Ethereum Foundation Rolls Out Next Phase of Trillion-Dollar Security Initiative

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has revealed a plan for the next stage of its Trillion Dollar Security (1TS) project.

This follows an ecosystem survey conducted to identify the most urgent issues within Ethereum’s infrastructure.

Wallet Security Standard

In an August 20 blog post, the EF announced that the security initiative’s first actions will mostly target user experience (UX) issues.

“During this first wave we will kick off a range of work targeting crucial areas in UX security. The work we begin today is a combination of high-leverage short-term actions and long-term projects that we expect will continue for years,” read the post.

First launched in May, 1TS’s main goal is to enhance network security and promote broader on-chain adoption. The program is expected to roll out across several phases, with the first taking place over the next few weeks and months.

One of the key efforts will involve establishing a “Minimum Security Standard” for Ethereum wallets. The EF explained that secure UX is critical, as users must be able to safely manage keys, sign transactions, and understand the actions they approve in decentralized applications.

The proposed standard will include features such as transparent transactions, compromise-resistant interfaces, privacy-preserving architecture, and rules for governing wallet behavior, such as approval management and key handling. To support this effort, the non-profit has awarded a grant to Walletbeat, which will help to develop the benchmark and assess against it.

Blind Signing and Transaction Transparency

The foundation also highlighted blind signing as a major problem in UX security, where users are often asked to approve transactions without understanding them. To address this, it plans to promote transaction decoding, which would present human-readable details instead of raw code, and expand the use of transaction simulations that preview clear outcomes before approval.

The post revealed that the EF has started several research projects aimed at improving transaction transparency in wallets. Plans include setting new standards to make transactions easier to interpret, revisiting past proposals, and making simulation tools more reliable and widely available, alongside exploring potential in-protocol security upgrades.

Action will also be taken to help developers avoid deploying vulnerable code, which could aid in reducing the number of compromised smart contracts. This will involve creating an open-source database of relevant vulnerabilities where programmers will be able to check their code against known issues before deployment.

The survey also noted that there is demand for simpler wallets designed for non-technical users and enterprise-focused apps with features such as privacy, censorship resistance, and compliance options.

The EF’s move comes a few months after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a roadmap for the ecosystem that is focused on L1s, blobs, as well as user experiences.