Ethereum Foundation rolls out Clear Signing to end blind signatures

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Ethereum Foundation rolls out Clear Signing

Highlights

The Ethereum Foundation is officially launching Clear Signing to move away from blind signing.
The standard is based on ERC-7730 and ERC-8176, with an open registry of descriptions.
Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, WalletConnect, Fireblocks and others have announced support.
The initiative is designed to prevent billions of dollars in losses from phishing and hacks.
Users will receive clear transaction descriptions before signing.

The problem of blind signing and the reasons for the change

For several years, blind signing remained a major weakness of wallets: users approved raw hexadecimal strings without understanding what they meant.

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This practice played a major role in some of the largest hacks of recent years. The $1.5 billion Bybit hack and the theft of $235 million from WazirX’s multisig wallet in 2024 were largely made possible by this issue. According to the Ethereum Foundation, blind signing has led to billions of dollars in total losses from hacks, phishing and exploits.

The new standard changes that. Wallets will load a dedicated descriptor file that converts technical smart contract data into plain, human-readable text, such as: “Swap 1,000 USDC for at least 0.42 WETH on Uniswap V3.”

How Clear Signing works

The technical basis of the standard consists of two Ethereum improvement proposals. ERC-7730, first proposed by Ledger in 2024, defines an open JSON format for describing transactions. ERC-8176 adds an attestation mechanism that allows independent auditors to cryptographically verify the accuracy of a description. All descriptors are stored in a neutral open registry at clearsigning.org, so existing contracts can connect without being redeployed.

The coalition includes key players in the ecosystem: Ledger and Trezor for hardware wallets, MetaMask and WalletConnect for software wallets, Fireblocks for institutional custody, Cyfrin for audits, as well as Sourcify and Argot for developer tools. Ledger began working on the technology in 2021 and this year handed governance over to the foundation to ensure the neutrality of the standard.

Building trust in self-custody

The shift to Clear Signing is an important step toward Ethereum’s maturity as a platform for both institutional and retail investors. When trillions of dollars are concentrated on-chain, unreadable transactions become an unacceptable risk. The new standard significantly reduces the likelihood of errors and fraud, making self-custody safer for millions of users. At the same time, it strengthens Ethereum’s position in competition with other networks and prepares its infrastructure for further capital inflows from traditional finance. Implementation will take time, but the first wallets are already beginning to adopt it.

In addition, we reported that the Ethereum Foundation is rebalancing its treasury by unstaking ETH.

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