Let’s face it, dApp developers can currently only dream of the mass adoption that apps on Google Play and the App Store enjoy. According to StateOfThedApps.com — at the time of writing — the top ranking dApp of the last 30 days, IDEX, had just over 22 thousand users. Top ranking Google Play apps can expect that number in only a few hours. There’s plenty of reasons for this huge disparity, but onboarding is doubtless a big part of the problem. When you consider how tricky it is to use dApps, it’s easy to understand why.

Why we need better ways to onboard

There are, of course, an increasing number of options available. Mobile dApp browsers such as Coinbase Wallet and Trust Wallet are trying to simplify the process. However, by far the most popular option is MetaMask, which brings Ethereum to your browser with a Google Chrome or Firefox extension. Yet despite MetaMask and the mobile dApp browsers, adoption is still frankly abysmal. Simply put, for all their advantages, current onboarding solutions are still a long way from perfect.

Take MetaMask, who have done an awesome job onboarding hundreds of thousands of users and helping the Blockchain industry grow. Even still, to start with MetaMask you need to download a plugin before doing anything, and the fact that it’s a desktop browser extension makes it poorly suited to the billions of smartphone users worldwide. And that’s just the tech. For people unfamiliar with the blockchain space, there’s also the “scare factor” of being told to write down a sequence of random words, and keep them very safe if they don’t want to lose everything. Once they’ve done this, the inevitable next question is about what they’ll do now with a wallet without Ether and — for many more — what exactly is Ether and how do they get it? In short, and respectfully, they’re a very long way from being a solution your man on the street can use.

Enjoy 10-second, zero downloads, zero hassle onboarding

Happily, this is where Zippie comes in. From the very beginning, our goal has been simple: To bring the benefits of blockchain to the masses. Now, we’re very pleased to announce that today we’ve made a huge stride towards that goal by launching Sign in with Zippie on the Ethereum Kovan testnet. At 10 seconds from the click of the button to when you’re in the dApp — without any other actions required — we are confident that it is the world’s fastest dApp onboarding solution. To show the blockchain community just how fast and simple it is, we’ll be demonstrating the button at Devcon IV in Prague on Oct 30th.

So, how does it work?

Just tap the button and you’re good to go

Our aim has been to create an onboarding solution so straightforward anyone can use it. That means the ability to create your personal mobile crypto wallet in just 10 seconds, without any downloads. But Zippie is much more than just a wallet. In the time it takes to accept user terms, you’ll be able to access a whole universe of decentralized apps, and what’s more, due to our PayMyGas service, you won’t even need any ETH or pay gas to be able to use it. Also thanks to our innovative key splitting technology, this all comes minus the hassle of worrying about private keys.