An attempt to solve the last mile problem

Want to receive ETH Payments (tips) straight into your wallet? Now you can get payment form that is suitable to be embedded into twitter, facebook, medium/wordpress, your website, etc.

Why do we need this? Just showing the ethereum address and asking for a tip is inconvenient for those who would like to tip. This kinda helps them.

Don’t worry, no addresses, passwords, prior setup needed.

Pre-requisites:

You should have an account in Metamask with few pennies (Weis) enough to pay gas cost for ENS setup

You must own an ENS Name (you can get one for free instantly at enslisting.com)

Your users must have Metamask installed (If not, they will be prompted to install)

They can only tip using ETH, no BTC, no other alt-coin

How to:

Visit https://enslisting.com/manage

First, work with the section “I want to setup a name for my Wallet!”. Enter the ENS name that you bought from the auction, and the screen will guide you through the setup (only the forward setup is necessary, reverse (Second step) is optional, don’t sweat.

Don’t have an ENS name? No worries, get a free name instantly at https://enslisting.com/rental

Then, on the Manage page, work with the section “I want to receive ETH Payments / Tips!”

Enter your ENS name, default amount that should be populated on the box. click “Generate Link”, viola, the page will provide you several snippets for embedding the form in various social media or on your website.

So, why do we need ENS Name, why can’t this be done directly with ethereum address? Well, the only reason I developed this is to promote the use of ENS, so, in return for a free payment form, you agree to setup an ENS name for free, we think it is a fair deal and is good for the ecosystem in the long run.

Background

Note: These are my ramblings, if all you wanted was a PayNow button, you don’t need to read this.

Work on BitOfMe.io started to solve the last mile problem. The problem is, you cannot use ENS Names for payments easily. Small payments using ethereum addresses are not any simpler either.

To receive casual ethereum payments (tips, small payments), currently, the closest option you have is to place your address on your blog and hope the reader will copy/paste into Metamask, know the socially acceptable tip amount that isn’t embarrassing for both parties, double/triple check the address again, take care of the gas cost, and pay. That is a huge barrier, even for those who don’t mind tipping.

Add to it the complexity of seeing an ENS Name in place of an address, first, the tipper may or may not be aware how to use them, now know which clients support them, how to verify if they are not infected, you already lost them.

On the other hand, Ethereans are comfortable by now clicking DAPP buttons that launch Metamask, somehow, it feels more secure and sane thing to do (though a rogue DAPP can trick you into transferring any asset you own, say, call HashRegistrar.Transfer on click of an unassuming button claiming to do something else, and for an untrained eye, that call would look like just any other smart contract call they intended to perform).

Add to this, every blogger/etherean rolling out their own payment form, and some of those get infiltrated.

We obviously want a simple page that is mutually trusted, which accepts recipients ENS Name, does a sanity check (UTS46 nomalization / verification), and transfers to Metamask. BitOfMe.io is such a form, with very limited functionality. Hopefully, once the clients evolve, this will be made redundant.

How does it work:

You hyperlink to the page https//bitofme.io/pay, and pass two parameters: name, and amount.

The page verifies if the name passes UTS46 normalization. If it fails, the form is disabled

It also alerts if the name has foreign characters (not a hard error, but a red warning)

It resolves the name to address, and make sure name resolution works (form disabled in case of failure).

In future, also verify if the address is blacklisted (does anyone know of any such registry in blockchain?)

Check if Metamask is available. If not, show download link

Allow gas price to be set

Call metamask on “send click”

Benefits for the receiver:

No easy options available for twitter, facebook, etc right now. This solves that

Having a form with all information pre-filled could be a tipping point to encourage the user to tip. (ENSListing, while completely free has collected 8 ETH in tips in the last 6 months, almost all users tip atleast once, most users tip everytime they interact with the site, though it is completely optional, a lot of that has to do with the convenience of DAPP facilitiated tipping I believe)

Sending users to a mutually trusted site, which in itself doesn’t ask for any passwords/pre-setup reduces friction

Start using ENS (forced choice), there by helping the platform in the long run

Benefits for the sender:

Saves you from getting a Lump of Coal, Christmas is around the corner

Fewer clicks / copy-pastes

Chance to get an ENS for your own wallet while you are at it

Benefits for ENSListing:

Faster ENS Adoption by the community

Hopefully, more widespread use of ENSNow (subdomains)

Help solve last mile problem of using ENS Names (So far you could do everything without a name, not anymore)

Google analytics (usage of the payment form submits anonymous usage stats via google analytics). We will never sell that.

Let me know your feedback. I plan to iterate this when I get time, do let me know if you want some feature added.

PS: Lets see if that work, try tipping https://bitofme.io/pay?name=enslisting.atmedium.eth&amount=0.005

Mano Samy

Founder, ENSListing.com