Ethereum Foundation Launches Service to Guard Against Blind Transaction Signing

EF introduces Clear Signing to protect against blind transaction signing.

A working group involving the Ethereum Foundation (EF), wallet developers, and cybersecurity firms has introduced the Clear Signing initiative—a protective mechanism against attacks through blind transaction signing.

The project’s aim is to standardize blockchain operation descriptions and make them comprehensible for users.

As part of the initiative, EF has introduced:

• ERC-7730: an open standard for transaction description format, proposed by Ledger in 2024;
• Public registry: the platform clearsigning.org, where developers can post smart contract descriptions;
• Verification system: independent experts will verify and confirm the accuracy of data in the registry.

When confirming transactions, wallets often display technical data as a hash code. Fraudsters exploit this by presenting users with malicious contracts. ERC-7730 introduces a “what you see is what you sign” format, allowing applications to provide clear and structured descriptions of blockchain actions.

A special registry of descriptors has been created for the project’s implementation. The Ethereum Foundation will act as a neutral operator of this infrastructure, while independent experts will verify the accuracy of descriptions through an attestation system. 

The standard’s development involved Ledger, MetaMask, WalletConnect, Fireblocks, Trezor, and other major industry players. The authors urged creators of decentralized applications and crypto wallets to adopt ERC-7730, so that “transparent signing” becomes the default standard in the Ethereum network. 

Back in March, Gnosis and Zisk, with EF’s support, created a framework to unify the fragmented ecosystem of layer two networks. 

In April, Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst announced that not only L2 solutions might join the project.