The mainstream will never adopt blockchain-powered decentralized apps (dApps) if its a struggle to log in.
Theyre either forced to manage complex security keys themselves, or rely on a clunky wallet-equipped browser like MetaMask.
What users need is for signing in to blockchain apps to be as easy as Login with Facebook.
So thats what Bitski built.
The startup emerges from stealth today with an exclusive on TechCrunch about the release of the developer beta of its single sign-on cryptocurrency wallet platform.Ten projects, including 7 game developers, are lined up to pay a fee to integrate Bitskis SDK.
Then, whenever they need a users identity or to transact a payment, their app pops open a Bitski authorization screen, where users can grant permissions to access their ID, send money or receive items.
Users sign up just once with Bitski, and then theres no more punching in long private keys or other friction.
Using blockchain apps becomes simple enough for novices.
Given the recent price plunge, the mainstream has been spooked about speculating on cryptocurrencies.
But Bitski could unlock the utility of dApps thatblockchain developers have been promising but havent delivered.One of the great challenges for protocol teams and product companies in cryptotodayis the poor UX in dApps, specifically onboarding, transactions, and sign-in/password recovery, says co-founder and CEO Donnie Dinch.
Weinterviewed a ton of dApp developers.
The minute they used a wallet, there was a huge drop-off of folks.Bitskis vision is to solve user onboarding and wallet usability for developers, so that they can in-turn focus on creating unique and useful dapps.The scrappy Bitski team raised $1.5 million in pre-seed capital from Steve Jangs Kindred Ventures, Signia, Founders Fund, Village Global and Social Capital.
They were betting on Dinch, a designer-as-CEO whod built concert discovery app WillCall that he sold to Ticketfly, which was eventually bought by Pandora.
After 18 months of rebranding Ticketfly and overhauling its consumer experience, Dinch left and eventually recruited engineer Julian Tescher to come with him to found Bitski.Bitski co-founder and CEO Donnie DinchAfter Riff failed to hit scale, the team hung up its social ambitions in late 2017 and started kicking around ideas for dApps.
We mocked up a Venmo one, a remittance appbut found the hurdle to get someone to use one of these products is enormous, Dinch recalls.
Onboarding was a dealbreaker for anyone building dApps.
Even if we made the best crypto Venmo, to get normal people on it would be extremely difficult.
Its already hard enough to get people to install apps from the App Store.They came up with Bitski to let any developer ski jump over that hurdle.Looking across the crypto industry, the companies like Coinbase and Binance with their own hosted wallets that permitted smooth UX were the ones winning.
Bitski would bring that same experience to any app.
Ourhosted wallet SDK lets developers drop the Bitski wallet into their apps and onboard users with standards web 2.0 users have grown to know and love, Dinch explains.Imagine an iOS game wants to reward users with a digital sword or token.
Users would have to set up a whole new wallet, struggle with their credentials or use another clumsy solution.
Theyd have to own Ethereum already to pay the Ethereum gas price to power the transaction, and the developer would have to manually approve sending the gift.
With Bitski, users can approve receiving tokens from a developer from then on, and developers can pay the gas on users behalf while triggering transactions programmatically.Magik is an AR content platform thats one of Bitskis first developers.
Magiks founders tell me, Were building towards reaching millions of mainstream consumers, and Bitski is the only wallet solution that understands what we need to reach users at that scale.
They provide a dead-simple, secure and familiar interface that addresses every pain point along the user-onboarding journey.Bitski will offer a free tier, priced tiers based on transaction volume or a monthly fee and an enterprise version.
In the future, the company is considering doubling-down on premium developer services to help them build more on top of the blockchain.We will never, ever monetize user data.
Weve never had any intent at looking at it, Dinch vows.
The startuphopes developers will seize on the network effects of a cross-app wallet, as once someone sets up Bitski to use one product, all future sign-ins just require a few clicks.In August, Coinbase acquired a startup called Distributed Systems that was building a similar crypto identity platform called the Clear Protocol.
A login with Coinbase feature could be popular if launched, but the companys focus is to spread a ton of blockchain projects.
If [login withCoinbase] launched tomorrow, they wouldnt be able to support games or anything with a unique token.Were a lockbox, theyre a bank, Dinch claims.The spectre of single sign-ons biggest player, Facebook, looms, as well.
In May it announced the formation of a blockchain team we suspect might be working on a crypto login platform or other ways to make the decentralized world more accessible for mom and pop.
Dinch suspects that fears about how Facebook uses data would dissuade developers and users from adopting such a product.
Still, Bitskis haste in getting its developer platform into beta just a year after forming shows its eager to beat them to market.Building a centralized wallet in a decentralized ecosystem comes with its own security risks.
But Dinch assures me Bitski is using all its own hardware with air-gapped computers that have been stripped of their Wi-Fi cards, and its taking other secret precautions to prevent anyone from snatching its wallets.
He believes cross-app wallets will also deliver a future where users actually own their virtual goods instead of just relying on the good will of developers not to pull them away or shut them down.
The idea of weve never been able to provably own unique digital assets is crazy to me, Dinch notes.
Whether its a skin in Fortnite or a movie on iTunes that you purchase, you dont have liquidity to resell those things.
We think well look back in 5 to 10 years and think its nuts that no one owned their digital items.While the crypto prices might be cratering and dApps like Cryptokitties have cooled off, Dinch is convinced the blockchain startups wont fade away.
There is a thriving developer ecosystem hellbent on bringing the decentralized web to reality; regardless of token price.Its a safe assumption that prices will dip a bit more, but will eventually rise whenever we see real use cases for a lot of these tokens.
Most will die.
The ones that succeed will be outcome-oriented, building useful products that people want.
Bitskis a big step in that direction.