What is EIP-7212?

The "secp256r1" curve is one of the most mass-adapted elliptic curves in the internet ecosystem by numerous use-cases, such as being used in TEEs in the signing algorithms, allowing authenticity of DNS data by DNSSEC, allowing key management software tools in devices and browsers, etc.

While the curve is powering lots of solutions in the web2 ecosystem, there are no satisfying use-cases in the web3 world because the curve is not being supported natively in different blockchains and the cost of cryptographic operations at the smart contract level is extremely high.

The best way to make this curve usable at the smart contract level in dApps is to provide native support with a precompiled contract. Thus, depending on the implementation, verification and recovery operations with the "secp256r1" curve will be achieved with low gas costs. Some of the emerging usage areas are solving the key management problem in account abstraction wallets with keys that are generated securely on mobile devices or browsers directly, and authentication processes in web2 domains can be moved to on-chain. In this direction, EIP-7212 implements this solution.

Impact of the Proposal

Applying this EIP to Ethereum and rollups will enable applications in the internet ecosystem that use secp256r1 to benefit from blockchains. It is possible for users who already have various applications and products that benefit from this curve to easily interact with blockchain with an efficient blockchain implementation.

Why it is important for ENS?

As nick.eth emphasized in an ENSDAO Forum post, making DNSSEC applicable on Ethereum provides great added value to ENS. Afterwards, the Clave team presented their work in this direction in the forum. Also, some meetings have been done between the Clave team and the ENSDAO Stewards, the progress explained by estmcmxci.eth.

Current Status

The proposal has been discussed in various places after being shared including the FEM post, an ACDE call, and various social media contents. There have been comments that the proposal, which is currently in the review process, can be tried first in the L2 ecosystem. In addition, the debate continues as to whether to continue with the verification operation or the recovery operation for the signatures in the current proposal. In the L2s, LambdaClass shared that they've started development of the precompiled contract for zkSync, also Aztec and Fuel have shared native integrations.

Grant Request

The requested grant will be used to fund researchers and developers who are producing contents to contribute advocating and preparing integrations of the EIP.

Clave

Clave is an easy-to-use non-custodial smart wallet powered by Account Abstraction and the Hardware Elements (e.g Secure Enclave, Android Trustzone etc.), offering a unique onboarding process.