A milestone event took place during this year's Devcon – the Ethereum Interop Forum (EIF). This gathering brought together key players from across the Ethereum ecosystem who set aside competition to focus on a shared mission: making Ethereum truly interoperable.

The power of collaboration

While Ethereum competes with other ecosystems, focusing solely on outperforming competitors misses the bigger picture. Competition is healthy and natural, but right now we need to direct more of that competitive energy on creating meaningful value for users.

The participants of the EIF admitted that the true challenge – and opportunity – lies in delivering solutions that outperform both traditional financial systems like SEPA and wire transfers and existing blockchain alternatives. The goal is to deliver a World Computer that is simpler to use, faster and cheaper, and truly global in reach. This realization has sparked a powerful collaborative movement within the Ethereum community.

Setting shared goals

The collaborative and human-coordination spirit is fundamental to the Ethereum community's ability to bring diverse stakeholders together to work towards common goals. During the EIF, the community established a clear, user-centric goal: enabling asset transfers between any 2 chains in less than 3 blocks.

To put this in perspective, this means transfers would take no more than 36 seconds between the Ethereum L1 and L2s, and 6 seconds at most between L2s like OP Mainnet and Unichain.

This isn't just an arbitrary target – it's a commitment to developing shared standards that allow us to scale at capacity. To achieve this, the Ethereum Foundation, participating L2s, and wallet providers identified two key focus areas for H1 2025 that don't require major protocol changes:

• Onchain configurations

• Chain-specific addresses

ERC-7785: Onchain configurations for standardizing chain information

Putting L2 chain configs onchain would create a standardized way to verify that a transaction was included in L2. The solution lies in moving the chain parameters currently hosted on chainlist.org directly onto L1. Because onchain configs include chain IDs and network parameters that light clients require for verification, wallets would be able to utilize chain configs alongside a light client to verify fund transfers, without relying on intermediaries.

Storing L2 chain configurations onchain provides several benefits:

• It enables a more standardized user experience for sending transactions across the Ethereum ecosystem.

• It improves wallet security by reducing reliance on infrastructure companies for transaction verification and information.

• It allows for chains to bootstrap themselves more quickly by permissionlessly adding themselves to the onchain registry.

• It eliminates intermediaries in defining the canonical definition of the chain.

ERC-7828: Chain-specific addresses for simplifying user experience

User experience currently varies significantly across different chains and wallets. At EIF, participants discussed the need for users to transact on Ethereum simply, without having to think about which chain they're on. Chain-specific addresses offer one solution to this challenge.

Vitalik Buterin provided valuable insights on this topic in his recent overview of wallet improvements, focusing on enhancing cross-chain transaction UX. One key proposal is the implementation of chain-specific addresses in a user-friendly format. For example, an address could look like this:

0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045@optimism.eth

In a scenario where users want to deposit into a protocol, they are provided with an address in the above-presented format. They simply paste it into their wallet's "to" field and click "send." Now that the wallet knows what chain the user wants to go to, the wallet handles all cross-chain complexity, ensuring assets arrive on the intended chain. This means users can transfer assets without switching networks or using bridges.

The path forward

The Ethereum Foundation is taking the lead in coordinating interoperability efforts throughout 2025, but success depends on continued collaboration across the ecosystem. Please see the simplified roadmap for a high-level view on the proposed plan for Ethereum-wide interoperability. We're already seeing progress with several ERCs and proposals in development, including:

• ERC-7785 for onchain configs

• ERC-7828 for chain-specific addresses

• ERC-7683 for cross-chain intents

• ERC-7802 for cross-chain token interface

• RIP-7755 for cross-chain calls

The future of Ethereum interoperability isn't just about technical solutions – it's about our community's ability to work together. By combining our expertise and resources, we can create the seamless, user-friendly experience that will drive Ethereum forward.