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Disclaimer: The blog you’re about to read is a proposal from the Account Abstraction team. This content may not reflect everyone’s views, and the EF includes a vibrant mix of opinions that strengthen Ethereum as a whole.
Since Ethereum’s inception, its vision has been nothing short of amazing: a global, permissionless, and censorship-resistant computing platform. Fast forward to today, and that vision is more alive than ever! Ethereum has embraced rollups, making blockspace plentiful and transactions super affordable. The focus now is not just on throughput but also on providing a seamless user experience across the multichain landscape.
What if all the L2s felt like one, unified Ethereum?
No more bridges to navigate, no complicated chain names to memorize, and no more fragmented balances or assets!
Enter the vision of the Ethereum Interop Layer (EIL): a dream to make Ethereum feel whole again — while safeguarding the trust-minimized, decentralized foundations we all cherish.
EIL empowers Ethereum’s rollups to act as a single, unified network by allowing users to sign once for cross-chain transactions, all while maintaining the necessary trust. Built on the principles of ERC-4337 account abstraction and the Trustless Manifesto, users can initiate and settle cross-L2 actions right from their wallets, without needing relayers or solvers. EIL keeps Ethereum’s promises of self-custody, censorship resistance, disintermediation, and verifiable on-chain execution intact. This fresh account-based interoperability layer pulls together Ethereum’s disjointed L2 ecosystem under ETH’s trusted security model.
The problem: fragmentation at scale
Sure, L2 chains are a game changer, offering impressive gains in speed and cost — but they’ve also added a layer of complexity for users and wallets. Here are some questions you might be asking:
- Which chain is my token on?
- How do I move tokens from Arbitrum to Base to Scroll to Linea?
- Do I need to trust a third-party bridge or relayer?
- Does my wallet or dapp need to integrate every new chain manually?
For users, it feels like less of a seamless Ethereum and more like a bunch of separate Ethereums! You’re managing multiple chains instead of enjoying easy transactions. This leads to unnecessary friction, mental strain, and often additional trust risks with bridging, relaying, and solving — all while increasing the possibility of censorship.
The vision: many L2s, one Ethereum
Now, picture this:
You fire up your wallet, select an asset and an address, then just hit Send.
Your wallet takes care of finding the right chain and delivering the asset — all behind the scenes!
Mint NFTs, transfer tokens, and trade assets without worrying about what rollup you or your counterpart are on or where the dapp lives.
As new networks pop into the ecosystem, your wallet will just work with them—no custom setups, no need for off-chain operators!
That’s EIL for you! It’s all about wallet-centric multichain UX: your wallet becomes your all-access pass to the Ethereum world, creating a smooth experience rather than a chaotic collection of islands.
In many ways, EIL is to Ethereum what HTTP was to the early Internet.
Before HTTP arrived, users had to connect to each server individually, making it hard to blend them into one fluid experience.
HTTP changed the game, allowing browsers to navigate between servers without a hitch.
EIL strives to do the same for Ethereum’s rollups, bringing Ethereum into its “web era,” where wallets function like browsers and users can cruise effortlessly among L2s without hassle.
What it takes: trust assumptions, preserved
Unity of UX is super appealing, but it’s crucial we don’t lose sight of Ethereum’s main values:
- Self-custody: users have the power! They hold their assets and control transactions.
- Censorship-resistance: no one can block or slow down your transactions.
- Privacy: keep your IP and intentions to yourself — no peeking from relayers or solvers.
- Verifiability: important processes can always be checked on-chain or in the open-source wallet code.
EIL was crafted with the trustless manifesto in mind. It brings the action on-chain and into the user’s wallet, cutting out middlemen and hidden server tricks. Users can deal directly across all chains; trustless liquidity providers offer funds but stay out of user transactions.
Instead of saying, “I trust a bridge operator to move my funds,” you can confidently say, “my wallet and contract handle it — according to clear rules.”
This keeps the trust boundary nice and small.
Ethereum is about disintermediation — interop should be as well
Ethereum’s big leap forward is replacing middlemen with reliable code.
Once, crypto relied on centralized exchanges (CEXs) until Ethereum opened the door for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) — no need to trust a custodian or worry about counterparty risk, just a verified smart contract. DeFi has reshaped the world by giving us an intermediary-free alternative to traditional finance.
Cross-L2 interop still feels a bit like a CEX setup, with bridge operators, relayers, solvers, and behind-the-scenes infrastructure.
Transacting across L2s should be just as trustless as using a DEX.
EIL puts the logic directly on-chain and in the user’s wallet, cutting out reliance on middlemen and unclear server processes. Users carry out transactions directly across all chains; trustless liquidity providers assist but remain completely separate from user transactions.
From the user’s view: how it feels
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Cross-chain transfer — Imagine Alice has USDC on Arbitrum, and Bob is on Base. With just one click, her wallet sends funds to Bob’s Base address. From Alice’s perspective: “Send USDC to Bob” — she doesn’t care what network it’s on!
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Cross-chain mint — Alice holds ETH on Arbitrum and Scroll. She decides to mint an NFT on Linea. Her wallet effortlessly combines balances and manages gas and asset movement, all in one click and one simple signature!
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Cross-chain swap — Alice discovers better liquidity for her token on an Optimism DEX. She swaps from Arbitrum, and her wallet navigates the path, getting her back to Arbitrum with her new token — no bridging hassles, just smooth sailing!
For the user, it feels like: “Send, mint, swap — I just do my thing!”
But behind the scenes, it’s: “Wallet + on-chain protocol transacts across chains — without any new trust requirements.”
Why this matters for the ecosystem
When we make interoperability a wallet-level capability, the whole ecosystem takes a big leap forward:
- Wallets and dapps will become multichain-ready right from the start!
- New rollups will work seamlessly, speeding up adoption.
- Developers can concentrate on crafting amazing user experiences instead of stressing over cross-chain setups.
- Users will enjoy the straightforwardness of Ethereum: one wallet, one signature, many chains — one unified experience!
- Most importantly, Ethereum’s trust-minimized model stays strong without adding new middlemen.
This brings us closer to the vision we all hope for: a global, open, seamless, and trustless world computer.
The bottom line
Ethereum has already made great strides in scaling. What’s missing is that feeling of unity.
The Ethereum Interop Layer is the next step to achieving that unity — turning your wallet into your gateway, where every rollup feels like part of Ethereum instead of a separate entity.
We’re calling on wallet teams, dapp creators, network designers, and everyone in the ecosystem to join us on this incredible journey.
Together, let’s make Ethereum not just scalable, but truly seamlessly singular.
Let’s bring that one chain feeling back to Ethereum!
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