Ethereum and Coinbase-backed layer-2 network Base have abandoned an effort to agree on how the next generation of crypto wallets should work, according to Derek Chiang, an Ethlabs researcher.
The collaboration broke down the week before September 14, when Chiang announced the split. The disagreement centered on two incompatible account-abstraction proposals: EIP-8141 (Frames), backed by Ethereum, and EIP-8130, written by Coinbase engineer Chris Hunter for Base.
Two Competing Visions
EIP-8141 breaks transactions into programmable calls handling validation, execution, and gas payment. The design detaches accounts from elliptic-curve keys and enables key rotation and post-quantum authentication. Ethereum core developers gave EIP-8141 a strong signal toward inclusion in the Hegotá upgrade.
EIP-8130 requires transactions to identify authenticators so nodes can determine validation work before execution. The proposal includes separate adoption profiles for L1 and L2 networks. The L2 profile restricts the native transaction path to approved canonical authenticators, reflecting Base’s need to balance scaling with legibility for chains determining permitted authentication methods.
The core disagreement centered on protocol freedom for accounts versus structural constraints chains should impose on transactions before execution.
Divergent Priorities
“Ethereum wanted to be the best version of Ethereum, and Base wanted to be the best version of Base,” Chiang said.
Matt Garnett, an Ethereum core developer, characterized the tension as structural. “Market pressure forces them to ship features at a pace that L1 cannot match, so incompatibilities accumulate. Time will tell whether that is a strength or weakness,” Garnett said.
Gabriel Shapiro, a crypto lawyer, offered a broader critique of layer-2 economics. “L2s are great for the crypto industry and for people who own the sequencer. For Ethereum, they are just kinda like ‘less bad’ than competing L1s,” Shapiro said. He argued that L2 growth may not automatically strengthen Ethereum, since layer-2 networks capture sequencing economics and make independent product decisions while Ethereum provides only settlement and security infrastructure.
Standards in Parallel
Ethereum prioritizes what developers call “CROPS”: censorship and capture resistance, open-source software, privacy, and security. Base faces competing pressure to scale while maintaining the chain legibility required under EIP-8130.
ERC-4337 remains available as an alternative transport on networks not supporting EIP-8130, providing a fallback path for wallet developers navigating the fragmented landscape.
The split signals deepening technical divergence between Ethereum mainnet and its layer-2 ecosystem. As base layers and rollups pursue incompatible standards, wallet developers and applications will need to support multiple account-abstraction architectures or choose sides.
