Multichain Accounts for MetaMask are finally here. According to the web3 focused development team, this is a major change as to how accounts actually work in MetaMask, and it’s one that will now aim to simplify the crosschain (and blockchain interoperability) experience for end-users.
MetaMask developers also mentioned in a blog post that they have set the standard for multi-network support in the web3 ecosystem. Users and developers depended on MetaMask to give them open-ended support for any network that they wanted to be a part of. But it also came with the catch that they had to be EVM networks.
As crypto’s multichain ecosystem has matured over the last few years, more users have been doing more things “across more networks: beyond Ethereum to its L2 networks, and further beyond to non-EVM chains like Solana. And of course, Bitcoin.”
Additionally, the number of networks that users transact across has been steadily increasing: their legacy account architecture—”one separate account for each network and private key—was quickly becoming cumbersome and untenable, even among EVM networks.”
Enter: BIP-44 and Multichain Accounts. They rearchitected the entire account experience in-wallet by “moving the “account” up one level of abstraction. An account now contains a parallel set of keys across a range of supported networks.” This multichain account “keeps the keys for Ethereum, Linea, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Bitcoin, and other networks all together in a group, and all still generated from one seed phrase.”
Now, users only need to think about singular accounts “as operating across a range of chains, rather than a patchwork of accounts that they have to manually maintain.” A multichain account naturally lists “the total of your assets across all the chains within that account, giving users a more convenient, single-stop view into their holdings.”
Ethereum isn’t at the “center of their wallet–the user is.”
As stated in the update:
“We believe it’s important to meet users where they are and take them where they want to go, giving the best wallet experience on whatever network they choose. This both supports the needs of our existing users, and gives new users of those ecosystems the choice to use our wallet. But this doesn’t mean we’re less committed to Ethereum, far from it.”
They also believe Ethereum is the backbone of web3, and will be the rails on which the global financial system will be “rebuilt.”
By improving connectivity between networks and Ethereum, users across chains are able to migrate their assets and activity to include Ethereum, and also “wherever else they want to go.”
All roads lead to Ethereum, the MetaMask blog post noted.
Multichain accounts are now said to be standard in new versions of MetaMask. Users may now update to the latest version of mobile or extension in order to get started.