Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Proposes Alternative to Improve Wallets

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed an alternative solution to improve Ethereum wallets. This comes after the initial Ethereum improvement proposal, EIP-3074, faced opposition. The proposal, which allows certain wallet functions to be controlled by smart contracts, was set to be included in the upcoming Pectra hard fork. However, concerns were raised about its compatibility with an earlier proposal, ERC-4437. Buterin's alternative, EIP-7702, was co-written with Ethereum core developer Ansgar Dietrichs. Dietrichs stated that the new proposal was the result of a week of research into account abstraction. This technological move aims to transform Ethereum externally-owned account (EOA) wallets into smart-contract wallets. Buterin reportedly wrote the proposal in 22 minutes, a process Dietrichs humorously challenged him to complete in 15 minutes. Since the release of EIP-7702, the alternative has received positive feedback and is likely to replace the original EIP-3074. Christine Kim, a vice president of research at the digital-asset firm Galaxy, noted a positive sentiment among all stakeholder groups for Buterin's alternative. Jarrod Watts, the developer relations engineer at Polygon, described it as one of the most impactful changes Ethereum will ever have. Despite the positive reception of EIP-7702, EIP-3074 is still set to go live with the Pectra upgrade. However, this may change once the details of EIP-7022 are finalized. Dietrichs believes it's likely that EIP-3074 will be replaced by the new proposal. Kim suggested that this situation exemplifies how Ethereum's decentralized governance works in practice, leading to constructive dialogue and a new path forward with higher consensus among participants.