Do you know "Rules", an NFT card game that allows you to financially support your favourite rapper? This project launched in 2022 by the YouTube channel "The Rules" is a model of its kind in terms of the democratisation of blockchain technology. And why is that? Quite simply because you don't even know that the game works with... blockchain. Clever, of course!
The strength of a game like Rules is that users are never asked to:
create a digital wallet. keep their "seed phrase", i.e. the 12- or 24-word password used as a key to recover the wallet (if the password is lost). have cryptocurrencies in your wallet. 👉 With Rules, you just need to create an account with a username and password, a bit like in the good old "Web2" world.
The wallet (digital wallet) is actually integrated into the user account. You can buy NFT cards by bank card and exchange them with other fans on the Rules site without being a crypto expert.
The only element reminiscent of the crypto world is the mention of the price of the cards in both Ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, and in euros.
The advantage of this system is that it borrows the best of the blockchain universe, i.e. digital scarcity (you really own your card), without taking on the drawbacks, thanks to a very simple wallet system.
"Rules" is obviously not the only company to have opted for such a system. French unicorn Sorare, which is one of the world leaders in sports and NFT cards , has also deployed a similar system. The only difference with Rules is that Sorare is developed on a blockchain specially designed for gaming (StarkEx).
Rules, on the other hand, is one of the first applications of its kind built on a completely open network: StarkNet, a secondary layer of Ethereum, also known as "layer 2" (read our report on the subject) .
"Account abstraction", THE solution for the general public
Behind the simplicity of Rules and other web3 projects, there is a standard that has recently been developed on blockchains: "account abstraction".
Don't panic, behind this rather barbaric term is actually something quite simple: until now, to control a digital wallet and make transactions (send money, for example), you had to use your private key every time.
With account abstraction this is no longer the case. You no longer need to use your private key (complex password) every time. Instead, you can use simpler passwords or biometric or facial recognition systems.
StarkNet is clearly the network in the Ethereum family that is furthest ahead on the subject.
"This kind of solution will enable more and more people to create digital wallets and have crypto assets," explains Henri Lieautaud, a professor at the Léonard-de-Vinci engineering school (ESILV) in Courbevoie and in charge of relations with StarkNet developers.
"I am convinced that within two or three years we will see Web3 applications reaching people who have never had cryptos," he insists.
Using Web3 applications with Face ID
"Account abstraction" also presents major prospects in Web3 gaming. Who would want to sign messages with their wallet every time they interact in a game? Asking the question is already answering it.
"This new standard makes it possible to offer more immersive experiences where the player is not disturbed every 30 seconds to validate a transaction on the blockchain", explains Itamar Lesuisse, the boss of Argent, a wallet that bet on "account abstraction" very early on.
This system is also compatible with any other kind of application.
"Today, I can sign crypto transactions using Face ID on my iPhone. It's the same authentication system as my banking application", stresses Henri Lieautaud.
"Entrepreneurs who are more focused on the product rather than infrastructure issues have clearly understood the benefit", he assures.
It is an illusion to think that one day all users will be able to manage their wallet on their own. Although the Internet has been around for almost 30 years, many Internet users are still repeating the same mistakes by writing their passwords on a piece of paper that they leave lying around or by choosing "123456".
Web3 will not be able to develop without solutions that are sufficiently secure to lighten the burden of managing a private key.
In this sense, as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin reminded us yesterday at the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris (where The Big Whale is obviously present 🐳), "account abstraction" is probably one of the biggest recent advances in the ecosystem.
