“`html
Since the declaration of the Trillion Dollar Security initiative, we have assessed the ecosystem to determine which enhancements are of utmost importance to each layer of the Ethereum framework and community.
Now is the moment to embark on the subsequent stage of this endeavor: addressing the most critical issues we encounter.
In this initial round of actions, we will primarily concentrate on UX challenges. Our analysis indicated that these are the most pressing concerns for both individual and institutional Ethereum users and those utilizing Ethereum-based applications.
During this initial phase, we will commence a series of efforts aimed at pivotal areas in UX security. The initiatives we initiate today represent a mix of impactful short-term actions and long-term projects, which we anticipate will extend over several years. We plan to continuously launch new phases of projects, addressing various priority security sectors over time. As these initiatives gain traction in the upcoming weeks and months, we will shift our focus to the next set of priorities encompassing other sectors.
As always, we are enthusiastic to assist and collaborate with others striving to enhance Ethereum’s security and ensure Ethereum is safer for billions of users and trillions of dollars of on-chain assets. Connect with us at trilliondollarsecurity@ethereum.org.
1. Coordinating a “Minimum Security Standard” for Ethereum wallets and supporting Walletbeat
The wallet UX is where security starts for every Ethereum user. If users cannot securely manage keys, sign transactions, and engage with on-chain applications, then utilizing Ethereum is not safe.
We believe the Ethereum ecosystem should create and adopt a minimum security benchmark for wallets, which can act as a reliable and authentic reference for which wallets are secure for everyday Ethereum users. We think this standard should mandate features such as:
- Clear transactions
- Compromise-resistant user interfaces
- Privacy-enabling architecture
- Guidelines for wallet behavior, e.g. approval management, key governance, front-end validation
- + additional features
We are motivated by the achievements of L2BEAT in enlightening users and presenting the security and decentralization characteristics of L2s in a transparent manner to the ecosystem.
We believe a Minimum Security Standard for wallets could help mitigate two distinct aspects of this challenge. First, providing ordinary users a dependable guide to select only those wallets that comply with this standard will mean that a larger portion of Ethereum users will possess the features they require for a secure on-chain experience. To achieve this effectively, the standard must establish a very high benchmark and it must be regularly elevated as the ecosystem develops new security features or as new threats emerge. Secondly, this standard will motivate wallet teams to prioritize essential features in order to maintain compliance.
To assist in creating and advocating for such a standard, we are excited to provide a grant to Walletbeat, which has been striving towards a parallel vision. Walletbeat will not only be a contributor to this community standard but also an entity that can assist in the meticulous evaluation of wallets against the standard and facilitate user access to the information.
Stay updated for more details regarding work on this standard and how to contribute.
2. Unblocking the “tech tree” to tackle blind signing
A major concern in UX security is blind signing. Users frequently face the expectation of signing transactions without understanding the implications of those transactions.
Through discussions with ecosystem advisors and our stewards, we have pinpointed several strategies we can employ to help unblock the “tech tree,” which will allow more wallets to implement features that resolve this issue.
“““html
Unblocking transaction decoding
One approach to the blind signing issue is for wallets to interpret the raw transaction information and convert it into a user-friendly narrative of what the transaction entails. Instead of encountering a lengthy code sequence, a user may observe details like “Transferring 1,000 of token ABC to recipient 0x123”.
A significant challenge for wallet developers is that this type of functionality necessitates an extensive dataset of function signatures, which needs access to repositories of verified contracts, many of which are proprietary and demand costly licenses for utilization.
In recent years, the Verifier Alliance (VERA) has been diligently working to resolve this, and has successfully created a database encompassing over eight million contracts. Through our investigation, it was apparent that many teams were unaware of the resources VERA provides, and in the weeks and months ahead, we will promote their contributions to ensure wallet developers recognize these open-source assets and explore additional avenues to enhance their impact.
Additionally, we are initiating some R&D efforts that we believe may unveil new approaches for transaction transparency within wallets.
- Standards that would motivate applications to incorporate code into their contracts, making it simpler for wallets to decipher transactions.
- Reassessing previous suggestions aimed at addressing this issue which the ecosystem did not prioritize at the time, such as ERC 4430, EIP 7730, EIP 719, and examining how to further the work of the Human Readable Transactions Group.
Wallets can take it a step further by simulating the effects of a transaction in an EVM context against Ethereum’s present state. This simulation would subsequently yield a message like “this X will result in you transmitting 1 ETH from X to Y, and obtaining 1 NFT from collection Y.”
If wallets could consistently evaluate the trust level of contracts that users are engaging with, this would significantly advance the resolution of this issue.
Some wallets presently provide these features, but we aim to facilitate more wallets in offering them, ensuring all transaction simulation functions are reliable and of high quality.
We have also embarked on several R&D initiatives to investigate whether protocol improvements on aspects like opt-in transaction assertions and supplementary security features would further bolster user safety.
3. Making it easier for developers to avoid deploying vulnerable code
Establishing an open-source repository of smart contract vulnerabilities could serve as a reference for IDEs and other development tools, helping to diminish compromised contracts. These utilities could examine pre-deployed contracts against the open-source repository prior to deploying the code on-chain, enabling developers to identify vulnerabilities in their applications before execution.
Although not strictly a UX endeavor, we believe this is a high-impact project where the EF is in a unique position to facilitate a widely utilized database, and we invite any interested parties, such as auditing competition platforms, auditors, white hats, or others, to contribute their insights.
Once we have established a comprehensive open-source database, the subsequent step is to advocate for tool developers to incorporate features that leverage this resource.
Here’s what the ecosystem can help with:
Ultra straightforward non-tech wallet
A frequently noted piece of feedback during our survey phase has been that current wallets cater primarily to the tech-savvy. There seems to be substantial interest in wallets designed for non-technical users globally, offering functionalities that effectively create a secure environment by establishing guardrails while enabling users to experience the on-chain interaction. Survey participants suggested features such as seamless transactions to friends and businesses (eliminating the need to enter a public key), uncomplicated payments for products and services, integrated basic swapping, and the capability to recover your wallet. Should you have suggestions on how to tackle these concerns, please reach out.
Enterprise-oriented wallets
Businesses have emphasized the significance of privacy, resistance to censorship (including external services utilized by the wallet to interact with the network), and compliance obligations for key management. If you have thoughts on how to resolve these matters, kindly reach out.
Source link
“`
