My name is Sean, CEO of Fortmatic, we are new in the space, and I’d like to introduce ourselves, by sharing our thoughts on pragmatically taking Web 3 to mainstream.
It’s such an honor to be at ETHDenver. I am deeply moved by all the passionate and innovative developers here, and by the virtuous ideals that drive the development of all of these incredible products and technology.
Ethereum has a very strong and growing developer ecosystem. Despite the price drop, we are still achieving over 10% recorded month-over-month growth on the number of dApps built!
However, on an alarming note, there are only eighty-four hundred daily dApp users across all eighteen-hundred known dApps as of February this year…
Adoption is nowhere close where it needs to be.
For most dApps, it would take new users at least 22 steps to submit their first transaction to the blockchain.
Working with cryptocurrencies is already unfamiliar enough for mainstream web users, and yet they still have to wrestle with browser extensions and 12-word seed phrases — just to get started.
Fortmatic is determined to solve these usability issues. We’ve assembled a stellar team with expertise in design, security, distributed systems, and developer experience. We are obsessed with building great customer experience and trust. We set out to tackle very difficult challenges around getting Web 3 mainstream to users and developers.
The first challenge is tackling user onboarding friction, so we built a Web3-compatible JavaScript SDK for dApp developers. What it’ll do is enable end-users to interact with any dApp with just their phone numbers on any modern desktop or mobile browser — without needing to download 3rd party browser extensions or mobile wallets.
The user experience is similar to Stripe checkout or Plaid…
- User interacts with a dApp
- A Fortmatic modal will open up and ask for user’s phone number
- A SMS security code will be sent to the user’s phone
- After the code is verified, a secure wallet will be created for new users
- And finally, once user confirms the transaction, it will be submitted to the Ethereum blockchain!
With Fortmatic, user onboarding will be reduced by at least 14 steps. Users never have to context switch out of the dApp’s window and flow — except for when users have to deposit cryptocurrency into Fortmatic from another wallet or exchange — and we are working on solutions to make this experience smoother as well.
We also want to provide a seamless developer experience, so all of the features listed above is accessible to developers by adding a few lines of code.
Fortmatic SDK is compatible with web3, which means developers can simply swap their existing web3 provider with the Fortmatic provider, without having to change any of their existing web3 implementation.
Our team is committed to embrace and keep updated with the standards established by the ecosystem as well, and provide optimized and tailored user experiences for standards like ERC20, EIP712 and more.
For users’ private key security, we’ve adopted an architecture called cryptographic anchor, using hardware security modules (HSMs), which is also adopted by many custodial solutions.
With a canonical data exfiltration attack, hackers can enter a system and download user data with encrypted private keys, and then crack them freely with their own infrastructure offline. The organizations won’t even know that they are exploited before catastrophic events happen such as funds being stolen.
However, with crypto-anchors, hackers will have to attempt to crack the encrypted keys within the organization’s infrastructure, which means hackers’ progress can be detected, impeded, and heavily monitored. And with this adversarial environment, the damage of a compromise can be significantly mitigated.
We are also working on providing more security on the user level, such as preventing SIM hijacking, providing account recovery, and more advanced measures to help secure more substantial amounts of assets.
The world is not black and white. It’s not a war between centralization and decentralization, usability versus security, and there are no perfect answers to everything.
But, one thing that has stood the test of time is providing the best possible customer experience.
Fortmatic stands strongly with this belief and wants to provide users the easiest way possible to get started with dApps, without compromising too much on security. We believe in progressive disclosure, not overwhelming new users, and providing them with optionality as they become more familiar with their own needs.
Users should be eased into Web 3 from Web 2, rather than forced. Fortmatic has taken a small yet necessary step towards mainstream adoption, and we would love to invite you all to take the next steps together.
Therefore, we are offering developers a bounty for building user-friendly dApps with Fortmatic SDK at the hackathon.
Top 5 winning teams will be awarded $1000 dollars each. Projects will be evaluated by user experience, practicality, and originality.
You’ll be able to get some hands-on integration help from our awesome engineering team at the Fortmatic stage — on buidl floor 4.5, where it’s a bit more spacious and quiet to hack in, too.
More instructions can also be found in our docs, and feel free to contact us anytime in our Discord channel for help!
And one more thing…
For companies working on dApps, we are inviting you all to apply to our GA Launch Partner program. Our team will be reaching out to assist you with any specific requests with your Fortmatic integration, as well as featuring your dApp when Fortmatic launches general availability publicly.
You’ll be able to apply to this program when you visit our site at fortmatic.com, and click on the apply button on the top banner.
We’ve already signed up amazing partners:
We are working closely together with the extremely talented team at Radar. They’ve built a decentralized exchange, Radar Relay, with top-notch design and customer experience, and together, we’re crafting the best possible trustless token trading experience for mainstream users.
We’ve also joined forces with OpenSea, the best and most popular marketplace for crypto collectables, and together, we are set out to craft the simplest and smoothest experience for mainstream users to buy, sell, and discover rare digital items.
At any time of the event, feel free to reach out to any of the Fortmatic crew, who will be wearing this [Fortmatic hoodie]. Our team will be mostly hanging out at our booth and the Fortmatic stage on buidl floor 4.5. Also you’ll be able to find a link to our Discord channel at fortmatic.com!
Thank you so much everyone! Have a fantastic hackathon!
The bounty has ended since it was only during ETHDenver. Winners are (in no particular order):
Congrats to the teams! 👏
Links
- Fortmatic Opening Ceremony Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liX0mrShkTg
- UX Panel Recording: https://youtu.be/9WufVY9Jq9k
- Fortmatic UX Workshop Recording: https://youtu.be/B3THGCDYW1E
