Unlocking API-based Web3 Development— Part 1: Challenges Onboarding Web2 Businesses

Welcome to the first article in a series of use case examples on Owl Protocol geared to web2 / traditional businesses.

Discover how Owl Protocol unlocks API-based Web3 development and intuitive it is to integrate blockchain with your platform with just an API. Then in the exciting next part, read about a real use case modeled after one of our clients.

Jump straight to our docs to learn more, or get started now at: owl.build.

Generally there are two ways that businesses will get started with web3:

1. Start a new pilot project, designed from the ground up for blockchain and web3.
2. Integrate web3 features into a component of their primary product or business.

The latter option, integrating Web3, is much better, but usually difficult because Web2 and Web3 have some inherent incompatibilities. The primary friction here stems from needing crypto to pay for gas fees in order to interact with the blockchain. To do that, a user or developer also needs to manage crypto wallets. This is the main onboarding challenge most businesses experience.

But if we can overcome this challenge, the integration path is better, because it allows businesses to achieve incremental improvements from web3 quickly, and experience the advantages of blockchain more easily.

The Solution — Addressing Onboarding Challenges

With Owl Protocol, our Web3 API works just like every other API in the market. It achieves this by automatically handling and abstracting any Web3 functions, such as paying gas fees and signing, by a Multi-Party Compute (MPC) signer and smart wallet paymaster.

Diagram showing separate projects with isolated assets, with universal user wallets.

This diagram shows a few key concepts:

1. Each project (app) has its own API key and web3 Admin Wallet for managing smart contracts and digital assets.
2. Each user has a single universal User Wallet that can store digital assets from any blockchain, but when connecting to a specific project/app we only show the related assets.
3. Every user on your platform can have a User Wallet created with just a social login, allowing you to instantly onboard your entire userbase with a simple script or automation process like Zapier.
4. Your project or app can have digital assets on multiple blockchains, if that makes sense for your growth strategy.
5. Users you onboard to web3 through Owl Protocol will have access to thousands of blockchain-enabled apps through just their email or social login, without having to learn about blockchain, until they are ready.

The result is that developers can call the API just like any other API, while Owl Protocol pays for gas fees and delegates signing to the associated MPC signer.

Now read on to Part 2 (coming soon), where we will demo these features so it is easier to understand how it all comes together.

About Owl Protocol

Owl Protocol is building application infrastructure to onboard the next generation of web3 adoption through developer-friendly APIs, tools, and platforms designed for everyone. Founded by a team of blockchain infrastructure specialists who have been in the industry since 2018, we are dedicated to bridging the divide between web2 and web3.

Website | Discord | Twitter: @owlprotocol_xyz