Ethereum Foundation Announces a Trillion Dollar Security Grant for WEBCAT

The Ethereum Foundation has announced a grant through its Trillion Dollar Security initiative to support continued development of WEBCAT, an open-source tool from the Freedom of the Press Foundation that verifies whether code served by an enrolled website matches what developers published.

In a post on the Ethereum Foundation blog announcing the WEBCAT grant, the foundation said the funding is intended to help close what it described as a front-end verification gap for Ethereum wallets and apps.

According to the announcement, the grant will also support bringing that verification to Ethereum wallets and applications. The foundation said the work includes a wallet-facing library, research into Chromium browser support, help for teams adding WEBCAT to their apps, an independent security audit and work toward an ERC standard for wallet developers to follow.

How WEBCAT fits into wallet security

WEBCAT is designed to let browsers verify that the code a user receives matches the version a developer published. The Ethereum Foundation said a wallet that integrates the library would be able to verify enrolled sites without requiring users to install a separate extension.

The foundation also said the library is meant to complement other Trillion Dollar Security efforts, including Clear Signing. In its framing, Clear Signing helps users understand what they are approving, while WEBCAT is intended to help wallets verify that an enrolled app’s front end matches its signed manifest.

The announcement did not say when the grant work will be completed or when end users might see the verification features in live wallets and apps.