Your personal ETH relay: More privacy and resilience for your ethereum transactions

by Team Casa 8 months ago 3 min read

Optionality is an essential component of securing your digital assets. At Casa, we want you to have full ownership over your ether (ETH), while being able to make a choice between convenience and on-chain privacy that best fits your needs.

We are excited to continue our collaboration with Safe to bring more privacy and autonomy to your web3 interactions with the ability to transact using your personal wallet as a relay. This ETH Pay Wallet Relay feature is accessible through ETH Pay, a mobile wallet on your phone managed with the Casa app. This feature adds on-chain privacy to Casa vaults and reduces your reliance on Casa.

What's a relay?

Smart contract wallets can’t directly interact with the ethereum network. A relay helps you initiate and manage your interactions from your Casa vault, which is a smart contract wallet. The relay acts as a bridge and allows you to broadcast transactions to the network. Any ETH public-private key pair, also known as an externally owned account (EOA), can act as a relay. You use a relay when you create your ETH vault with Casa and for subsequent transactions.

Your keys, your relay

Now, you can choose between two options for the relay in your ETH vault. Both options are built upon the Safe smart contract and are great choices for getting started with self-custody:

Casa Relay: This relay is operated and maintained by Casa. Choose this option for a simple onboarding and transacting experience.

ETH Pay Wallet Relay: This relay uses the key from your ETH Pay Wallet to broadcast transactions to the ETH network. Choose this option to eliminate any on-chain connection to Casa.

Casa Relay: More convenience at your fingertips

When Casa first launched ETH vaults in June, we introduced the Casa Relay as a way to provide our members who hold ethereum with a smooth introduction to self-custody. For instance, if you use the Casa Relay to create your ETH vault, Casa covers the initial gas fees required to deploy the underlying smart contract. This simple path is best for beginners and those who prefer a user-friendly experience.

Ethereum transactions are public and anyone in the world can verify an ethereum transaction. The Casa Relay is shared across multiple vaults, so using it could cause your on-chain address to be associated with Casa due to the nature of public blockchains.

ETH Pay Wallet Relay: More sovereignty for your vault

The ETH Pay Wallet Relay is a new feature that allows you to create ethereum addresses without any public association with Casa. When you select this option, your own ETH Pay Wallet is used as a relayer, rather than Casa.

This option is a good fit for more advanced users who prefer more on-chain privacy and autonomy. This relay uses a key you are holding (the ETH Pay Key) and you can replace this key in the event of a potential compromise.

The ETH Pay Wallet Relay is a feature that has been on Casa's roadmap since we launched our ethereum vaults not long ago. It’s our latest step toward improving the privacy and experience of holding your own ethereum keys.

Final thoughts

An important part of self-custody is managing the tradeoff between sovereignty and convenience. Our Casa Relay and ETH Pay Wallet Relay allow you to have more control over your keys as you see fit. We're excited to continue building new features quickly and with our thoughtful, security-first approach.

Secure your ETH with peace of mind

With Casa, you can protect your ETH with multiple keys so one hack or accident doesn’t result in lost assets. We also offer expert assistance and emergency support from a dedicated team of advisors, so you can talk to someone 1-on-1 for help managing your asset security.

Book a call with a Casa advisor or send us a message to learn more.