How to receive crypto and what counterfactual addresses mean
How to receive crypto in Vaultr and why counterfactual addresses let you get paid before your smart wallet is ever deployed on-chain.
Quick answer
To receive crypto in Vaultr, open your wallet, tap Receive, and share your QR code or address. Thanks to counterfactual addresses, your smart-wallet address exists and can receive funds before it is ever deployed on-chain, so you can be paid first and only pay deployment gas later, when you make your first outgoing transaction.
Receiving is the simplest action in any wallet, but Vaultr’s ERC-4337 design adds a useful twist: your address is usable before it exists on the blockchain. This article explains how to receive and what that means.
How do I receive crypto step by step?
- Open your wallet and tap Receive.
- Vaultr displays a QR code and your address.
- Choose the address type. Vaultr offers both your EOA (externally owned account) address and your smart-account address.
- Share the QR code or copy the address to the sender.
- Watch the balance update live. Incoming funds appear automatically because balances and transactions stream over WebSocket.
Important: Always confirm you are sharing an address for the correct chain. Vaultr supports nine chains, and sending an asset to the wrong network can result in loss.
What is a counterfactual address?
A counterfactual address is the deterministic address of your ERC-4337 smart account, computed in advance from your account parameters. Because the address is derived mathematically, it is known and valid before the smart contract is deployed on-chain.
In practice this means:
- You can receive funds before deployment. People can send to your address immediately.
- You do not pay any gas to start receiving. Deployment is deferred.
- The account is deployed automatically on your first outgoing UserOperation, bundled into that transaction.
This is a direct benefit of account abstraction: the wallet is a smart contract whose address is reserved the moment you create the account, not the moment it is mined.
What is the difference between the EOA and smart-account address?
Vaultr can show two address options on the receive screen:
- Smart-account address – your ERC-4337 contract account. It supports batched atomic transactions, gas sponsorship, and paying gas in other tokens via the paymaster.
- EOA address – a standard externally owned account.
For most receiving, the smart-account address is what unlocks Vaultr’s account-abstraction features. If a sender or service requires a plain EOA, that option is also available.
Do I pay a fee to receive?
Receiving crypto into your Vaultr wallet does not incur a Vaultr platform send fee, because platform fees apply to outgoing actions such as sends, swaps, bridges, and escrow releases. The sender pays their own network and platform fees.
FAQ
Can someone really pay me before my wallet is deployed?
Yes. The counterfactual address is valid immediately, so funds can arrive before any on-chain deployment. Deployment happens automatically the first time you send.
Which address should I share, EOA or smart account?
Use the smart-account address to take advantage of Vaultr’s account-abstraction features. Use the EOA only if the sender specifically needs a standard externally owned account.
How do I know funds arrived?
Your balance updates in real time over WebSocket, so a received transaction appears in the app without manual refreshing.
Learn more about the Vaultr smart wallet.
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