The Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit supporting Ethereum's development, said in a May 12 thread on X that an Ethereum Working Group launched Clear Signing, a new signing standard meant to address "blind signing," a common wallet risk where users approve transactions they can't meaningfully understand.
The foundation said blind signing has left users exposed to billions of dollars in losses, including the February 2025 Bybit hack, where attackers stole about $1.5 billion after members of Bybit's wallet team approved what looked like a routine transfer but actually changed control of the wallet.
- Radiant Capital, a cross-chain lending protocol, also lost about $50 million in October 2024 after attackers compromised developers' devices and tricked them into approving malicious transactions.
Clear Signing is meant to change that. It uses ERC-7730, a draft Ethereum standard for describing smart contract calls and typed messages in a structured format, so wallets can show clearer fields such as the action, token amount, protocol and recipient.
As the Clear Signing website says, the standard just "adds a verifiable display layer" so wallets can show users what they're signing in plain language.
The new standard's website already lists 44 protocols, including contributors from Ledger, WalletConnect, Fireblocks, and others.