Ethereum and Base Abandon Joint Account Abstraction Efforts

Ethereum and Base developers have abandoned their effort to align two account abstraction proposals, opting instead for separate standards. The move means wallets may need to support two native transaction formats if both proposals ship as planned.

The proposals, EIP-8141 from Ethereum and EIP-8130 from Base, aim to make wallets easier to use by allowing users to pay fees without holding ETH and sign with a phone passkey. However, the authors of the proposals were unable to reach an agreement on a shared standard due to differing priorities.

Ethereum emphasizes censorship resistance, privacy, and security, while Base prioritizes scale, customization, and compliance. 'While we identified a number of technical solutions, they all required one side or the other to compromise at least a little bit on their core goals,' said Derek Chiang, an Ethlabs developer.

Ethereum has placed EIP-8141 on the path for its upcoming Hegotá upgrade and has given it a 'must-ship' label. The proposal treats a transaction as a sequence of programmable frames that separately validate the sender, approve who pays gas, and execute the user's actions.