TechFlow News: On February 23, according to Cointelegraph, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, proposing mechanisms such as “transaction simulation” to enhance the security and user experience of Ethereum wallets and smart contracts.
Vitalik argues that security and user experience are not independent domains; rather, both revolve around user intent—the core objective being to ensure that protocol-executed actions align precisely with user expectations. His proposed “intent safety” framework includes: allowing users to preview a simulation of an on-chain operation before execution, then choose whether to confirm or cancel it; additionally introducing spending limits and multi-signature approval mechanisms, permitting execution only when user intent, expected outcome, and risk constraints all align—thus lowering barriers for low-risk operations while increasing the difficulty of executing high-risk ones.
Vitalik also notes that defining user intent itself is “extremely complex,” which is the fundamental reason no “perfect security” solution exists—not because of flaws in machines or designers, but because user intent is inherently a complex object even users themselves often struggle to articulate clearly. He states that a hallmark of excellent security solutions is enabling users to express their intent through multiple, mutually corroborating methods, with the system executing operations only when those expressions are consistent with one another.
