Developers on Ethereum are working towards standardizing a format to “unambiguously refer to an address on a specific chain.” The Universal Address Formats for Interoperability–ERC-7828 & ERC-7930 was introduced as currently, there’s no universally adopted standard to refer to an address on a specific chain, and it has led to fragmented user experiences and integration challenges for developers.
Web3 development group, Wonderland, posted on X, “The community has come together to fix this with 2 simple ERCs. ERC-7930 defines a compact, binary format for interoperable addresses. It’s machine-friendly and ideal for protocols that need a unique representation for all chains. ERC-7828 extends 7930 by adding a human-readable layer, using formats like address@chain, ensuring everything stays clear and simple for users.”
“The idea is for this to serve the needs of two groups of people,” a pseudonymous user, Teddy, explained. The ERC-7930, with its binary format, supports a computer to identify the exact chain an address belongs to, while the human-readable ERC-7828 “allows users to interact with human-readable names for both addresses and chains.”
This approach addresses a pain point when users switch between wallets and networks. Most of the time, the user selects the right wallet addresses; however, there is a tendency to select the wrong network, which could result in losses.
The introduction of these standards will create a consistent method for wallets, explorers, dApps, and protocols to handle addresses across any blockchain. This not only enhances user experience and security by eliminating ambiguity but also promotes composability across the ecosystem.
