Ethereum, Base give up on common wallet standard after months of talks
Ethereum and Base have abandoned efforts to create a unified crypto wallet standard after months of negotiations. The two networks could not reconcile their differing priorities, with Ethereum focusing on privacy and security while Base prioritizes high-volume optimization and compliance.
Why it matters
The failure to reach a standard highlights the ongoing fragmentation in the blockchain ecosystem as different chains pursue distinct strategic goals.
The goal was to make crypto wallets behave more like modern apps. Users could log in with passkeys, recover accounts in different ways, allow an app to pay transaction fees and bundle several blockchain actions into a single transaction. Holding ETH simply to pay a network fee would become optional.
The disagreement centered on differences in the blockchains’ priorities, and developers spent months trying to merge the two designs. The inability to reach an agreement means developers designing wallets that work across both networks may need to support two different ways of constructing and approving the same transaction.
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