Case Study: Combining Smart Accounts with Secure Automation
This post is a collaboration with Lit Protocol.
Lit Protocol is a decentralized network for signing and encryption, functioning as a trustless cryptographic layer for applications that need signatures onchain or encryptions offchain. It currently secures almost half a billion dollars in assets, powering hundreds of teams building decentralized finance, identity and AI-powered applications.
The team recently partnered with ZeroDev, the leading smart account infrastructure provider, and is bringing automation and intelligence to every wallet. By integrating Lit Protocol’s programmable key layer into ZeroDev smart accounts, all ZeroDev-enabled wallets can now support scoped, cross-chain, and cross-protocol signing automation. Developers can build AI-powered autonomous DeFi agents that execute strategies, including yield optimization or portfolio rebalancing, directly from the user's wallet.
An Opportunity that Couldn’t be Missed
Prior to integrating with ZeroDev, applications in Lit Protocol depended on decentralized, programmable Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs). Users and developers had to manage gas with pre-funding, making the onboarding process extremely complicated and hindering the automation experience that Lit Protocol wanted to deliver.
Lit Protocol wanted to enable a world where users could automate secure transitions without needing to manually sign every action. Not only did this make DeFi agent-based systems safer (by minimizing human error), but it also allowed them to operate faster and made for a better user experience. Its decision to integrate its Vincent Smart Account Signer with the ZeroDev SDK resolved these issues.
With the integration, ZeroDev-based wallets were able to instantly connect to Lit Protocol’s programmable key network, giving users the power to execute secure, automated transactions within predefined, cross-chain and onchain guardrails. These automations are cryptographically enforced by Lit Protocol’s distributed key network, and every action stays within approved actions, like spending limits, across protocols and chains.
According to Chris Cassano, CTO at Lit Protocol, the integration process itself was smooth and efficient, with clear documentation that enabled the engineering team to seamlessly implement without major challenges.
Why ZeroDev?
Lit Protocol decided to integrate with ZeroDev because it offered the most reliable, production-ready smart account infrastructure available today.
“ZeroDev is the most widely used production-grade ERC-7579 smart account infrastructure, so integration with ZD as the smart account of choice was an easy decision,” David Sneider, Co-founder and Project Lead at Lit Protocol, said.
Building a similar account abstraction layer in-house would have required significant engineering effort and slowed innovation in Lit Protocol’s primary focus area: cryptographic key management and automation. Additionally, compared to other solutions in the market, ZeroDev’s maturity, flexibility and developer experience made it an attractive choice for Lit Protocol.
“ZeroDev and Lit Protocol have been integrated for years, with Lit as an auth provider for its smart accounts. With this new integration, reusable guardrails for cross-network delegation and automation are now in place.”
What’s Next For Lit Protocol?
Looking ahead, Lit Protocol is launching its V1 network and $LITKEY network token on Oct. 30 at 00:00 UTC and expanding its automation capabilities to all wallet types. This means a focus on broader wallet integrations, improved DeFi automation and ecosystem-wide adoption of autonomous smart wallets powered by Lit Protocol’s programmable key layer.
From a technical perspective, ZeroDev manages the smart account layer, handling wallet creation, transaction bundling and gas abstraction, while Lit Protocol is responsible for the automation layer through scoped signing keys and policy enforcement across distributed nodes.
Working together with ZeroDev, Lit Protocol is redefining the standard for a new generation of self-operating wallets, where operation and security work hand in hand.