A Step-By-Step Guide

Introduction

The Ethereum Wildfire Project is promoting the use of Ethereum to login to websites and to authenticate to secure networks. To show how the former would work there’s a demo on the EWP website that lets people use MetaMask to register with a make-believe web-service called the “Zebra Club” . After registering it’s possible to use MetaMask to login to the Zebra Club. In this article I’ll take you through the demo, step-by-step.

Getting MetaMask

If you’re already an old pro with MetaMask, then you can skip to the next section. Otherwise fire up your Chrome Browser and head over to the MetaMask website. Click on “Get Chrome Extension.” and then add the extension to chrome.

MetaMask.io website

Add the MetaMask Extension to Chrome

You’ll be presented with a warning saying that MetaMask can change the data on the websites that you visit. That’s OK… that’s what MetaMask does. The next thing you need to do is open MetaMask by clicking on the orange fox icon in the upper righthand corner of Chrome. You’l be presented with a few screens explaining the terms of use, and some general safety precautions. You need to scroll through the warnings before you can click “Accept.”

Read the MetaMask terms and security recommendations

Next you’ll need to enter a password for MetaMask. I know… We all hate passwords. But if the Ethereum Wildfire Project is successful, then this one password will take the place of tens of passwords that are currently needed for all your websites and network sign-ins…. After you enter the password you’ll also need to write down 12 “seed words.” It’s very important that you save these somewhere safe and secure — Especially if you keep valuable Ether and tokens in your MetaMask wallet, since you can use the seed words to restore your wallet if, for example, your computer is stolen or your hard drive crashes.

Create a New, Empty Ethereum Account

Now I suggest that you create a brand new Ethereum account, with no Ether in it. This would be the account that you use for logging in. Having a separate account specifically for this purpose is an extra security precaution; that is, since you’ll be signing messages from this account, you don’t want to accidentally sign a message that could have some unknown financial effect. Click on the icon that looks like a person with arrows around him and then select “Create Account.”

Creating a new Ethereum account in MetaMask

Below you can see that I’ve renamed the new account to “LOGIN.”

Click “edit” to rename this account

I named this account “LOGIN”

Navigate to the Ethereum Wildfire Project Demo

Now we can finally try the Zebra Club demo. This is actually the easy part. Head over to the Ethereum Wildfire Project website, and click on the Demo menu item:

Before you actually go to the Zebra Club website, click on the orange fox MetaMask icon in the upper right corner to double check that the current account in MetaMask is the LOGIN account, which you created specifically for logging into websites:

I’m using my LOGIN account, which has no Ether in it

Register with the Zebra Club

When you get to the Zebra Club website you’ll see two buttons: The lefthand button is to login, for members only — and I’m not a member yet. On the right side there is a button to register for the club, which is what I’m going to do now. Notice that MetaMask is providing my Etheruem account address for my LOGIN account. This is will become my definitive identification on the Zebra Club. Below you can see that to register I entered my name and a bogus email address:

When I click the “Register with MetaMask” button I’m presented with a MetaMask dialog asking me to sign a message that contains all my registration information:

Signing a message to register with the Zebra Club

After registering I get a message that reminds me of how awesome it is that I was able to register without providing a password:

Registration was successful

Login to the Zebra Club

Now prepare yourself to be dazzled by the simplicity of logging in using Ethereum and Metamask. If you want to convince yourself that the site is really using your registration info (and not cookies, for example), then before proceeding you can clear your browser’s cache…

So here I am, back at the Zebra Club’s login page. MetaMask is already set with my Ethereum LOGIN account as the current account, so all I need to do is click the “Login with MetaMask” button:

About to login to the Zebra Club

MetaMask presents me with a dialog showing the message that I’m about to sign. Notice that the message does not include my name or email address. Just the signature is enough to identify me.

Signing the login message

And Viola’, I’m logged in!

Again I’m reminded of how awesome the process is:

I logged in with a single click

I logged in without providing a password

I never transmitted my Ethereum account address— just a signed message

Summary

In this article I walked you through the Ethereum & MetaMask login demo, which is on the Ethereum Wildfire Project’s website. Feel free to try it out yourself.

The idea of logging into websites and networks without passwords, and with enhanced security, is so powerful that it really should catch on like wildfire. The Ethereum Wildfire Project is at the forefront of promoting this technique. If you can appreciate the potential of what we’re doing, then please go to the EWP website and participate in our seed-funding token sale.

Radhika Anand

for the Ethereum Wildfire Project