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When you sign up for Tapioca, you don’t install a browser extension or write down a seed phrase. Instead, Tapioca automatically creates a smart account for you — a programmable, on-chain wallet that works like any other Ethereum address but comes with capabilities that a standard wallet cannot provide. Your smart account is the foundation of your Tapioca experience: it holds your assets, executes your transactions, and supports the session key and gasless transaction features that make Tapioca feel seamless.

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Smart accounts vs. standard wallets

Most crypto wallets are externally owned accounts (EOAs): a public/private key pair where whoever holds the private key controls the wallet. EOAs are simple but inflexible — they can’t natively support gas sponsorship, session-scoped permissions, or programmable access controls. A smart account is a smart contract deployed on-chain that acts as your wallet. Because it’s programmable, it can enforce rules like:
  • Allowing a paymaster to cover gas fees on your behalf
  • Accepting session key authorizations for scoped, time-limited permissions
  • Batching multiple operations into a single transaction
Tapioca uses the ERC-4337 standard for smart accounts, which is the most widely adopted and audited approach to account abstraction on EVM chains.

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How your smart account is created

When you sign up with your email address, Tapioca uses Privy to create an embedded wallet tied to your account. Privy handles secure key generation and storage — your signing key is created on your device and never sent to Tapioca’s servers. ZeroDev then uses this embedded wallet as the owner key to deploy your ERC-4337 smart account on Base. You don’t need to take any action for this to happen. By the time you see your portfolio screen, your smart account already exists on-chain and is ready to receive assets.

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Non-custodial by design

Tapioca never holds your private keys. Your smart account is controlled by the signing key in your Privy embedded wallet, which is generated and stored on your device. Tapioca’s backend can help coordinate transactions and sponsor gas fees, but it cannot move your funds without your authorization. This means:
  • Tapioca cannot access your funds without a valid session key or your direct approval.
  • If Tapioca’s servers went offline, your assets would remain on-chain, accessible via your Privy wallet.
  • You own your smart account address — it is a real on-chain address that you can use like any other wallet.

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Gasless transactions

One of the most tangible benefits of your smart account is that you never pay gas fees on Tapioca. Tapioca uses an ERC-4337 paymaster — operated through ZeroDev — to sponsor all transaction costs on your behalf. When you deposit, withdraw, or rebalance, Tapioca’s paymaster covers the gas, and the transaction is routed through ZeroDev’s bundler to the Base network. You don’t need to hold ETH for gas. You don’t need to worry about fluctuating gas prices. Every interaction just works.

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Your smart account address

Your smart account has a real on-chain address on Base. You can:
  • Receive assets sent from any wallet or exchange directly to your Tapioca address.
  • View your address in the Tapioca app by clicking your account icon and selecting Copy Address.
  • Verify your account on-chain by looking it up on BaseScan.
To verify your smart account on BaseScan, copy your address from Settings > Account and paste it into basescan.org. You can confirm your on-chain balance, transaction history, and that the address is an ERC-4337 smart contract — giving you independent proof that your account exists and holds exactly what Tapioca shows.

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Frequently asked questions

Your smart account is controlled by the signing key in your Privy embedded wallet, which is linked to your login method. If you lose access to your email, use Privy’s account recovery options to regain access to your signing key. Tapioca recommends setting up at least one backup authentication method in Settings > Security.
Yes. Your smart account is a standard EVM address on Base. You can send assets to it from any wallet, and you can interact with other Base protocols directly using your Privy embedded wallet as the signing key. However, features like gasless transactions and session keys only apply when interacting through the Tapioca app.
No. Tapioca creates your smart account at no cost to you, and there are no ongoing maintenance fees. Gas fees for creating the account on-chain are also sponsored by Tapioca.
Your Privy embedded wallet is an EOA — a standard signing key used to authorize actions. Your Tapioca smart account is an ERC-4337 smart contract deployed on Base, owned and controlled by that Privy wallet. The Privy wallet is used to sign approvals; your smart account is where your assets live and where transactions execute. They work together but serve distinct roles.