We’re very happy that so many people are excited about our Sign in with Zippie solution. We think it’s what dApps really need to open the floodgates to mainstream adoption. Needless to say, its release has provoked a bunch of questions out there in the community. So, we’ve put together this post to answer them for you.

1. What happens when I click the button?

First time you click a Sign in with Zippie button, you will be redirected to our onboarding process. This is where you will get a choice to either create a new Zippie ID, or transfer one from another device. Creating a new ID consist of simply accepting Zippie’s user terms, which should take no more than 10 seconds to complete. With the ID, a Zippie wallet is also created, which you can then use to connect to the dApps you want to use.

Once you have a Zippie ID, signing in to dApps becomes quick and painless, just like signing in to regular apps with a Google or Github OAuth account.

2. How does the key generation work?

Behind the scenes, a secure Master Seed is generated inside your browser. This is the core of your Zippie Identity and is kept safe inside the Zippie Vault. From there we use a deterministic key derivation algorithm (BIP0032) to generate the keys you’ll need to interact with the Ethereum Blockchain.

The Master Seed is stored encrypted, partly on the Zippie Servers and partly on the local device, and is only assembled when a signing operation needs to take place.