Ethereum

Common Standards in Blockchain are vital to improving usability for users (such as EIPs). They’re also challenging to understand! The work we do at @walletconnect helps support and drive many of these standards. Let’s dive into the different types:

Head of Product @ Reown (Formerly known as WalletConnect Inc.) Host of the Crypto Nuggets podcast

At a high level, there’s 4 standard types we’ll focus on: EIP, ERC, RIP, CAIP. We’ll define each one and provide a basic overview.

1. Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) - these changes are foundational to the Ethereum protocol, and may affect the consensus mechanism. You can bucket EIPs into two categories - “RPC / Client Software” changes & “Protocol or Consensus” changes.

2. Ethereum Request for Comment (ERC) - these are more about coordination between Applications. Think ERC-20 as a token standard, and ERC-721 as an NFT standard. They’re applicable at the application level and thus do not require a hard fork.

3. Rollup Improvement Proposal (RIP) - RIPs just started a few months ago. Basically all the rollups (L2’s) came up with their own standards process. They need to continue to innovate and move fast, and EIPs/ERCs take much longer and have much more back and forth around them.

RIPs won’t require any kind of hard-fork like scenario unless changes to sequencers or validators are proposed, which has yet to be seen.

4. Chain Agnostic Improvement Proposals (CAIP) - Seemingly less known about, these are for exactly what you’d think and super cool! These are to coordinate across multiple chains and find common standards, especially with wallets in mind.

They are at the application level, as each protocol needs its own version of the “EIP” to make changes at the protocol or consensus layer. CAIPs can now be referenced within EIPs and ERCs too!

I hope this was helpful as a starter guide on the various standards types you may encounter within web3 (the new internet). Follow me for more insights on Web3 User Experience!

“RPC / Client Software” changes do not require hard forks, as they simply update the client software that interacts with the Ethereum network. “Protocol or Consensus” changes alter the Ethereum protocol itself and require a hard fork, where all nodes must upgrade to stay compatible with the network.