The failed Ethereum-Base account abstraction merge moves the cost onto wallet teams

Account abstraction, in practice, means paying gas without holding ETH, signing with a phone passkey, and batching several actions into one transaction ^[2]. The two proposals part company over what a sequencer can see. Frame Transactions treat a transaction as a sequence of programmable frames, contract calls that handle validation, gas payment and privacy proofs without rewriting the transaction envelope each time ^[5]. EIP-8130 adds a new transaction type and an on-chain keystore recording which authenticators an account allows ^[8]. That structure is easier for a sequencer to inspect and constrain, and easier to attach policy rules to ^[8]. Ethereum L1 is optimizing for censorship resistance, privacy, security and long-term extensibility, while Base and other L2s optimize for throughput, customization and compliance ^[4]. Chiang said the teams found several technical bridges, and each option required at least one side to give up part of its core goal ^[11].

"I'm sad to report that the AA collab between 8130 and 8141 (Frames) broke down last week, and Base and Ethereum are now going separate ways to implement different AA standards," Chiang wrote ^[18]. "Ethereum wanted to be the best version of Ethereum, and Base wanted to be the best version of Base," he wrote ^[12]. He said interoperability standards became secondary to each chain's core goals, "putting the burden on wallets" ^[13]. He also said both chains are now "free to innovate on AA to the maximal extent in accordance with their own visions" ^[14]. He is a co-author of EIP-8141 ^[13].

Base and Ethereum are on different schedules. Base's design is live on a test network, which Cointelegraph calls a devnet and Crowdfund Insider calls the vibenet environment ^[10][9]. Ethereum's is tied to Hegota, which developers could begin implementing in late 2026, after Glamsterdam, whose mainnet launch Ethereum's public roadmap puts in the second half of 2026 ^[17]. A wallet team has one format to write against now and one dated to an upgrade that has not shipped ^[20].

For Ethereum's core developers, marking EIP-8141 must-ship spends one of Hegota's headliner slots, and the upgrade also carries native account abstraction's route to post-quantum authentication ^[6][7]. Chiang set out two answers to the wider problem: build a coordination process that gives L2s a real voice in EVM decisions, or accept that fragmentation is inevitable and invest in wallets that paper over it ^[16]. He leans toward the second ^[16].

In my view the largest wallets will carry both formats and smaller teams will pick the chain their users already sit on. Neither outlet reported what the second path costs to build, or how many wallets intend to support both ^[22]. That read could be wrong. If EIP-8141 changes shape or Hegota slips past late 2026, the second path stays hypothetical for another year ^[17]. And Chiang argued the split need not be a bad outcome: if wallets hide the differences well, users could still get a smooth experience ^[19].