MetaMask Snaps: Pioneering a New Decentralized Ecosystem and Strengthening Wallet Leadership
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MetaMask Snaps: Pioneering a New Decentralized Ecosystem and Strengthening Wallet Leadership
This article provides a detailed introduction to the usage process, project progress, impacts, and potential issues and risks associated with MetaMask Snaps.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Darren, Everest Ventures Group
What is MetaMask Snaps?
MetaMask Snaps is a new feature (plugin) for the MetaMask wallet designed to create a permissionless ecosystem where developers can extend MetaMask in any way they choose. It represents an open-source approach to wallet extension development and offers diversified, personalized solutions for end users with varying needs. According to public information, MetaMask is currently the only wallet provider that supports custom plugins.
User workflow:
1. First, download MetaMask Flask from this website;
Note: The project is still in developer testing phase, so you will see risk warnings when downloading Flask:
2. After successfully installing Flask, you can begin downloading the Snaps you wish to use. Here we'll use AA Snap as an example (since it's still in developer testing, screenshots from developer videos are used in this article):
1) Connect your MetaMask wallet on the AA Snap official website. A connection request will then pop up in MetaMask—click "Connect";
2) Approve & Install;
3) Then connect your companion wallet here;
4) You will then see both your EOA wallet and account abstraction wallet. The account abstraction wallet is a contract wallet, so its address is deterministic and automatically generated upon connecting to MetaMask;
5) Now let’s try sending 0.1 $MATIC to the contract wallet: copy the contract wallet address and send tokens just like you would to any other EOA wallet address;
After a short wait, you’ll see the $MATIC arrive in the contract wallet;
6) Next, try sending 0.05 $MATIC from the contract wallet to an EOA wallet;
Then confirm the transaction ("sign"), and after a short wait, you’ll see the tokens successfully sent;
7) Finally, check on polygonscan whether the contract account has been successfully deployed (you can see it has been successfully deployed);
The above is a simple user tutorial. From this process, we can see that before using MetaMask Snaps, users still need to first learn how to use MetaMask. Therefore, the introduction of MetaMask Snaps does not lower the user entry barrier—it mainly enhances experience and functionality for existing users, helping retain current users more effectively.
Progress and Projects of MetaMask Snaps
Currently, MetaMask Snaps is still in a relatively early stage of development. Existing Snaps are continuously being developed and tested, while the MetaMask team actively encourages more developers to build on MetaMask through various initiatives. Two primary methods are currently being used:
1. MetaMask Grants DAO: An experimental, employee-led program funded by ConsenSys, aimed at providing grants to external developers worldwide to build impactful experiences within the MetaMask ecosystem. In the Grants DAO, community members can submit proposals to fund specific Snap projects, and if a proposal receives sufficient support votes, it passes.
2. Sponsoring hackathons: MetaMask also sponsors multiple hackathons to attract more developers to build Snaps.
To date, many developers have shown strong interest in Snap development and are actively involved. A large number of Snap projects are already under development and testing. This article will analyze several notable Snap projects that either won hackathons or received high levels of support in the Grants DAO.
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MPC Snap: Integrating Multi-Factor Authentication into MetaMask
MPC Snap integrates MPC (Multi-Party Computation) technology into MetaMask, enabling users to manage private keys via MPC. When using MPC Snap, users can set up two-factor authentication (2FA) to access their MetaMask wallet. Whenever a user prepares to sign a transaction, the MPC SDK within the Snap performs threshold ECDSA signing. This is achieved by splitting the private key into two shares: one stored locally within the Snap, and another stored on a signature server. Through several rounds of communication, the signature server and the Snap jointly sign Ethereum transactions, which are then confirmed on the Goerli network.
Moreover, unlike seed phrases, this setup avoids irreversible key loss due to single points of failure. Even if a user’s laptop is hacked or the signature server is compromised, their private key remains secure.
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CoinChoice Snap: Pay Gas Using Any Currency
Many users attempting wallet operations often face insufficient ETH balances to cover gas fees—especially common during airdrop claims or token sales. Traditionally, solving this requires withdrawing from centralized exchanges or transferring funds from another wallet. However, both approaches become cumbersome when managing multiple wallets or during network congestion.
CoinChoice Snap aims to solve this issue. It is a tool embedded within the user’s MetaMask browser extension, giving them control over gas management per transaction. For instance, if a user prefers holding USDC over ETH, they can pay gas using USDC. This allows users to select their preferred currency to cover transaction gas fees.
Invisible Keys Snap: Multi-Cloud Private Key Storage
Similar to MPC Snap, Invisible Keys Snap aims to improve private key management. It stores a user’s private key across two or more cloud storage services (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox). Even if one service is breached, the private key remains protected and never fully exposed.
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Smart Account Session Snap: Auto-Approval for Gaming DApps
In Web3, the user experience in GameFi (gaming + finance) remains a persistent challenge. Players frequently need to repeatedly sign transactions to continue gameplay. Smart Account Session Snap aims to provide seamless UX for gaming dApps by offering a secure auto-approval mechanism.
Here is the user flow:
1. Connect your EOA and install the Smart Account Session Snap.
2. Enable a smart account on top of your MetaMask address. Your MetaMask EOA becomes the controller of this smart account.
3. Enable the session module on your smart account. This module adds extra access control logic to your Smart Safe account. Essentially, each smart account is controlled in two ways: by the MetaMask account owner via their signing key, and optionally by a module with custom access logic.
4. Create a session.
5. This generates a temporary session key on your smart account, authorized by the module to perform transactions on your wallet. Sessions can include parameters such as start time, end time, and permissions for custom operations on DApp contracts.
6. Use the session key to send auto-approved transactions without requiring MetaMask popups for gas or signature confirmation.
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Blackbelt Snap: Real-Time Self-Defense Against Scams
Security remains a prevalent yet serious issue in Web3. Attackers can exploit front-end vulnerabilities to silently inject malicious contracts into user interfaces, leading users to unknowingly interact with them and lose funds. Blackbelt Snap aims to address this. Users can view real-time security assessments via Blackbelt Snap. If a user encounters a protocol with a very low security score, they can report it. Subsequently, other users interacting with that protocol will also see the number of reports against it.
Through Blackbelt Snap, users gain better insight into protocol safety and collectively help protect the community from malicious activity. This reporting mechanism increases user vigilance and reduces exposure to risky protocols.
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Unipass Smart Contract Wallet MetaMask Snap: Social Recovery Based on Email
This Snap aims to integrate features built by Unipass, bringing smart contract wallet capabilities with account abstraction into MetaMask. Initially, it will introduce social recovery functionality to eliminate the need for seed phrase management—one of the main pain points and security risks when using external accounts like MetaMask. Later, it will gradually add other features such as gas sponsorship using ERC-20 tokens and batch transactions, significantly reducing operational complexity and improving user experience.
The potential of social recovery systems is widely recognized. Yet, MetaMask has not internally implemented such a feature, while other wallets like Argent have offered similar capabilities for some time. Unipass is well-positioned to realize this vision, having already launched widely adopted no-mnemonic, gasless wallets for game dApps. Beyond leveraging smart contract wallets through account abstraction and multi-party computation (MPC), Unipass also uses the DKIM email protocol, employing Domain Key-generated signatures to securely verify and authorize guardians for transactions. This represents a major improvement over existing solutions like Argent, which require guardians to hold crypto wallets themselves—limiting eligible guardians to those who already possess wallets.
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Forta Snap: Decentralized Camera and Alarm System for Web3
Launched in October 2021, Forta is used by prominent DeFi projects such as Lido, Compound, Aave, MakerDAO, Balancer, dYdX, and UMA to monitor critical aspects of their protocols. Incubated by OpenZeppelin and backed by a16z, Blockchain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others, Forta is a real-time detection network for security and operational monitoring of blockchain activity. It detects threats and anomalies across DeFi, NFTs, governance, cross-chain bridges, and other Web3 systems. With timely and relevant alerts, protocols and investors can quickly respond to neutralize threats and prevent or minimize financial losses.
It's well known that Web3 is rife with phishing and scam cases. In the first half of 2022 alone, scammers and hackers stole over $2 billion via phishing and other exploits. However, Web3 security is still in its infancy—most efforts so far have focused on securing DeFi protocols through audits, formal verification, and bug bounties. Security stacks like Forta haven't reached most end users, despite common attacks such as phishing, unlimited token approvals, and scams primarily targeting unprotected everyday users. Thus, Forta Snap aims to build end-user protection directly into MetaMask, leveraging Forta bots’ detection capabilities to help more users prevent scams and phishing. If successful, MetaMask users will gain enhanced on-chain scam and phishing prevention within their wallet experience, complementing existing URL-based protections.
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Safeheron Multi-Party Compute (MPC) Key Sharding Snap: Account and Key Management
Safeheron is an open-source, transparent digital asset self-custody platform founded in 2019 with headquarters in Singapore. Leveraging secure multi-party computation (MPC) and trusted execution environments (TEE), Safeheron provides institutional clients with comprehensive, one-stop self-custody solutions, ensuring clients retain 100% control over their private keys and assets while enhancing security and management efficiency. This Snap, developed collaboratively between Safeheron and MetaMask, focuses on improving MetaMask’s key management experience—particularly helping users manage their Secret Recovery Phrase (SRP) to reduce phishing risks and lower the likelihood of key loss.
Due to the underlying MPC algorithm, private keys are never stored entirely on a single device, greatly reducing the chance of attackers obtaining them and stealing user funds. Additionally, if a user loses one of three devices, they can use the remaining two to issue new key shards to a replacement device, preserving security. If successful, this project will validate MetaMask Snaps as an innovation accelerator for next-generation key management, significantly reducing single points of failure related to hacking, phishing, or loss.
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StarkNet Snap: Integration of StarkWare into the First ZK-Rollup Snap
Until now, StarkNet hasn’t been directly compatible with MetaMask due to differing address and account formats—not being EVM-compatible. StarkNet Snap allows users to manage StarkNet assets by creating a StarkNet account based on their original MetaMask Secret Recovery Phrase (SRP). The Snap also enables developers to deploy StarkNet accounts, conduct transactions, and interact with StarkNet smart contracts. It can connect to any dApp to access StarkNet, allowing developers to integrate their dApps with this Snap.
Additionally, even if you accidentally delete the StarkNet Snap, there’s no need to worry—the deletion doesn’t remove your StarkNet account or transaction history. StarkNet Snap recovery leverages MetaMask’s Secret Recovery Phrase directly: after restoring your MetaMask account and reinstalling the StarkNet Snap, your existing account is automatically restored.
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Snap Directory: Web Catalog for Adding, Searching, Discovering, and Installing Snaps
It’s foreseeable that in the future, MetaMask will offer a vast array of Snaps, each with different functions, permissions, and security profiles. Users would otherwise spend significant time researching these details, severely impacting user experience and hindering the rapid growth of MetaMask Snaps.
Snap Directory aims to solve this by creating a website where users can quickly find Snaps, verify their information, and understand their security risks. All data on the site will be transparent and subject to external community audits. Developers can also verify their identities and list their Snaps in the directory.
Main Impacts
From the above discussion, it’s clear that MetaMask Snaps could have profound implications. If MetaMask Snaps develops successfully, the following impacts may occur:
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MetaMask Snaps will further solidify MetaMask’s leading position in the wallet space. It will significantly benefit existing MetaMask users by delivering a superior Web3 experience.
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MetaMask Snaps can be seen as a breakthrough within the Web3 ecosystem. It transforms a simple Ethereum wallet into a full-fledged Web3 management tool, enabling customization and enhancement of the user Web3 experience—something no other wallet project has achieved yet.
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MetaMask Snaps could attract more Web2 developers into the Web3 space. By making complex Web3 technologies more accessible and easier to apply, it will significantly accelerate the integration of traditional Web2 applications with Web3.
Potential Issues and Risks
1. Security:
As observed earlier, MetaMask Snaps resemble Chrome browser extensions. In terms of security, Chrome scans every extension submitted to the Chrome Web Store, but this process isn’t rigorous enough—some malicious extensions slip through. Over the years, numerous data leakage incidents have occurred due to compromised Chrome extensions.
Similarly, while the previously mentioned Snap Directory project can help users assess Snap security to some extent, it’s insufficient. Unlike browsers, wallets store substantial user funds and thus demand much higher security standards. Clearly, security is a critical requirement for MetaMask Snaps—and a potential vulnerability in its development. More improvements and safeguards are needed before users can confidently adopt Snaps.
2. Accessibility:
Before learning how to use MetaMask Snaps, users must first understand how to use the MetaMask wallet—an EOA wallet requiring knowledge of private keys, seed phrases, etc.—which is unfriendly to newcomers unfamiliar with Web3. The introduction of MetaMask Snaps does not lower the entry barrier; instead, it primarily serves existing users already familiar with MetaMask.
However, we can anticipate that the next bull market will require a large influx of new users into Web3. Currently, the entry barrier remains relatively high, making lowering it crucial. Low-barrier Web3 wallets are likely to attract more new users. We’ve already seen many such wallets emerge—some allow one-click login via Twitter, others use email or phone numbers, and some even enable facial recognition for wallet access. MetaMask Snaps does not offer advantages in this area. Therefore, if MetaMask wishes to maintain its leadership in the next bull market, it must focus more on lowering user barriers.
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