Ethereum Foundation Launches ‘Trillion Dollar Security Initiative’ to Fortify Network

On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation outlined a new initiative to upgrade the network’s security, describing its long-term goal as building “civilization-scale infrastructure” capable of securing trillions of dollars in value. 

Dubbed the Trillion Dollar Security Initiative, the foundation hopes to make Ethereum robust enough that billions of people could confidently hold over $1,000 onchain.

It’s also eyeing participation from companies, institutions, or governments who could be “comfortable storing more than 1 trillion dollars of value inside a single contract or application.”

The initiative will unfold in three phases, starting with a comprehensive assessment of Ethereum’s security across areas such as wallet UX, smart contract tooling, and consensus protocol.

The next phase will focus on implementing key improvements, followed by efforts to better communicate Ethereum’s security standards.

The Foundation is also soliciting input from users, developers, and institutions to help shape the roadmap.

Security luminaries, including research-driven crypto investment firm Paradigm’s Samczsun, blockchain security and research firm Sigma Prime co-founder Mehdi Zerouali, and Etherealize co-founder Zach Obront, are set to lead efforts for the new initiative.

The Ethereum Foundation said it welcomes community input to ensure diverse views shape its infrastructure development.

Ethereum Foundation’s protocol security lead, Fredrik Svantes, and Josh Stark from its management team will oversee and co-chair the project.

The announcement of the three-phase program comes a week after the rollout of Pectra, sending Ethereum to double-digit highs and sparking renewed interest.

Following the upgrade, it became “hard to justify ETH as a relative underperformer,” analysts from investment firm Bernstein said last week.

But despite the network’s latest achievements, Ethereum needs to “keep up with Layer 2 growth,” Ulyana Skladchikova, head of product at open-source explorer Blockscout, told Decrypt last week.

Layer 2 networks are separate blockchains built on top of Ethereum, which can keep up by upgrading how they handle transactions using the former, making it cheaper and faster by using “blobs” that enhance how data is stored and processed.

At the user experience level, Ethereum also needs to enhance “granular control” of its security.

“By reducing the need to set up, interact with, and move assets to a smart contract wallet,” other use cases could become more viable with Pectra and provide “additional security and flexibility,” Skladchikova explained.

On the institutional side, Ethereum has also been feeling the pinch among investors, data from CoinGlass shows.

Ethereum ETFs have witnessed just three days of positive net inflows in the week since Pectra, driven primarily by BlackRock and Grayscale.

Decrypt reached out to the Ethereum Foundation for comment.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair