Ethereum’s Buterin outlines preferred wallet checklist

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his expectations and standards for the future of Ether wallets.

Vitalik Buterin noted that user experience, security, privacy, thin client consensus, and artificial intelligence represent five focus areas for Ethereum (ETH) wallet developers. According to a blog post published on December 3, Buterin is confident that the wallet user experience will improve with gas payments optimized for simplified transactions and settlement of swaps on ETH layer-2s.

He added that standardizing ETH payments and on-chain transactions with QR codes will encourage greater adoption of blockchain.

Buterin said builders should strengthen security by using multi-signature technology and social healing to combat bad actors and malicious activity. Social betterment in the context of account abstraction has been a major topic of discussion for Ethereum and other decentralized networks as cryptocurrencies gain mainstream attention.

Buterin also argued that implementing zero-knowledge identity management models would also increase wallet security. ZK technology allows users and innovators to verify information without revealing sensitive details.

Additionally, the veteran blockchain founder suggested leveraging ZK tools to power private transfers, unlock privacy pooling technology, and support off-chain data storage.

He also suggested adopting thin client consensus verification and on-chain content versioning to mitigate Web2 risks. According to the blog post, these features could be executed using existing resources, eventually making Ether Wallet’s operability compatible with future AI interfaces that Buterin said are still in their infancy.

These more radical ideas are based on today’s extremely immature technology, and so I would not put my assets into a wallet based on them today. But it seems quite clear that something like this is coming, and therefore it is worth starting to research more actively in this direction.

Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder