Ethereum's Fix for Blind Signing
Unpacking what ERC-7730 does and how it could save your funds.
Hardware wallets can be one of the best ways to bolster your crypto security. They hold your private keys "cold," i.e. offline, so hackers can't directly swipe them. However, these devices aren't a panacea. Attackers can still trick you into signing something nefarious, like sending all your ETH to their address.
The main vector for these sorts of deceptions to date? Blind signing.
The first hardware wallets started around basic transfers that were straightforward to display. In recent years, the rise of complex smart contracts, e.g. Ethereum DeFi and NFTs, made it hard for wallets to decode transactions into readable text. Wallets turned to letting users sign these transactions "blindly," i.e. without knowing what's actually being approved, for practicality.
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William M. Peaster
William M. Peaster, Senior Writer, has been with Bankless since January 2021. Immersed in Ethereum since 2017, he covers the onchain frontier with a particular interest in art, games, and other culture apps. He has a background in creative writing and writes fiction in his free time.
