Welcome to 2024, the great Web2 to Web3 unlock is here. Billions of new users will pour into web3 using their existing social logins starting this year. Deep down we in the Web3 community know blockchain has the potential to solve the internet's toughests problems. Namely the need for provenance, interoperability, and true ownership.

Yet until now, one critical flaw has prevented the masses from using this revolutionary new system. The friction to setup then remember Web3 passwords was simply too high.

The Bitcoin Origin (2009-2015)

To understand the future, we must take a quick visit to the past to see how the underlying plumbing was built. Then with context in hand, we can detail the bright future of Web3 where billions of Web2 users can access Web3 without the technical and mental chore of remembering passwords.

The plumbing for the rewrite of the internet started quietly in 2009 with the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper. Ever since, each new bigger bubble brings crypto consciousness more into the mainstream.

For early adopters cunning and savvy enough to remember their passwords, the returns have been immense. The power to be your own sovereign Bitcoin holding internet citizen begins and ends with this crucial task.

Blockchain networks (like Bitcoin) can only work by building on top of the shoulders of their cryptographic forefathers.

• Secure key pairs can create a public shared commons where we can all agree on who owns what.

• Then privately, individual users can access and transfer their funds via their passwords.

In the beginning, these keys (aka passwords) were raw cryptographic strings of letters and numbers. Some brief time later, seed phrases began to popularize how these dense utterly alien things can be easier for humans to remember.

Thus turning this

• L27DaByT2RNNjt69LgNYN9VycPNus9XWQe6Mavt8sAU3pQZBZEtN

into

• tennis wrestle sorry fan siege quiz member flee smart borrow breeze coast

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Shortly after the self-custodial private key birth of Bitcoin, came the Mt. Gox’s of the world.. Centralized hubs that offered to store and swap your Bitcoin for you. Ever since, there has been one Quadriga after another FTX where centralized custodians succumb to the human hind brain and steal your money.

Why do these fraught systems continue to succeed? People love the convenience of logging in with their email address knowing an authority figure is taking care of their keys.

Bitcoin 2024 is in the throws of maturing into yet another managed asset where regulated ETF operators want to control your keys. Thus abstracting your Bitcoin further to a Schwab account, or even further to a state run pension fund.

Ethereum Matures (2015-2022)

The concept of a world computer sitting on top of a blockchain network feels even more ambitious than Bitcoin. Here in this more experimental Ethereum dreamland, we will find the unlock for billions of current web users stuck in the data stealing past.

Despite early hacks, and near constant complaints about security risks from building such a broad open computing network, 7000+ improvement proposals later ETH survives and thrives.

Each day billions of dollars securely transact on the Ethereum network. More scalable versions (called layer 2s) are deploying on top of Ethereum each day that can handle 1000s of transactions per second using the base chain for security.*

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Like Bitcoin, Ethereum also demands a public address to show your funds to the world, accessed by a private key (password).

The early killer app in the Ethereum ecosystem was and is the Metamask wallet. Unlike the restrictive digital-gold type nature of Bitcoin, Ethereum enabled through Metamask allows users to do nearly anything.

Setup a relatively simple-to-use browser extension populated with a 12 word seed phrase, and you are off to the races. Trade NFTs, use Defi, join DAOs, the use cases are endless.

However, there is dire peril with any interaction. One malicious signed transaction and all of your funds can disappear down a Tornado.cash rabbit hole. Any flaw in the complex code supply chain web and poof - no more money.

Again the early adopters pave the way for a better future. Through the Ethereum improvement proposal system (EIP) the developer community rallied together to find a better way.

Smart Accounts (2023)

Approved as a source code verified standard in early 2023, ERC4337 allows for a sovereign smart contract to interact with the Ethereum blockchain on your behalf. Thus “abstracting” the management of your account from a raw password (EOA or externally operated account), to a structured piece of code on the blockchain (Smart account).

Prior to this standard, users had to directly use their private key (password) to interact with the blockchain.

• I as the owner of this Bitcoin or Ethereum, can only move these funds if I prove I have the key/seed/password directly.

Post ERC4337, we now live in a future world where

• I as the owner of this Ethereum, can delegate my rights to manage my funds to a smart account.

• I can still manage my smart account with my own private keys if I want, but crucially now Google, Twitter, Tiktok, etc logins can manage my account for me.

This is the key unlock for the wider web to adopt the benefits of Web3 blockchain technology.

Scalable Gamefi (2024+)

Imagine you are a Web2 based gaming company, like Ubisoft say. You want to make a new Assassin’s Creed game with some light Web3 elements. Namely that users can truly “own” their skins and other in game assets. Perhaps even battle with each other where the winner gets provably transferred their winnings.

How is a regular Web2 user to join said experience? Create a Metamask wallet? Open a Coinbase account? Transfer ETH to said wallet paying 10s of dollars in gas?

Not at any kind of meaningful scale!

How about instead, we use the users existing Ubisoft account. Then all Ubisoft needs to do is bind access to a crypto wallet behind-the-scenes using smart accounts.

Smart accounts can do this today!

With a single magical click,

• A smart account wallet address can be created on behalf of the user, then operate all onchain transactions seamlessly for them.

• The users private key is securely stored with a key signing service where they never even know there is a private key. **

• Users can now interact directly with Web3 without even knowing what’s going on under the hood.

The first million users to smart accounts arrived largely in Q4 2023. How many will be created in 2024?

Who holds the keys

Will continue to make the rules for all time.

This post account abstraction world we now live in offers 3 options to users:

1. Be an OG and remember a password yourself. This allows for the Jason Bourne like super power of transferring millions of dollars around the world purely from memory.

2. Trust an existing crypto entity or financial institution. Pick your favorite crypto exchange or now ETF provider to remember your password for you.

3. Trust yourself via Google, Twitter, TikTok, Ubisoft, or any other existing Web2 based login method. **

Only option 3 can truly blow the doors wide open for mass adoption.

• Login to your existing Peloton app, but now receive a commemorative NFT for your 1000th ride.

• Login to your existing Playstation Network account, but now you can buy real transferrable digital assets that can be bought and sold on an open marketplace.

• Login to your existing Starbucks app. But now your Polygon Starbucks NFT can seamlessly interact with the Delta rewards program to redeem rewards via a public shared commons.

The possibilities are endless.

Thank you for reading and if would like to know more about how to build a scalable social login stack for your Web2 enterprise application please reach out to us @ rair.info

--technical liner notes--

* Today thanks to ZK (zero-knowledge proof) technologies, this workflow can scale to millions of simultaneous users. Companies can also sponsor the “gas”, making the usage of the blockchain “free” to users by paying to write their transactions onchain for them.

** By “trust Google” we really mean trust Web3Auth, or Fireblocks, or a number of other security grade enterprise solutions that manage the secure creation, storage, and retrieval of keys tied to the users social account. More specifically the API driven infrastructure like Alchemy Account Kit that creates the smart accounts then syncs with the blockchain at scale on your behalf. If you’d like to go deeper into learning about the full account abstraction stack please check out our previous article here.