Web3 aka blockchain-based technology has the power to solve some of the biggest problems people face today that were never possible previously. So, why is adoption so slow?
The sign-up process is horrendous for non-technical people.
Ask a parent, spouse or non-technical friend to go to the biggest breakout blockchain application ever to hit the web: opensea.io, and have them buy one NFT (you can tell them it’s like buying an old-school baseball trading card). Then, watch what happens.
When we do this exercise with people, it usually goes something like this:
- User visits opensea.io and browses the marketplace to see what is available for sale.
- User chooses an NFT and clicks “Buy 1 now.”
- User is then prompted to connect their wallet.
- If the user doesn’t have a wallet, opensea asks the user to “Select a provider and create one now.”
- User then selects the most popular wallet, Metamask, to download.
- User gets sent to Metamask on the Chrome plugin store.
- User clicks “Add to Chrome” – by now, users often start complaining about how many steps they have to take to do this activity.
- Next, Metamask opens (if it opens – sometimes there’s an error) and prompts user to create a new wallet, or import an existing one. This is where we typically get a “What do they mean by wallet?” You can explain, it’s just a place to hold your NFT, similar to how your Apple Wallet can hold your plane tickets. Let’s assume they decide to keep going…
- After a screen with some slightly alarming data-sharing messages, Metamask asks user to enter in a password.
- “I can buy my NFT now, right?” your user might ask. Oh, sorry, not quite yet. Now, you need to “secure your account” with a 12-word seed phrase. “A what???” Because this is such a foreign experience, Metamask offers an 89-word description to explain what it is and why you have to be exceedingly careful with this phrase, because someone could steal your NFT and any other assets (like money) they have in their blockchain wallet if the seed phrase was found somehow.
- “Are we done?” Not yet., Now you need to connect your metamask wallet (cue three screens of prompts!).
- “Now, can I buy an NFT?” Sure! Go for it! “Metamask says I don’t have enough WETH. What’s WETH?”
User: FORGET THIS! I don’t need a NFT this badly. Bye, NFT! Bye, Blockchain. This is ridiculous…
Why, yes, it is.
This is why AIKON built ORE ID, the enterprise-grade decentralized identity solution that’s designed to be easy for everyone.
ORE ID hides the complexity of signing up and paying for things (signing transactions) for blockchain applications. Instead of the twelve steps above, the user simply creates an account with their familiar facebook, gmail or similar account and ORE ID automatically generates a wallet on the blockchain in seconds.
Test it out yourself with our demo app: ORE PLANET – where the future is familiar.