also fostered deep thinking and discussions on how to advance the Ethereum ecosystem through account abstraction technology. Whether it was roundtable discussions on security issues or the release of various exciting projects, they all displayed the vitality and potential of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Furthermore, the HackerHouse wasn't solely about technical discussions. We also prepared a series of cultural and recreational activities for the participants. For example, local seaside tours and outdoor adventure activities allowed everyone to relax and enjoy life amidst intense technological exchanges.

Without further ado, let us revisit the memorable moments of the week through a series of fantastic photos and articles, to experience the spirit of innovation and culture of sharing!

Day 1: Kick-off and Warm-up

On May 18th, hackers flew in from various continents around the world to the mysterious and exquisite former Yugoslav member state of Montenegro. The same night, Antalpha HackerHouse invited numerous guests to an event titled "Opening Ceremony and AHH Friends Gathering". The Hackers first introduced their prior project experiences and also shared their project plans and conference agendas for their week in Montenegro.

The opening event brought together the ecosystem lead from zkSync as well core developers from Argent Wallet and Candide Wallet. They collectively engaged with the Hackers in exploring Layer 2 wallet application development, native support for account abstraction in Layer 2, and how to use a smart contract wallet to develop a decentralized application.

Of particular note, Argent Wallet, as one of the earliest and most used wallets in the account abstraction smart wallet field, brought a wealth of experience sharing from its core developers. Simultaneously, Candide Wallet, as an emerging star in the account abstraction field, shared their unique perspectives and solutions. These profound technical sharings provided the HackerHouse participants with unique angles for reflection and practical advice, making the opening event a highly valuable experience.

Such lively and in-depth discussions laid a solid foundation for the week ahead, making everyone look forward to the upcoming activities.

Day 2: Candide Wallet Night

On May 19th, Candide Wallet brought an in-depth open discussion about account abstraction, ERC4337, and wallet applications. As the organizer and venue provider of the event, Antalpha HackerHouse provided Candide Wallet's core developer, Marc, with the opportunity for this Open Table discussion.

The format of the event was quite casual, with no fixed agenda. Everyone sat around a round table as if gathering in their own dining room. Marc first explained the basic definition of account abstraction and the key components of the ERC4337 main contract. Then he posed a series of open-ended questions, such as how smart contract wallets can integrate with off-chain Guardians, how to apply MPC technology and multi-signature in smart contract wallets, and the main reasons why smart contract wallets have not yet become widely adopted. His explanation was both clear and deep, prompting extensive thinking from the attendees.

The sharing attracted a wide range of participants from inside and outside the HackerHouse. There were experts in the field of account abstraction, newcomers to the field, tech-curious audiences, and past participants of the HackerHouse. Both discussions about basic questions and deeper technical discussions were fully presented during the event.

Even more interestingly, although the EdCon conference in Montenegro had not officially commenced, many excellent projects from the Ethereum ecosystem had already presented fantastic demos during the super demoday event that day. This included projects from our HackerHouse participants.

Day 3: EDCON and Account Abstraction Night

EDCON kicked off in Montenegro on May 20, 2023! This is a moment all blockchain projects look forward to, as they can engage in in-depth exchanges and networking in Montenegro over these few days. For those unfamiliar with Montenegro, let me give you a brief introduction:

Montenegro, a small Eastern European country with rich natural scenery and unique culture, was once part of Yugoslavia and gained independence from Serbia and Montenegro 20 years ago. The name "Montenegro" originates from the country's magnificent mountainous landscape. It has beautiful natural park with enchanting lakes, ancient monasteries, and stunning natural scenery.

Furthermore, Montenegro is the recent residence of Ethereum's founder, Vitalik. He spent about a year here, not only hosting the well-known digital nomad network state event, Zuzalu, but also received a warm reception from the Prime Minister of Montenegro. One could say that Montenegro is a small yet deeply involved country promoting the development of the digital crypto economy.

EDCON's venue is located in a university in the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, and a nearby hotel was also used as the event venue. Although the venue is not large, it gathered many important figures from the Ethereum Foundation, including Vitalik, who appeared in traditional Montenegrin attire.

While the Hackers were hacking at night and attending the conference during the day, they also participated in another sharing event organized by Antalpha HackerHouse. We invited excellent projects over for a panel discussion, including the smart contract wallet and identity system Unipass, and off chain wallet transaction fraud protection provider Trusta Labs. The purpose of the discussion was to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm for sharing. Therefore, even after the main panel ended, the event kept going. The apartment, which is not big enough to accommodate thirty or forty people, was packed with people drinking soda, eating pizza, and discussing project details. It wasn't until two hours after the event ended that everyone gradually left, bringing a wonderful and productive evening for the Hackers, along with complaints from the neighbors (lol).

Day 4: Mantle Night

On May 21, 2023, following the cocktail party our co-host Mantle held the night before, they brought us another excellent sharing session. This time they not only invited the Bybit team but also arranged a roundtable sharing session themed "Fundraising in Web3" for the visiting Hackers and external project parties.

The keynote speaker was Arun, the research head of Mirana Ventures, who is also an experienced entrepreneur himself. Throughout the sharing, he humorously shared his entrepreneurial and fundraising experiences, providing his unique insights and fundraising tips in the blockchain industry to everyone present. After the sharing session, another member of Mantle also gave a presentation, detailing the technical aspects of the emerging Mantle Network, an optimistic rollup Layer 2, as well as different Layer 2s’ support for account abstraction.

Day 5: Live at EdCon, our Account Abstraction Community Event!

On May 22, on the last day of the EdCon conference, we also held a community event at the venue, named Legos of Account Abstraction. We invited exceptional projects such as EthSign, Argent Wallet, and our distinguished Hackers from prior house to analyze the current state of the account abstraction market, the technical issues that still need to be solved, and the future of the smart contract wallet market. Thanks to the EdCon venue, we attracted over 100 listeners. The event served as a perfect ending for our EdCon experience.

Interlude: Zuzalu Hiking

In the midst of intense hacking, we didn't forget to take our Hackers out for a walk! Everyone took their laptops and drove to a seaside town, which was also the location of the global digital nomad network state event, Zuzalu. Zuzalu is a vacation-centered and quite artificially constructed city, with the Mediterranean on one side and the sprawling mountains on the other, a typical representation of Montenegro's unique terrain. The Hackers coded in the cafes outside the hotel, went hiking in the nearby mountains, admired the Mediterranean sunset, and enjoyed a free dinner in the evening. A day of blast for everyone!

Final Day: Demo Day!

Our Hackers are extremely efficient! Despite their busy schedules and having to attend sharing sessions every night, they ultimately succeeded in producing three projects.

• Forum

Forum is a mobile-first, chat-based wallet. We replace awkward seed phrase accounts with passkeys, making onboarding into web3 as easy as using FaceId. Your individual wallet can interact with dapps with chat GPT commands, and you can even turn any existing group chat into a co-ownership wallet.

Tech website: https://github.com/forumdaos/forum-contracts

Demo video:

• Versa

Versa is a one-stop smart contract wallet optimized for mobile user experiences. Built on Account Abstraction, Versa is able to combine the convenience of a hot wallet and the security of a cold wallet, delivering a butter-like login and smart trading experience with robust security and automation features. Versa team has been working on lots of exciting features that are previously unforeseen on EVM ecosystems, such as on-chain spending limits, multi-factor authentication, trigger-based investing schemes, etc. The core objective is to bring CeFi experience to a self-custody level and make crypto spending super simple for the mainstream audience.

Tech website: versawallet.io

Demo video:

• Streamharbour

Streamharbour is a donation service for streamers and their fans.

Tech website: https://github.com/kmadorin/streamharbour/

Demo video:

On May 24, the week-long Account Abstraction HackerHouse, hosted by Antalpha Labs and co-hosted by Mantle, successfully concluded in Montenegro. Looking back at the week, we provided participants with a variety of social and sharing activities, such as sharing sessions from projects like zkSync, Argent Wallet, and the open table led by Candide Wallet. During the event, the Hackers experienced Montenegro's unique scenery through various sharing and outdoor activities arranged by the organizers, and successfully held the "Legos of Account Abstraction" community event at the end of the EdCon. On the last day, despite the tight schedule, the Hackers still successfully produced three projects, drawing a perfect end to the entire event. This HackerHouse not only enriched the technical insights of the participants, but also provided a wealth of public resources for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Written by Steve, 2023-06-15