Understanding Blockchain Security: Bridging User Intent and System Behavior

Introduction: Rethinking Blockchain Security

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, argues that security should focus on minimizing the gap between what users intend and what systems actually execute. This goes beyond code integrity to encompass user experience and design.

Why Intent and Behavior Drift Apart

• Complex interfaces lead to user mistakes
• Smart contract vulnerabilities are hard to eliminate entirely
• Users often don't fully grasp transaction consequences

Solution: Overlapping Intent Verification

By introducing multiple layers of intent verification, such as:

• Interactive confirmation workflows
• Visual intent representation
• Multisig and time-delay execution

We can significantly reduce the divergence between intention and execution.