Bridging Web2 User Experiences With Web3 Infrastructure
In Brief
Innovative projects like Orbs, Ambire, and FIFA Rivals are bridging the gap between Web2 usability and Web3 infrastructure to create more intuitive, user-friendly blockchain experiences.
Web3 has come up against a major roadblock. The user experience sucks, making it almost unfathomable for far too many users. Web3 interfaces can be likened to a labyrinth, with complexity so overwhelming that many people simply give up trying to work them out.
The problem is that Web2 has made technology so intuitive that people have just come to expect that everything will be easy. Whether it’s scanning a QR code, ordering food online, playing games, placing a bet or something else, the experience is so seamless that just about anybody who isn’t a complete and utter fool should quickly work out how to do it.
Not so in the world of Web3, where users are faced with convoluted crypto wallets and endless techno mumbo-jumbo. Think about it. To use a Web3 app, you need to own cryptocurrency tokens, and that means managing a wallet. But that wallet confronts users with seed phrases, random strings of numbers for addresses, a variety of networks, “gas fees” and other strange concepts. It’s a stark contrast to the familiarity of Web2, where you simply login with your email and a password. Users fear they’ll lose their funds if they can’t login or send their money to a wrong address, and that can be a major deterrent.
Onboarding can be just as onerous. To get started, you need to purchase crypto, and that’s not easy. It means going to a third-party exchange platform, navigating through strange lists of “assets” such as ETH, BNB and ADA and working out how to buy them. But you can’t do that before you’ve gone through the obligatory KYC process. With so much to contend with, is it any wonder that so many users just give up?
Web3 needs to fix this mess if it’s to fix centralization, censorship, a lack of privacy and consumers being treated like a product.
This is where innovative projects are stepping in, aiming to bridge the gap between the familiar user experience of Web2 and the robust, decentralized infrastructure of Web3. They are striving to create interfaces that feel intuitive and accessible, abstracting away the underlying blockchain complexities without sacrificing the core tenets of decentralization.
Blockchain? What Blockchain?
Nowadays, it’s possible to find Web3 applications that offer much more familiar, intuitive and accessible experiences. They do it by abstracting away the complexities of blockchain in a way that doesn’t sacrifice decentralization.
A growing number of Web3 applications utilize Orbs’ Layer-3 infrastructure to do this. Orbs is a decentralized network that’s designed to sit atop of existing blockchain platforms like Ethereum, BNB Chain and Polygon, so developers can create Web2-like user interfaces that retain decentralizations. Orbs provides a way for apps to interact with smart contracts and handle gas fees off-chain, on a decentralized execution layer, before automatically settling those complex transactions on the main blockchain. It means developers can create apps that are more intuitive, responsive and seamless, just like we find in Web2, while still benefiting from Web3’s security and transparency.
We can draw a parallel with Stripe, the popular payments platform that dramatically simplified online shopping. Before Stripe existed, enabling online payments was a major headache for developers. They had to grapple with clunky application programming interfaces, integrate with various banking systems and build systems for PCI compliance. Stripe’s simple, elegant API changed this, allowing developers to integrate payments with just a few lines of code, which takes minimal effort.
Just as Stripe made payments more accessible, Orbs is doing the same for Web3 applications. It obscures the intricacies of creating and managing wallets, gas fees and network selection, so developers can create simpler user experiences. They can create fully decentralized apps with sophisticated functionality, and most users won’t even realize they’re interacting with a blockchain.
Hassle-Free Access
The infrastructure is just one aspect of Web3’s push to become more intuitive. It’s making great inroads in terms of user onboarding too. Ambire Wallet stands out as one of the most popular “smart account”-based crypto wallets due to features like email-based sign-ups and password recovery. Of course, this is much more palatable to most consumers than a mind-boggling seed phrase or private key. Users can recover their wallet in the event they forget their password via a similar mechanism, easing fears about losing access to their funds.
Crypto games are also making progress. FIFA Rivals is a popular Web3 game that allows football fans to enter tournaments and win crypto and non-fungible tokens as prizes, which can be sold for real, fiat money. It’s one of a new breed of “play-to-earn” games that provides asset ownership and the chance to earn financial rewards for winning games.
What’s great about FIFA Rivals is the way it eases onboarding. Anyone can pick up the game and start playing, without worrying about the Web3 features. So they can enjoy the core gameplay first, and then, if they desire, they can delve further into it and explore more complex and rewarding functions as they gain experience. It’s a clever “opt-in” model for Web3, which allows users to learn about the technicalities at their own pace, making onboarding an altogether less intimidating experience.
Simplicity Will Open The Floodgates For Web3
If Web3 really is going to be the future of the internet, it needs to find a way to transcend the technical complexity of blockchain and create more user-friendly experiences. With projects like Orbs providing the critical infrastructure to support this abstraction, and the likes of Ambire and FIFA Rivals showing the way in terms of user onboarding, there’s really no excuse for developers who continue to bamboozle new users.
Fix the complexity challenge and Web3 will become much more palatable to the vast majority, and – perhaps – finally bring the benefits of blockchain to a global audience.
Disclaimer
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About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
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Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
