Ethereum is on the accelerator. Will we witness a wave of “repatriation”?

"Ronin is coming home to Ethereum." On August 15th, Ronin, a sidechain that just months earlier was expanding its DeFi business and consumer DApps, suddenly announced its "homecoming," planning to transition from an Ethereum sidechain to a Layer 2 solution. Simultaneously, the Ethereum Foundation is also promoting another milestone: the "Trillion Dollar Security Plan" (1TS) officially enters Phase 2, shifting its focus from underlying consensus and security mechanisms to wallet user experience and application-layer usability.

The next wave of the Ethereum ecosystem, a dual upgrade of security and user experience, is being implemented.

1TS Phase II: The Leap from Security to Experience

As early as May of this year, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) released the blueprint for the "Trillion Dollar Security Plan" (1TS), with the goal of making Ethereum the ultimate settlement layer capable of supporting billions of users and trillions of dollars in economic activities. Subsequently, EF adjusted its internal governance structure and released its first 1TS report in June, which categorized the major security issues currently facing Ethereum into six categories: User Experience (UX), Smart Contract Security, Infrastructure and Cloud Security, Consensus Protocol Security, Security Incident Response and Mitigation Mechanisms, and Social Layer and Governance Security. This marked the beginning of Ethereum's systematic efforts to identify and address ecosystem security challenges (see "Is user experience also a security issue? Understanding the UX challenges of Ethereum’s trillion-level security blueprint》).

On August 20, the Ethereum Foundation issued another document, officially announcing the launch of the second phase of the 1TS plan, and clearly stated that the core goal has shifted from underlying security to user experience and wallet security. The key actions include:

• Cooperating with Walletbeat to develop minimum security standards for Ethereum wallets, including requirements such as transparent transactions and anti-intrusion interfaces;

• Solving the blind signature problem and improving transaction decoding capabilities by supporting projects such as the Verifier Alliance (VERA);

• Establishing an open source smart contract vulnerability database to help developers detect code vulnerabilities before deployment;

In addition, EF also encourages the community to develop "minimalist wallets" for non-technical users, as well as enterprise-level solutions that meet compliance and privacy requirements, to further lower the threshold for using Ethereum.

In other words, 1TS has moved from blueprint to actual operation. Ethereummust not only continue to be the most secure infrastructure, but also become the most easy-to-use and trustworthy public base to achieve a siphon effect.After all, funds, users, and developers will flock to whoever can provide higher security standards and a smoother user experience.

Security and experience, building a new moat

"If users cannot understand the transactions they sign and cannot properly manage their keys, then no matter how secure the underlying Ethereum layer is, the user experience will still be dangerous." This also reveals the fundamental goal of the second phase of 1TS, which is to transform the interaction between wallets and applications from a security problem into a "safety guardrail." Ronin's "return home" is a typical example. High gas costs and complex interactions drove it to leave the blockchain and build an independent public chain. However, with the maturity of Rollup technology and the dual upgrades in Ethereum's security and user experience, Ronin realized the value of rejoining the Ethereum ecosystem: Returning to Ethereum means immediate access to mature liquidity, unified standards, the richest suite of development tools and standards, and the most robust security endorsement, thereby reducing costs and improving the user experience. Rather than struggling independently, it's better to rejoin Ethereum's vast ecosystem. From this perspective, if Ethereum's first phase relied on "security" to win the trust of core applications like DeFi, stablecoins, and NFTs, then in its second phase, what it truly demonstrates is its siphoning effect on user experience and ecological prosperity. And all of this is precisely the strategic intent of "1TS Phase II"—a solution for wallet blind signatures, the introduction of minimum security standards, and the establishment of a vulnerability database. These are not only security measures but also experience upgrades. Together, they will lower the barrier to entry for users, allowing Ethereum to move from "only geeks and native crypto users can use" to "anyone/institution in the world can use with confidence." Ronin isn't the first, nor will it be the last. Today, gaming blockchains are migrating back to Ethereum, and tomorrow, even more public chains that once chose independent development may return to Ethereum and transition to L2. Ultimately, Ethereum's position as a settlement layer will become increasingly solid, and the ecosystem will expand further. After security, experience will become the new moat. Once Ethereum completes this moat, it will not only be the preferred choice for developers, but also the default entry point for users worldwide.

Wallet: The First Line of Defense for Trillion-Dollar Applications

If Ethereum's 1TS is a systematic upgrade project, then the wallet is the first cornerstone of this project. Therefore, EF explicitly supports developers and contributors to establish minimum security standards for wallets:

Promote transaction readability and simulation to completely solve the blind signature problem, and at the same time establish a vulnerability database and development tools to help wallets and DApps discover problems before going online.This series of actions is actually building "guardrails" for wallets, making them no longer just an entrance, but a trustworthy gatekeeper of user asset security and experience. From a user's perspective, future wallets will no longer be "complex encryption tools" but will gradually evolve into "on-chain financial assistants that are secure by default." From a developer's perspective, the standardization and security of wallets also means that ecosystem applications can reach users faster and with lower risk. For current wallet service providers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Taking imToken as an example, the continuous iteration around transaction readability, authorization management center and risk identification mechanism is in line with the direction proposed by EF:

• For common contract call requests, signature requests have been made readable, which can clearly display information such as the authorized object, amount, and whether it is unlimited authorization, helping users identify the actual operation content and significantly reducing the risk of users signing by mistake due to lack of understanding;

• The revoke function has been inherited on the authorization management page, allowing users to quickly view and manage the authorization history of all DApps and support one-click revocation;

• Integrated with the on-chain address blacklist system, DApp risk scoring mechanism and third-party security services, it can identify risk sources such as malicious links, disguised front-ends, and phishing contracts in advance;