Ethereum Proposal Would Let Users Pay Gas Without Holding ETH

A new Ethereum proposal, EIP-8141, aims to break the link between the account that signs and funds transactions. The proposal would allow users to pay gas without holding ETH by splitting a transaction into three steps: validation, payment approval, and execution.

This separation would enable wallets that only hold stablecoins to transact using ERC-20 tokens or have someone else cover the fees entirely. Existing wallets would not need to migrate to smart accounts to take advantage of this feature.

The proposal's authors describe it as a 'native off-ramp' from elliptic-curve cryptography, which is vulnerable to quantum computer attacks. Co-author Matt Garnett notes that post-quantum signatures are larger and may require signature aggregation.