Ethereum Foundation's 'Trillion Dollar Security' plan zeroes in on improving UX

The Ethereum Foundation's "Trillion Dollar Security" is starting to take shape with the organization laying out its first wave of actions on Wednesday.

"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," the foundation said in a post. "We intend to regularly launch new waves of projects, tackling different priority security domains over time."

The EF first announced its "Trillion Dollar Security" plan in May. Unveiling the initiative came weeks after the foundation and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a new board structure for the organization to maintain its cypherpunk values while onboarding new users and scaling DeFi's largest network by total value locked.

The aim is to enhance Ethereum’s security and make the blockchain capable of handling "billions of users and trillions of dollars of on-chain capital." With the first wave of actions, the foundation will focus on issues like wallet security and blind signing.

EF addresses wallet security

"Wallet UX is where security begins for all users of Ethereum. If users cannot safely manage keys, sign transactions, and interact with on-chain applications then they cannot use Ethereum safely," the foundation said. Developers and contributors will work to establish a minimum security standard for wallets.

Also on the wallet front, respondents to a survey said existing wallets tend to cater to the tech-savvy crowd. As a result, the foundation is asking for ideas on how to reach "non-technical users" who want to use wallets to make "easy transactions to friends and businesses."

The foundation will also address blind signing, a situation where "users are often expected to sign transactions without the ability to understand what those transactions will do."

One solution mentioned included wallets translating "raw transaction data" that appears as code into a "human-readable description" detailing what a transaction will do. 

The EF said the work will continue: "As these projects gain momentum over the next few weeks and months, we will turn our attention to the next wave of priorities targeting other domains."

The foundation's Protocol Security Lead Fredrik Svantes and Josh Stark from the management team are co-chairing the "Trillion Dollar Security" plan.