Draft ERC 'STVA' proposes mandatory simulation before signing to stop blind-signing losses

Serguey Asael Shinder29 October 2026, 09:251 min read

A draft standard posted to ethresear.ch on 28 October proposes Secure Transaction Verification and Authorization, or STVA, an ERC aimed at what its author calls the dominant real-world loss vectors of 2024 to 2026: blind signing, compromised wallet front ends and multisig interface spoofing. Its status is Draft, with discussion pointed to the Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians forum.

The draft defines four pieces. First, a canonical way to attach structured, human-readable metadata and a semantic intent — for example "transfer 1000 USDC to an address" — to any transaction or account-abstraction UserOperation. Second, a mandatory simulation and verification interface that wallets, hardware signers and third-party verifiers can call to re-simulate the exact payload and get a canonical result. Third, scoped, revocable capability tokens for privileged operations such as upgrades, large transfers, module installation and ownership changes. Fourth, requirements for multisig and smart-account signing ceremonies meant to resist front-end supply-chain attacks.

The motivation section cites the February 2025 compromise of a Safe multisig at Bybit, put at about $1.4–1.5 billion, and argues that most high-value thefts now exploit opaque calldata, compromised interfaces, missing independent simulation and overly broad approvals rather than classic contract bugs. It says existing standards, including EIP-712, ERC-1271, ERC-4337 and EIP-7702, provide building blocks but do not mandate the full verification loop.

What it means

The proposal targets the right gap — the moment a person approves bytes they cannot read — but its weight will come from adoption, not from the text. A simulation interface only protects users if wallets and signing devices refuse to sign without it, and that is a product decision for wallet makers. As a one-day-old draft, it is a starting point for discussion rather than a standard anyone implements yet.