Share this article
Ethereum Foundation Targets Interoperability as Top UX Priority
The initiative marks a strategic pivot: after years spent scaling throughput and lowering costs, the protocol team is now zeroing in on interoperability as the key to user experience.
Aug 29, 2025, 2:33 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
What to know:
- The Ethereum Foundation shared a new blog post on Friday detailing a major initiative aimed at breaking down the barriers between Ethereum’s growing constellation of Layer-2 networks.
- The initiative marks a strategic pivot: after years spent scaling throughput and lowering costs, the protocol team is now zeroing in on interoperability as the key to user experience.
The Ethereum Foundation shared a new blog post on Friday detailing a major initiative aimed at breaking down the barriers between Ethereum’s growing constellation of Layer-2 networks.
The initiative marks a strategic pivot: after years spent scaling throughput and lowering costs, the protocol team is now zeroing in on interoperability as the key to user experience.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“We see interoperability, and related projects presented in this note, as the highest leverage opportunity within the broader UX domain over the next 6-12 months, in our position as a public, core Ethereum R&D group,” the team wrote in the blog post.
At its core, the update zeroes in on three goals: interoperability, speed, and finality. The most immediate push comes from the Improve UX roadmap, which builds on earlier work to scale Ethereum’s base layer and its data availability solutions. Now, developers are turning their attention toward making the network feel faster, simpler, and more unified—especially across the sprawling landscape of Layer-2 rollups.
The heart of the effort lies in the planned Ethereum Interoperability Layer (EIL), a trustless, censorship-resistant messaging system designed to make cross-chain interactions “feel like single-chain execution,” according to the foundation. A public design document is slated for release in October, setting the stage for a standard approach to bridging assets and data across rollups.
Complementing EIL is the Open Intents Framework, a shared infrastructure for “intents,” a feature where a user-declared goals like moving funds or trading assets, can abstract away the fragmented tooling that forces developers to stitch together custom bridges and relayers. The framework was first introduced by ecosystem developers in February 2025 and gained popularity among some of the most well-known Ethereum projects. The goal: a unified UX across chains where users don’t need to care which network they’re on.
At the same time, Standards work is moving in tandem, with proposals such as ERC-7828 and ERC-7683 aimed at harmonizing wallet behavior and transaction flows across rollups. Together, these efforts point toward an Ethereum where applications can span multiple chains without sacrificing security or composability.
Speed improvements are also on the roadmap, with a Fast L1 Confirmation Rule expected by early 2026 to bring Ethereum confirmation times down to 15–30 seconds. Faster Layer-2 settlement and research into halving block times from 12 seconds to six could further reduce latency for cross-chain interactions.
The implications of these improvements are significant not just for rolllups but also for applications and DeFi. If developers succeed in making rollups feel like one network, liquidity and capital efficiency could surge, unlocking new kinds of products without the friction and risk of today’s bridging solutions.
Read more: Ethereum Developers Release New Initiative to Simplify Cross-Chain Transactions
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Deus X CEO Tim Grant: We aren't replacing finance; we're integrating it
The Deus X CEO discussed his journey into digital assets, the company's infrastructure-led growth strategy, and why his Consensus Hong Kong panel promises "real talk only."
What to know:
- Tim Grant entered crypto in 2015 after early exposure to Ripple and Coinbase, drawn by blockchain’s ability to improve traditional finance rather than replace it.
- Deus X combines investing and operating to build regulated digital finance infrastructure across payments, prime services, and institutional DeFi.
- Grant will be speaking at Consensus Hong Kong in February.
Top Stories
