Ethereum, Ledger and Trezor Back Clear Signing Standard

A working group led by the Ethereum Foundation with hardware wallet makers Ledger and Trezor and self-custody providers including MetaMask and WalletConnect proposed an open standard called “clear signing” to end blind signing of Ethereum transactions after the nearly $1.5 billion Bybit hack.

Blind signing occurs when wallets present transactions in low-level, machine-readable formats that are technically accurate but hard for non-experts to interpret. Clear signing would show human-readable descriptions of what a transaction will do, so users can see the effects before approving a signature.

The proposal uses two existing Ethereum improvement ideas: ERC-7730, which defines human-readable transaction descriptors, and ERC-8176, which provides an attestation and integrity framework. The plan also calls for a decentralized off-chain registry to distribute descriptors and for developer tools and software development kits to help wallets and decentralized apps adopt the format.

The Ethereum Foundation wrote that approving a transaction should be the last line of defense over assets on the blockchain and that when approvals are performed blindly that defense fails. The foundation added that clearer signing would make the Ethereum ecosystem safer and more accessible for users and institutions.

The foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security Initiative will act as the steward for the descriptor registry. The initiative, launched last May, aims to prepare Ethereum to support large numbers of users and high values held directly on-chain. The initiative lists other security priorities such as mitigating risks from quantum computing, protecting front-end interfaces, improving on-chain security and addressing design choices that trade speed for user safety.

Developers say clear signing would reduce a common class of social-engineering and user-experience losses by providing readable summaries and cryptographic checks that the summary matches transaction logic. The registry model lets smart contract authors publish standardized descriptions that compliant wallets can verify before prompting users to sign.

A blockchain security firm reported that groups linked to North Korea stole about $6.75 billion in cryptocurrency across incidents since 2016 and were responsible for roughly $2.06 billion in losses in 2025. Developers argue clearer transaction descriptions reduce one attack surface exploited by scammers and user mistakes.

The clear signing standard is still in development and requires adoption by wallet developers, contract authors and infrastructure providers. The working group plans to release tooling and libraries to ease integration and to provide a path for hardware wallets, browser extensions and mobile wallets to adopt the standard without breaking existing workflows.