Web3’s User Experience Sucks! Here’s How It’s Being Fixed
TL;DR
The competition between ETH and SOL is resulting in the launch of features that bridge the gap between web2 and web3 user experiences (making adoption WAY smoother).
Full Story
Imagine if you had have owned a Playstation AND an Nintendo 64 growing up…
We know, we know — mom would have never allowed it (she was telling you to go outside and “touch grass” long before Crypto Twitter was a thing).
But that’s the situation dual users of Ethereum and Solana are finding themselves in, thanks to a classic case of “competition breeding innovation.”
Here’s the timeline:
Dec 5 ‘23: Coinbase wallet launches shareable crypto payment links, allowing anyone to send/request crypto payments with a web link.
Jan 26 ‘24: The Ethereum-based Twitter-like social platform Warpcaster launches “Frames,” which pretty much allows folks to code crypto checkouts into their social posts.
Jun 5 ‘24: Coinbase launches the first Ethereum-based “smart wallet,” allowing users to sign up/in to their wallet with FaceID or a Google account (no 12-word seed phrase needed).
Jun 12 ‘24: Fuse, the Solana-based smart wallet launches.
Jun 25 ‘24: Solana launches ‘Blinks’ (aka: blockchain links) which is kind of like a combination of Coinbase payment links and Warpcaster’s Frames, where users can embed crypto interactions into a single link (think: voting, donating, minting NFTs, swapping tokens, and paying people) and share them anywhere online.
Here are our two big takeaways:
Competition between these two ecosystems breeds painful/tired tribalism, yes…
But for those who are able to quit the silly game of ‘one or the other, not both’ — this competition is bringing awesome new features at a break-neck pace.
Both ecosystems are doing something that the crypto space has desperately needed in order to scale:
Bridge the gap between web2 and web3.
These seamless sign up/in and purchase interactions are something web users are used to, and they’re not going to abandon that for a worse user experience.
By meeting consumers where they are, it makes for an easier transition.
We give these developments two emphatic thumbs up, four chefs kisses, and eight molto bene’s.