Let’s start by comparing Ethereum accounts to our bank accounts.
Bank accounts are used to store, receive, and transfer money from one account to another. Ethereum accounts work similarly. ETH (the currency of Ethereum) can be stored, received, and transferred to other Ethereum accounts.
There are two types of Ethereum accounts:
🔑Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs)
💻 Contract Accounts
🔑Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs)
EOAs are managed by humans and controlled by private and public keys.
Functions:
EOAs store Ethereum.
They keep track of the balance and allow for the transfer and receipt of ETH between accounts.
EOAs are used to deploy and trigger the functionality of smart contracts. They can execute functions like transferring money/tokens and creating new contracts.
Creation:
Whenever a wallet is created, an Externally Owned Account (EOA) is automatically generated.
Access:
Imagine a lock. Unless you possess the specific key, you cannot unlock it.
Similarly, EOAs have a pair of lock and key - the Public Key (the lock) and the Private Key (the key).
The owner of an EOA needs the Private Key to spend the ETH in their account. The public key is hashed to generate the account address, while the private key is used to generate signatures and authorize transactions.
Fees:
No fee is required to create an externally owned account. Individuals can create as many accounts as they want.
💻 Contract Accounts
These accounts are controlled by code and deployed as smart contracts.
Functions:
Contract accounts can store Ethereum.
They enable the transfer and receipt of ETH between accounts.
Unlike EOAs, they cannot initiate transactions on their own. They can only respond to transactions from externally owned accounts or other contract accounts.
Creation:
When a smart contract/code is deployed, it is assigned a distinct serial number, which becomes its unique contract account.
Access:
Unlike EOAs, contract accounts do not have a private key. They are governed by the code and can be accessed using their unique serial code/address.
Fees:
Deploying code to the Ethereum network incurs gas fees because the account takes up space and requires storage.
🚀In conclusion, Ethereum accounts, whether Externally Owned Accounts or Contract Accounts, serve as digital counterparts to bank accounts for storing, receiving, and transferring ETH. While EOAs are controlled by individuals through private and public keys, contract accounts are governed by code, offering distinct functionalities within the Ethereum network.
Check out more here: https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/accounts/
