ERC-7978: Non Fungible Account Tokens

ERCs
, ,
1

Hi everyone,

Smart-contract wallets (ERC-4337 / 7579) are gaining adoption, but today they remain invisible to the NFT ecosystem: you can’t list a wallet on OpenSea, you can’t hand it to someone in a single transfer, and NFTs themselves still behave like static receipts rather than real containers of value.

My take: let’s fuse the two worlds.

A Non-Fungible Account Token (NFAT) is an ERC-721 whose metadata hard-codes the address of an ERC-7579 wallet. Because the wallet’s validator accepts signatures only from the current NFT holder, transferring the token instantly transfers full control of the smart account — balances, DeFi positions, game items, history, everything.

Key points of the draft spec (link :point_right: ERC-7978):

  • Factory + Validator pattern – one transaction mints the NFT and deploys (or references) any audited 7579 wallet (Kernel, Nexus, Safe-7579, etc.).
  • No registry, no indirection – the wallet address lives right in tokenURI, so explorers and marketplaces need zero extra calls.
  • Self-transfer lock & module reset – prevents accidental black-holing and ensures the new owner starts with a clean wallet.
  • Backward-friendly – legacy NFTs can be wrapped; existing 6551 projects can keep their TBA registry and still offer a tradable NFAT overlay.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

2

How does this compare to ERC-6551?

3

ERC-6551: NFT ↔ account binding stored in a registry contract; NFT metadata unchanged.

NFAT: NFT metadata directly names the wallet address; validator enforces “current NFT holder == wallet signer”; wallet is tradable anywhere ERC-721 is supported.

The philosophy is to make the wallet address part of the NFT’s identity; use a minimal validator so the NFT is the key. Instead of relying on a central registry coordinates the mapping and NFT point to an account;