The Ethereum Foundation has launched the Clear Signing standard to replace blind transaction signing with human-readable descriptions of approved actions.

What Clear Signing changes

Clear Signing requires wallets to present meaningful transaction descriptions instead of opaque hex data, reducing the interface gap exploited by phishing schemes.

Technical basis and workflow

The specification builds on ERC-7730, where a wallet reads a contract descriptor file alongside raw calldata and reconstructs the call into a readable phrase.

For example, a reconstructed label might read "Swap 100 USDC for ETH" instead of a transaction hash, making intent explicit to the user.

Architecture and verification

The solution comprises three elements: the ERC-7730 format, a public registry of transaction descriptors, and an independent verification process for those descriptors.

• ERC-7730 defines descriptor structures and expected calldata mappings.
• The public registry stores descriptors that wallets can fetch and display.
• Independent security researchers verify descriptors to ensure accuracy and prevent mislabeling.

History and adoption

Ledger initiated the development of the standard in 2023, and has transferred further stewardship to the Ethereum Foundation as a neutral custodian.

Work on the standard continues under the Trillion Dollar Security initiative to broaden ecosystem adoption and auditing.

Risk reduction and ecosystem impact

The working group notes that the blind-signing gap is a major vector for funds exfiltration and aims to make approvals more transparent for hardware wallet users.

"Blind signing is among the top two causes of large losses by users when using hardware wallets, and the ecosystem's total losses from attacks related to this are measured in billions of dollars."

As an illustration of the threat, the Lazarus group exploited similar blind-signing mechanics when it stole $1.4 billion from Bybit, underscoring the potential financial scale of such attacks.

Adoption of Clear Signing may narrow the attack surface by aligning wallet UI with on-chain intent, while independent verification aims to preserve descriptor integrity.