Ethereum to allow gas fee payment without holding ETH via Frame Transactions

Feature scheduled for Hegotá upgrade

Ethereum core developers have moved the Frame Transactions proposal (EIP‑8141) into the upcoming Hegotá network upgrade slated for 2027. The change is now officially part of the upgrade roadmap rather than a candidate proposal.

Key points

• Frames let an app or account pay the gas fee for another user, so the user does not need to hold ether (ETH).
• The feature will be included in the Hegotá upgrade after the earlier Glamsterdam upgrade.
• Frames break a transaction into separate steps: authorization, fee payment, and execution.
• They also bundle related actions, such as token approval and trade execution, into a single transaction.
• The draft specification may change before the upgrade and cannot be used today.

Official comment

Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin, one of the ten authors of the proposal, wrote on X that “a lot of important progress on Frames (EIP‑8141) has been quietly happening over the last few months.”

How Frames work

In a Frame transaction, one part checks that the user authorized the action, another part identifies which account will pay the fee, and the remaining parts carry out the requested instructions. The fee‑paying account and the account moving funds can be different.

User impact

Apps could cover the fee themselves or convert a user’s stablecoin balance into ETH to settle the fee. Users would never need to buy ETH directly, and the transaction would still be paid in ETH on the blockchain.

Open questions

The proposal is still a draft, and its exact details may be adjusted before the Hegotá upgrade. No wallet can use Frames today.

Why it matters

Removing the need to hold ETH lowers the barrier for new users and reduces reliance on third‑party services that currently bundle transactions to pay fees. The design also allows future use of replaceable or quantum‑resistant authorization methods without moving funds to a new address.

Sources

• CoinDesk