A Polyester account is a smart wallet deployed on Polyester Chain. The smart wallet is the on-chain authority for the account, authorizing and executing actions across the exchange. Funds live in the exchange account contracts, but the smart wallet retains ownership and custody authority over those balances at all times.
Authentication methods are how a user proves they are allowed to act on behalf of their smart wallet. This is either a self-custodied wallet such as MetaMask or Phantom, or a Turnkey-generated EOA through Google or email login. See Authentication Methods and Turnkey for the supported options.
What Smart Wallets Enable
A smart wallet is a programmable on-chain contract. It encodes logic and permissions at the account level and validates whether an action is allowed before it executes, based on who is requesting it and what they are authorized to do.
This is what enables the account features available in Polyester: subaccounts with isolated balances and permissions, scoped access for API keys and bots, and authentication methods that can be changed without moving assets or creating a new account. All of this is enforced on-chain by the smart wallet itself, not at the application layer.
Account Abstraction (ERC-4337)
Polyester smart wallets use ERC-4337, the account abstraction standard. Instead of submitting raw transactions, smart wallets submit UserOperations that are validated and authorized internally before execution. Actions can be batched or structured as multi-step workflows.
In practice this reduces signing prompts for routine exchange activity. Moving funds between the Lending Account and the Unified Trading Account, for example, does not require a separate wallet confirmation each time. The smart wallet already has the authority to perform that action once a session is active.
Deployment
Smart wallet addresses are computed off-chain at account creation time using a deterministic formula, so the address is known before any transaction is made. The actual smart wallet contract is only deployed on-chain when the user makes their first transaction. Until then, the address exists and can receive funds.
Ownership and subaccounts
Each Polyester account is owned by the EOA selected at account creation. This applies to the master account and to each subaccount individually. The master smart wallet has administrative authority over all subaccounts.
subaccounts are additional smart wallets with isolated balances and their own permission sets. They are useful for separating strategies, running API bots, or granting others limited access without exposing the main account. See subaccounts for full detail.
API keys and bots granted access to an account never own assets. They operate within the permissions granted by the smart wallet and can be revoked at any time without affecting account ownership or balances.
Gas
All transactions executed through a smart wallet on Polyester Chain are covered by gas sponsorship. Polyester covers the required $POL gas automatically. Users never need to hold or acquire $POL to trade, lend, or manage their account.
See Gas Sponsorship for details on how this is handled with your smart wallet.