Social Login - Sign in DApp Users with email in 30s

"The challenges of managing private keys, gas fees, and blockchain conversions are similar to the issue of the lack of charging stations for electric vehicle users in the past," shared Ivo Georgie, CEO of Ambire Wallet. According to George, for Web3 wallets to be mass-adopted, they need to create highly secure products while inheriting the strengths of traditional wallets, such as low transaction fees and ease of use.

Therefore, many projects have sought numerous ways to make the Web3 wallet experience more user-friendly. Social login - creating a wallet using social media accounts - is among them.

One of the barriers preventing newcomers from entering Web3 is the complexity of private keys. Unlike regular passwords, private keys are a sequence of random characters, making it difficult for users to remember.

The characters in a private key are randomly generated and do not follow any specific pattern. 

This complexity makes it difficult for hackers to decrypt the private keys, which provides better protection for users' wallets.

However, managing private keys has always been a tough job for Web3 developers. Losing a private key means user funds will be permanently locked in the wallet. If a private key is compromised, hackers can withdraw all the funds from the user's account.

According to research by Chainalysis, users have lost over 150 billion USD (exceeding the GDP of some countries) due to losing private keys.

But not only new users, experienced investors can also lose their assets out of carelessness. In November, Rain Lõhmus, founder of LHV Bank in Estonia, revealed that he had purchased 250,000 ETH (over 566 million USD) in 2014. However, the issue was that he lost his private key and could no longer access the wallet.

Stefan Thomas, a German programmer, is also at risk of losing 7,002 Bitcoins (over 303 million USD). He misplaced a piece of paper containing the password to access an IronKey device, where he stored his private key. After eight unsuccessful attempts, the owner of 7,002 Bitcoins has two more tries before permanently losing all his assets.

On the other hand, most Internet users are familiar with logging in through social media like Google, Twitter, or Discord. From this, developers came up with the idea of blending the concept of social login into Web3 to ease the user experience.

As its name implies, social login allows users to sign in to websites or applications using their social media accounts like Facebook or Google. Users need not remember lengthy addresses or passphrases to access their apps.

For example, a social login platform will create a private and a public key for users' on-chain accounts. Therefore, users only have to log in to the accounts provided by the social login platform through their Google account.

However, the private key is not eliminated from the wallet. Instead, the application acts as a custodian of that private key for the user, providing a safer and less centralized control than a centralized exchange (CEX). Additionally, if users lose their private key, the application allows them to recover it through email or SMS OTP.

Typically, projects divide the private key into 2-3 parts and store them with multiple parties. For example, on Ramper platform, one part is encrypted and sent to a third party. The counterpart is stored in cloud storage such as iCloud or Drive.

Binance Web3 wallet uses MPC to create 3 “key-shares,” which are stored separately in the wallet, cloud storage, and users' devices.

Social login has been gaining attention from various projects recently. Last year, BNB Chain partnered with Web3Auth to allow users to create wallet extensions using social media accounts. More recently, Sky Mavis, the creator of the game Axie Infinity, announced a new social login feature for their Ronin wallet. With this, new users can create wallets using Google, Apple, Facebook, or Twitter accounts.

In 2022, the Ramper social login project was launched by a group of developers from tech giants like Facebook, Uber, Tesla, Google, and Apple.

Through Ramper, users can create wallets and log in using Google, Twitter, Apple, or email accounts. Since Ramper is a multichain wallet, users do not need to worry about which blockchain to use to transact assets.

In addition to wallet addresses, the application also allows users to send tokens via email and possibly NFTs in the future. Currently, users can access marketplaces like Dagora on Ramper to buy and sell NFTs. Ramper's goal is to simplify the steps of NFT exchange, enabling more people to approach digital artworks.

Furthermore, Ramper brings the user experience closer to traditional methods through its Zero Gas policy, which eliminates or reduces transaction fees. When transferring assets through Viction, the project will cover the transaction fees on behalf of the users. Zero transaction fees have become a popular trend in the financial market and can be seen in most banks in Vietnam today.

Similarly, Coinbase Wallet improves the process of transferring cryptocurrencies by allowing users to send and receive assets through shared links on social media platforms. These links can be shared on WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, or email.

Another potential application of social login is sending money to multiple people at once through social media. For projects, developers can automatically distribute rewards to the community. For regular users, this can be an interesting way to give gifts to friends and family, especially during holidays like Christmas or New Year.

WeChat, the most popular messaging app in China, has impressed with its digital red envelope model. Instead of sending money directly to one person, WeChat users have the option to divide the amount into multiple envelopes with different values and send them to many people. Each person receives a red envelope with a random value and quickly "opens" it before others. Those who are unable to open it within the limited number of attempts may receive an empty envelope.

All these features are aimed at one goal: to make the experience on DApps simpler and more appealing. Users don't need to know what a private key is or which blockchain they are interacting with. While the underlying technology remains the same, projects can "hide" the complex characteristics to make it easier for users to access.

As more traditional giants enter the crypto market, DApps, and blockchain games will attract a large number of Web2 users to the market. Simplifying the features of blockchain will be a necessary first step towards the mainstream adoption of blockchain for the general public. Once they become familiar with decentralized applications, they can turn to self-custodial wallets to increase control over their assets.