What are the problems that users are facing when it comes to migrating from web2 to web3?

In short, users can not find a proper wallet as the entry point to Web3 because the current wallets are complicated to use and hard to keep safe like EOA wallets, or easy- to-use but have central risks like exchange wallets.

Also, for projects which want to transition from Web2 to Web3, they do not have tools to easily connect to Web3 APIs and deploy smart contracts

To enter Web3, users would need on-chain identities, and the creation of these accounts is often done via wallets. But the industry fails to provide an easy, safe, and low-cost wallet product for users or a friendly solution for developers. The main problems are:

• Poor usability: Web3 wallets are often not easy to use as the most common type, like EOA wallets require users to remember seed phrases (a string of 12 or 24 worlds) and private keys to create one. These mnemonics and keys are the only proofs that grant them access to their wallets, so they will lose their identities and assets forever once they can’t find this info.
• Insecurity: In a worse situation, users’ seed phrases and private keys could be stolen/leaked and the thief/hacker can easily manage their assets, like transferring them out to other addresses. When this happens, users can’t protect their assets, because the thief/hacker already gains control and there is no way the real owner can take that back.
• Lack of self-custody: wallets like exchange wallets are easy to use, but have centralized risks
• High fees: Some other types of wallets have tried to address the issues above using technologies like account abstraction so that users won’t need seed phrases anymore. But account abstraction is realized via smart contracts deployed on blockchains and this generates fees before users can create accounts.
• Lack of dev tools: For developers wishing to build Web3 projects or transition their products to Web3, they’ll find it rather difficult to get started due to a lack of tools and infrastructures. More often than not, they need to seek help from blockchain experts to enable Web3 functions.

2. What solution does Portkey provide to this problem?

To support the migration from Web2 to Web3, Portkey developed a CA wallet and DID solution that solves all the above problems. Portkey provides CA wallet SDKs. And the below is what problems Portkey solve in regard with helping the migration from Web2 to Web3.

• Usability: Users can use their Web2 social info to create accounts and they don’t need to remember any private keys and seed phrases. The Web2 social info supported includes phone numbers, emails, Google accounts, and Apple IDs.
• Security: User assets are safeguarded by social recovery via the guardians they trust. Even when they lose the device with their wallet account logged on, they can recover it via these guardians and remove access rights from devices they don’t need.
• Low-cost : Portkey account creation is free and transaction fees are low. The transaction fees generated from contract deployment or social recovery process are paid by Portkey so users can use this wallet at 0 costs. This is defined in Portkey’s superior delegation mechanism. DApps connected to Portkey can also choose to adopt Portkey’s superior delegation mechanism to make it easy and free for their users to join them.
• Decentralization: Portkey has external service providers as verifiers to increase the degree of decentralization in social recovery. Whenever users need to manage their accounts, like logging in on other devices or adding more guardians, these verifiers will validate info from guardians.
• For developers: Complete tools set, plug-and-play SDKs help developers launch Web3 projects within hours. All developers are welcome to embed wallet functions into their existing products or projects under development to provide Web3 services to their users.

3. What do you mean by a CA wallet and how is it different from a cold or hot wallet?

CA wallet is contract account wallet, or smart contract wallet, or as Vitalik calls it, a social recovery wallet. It belongs to hot wallet since it is connected to the Internet. Hot wallets include EOA (externally owned account) wallets and CA wallets.

The major difference from the technical perspective between EOA wallets and CA wallets is that CA wallets decoupled private keys with users accounts and programmed users’ wallet accounts into smart contracts to enable users to log in with social accounts instead of seed phrases and private keys. It also enables decentralized identity verification, social recovery, bundles transactions, and so forth cuz these can programmed into smart contracts.

• Cold wallets are hardware devices that store users’ cryptos and digital assets offline. These wallets are safe yet could cost several hundred dollars. Besides, offline wallets are not convenient since users need to carry them for usage.

Most hot wallets can be roughly classified into 3 types: custodial wallets, EOA wallets, and CA wallets.

• Custodial EOA wallets are managed by organizations like exchanges but are thought to be insecure. Users can’t access their funds in case of emergency, like suspension of exchange services.
• Non-custodial EOA wallets are free and comparatively secure, but unfriendly in terms of usability. Users need to remember and store private keys or a string of seed phrases to maintain control of their accounts. Hence, these wallets could be difficult to recover and might be lost forever once the keys are stolen.
• CA wallets are deployed as smart contracts on blockchains. They can be programmed to meet users’ needs and don’t need users to remember keys like EOA wallets. While building it, the developers can choose to implement different mechanisms to secure it, like social recovery.

4. Why do you think that Portkey’s CA wallet is a better solution than other cold/hot wallets?

Portkey’s advantages over other types of wallets exist in its many features, like being cost-efficient, secure, and easy to use. Beyond all these, Portkey is also more decentralized and developer-friendly than its own peer CA wallets.

• Portkey v.s. Cold wallets: Cold wallets can only be bought and the cost could reach hundreds of dollars. Portkey is free for users to create accounts as the Portkey team covers the fees generated from contract deployment. Some other fees are also exempted, like logging in on other devices and adding/removing guardians. Transactions on Portkey are also cheap thanks to the native blockchain aelf.
• Portkey v.s. Custodial wallets: Custodial wallets are not controlled directly by users, hence are not that secure. Portkey enables users to manage their assets and enhances security via social recovery.
• Portkey v.s. EOA wallets: EOA wallets have high requirements for users before they can start using them, like remembering private keys or mnemonics and keeping them safe forever. Portkey makes it really easy for everyone to own a wallet address using nothing but the info they already have (phones, emails, etc).
• Portkey v.s. Other CA wallets: Most CA wallets fail to address all the above issues because their users still need to pay in advance to create accounts. This part of the fee is covered by Portkey so users can enjoy Web3 services for free. Also, Portkey is more decentralized with the help of external verifiers. For developers, Portkey also provides the handiest toolsets like SDKs to help them launch Web3 projects within hours.

5. Why does Portkey initially choose aelf as the ecosystem to start off?

As a high performance layer 1 network with solid infrastructure, aelf envisions itself to support a vibrant Web3 ecosystem, especially the ecosystem built by  web2 users and projects who have great potential to revolutionize Web 3. That being said, it’s important for the ecosystem to first have a good wallet as an entry point.

6. How does a CA wallet function?

CA wallet is enabled by account abstraction, and users’ accounts are coded into smart contracts so that their private keys and accounts are decoupled. Users don’t need to hold their private keys themselves to access their wallets as the keys are stored on the login device and controlled by a manager address.

Social recovery is implemented in the wallet to help users recover their accounts when they need to log in on new devices or remove management rights from old devices. Guardians are decentralized and they can prove the users’ identities. CA wallets can also enable diverse functions like bundled transactions.

7. How is Portkey planning to capture market share?

Portkey is especially friendly to game developers as C# is one of the most popular languages in gaming. So in the early stage, Portkey will put more focus on cooperation with gamers to provide they Portkey wallet SDKS as a gateway to Web3.

At the same time, Portkey will forge partnerships with existing Web3 projects from both aelf ecosystem and others like EVM.

After earning a faithful user base, Portkey will expand the services further to other Web2 industries where decentralization and security remain to be the problems.

8. What is the social recovery aspect of Portkey and how does it function?

When the social recovery function is invoked, users need to obtain approval from a certain percentage of their total guardians to identify their verifications first. Depending on the total number, the requirements also differ and the rules are as follows:

• If the total number of guardians is 3 or fewer, you’ll need approval from all of them;
• If the total number of guardians is greater than 3, you’ll need approval from 3/5 (rounding down) + 1 of them.

After the user’s identity has been verified and has enough guardians’ approvals, he or she can remove the old device, i.e. dislink the manager address on the old device, and add the new device to regain control of his or her account on the new device.

9. What are the utilities of the Portkey wallet?

Currently, Portkey supports Web3 account creation, crypto-fiat on/off-ramps, digital asset management, interactions with DApps, and so on. To be specific:

• Web3 account creation: Everyone is welcome to create Web3 wallet accounts, i.e. on-chain identities, which are not subject to censorship or centralized manipulation. Supported by Portkey’s interoperability with other networks, the account enables users to enjoy all the services from multiple other ecosystems.
• Crypto-fiat on/off-ramps: Users can easily buy cryptos via their credit card or through bank transfers, and there is no need to turn to centralized exchanges to get their first cryptocurrency.
• Digital asset management: Users can use their Portkey accounts to send, receive, and manage tokens and NFTs. The P2P transaction is completed instantly and can be checked in activity records.
• Interactions with DApps including GameFi, Defi, SocialFi DApps and so forth: Portkey encourages developers to build on it and provides them with the handiest SDK tools. In such an environment, users can access abundant DApps, especially game projects, and enjoy an enriched Web3 experience.

10. What are the ways that Portkey supports on-ramp and off-ramp solutions?

Portkey integrates Alchemy Pay’s on-ramp and off-ramp services. Currently, users can buy ELF tokens using fiat money via credit cards or bank transfers. In the future, there will be more tokens available for purchase and Portkey will also support NFT checkout.

11. What all blockchains do you support and/or plan on supporting in the future?

Portkey is native to aelf blockchain which is interoperable with other chains and plans to support all the chains aelf connects to including EVM chains and others.

12. What is Portkey’s multiple token gas fee payment solution and what does it mean for different parties?

Portkey’s native blockchain aelf enables users to pay transaction fees using not only ELF tokens but also other tokens like stablecoins. Portkey supports the same and its meanings are as the following:

• For token issuers: Extend the use cases of their tokens and connect them to aelf ecosystem / Portkey’s DApp market to enhance their liquidity.
• For project owners: Expand their range of applications to increase their competitiveness, attracting more potential users and creating more traffic.
• For users: Enjoy the convenience and flexibility of using different tokens across different chains, by simply accessing their Portkey wallet for various payments.

13. Can you shed more light on your developer SDK solutions?

Portkey provides Portkey DID SDK and Portkey DID UI SDK to help developers overcome these issues. These SDKs are both used for embedding Web3 DID wallet functions, with the difference being they cater to different developers’ needs. This plug-and-play solution expedites the building of Web3 projects and enables seamless onboarding for users.

14. What is the total addressable market size for the Portkey wallet?

The global crypto wallet market size estimated to reach US$48.27 billion by 2030, and the number of crypto wallet users to increase nearly 12 folds to 1 billion by 2031. With Portkey’s all around features, we are confident that we can lead in the crypto wallet market and earn a fair share of it.

Source: “Crypto Wallet Market Size, Share, & Trends Analysis Report by Wallet Type (Hot Wallet, Cold Wallet), by Operating System (android, iOS, Others), by Application, by End Use (Individual, Commercial), by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030”

Source: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/crypto-wallet-market-report

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