Web3 Identity
We must make sure web3 is accessible to all users in order to establish an open financial system for the entire world. This entails creating an identification experience that combines the greatest elements of web2 and web3 and is intuitive, forgiving, and trustworthy. We've started by making it simple for anyone to register for a free web3 (ENS) username, but there is still work to be done
If you've used cryptocurrency, you've undoubtedly felt nervous about transferring tokens or NFTs to ominous addresses with 42 characters, like 0x2133a64a3bE8B64827B26B08e166d0b478bd09D3. We collaborated with Ethereum Name Service (ENS) to enable users to claim "name.cb.id" usernames via the Coinbase Wallet browser extension in order to make this process simpler.
We must make sure that everyone from all walks of life may use web3 in order to establish an open financial system for the entire world. Promoting the adoption of a human-readable username standard is essential to making web3 accessible to all users. With the help of this functionality, anyone may now register for a free "name.cb.id" web3 username, which they can use to communicate with others, give and receive crypto, and build their web3 identity on top of.
Even while this is a significant accomplishment, your username is just one aspect of your online identity. Before web3 is useable by billions of people, there are still several identity-related gaps that need to be closed. Web3 has early potential, but it frequently lacks obvious features and effective methods for expressing and evaluating trust and validity. We must combine the web2's convenience with the web3's privacy, security, and control in order to close these gaps.
You use your identification to acquire access when you set up an account or login in to a product. Products and platforms use identity to manage access and authorization, represent users, and determine trust. There are three fundamental components to identity:
Representation: Your user representation (e.g. your username and profile).
Access: demonstrating your ownership of the identity by logging in to access the product.
Authorization: deciding what you can access depending on your identity.
Hasn’t web2 already solved this problem?
What does web3 need to thrive?
Web2 and Web3 identification share the same fundamental client needs. The method of meeting them varies. Web2 is centralised, offering flexibility and convenience at the expense of control, security, and privacy. Although Web3 is unreliable and decentralised, there are usability issues. Flexibility and usability must be combined while maintaining privacy, security, and control for web3 to succeed. We must produce an experience that is:
Intuitive. Instead of daunting 42-character addresses, it must be simple for any user to transact and interact with others using human-readable usernames. Forgiving. Every user requires security, and they also need a mechanism to regain access without having to rely on carefully maintaining a sensitive recovery phrase, where one slip-up may lose someone their job.
Evolving web3 identity
Many of the problems with web2 can be fixed by web3. With crypto, you are in charge of the keys to your identity and security. But let's face it, web3 as it stands right now is frightening. So what must we, the web3 community, create in order for everyone to enjoy the advantages of web3?
a user's unique identity.
We need to make it simple to build and manage human-readable, portable, interoperable, and richly adjustable public identities that can range from wholly private to completely anonymous. Users ought to be able to keep track of several identities for various situations (e.g. one for work and one for gaming).
Tools to help everyone stay secure and feel secure. Today, web3 breaks one of the fundamental rules of security since the recovery phrase presents a single point of vulnerability for our identities. Identity theft may result from a compromised app, device, or social engineering assault. The classic example of web2 authentication is multi-factor authentication (MFA), and web3 will require an identical system that can secure every user.
Recovery for when something goes wrong Everybody has lost a password at some point, thus we shouldn't anticipate any distinct behaviour from recovery words. Users require means of getting back in, else we can't scale an environment where losing a recovery phrase might cost someone access to their livelihood. More forgiving experiences are being created by products like social recovery and the multi-party computation (MPC) technology that underpins Coinbase's dapp wallet, which may lead to a greater uptake of web 3.
Signals for trust and legitimacy Only because governments vouch for their legality do passports function. The effectiveness of web3 identity will also depend on reliable sources attesting to an identity's reliability. Users will require methods for gathering, organising, and distributing "attestations" that confirm their qualifications and authenticity. Applications will need a mechanism to issue user credentials, as well as a way to confirm their validity.
Interoperability across web2 and web3 The distinction between "web2" and "web3" will eventually become less distinct, even to users who are further along the adoption curve. They will count on being able to access "web2" and "web3" with ease using a single identity and set of credentials, so we must make that experience possible. Similar to this, we must give consumers a chain-independent identity that they can use over the entirety of web3.
Building identity for web3 Deep concentration and powerful teams with the ability to build and iterate quickly will be needed to build a reliable web3 identification layer. This frequently entails scaling locally first, then worldwide (and in a decentralised way). This long-term goal, which includes open source, open standards, and strong cooperation with the larger web3 ecosystem, needs to be adopted from the beginning by Coinbase and businesses similar to ours.
Most importantly, we must never forget the fundamental promise of web3 identification. We must design with the user's privacy, security, and control top of mind while also being logical, forgiving, and reliable.
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