The Ethereum Foundation has initiated a major, long-term campaign called the Trillion Dollar Security initiative, designed to prepare the network for mainstream adoption. The first phase of this ambitious project targets critical user-facing issues, aiming to make digital wallets safer and transactions more transparent for a future with billions of users and trillions of dollars in assets.
A New Standard for Wallet Safety
The first priority of the initiative is to strengthen wallet security. Recognizing that wallets are the primary entry point for new users, the foundation is establishing a minimum security standard to help people choose safer options. This standard will be dynamic, evolving as new security practices and threats emerge.
To support this goal, the foundation has partnered with Walletbeat, a security auditing project. Walletbeat will be responsible for defining, enforcing, and providing transparent ratings for wallet security, similar to how L2BEAT brought clarity to the security of Layer 2 networks. The ultimate aim is to encourage developers to create wallets that are secure by default, improving everything from key management to transaction approval processes.
Making Transactions Clear and Ending ‘Blind Signing’
A major focus of the roadmap is eliminating the dangerous practice of “blind signing,” where users approve transactions without fully understanding what they are authorizing. The foundation plans to champion tools that translate complex transaction data into simple, human-readable summaries.
This effort will be bolstered by leveraging resources like the Verifier Alliance, which maintains a database of over eight million smart contracts. Furthermore, the initiative is exploring research and development into protocol-level changes that could enable real-time transaction simulations, showing users the potential outcome of a transaction before they commit. This would provide a powerful layer of protection for both new and experienced users.
Empowering Developers to Build Securely
The Trillion Dollar Security plan also extends to developers, aiming to stop security risks at their source. The foundation intends to create an open-source vulnerability database that can be directly integrated into development tools and IDEs. This would proactively alert developers to unsafe code before it gets deployed to the Ethereum network. The success of this database relies on broad collaboration, and the foundation is calling on audit firms, security researchers, and tool builders to contribute.
Looking ahead, the initiative will continue in multiple phases, addressing new challenges based on community feedback. The foundation encourages new ideas for innovative wallets, from ultra-simple designs for non-technical users to privacy-focused wallets for institutions. This sustained, collaborative effort is part of a long-term mission to fortify every layer of the Ethereum ecosystem for a global user base.
