The Ethereum Foundation has released its first report on its most comprehensive security initiative to date. This maps the important risks that Ethereum (ETH) must address to support signs of Global On-Chain value.
The first $1 Trillion Security (1TS) report outlines what individuals, agencies and governments need to entrust significantly more money to their networks. The report follows several similarly detailed initiatives the foundation has made in recent weeks following restructuring efforts.
Based on extensive feedback from developers, users, and security experts, the report identifies vulnerabilities across six core areas: user experience, smart contracts, infrastructure, consensus, incident response, and governance.
This report serves as a fundamental roadmap for Ethereum’s next stage of security improvements.
Ecosystem vulnerability
According to the report, much of Ethereum’s security burden is still declining to end users due to insufficient wallet UX, blind signatures, and inconsistent permission management. These issues continue to create recurring threats, but fragmented wallet standards prevent safe use.
Additionally, institutional users face additional friction in managing keys, audit trails, and custom workflows that are less supported by current infrastructure.
The report also highlighted that while smart contract security has improved, they still suffer from upgrade risks, access control failures, and less adoption of formal verification.
On the other hand, dependencies on centralized infrastructure such as RPC providers, DNS, and cloud hosts undermine Ethereum’s decentralization guarantee. Although the Layer-2 solution introduces new complexity, the possibility of ISP-level censorship and DNS hijacking remains undecided.
At the protocol level, the report noted that the centralization of the Valette and the unclear recovery procedure continue to raise concerns about Ethereum’s resilience in edge case failures.
It also flagged the long-term transition to quantum-resistant cryptocurrency as an important step.
Adjust a safe future
Ethereum’s ability to respond to threats remains limited by gaps in monitoring, coordination and recovery, according to the report.
Responders face delays when trying to contact compromised teams or escalate issues across platforms. Without clear communication channels and pre-established contact information, valuable time will be lost during the incident.
The report also noted that there is no effective monitoring tool for early detection of chain and chain threats. In many cases, security violations are not noticed until damage occurs.
Insurance coverage is insufficient. Unlike traditional financial systems, Ethereum applications have limited access to insurance, exposing users and organizations to total losses in the event of exploits.
On the governance side, the report warned that the social class of Ethereum is itself a potential vector of attacks, the report is a network of developers, institutions, and cultural norms. It highlighted the risks from stake centralization, regulatory pressures and organizational impacts that could distract Ethereum from neutrality.
The lack of established processes for “social thrashing” was flagged as a critical gap in the event of validator conspiracy or protocol capture.
