Developers propose ‘clear signing’ to prevent user errors tied to nearly $1.5 billion in crypto losses from opaque transactions.
Ethereum developers unveiled a plan to replace ‘blind signing’ with a ‘clear signing’ standard, aiming to curb losses from unintelligible transaction approvals. The $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2023 underscored the risk of signing low-level, machine-readable formats without human-readable context.
The proposed standard, backed by the Ethereum Foundation, Ledger, Trezor, and MetaMask, builds on existing efforts to display transaction details in plain language. Blind signing has been linked to billions in lost funds as users approve transactions without understanding their implications.
The initiative seeks to restore the final line of defense in asset control by ensuring users see exactly what they sign before approval. No immediate market reaction was reported.