Ethereum and Base Part Ways Over Account-Abstraction Standard

The Ethereum ecosystem has suffered a setback as two major players, Ethereum and Base, have dropped plans to collaborate on an account-abstraction standard. The decision was made after Derek Chiang, an Ethlabs developer and co-author of one of the proposals, revealed that talks between the two sides had ended in failure.

According to Chiang, the technical search for a solution required both networks to compromise on their core goals. This inability to find common ground led to the decision to go separate ways, with Ethereum pursuing EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions) and Base pushing forward with EIP-8130 (Keystore-based design).

Account abstraction is a crucial feature that would enable users to pay network fees without holding ETH, sign transactions with a phone passkey, and rotate keys without additional infrastructure. The failure of the collaboration will put pressure on smart wallets to support both transaction formats, potentially leading to increased complexity for users.