Account Creation

Creating an account with Aemula allows you to access the full functionality of the Aemula platform with minimal time and effort!

It is free to start and only requires an email address (which we don't use - see "Information we collect" below for more details).

Overview of smart accounts

Aemula is a decentralized platform built on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain.

If you are not yet familiar with decentralized applications, here are a few resources to learn more!

Building Aemula on Ethereum allows:

Authors to truly own their published work
Subscription revenue to flow directly from readers to authors without anyone controlling the flow of funds
Censorship resistance
Community governance and moderation
Access to communal resources and funding without giving up control of your work
Open-source, fully transparent algorithms
Verifiable reputations and proof-of-humanity
Anonymity and identity protection

To streamline the process of creating an onchcain Ethereum account, we utilize Smart Contract Accounts made with ERC-4337 Account Abstraction.

Smart Contract Accounts (or "Smart Accounts") are programmable, onchain accounts that are capable of interacting with the blockchain via smart contracts. The use of Smart Accounts enables us to:

Sponsor gas fees of onchain transactions so you don't have to pay them!
Sign transactions on behalf of the Smart Account for efficient onchain interactions
Bundle transactions together to reduce the costs of interacting with the blockchain
Provide a streamlined and familiar account creation process
Allow for private key management and account recovery

How we implement smart accounts

To offer users the ability to create smart accounts at login with Aemula, we integrate third-party services:

Privy: Manages smart account creation and deployment, email one-time passcode and/or passkey authentication for account authorization and recovery, signer services, and a trusted executed environment (TEE) to store smart account signer keys
Alchemy: Manages transaction bundler services to execute smart account transactions and paymaster services for Aemula to sponsor smart account gas fees

Note that we recently migrated authentication and TEE services from Alchemy/Turnkey to Privy. If you created a smart account using the Alchemy/Turnkey TEE, you will be prompted to migrate your signer keys to Privy on your next login.

Information we collect

In short, not much.

Our third-party authentication provider, Privy, uses a hash of your email address to create the public address for your smart account (by creating an account and signing in, you are also agreeing to Privy's Terms of Service, as well as Alchemy's Terms of Service).

(Note that if you previously created a smart account using our Alchemy integration, you were agreeing to Alchemy's Terms of Service, which referenced that you additionally agree to the Turnkey Terms of Service).

A hash is a one-way function, meaning that you can easily use your email address to create and authenticate your smart account's public address, but no one can feasibly use your smart account's public address to determine your email address.

On Aemula, we only use your smart account's public address. You can elect to provide us with your email address, which you can provide directly or we can request from Alchemy. Providing your email address can be helpful to manage and resolve support cases or notify you of platform updates or changes to our Terms. Otherwise, we don't use your email to operate the Aemula platform.

Learn more about the information we collect by reading our Privacy Policy.

FAQs

I don't have an account, how do I create one?
- Just enter your email address at Sign In and we will create an account for you
- You will receive a one-time password to the email address provided to verify your ownership of the email address
Does it cost anything?
- No, everyone receives a 2-week free trial to start, no card or payment method required
- We cover all gas fees associated with account creation and any onchain interactions
Do you support Externally Owned Accounts?
- Not yet, but soon!
Can I export my data/assets from the Smart Contract Account to an Externally Owned Account?
- You can export your Smart Contract Account signer key from your Account page
- Additionally, the ERC-4337 smart accounts created at Sign In should support ownership transfer to other signer contracts in most cases
- We are working to implement asset transfer features directly in the Aemula Platform in the future
- If you wish to transfer assets from your Smart Contract Account at this time, contact support
Can I take ownership of the private keys for my Smart Account?
- Functionally, your ERC-4337 Smart Contract Account is an onchain smart contract with a private signer key
- You can export your Smart Contract Account signer key from your Account page

Create an Account!

Ready to create an account? Sign up!

Any questions not answered here? Please reach out to support@aemula.com and we will do our best to answer them as soon as possible.