Ethereum and Base Abandon Shared Account-Abstraction Standard, Leaving Wallets With Two Paths

Ethereum and Base developers abandoned efforts to combine EIP-8141 and EIP-8130 into a shared native account-abstraction standard on Sept. 15, leaving wallet developers potentially having to support two transaction formats. The breakdown ends a convergence effort between competing designs for making accounts more programmable at the protocol level, Unchained Crypto reported.

Wallets face EIP-8141 and EIP-8130

The proposals take different approaches to native account abstraction, a model intended to expand what user accounts can do beyond conventional externally owned accounts. With no single path agreed, wallets that seek to work across the two approaches may need to accommodate both designs.

The immediate divide is between Ethereum’s EIP-8141, known as Frame Transactions, and Base’s EIP-8130. Both proposals are listed through the Ethereum Improvement Proposals process, but their transaction structures and account models are separate.

EIP-8141 frame transactions

Through programmable frames, EIP-8141 defines how frame transactions handle validation, execution and gas payment. It is designed to support functions including key rotation, smart accounts and alternative ways to pay fees.

That structure puts the rules governing those functions within the transaction’s programmable framework. The proposal therefore offers a native transaction design for accounts that need validation and payment logic beyond a standard single-key transaction.

Base’s EIP-8130 account configurations

Base’s EIP-8130 defines a separate native account-abstraction transaction type built around on-chain account configurations, with custom authenticators, transaction batching, gas sponsorship and portability across Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chains.

Base previously described the proposal as a native-account-abstraction design developed with Optimism, Coinbase and WalletConnect; in a July 17 announcement, Base said its initial launch on the network was planned for the Cobalt upgrade. The Sept. 15 decision left that route distinct from Ethereum’s Frame Transactions proposal rather than making it part of a shared standard.

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