Ethereum Accounts & EOAs — Plain-language primer

ActorsEthereum has only two: externally owned accounts (EOAs) that hold private keys, and contract accounts that hold code. EOAs are the only entities that can start a transaction. Contracts sit still until an EOA (directly or indirectly) pokes them.

OrderingThink of the chain as a switchboard, not a scheduler. Nothing runs until someone dials in. Every EOA carries a nonce—a monotonic counter that increments on each transaction. The nonce prevents replays, preserves ordering per account, and decides which of two competing pending transactions survives.

ImplicationIf you see state change, an EOA paid for it. That split—EOA vs contract, initiator vs responder, nonce-governed ordering—explains why gas abstraction tools exist, why WalletConnect ends in a signature prompt, and why “my contract will do it later” never works without a keeper. Even with account abstraction coming, the live network still depends on EOAs to wake up contracts and on the nonce to keep them in line.