Hey all - I'm Roneil, one of the cofounders of Audius. We built Hedgehog to solve a specific pain point we faced - how can we get non crypto-native / non-technical users to sign up for a decentralized app? Current onboarding flows using Metamask and other alternatives were too cumbersome, time-consuming, and restrictive for our needs. We needed a way to generate a wallet on behalf of a user without them even knowing crypto was operating behind the scenes.<p>Hedgehog lives in your front end Javascript code. A user enters a username (or email) and password, which is used to secure a set of encrypted auth artifacts that are generated client-side and stored in the browser’s localStorage / on your (the application developer's) server. In this way, the encrypted auth artifacts can be retrieved and consumed on secondary devices without centralizing custody and control of the private key.<p>If the centralized server hosting the keys goes down, users can continue to access their wallet on the devices they already have. If the centralized server is compromised or operated by bad actors, the resources required to decrypt a stored auth artifact would be immense. However - this is why we recommend using Hedgehog only in low-to-no financial value use cases.<p>This approach is not without tradeoffs - but for the right use-cases we believe this will provide a needed alternative.<p>Happy to answer any questions you all have!
This is so badly needed in the Ethereum space. Metamask is a massive drag and a known onboarding blocker -- Hedgehog seems like a huge leap forward. Congrats team!
The hedgehog library is completely unsafe considering that any third party library or browser extension loaded in the website using the SDK can loop through localStorage to read the entropy value therefore recreating the hd wallet and stealing the user's account.
Looks compelling, been waiting for something like this to come along. Built a couple dapps with Metamask and the popups and mnemonic phrases and browser extension installation were a serious UX issue that had no real workaround and seemingly no timeline for improvement. AFAIK, development seems to have slowed or stopped entirely on Metamask? Will try working with this and share any feedback. Nice work guys, thanks for moving the space forward
Certainly a much needed application in the Ethereum space.<p>As a blockchain game developer, I have talked ad nauseum (<a href="https://steemit.com/marketing/@steem.marketing/cache-the-game-switching-from-ethereum-to-steem" rel="nofollow">https://steemit.com/marketing/@steem.marketing/cache-the-gam...</a>) about reasons why we switched away from Ethereum for most transactions (but not all).<p>The UX of the wallet being one difficulty for adoption. There are other even bigger reasons (in my opinion) - variable mining fees per transaction being a large one.
Any Ethereum developers have a plan once ETH gets log jammed again?<p>Apps will be slow to respond and take minutes or hours between updates.<p>Is this accepted as you wait for a new solution to the byzantine generals problem?
This looks brilliant, addresses a very real pain point and your landing page communicates it well with the demo. Kudos!<p>Will give this a try on our Dapp.