[Bug]: Import Wallet with Batch Accounts disabled loads all the Accounts that have ETH

[seaona]

Describe the bug

Problem: if I Import a Wallet, while having the Batch Accounts feature disabled from the Onboarding flow, I expect to see only 1 Account, as there is no way that it knows how many Accounts should it load, if no batch request is sent?

import-actts-batch-disabled.mp4

Steps to reproduce

1. Load MM for the first time
2. Import a Wallet (which you know it has more than 1 account with ETH)
3. Click Advanced Settings
4. Disable Batch Account requests
5. Proceed
6. Click Accounts dropdown -- see that there are loaded up to all accounts which have balance

Error messages or log output

No response

Version

10.24.0

Build type

None

Browser

Chrome

Operating system

Linux

Hardware wallet

No response

Additional context

No response

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity in the last 90 days. It will be closed in 45 days. Thank you for your contributions.

[danjm]

So there are no batched account balance requests sent in the case reported here. Instead, we add accounts following these steps:

1. Check balance for account N using a single eth_getBalance call
2. Add account N+1
3. Check the balance for account N+1
4. If step 3 results in a balance, go to step 2. If not, remove account N+1 and stop adding+checking accounts

With that said, there is a question about whether users might wish to opt out of this behaviour. Maybe a privacy conscious user would not want balance being fetched automatically.

Perhaps we should add a "Autofetch accounts" toggle, to give users a chance to disable this during onboarding.

cc @gauthierpetetin

[gauthierpetetin]

Indeed the node will receive consecutive eth_getBalance from the same IP address, but with different Ethereum addresses, thus having the possibility to deduce these addresses belong to the same person. Even though, technically speaking there's no proof that the addresses belong to the same person, the probability is quite high.
I see the following options:

1. Remove consecutive eth_getBalance behaviour (solves privacy issue, but with small regression in terms of UX for a minority of users)
2. Add "Autofetch accounts" toggle (solves privacy issue, but adds one more toggle, which introduces an additional step in the onboarding for ALL users)
3. Do nothing (small privacy concern for a minority of users, no impact on UX)

My order of preference is 1. > 2. > 3. because I see 1. a quick win that won't impact many users.
I would love to hear what @hesterbruikman @kevinghim @Gudahtt think though.