Launching Web3Auth Firebase extension with Google Cloud to connect millions of Web2 businesses with Web3

One of our engineers finds himself brimming with pride and joy.

He calls it a progressively incremental user onboarding journey into mass adoption of Web3 — straight from the comfort and convenience of a Firebase extension.

“The sweetest part for app developers — who doesn’t love it when you can create a Web3 wallet for users instantly, without involving seedphrases?”

Today, we announce the launch of our very own Web3 extension on the Firebase Extensions Hub, in collaboration with Google Cloud.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can install it.

What does this mean for developers?

It means that millions of existing businesses and applications that are live on Firebase — Google’s mobile and web app development platform, can now use Web3Auth to seamlessly, silently and invisibly onboard their end-users onto Web3 with only a few clicks.

It also effectively allows Web2 companies and applications to bring their users onto their Web3 ecosystems, without any barriers to entry like seedphrases.

This collaboration is significant in the industry because of two key reasons.

• User onboarding in Web3 has been challenging for both Web2 and Web3-native applications, enterprises and developers. Seedphrases and Web3 wallets are totally alien concepts for most Web2 businesses and applications. The problem worsens when developers discover that they cannot find the necessary Web3 capabilities installed both on the frontend and the backend, to onboard new users or enable non-fungible token (NFT) drops or craft sustainable loyalty programs.
• But more importantly, the requirement has also been around the storage of public addresses of user wallets directly on their backend. The idea is to find a simpler solution for improving customer profiling, segmentation of user demographics, and to find look-alike audiences. The number of applications in need of this functionality — has only been drastically increasing.

How Web3Auth solves it now

With the Web3Auth Firebase extension, applications get access to email addresses, full names, public Ethereum wallet addresses, and UIDs of the users — all within the same database. Aggregation of user profiles and demographics is now as simple as it can get.

With the Web3Auth multi-party computation (MPC) at the helm, developers can use Firebase authentication to securely generate a public-private key pair. This enables their users to own a fully self-custodial Web3 wallet with familiar logins such as email and password-based authentication, social identity provider integrations (Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub), phone number authentication, and custom auth system integrations.

When it comes to user logins, they also require global latency times that are pegged under 1.5 seconds for enterprise-grade standards. Thanks to Google Cloud, Web3Auth has been able to consistently maintain these standards for a long time now.

Zhen Yu Yong, our Cofounder and CEO says, “For an unparalleled performance to meet global demand, we needed a multi-region cloud infrastructure setup across the world at Web3Auth. The backend of this Firebase extension sits on top of Google Cloud, which gives us all the more firepower to be able to run it as smoothly as possible. No matter where you are in the world, any Web2-centric application or Web3-native dApp can now allow its users to use their social logins with uniform login times.”

Web3Auth’s Multi-Party Computation (MPC) uses cryptographic secret sharing techniques to split the user’s private key and save it in three locations — the user’s device, a social login provider, and a recovery method, after which it looks into device storage and social sign-in to recreate the user’s key.

NFTs or AirDrops — only in a few clicks

Using this extension, AirDrops and NFT drops are unbelievably easier and faster to execute because developers would no longer have to write custom logics to fetch the wallet addresses and store them on the database. But instead, with only a few clicks and some fundamental configuration, user details and wallet addresses are automatically stored in the database, thanks to Web3Auth’s capabilities.

A growing number of large brands are embracing Web3 through loyalty programs. At Web3Auth, we recently partnered with McDonald’s in Singapore, to debut 2,000 soul-bound NFTs that allow consumers to mint a unique Grimace NFT in-app with exclusive perks and incentives for the holders. These customer loyalty programs are a huge incentive in continued user engagement, higher retention, and ultimately, to drive maximum possible value to users.

Loyalty programs directly equate to identity and status, and alliances that are affiliated with loyalty programs, are accessible and compatible with the very interoperable nature of Web3. In this context, blockchain-based wallets are the starting point for any Web3 interaction, where they identify themselves, store digital currencies, and NFTs.

With fully built-up Web3 ecosystems, Web2 enterprises could seamlessly empower their users to potentially interoperate across different products or brands under the same corporate umbrella.

Read more: Can Enterprises augment their loyalty programmes with Web3?

If you are an enterprise or a dApp developer looking to onboard the next billion users onto Web3 with simple and seamless social logins, check out the Web3Auth Firebase extension here.

If you are building a Wallet or a dApp and you are looking to onboard the next billion users on to Web3, sign up here to try out our SDKs.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

1. What are Web3 loyalty programs?

Web3 loyalty programs harness the power of decentralized systems like blockchain and smart contracts, to introduce a novel rewards program for users. Essentially, these programs merge the foundational concepts of blockchain with the dynamics of classic Web2-based loyalty schemes. The idea is to create a rewards system that is more transparent, secure and tailored to the user’s needs. In the recent past, several large-scale Web2 enterprises have embraces this trend, to attract and retain audiences like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nike, Etihad Airways, among others.

2. What is Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS)?

Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) refers to a highly secure and scalable infrastructure solution for Web3 applications that enables users, developers, and enterprises to create, manage and use digital wallets in a hosted environment. The digital wallets are used for storing, transacting, and managing digital assets like cryptocurrencies, tokens, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). By using Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), businesses can integrate Web3 wallet functionalities into their operations without the need to build and maintain their own wallet infrastructure. This is especially beneficial for businesses looking to adopt Web3 wallets and blockchain technology but lack the technical expertise or resources to develop a secure and functional Web3 wallet from scratch.