By Sumukh Shetty
Jan 12, 2017. Originally published here.
UX in web 2.0 has reached a level where transformational changes cannot be made anymore. We have a system with multiple service providers, API’s, interfaces, authentication systems that make the UX very clunky.
Decentralized Apps, built over the blockchain, will help the web move onto a more simplified and seamless UX.
The first time I used a DApp I was astonished by the ease of doing a transaction.
Imagine that the website knows you each time you enter it, it has access to all the transactions you have performed there, so it knows what you’ve bought or reserved. No authentication, no password, just a single ethereum wallet address is your ID. MetaMask, a chrome plugin, allows you to connect to the blockchain. Basically making chrome, a browser for decentralized applications
Imagine, taking a single click to finish a transaction.(if the wallet is loaded with ether).My first purchase was the access to a course on Decypher.tv
I was fascinated by the content Jordan Leigh put up on Youtube, so I went ahead to decypher.tv to buy access his ethereum Dapp development series.
It has two default buttons for new users, a How to use this site button and a Verify ethereum wallet button. Both doing what they say they do. You’ll have to basically allow Decypher to access the wallet that is linked to the MetaMask account, it needs to know that the user has a blockchain wallet.
After verification, a MetaMask popup will allow you to pay for the transaction. That’s about it, you just bought your first course online using ether, no being redirected to a third party gateway that is linked to a VISA server and your bank’s servers.
The next time you enter the site, it knows who you are through your wallet address and whether you’ve paid for it or not. This makes it really hard for anyone to pirate content or hack into accounts. Hacking into the blockchain is close to impossible. So it’s more secure than most of your data lying in large server farms, like the ones of facebook and google. I don’t think it’s evil of them to have it, they build products according to market needs. But the infrastructure they use is vulnerable.
