Since the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) was launched in 2017, Web3 users have been able to replace the long strings that make up a cryptographic address with an easier-to-memorize blockchain username or web3 domain name. For example, Ethereum (ETH) users can now send crypto to the network's founder, Vitalik Buterin, to his vitalik.eth username without knowing that his address is 0xd8da6bf26964af9d7eed9e03e53415d37aa96045.
But even though this advance makes it much easier to identify users, almost no one has taken advantage of it. There are over 200 million unique addresses on Ethereum, but only 2.2 million .eth names Were registered as of January. This means that at least 97% of Ethereum addresses are not associated with an ENS username.
This lack of usernames creates user experience issues in the Web3 ecosystem. Imagine if early email addresses consisted of long strings of characters that looked like 0x7a16ff8270133f063aab6c9977183d9e72835428 or 0x3A7937851d67Ee2f51C959663749093Dc87D9C9a. Had this been the case, email may not have survived as a practice.
But despite this initial lack of adoption, there is some evidence that the tide may be turning in favor of Web3 usernames. Some recent advancements in wallet and messaging apps may onboard more users than ever before.
One of these advancements is better wallet integration with free usernames.
Free wallet integration and usernames
Wallets have had the ability to understand Web3 names for a long time. According to the Metamask changelog, it introduced the ability to send to a .eth name in October 2017, right after the release of ENS. Other wallets have followed suit with this feature, including Coinbase wallet, Trustwallet, and others. Some of these wallets have also integrated with ENS rivals Unstoppable Domains, Space ID, Bonfida, and others.
However, these wallets still display a crypto address to users by default, as new users are not usually given names automatically.
In order for a user to receive crypto through their Web3 name, they must first register a username with a particular name provider. This means finding out which provider to use, navigating to the provider interface, and going through the registration process.
To make matters worse, names can be expensive. ENS names typically cost $5 and expire after one year, while unstoppable domain names that don't need to be renewed typically cost $20-$40. Compare this to how easy it is to sign up for an email address for free using Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo. etc., and it's easy to see why most crypto users don't have a Web3 username.
Some wallet apps have been trying to solve this problem by giving away free domain names to their users. For example, the Coinbase wallet allows new users register a unique username .cb.id free, once a year, and Kresus wallet offers its users a free .kresus username of up to 8 characters as well.
This practice of giving out free usernames has started recently. And some popular wallets like Trustwallet and Metamask don't offer the feature yet. But as more users join the Web3 ecosystem, this may lead to more adoption of Web3 usernames over time.
Another recent advance is the integration of instant messaging.
Chat messages with Web3 usernames
Some messaging applications have begun to implement Web3 names as usernames, increasing the utility of these names beyond the payment use case. An example is Blockscan Chat. It allows users to send instant messages to any Ethereum address or ENS username.
Caption: Blockscan chat interface. Source: Blockscan
When messages are sent via Blockscan chat, they generate alerts in the Etherscan block explorer. If the recipient sees the alert and signs in to the app, they can read the message. The app developer claims that all your messages are end-to-end encrypted. So while anyone can see if a particular user has received a message, only the sender and recipient can read it.
Web3 usernames are not an absolute necessity to use Blockscan chat, as it also allows users to send messages to cryptographic addresses. But names make it much easier for users to find themselves in the app.
Another example is Grill.chat, a messaging application that runs on the Subsocial (SUB) network. When a user registers for the first time, they are assigned a random username. But they can optionally attach an Ethereum wallet to his account. If they do this, the app automatically converts their random username to their .eth username.
Being able to find other users to chat with via their web3 usernames is arguably a more useful feature than being able to send crypto with them.
After all, the crypto community is still small. If a cryptocurrency user needs money from friends or family, they may be better off using traditional Web2 apps like Venmo or Apple Pay right now, as their friends and family may not know how to use a Web3 wallet. But if a person wants to chat specifically about cryptography and Web3 applications, being able to search for them by their username could be a huge advantage. This additional use case may attract more users to adopt Web3 names in the future.
Another recent advancement in Web3 naming is cross-chain naming.
Cross-chain Web3 names
When Web3 names were first invented, ENS was the only protocol that could be used to create them, and it could only be used on Ethereum.
But the Web3 ecosystem has since grown to encompass many different chains. And as the number of chains has grown, so has the number of naming protocols. Users can now register Polygon (MATIC) usernames from Unstoppable Domains, Solana (SOL) from Bonfida, and Arbitrum One (ARB) and BNB Chain (BNB) names from Space ID.
This cross-chain fragmentation can make it difficult to integrate wallets and block browsers and cause confusion for users. For example, suppose a person's Polygon username is newton.crypto. But when they go to register the same name on the BNB Chain, they find out that newton.bnb is already in use, so they register einstein.bnb instead. When a user looks at this person's address in a block explorer, any of the names may appear, depending on which one the developer of the block explorer has chosen to display. And regardless of which one is displayed, it could cause confusion for users.
In this case, for example, if a user wants to send cryptocurrency to newton.crypto via the BNB Chain, they can easily send it to newton.bnb, which will turn out to be the wrong recipient.
Some Web3 companies are trying to get around this problem by creating a single name for each identity in multiple strings. For example, the Redefined app allows users to sign up for a username on Arbitrum One, but use it to receive funds on 8 other chains: Polygon, Optimism (OP), BNB Chain, Solana, Bitcoin (BTC), Fantom ( FTM), Moonbeam (GLMR) and Close.
To make this feature possible, Redefined allows the user to type an address or username for each network into the Arbitrum smart contract through an "admin" tab within the app. Once the addresses are listed in the contract, anyone can initiate a transaction to the correct address using a "ship" function within the app. To send funds, the sender only needs to know the recipient's redefined username, not the recipient's name or address in any particular string.
Redefined usernames start with an @ and have no extensions. For example, @newton and @einstein are possible redefined usernames.
Did.id, also called ".bit", is a similar project that runs on the Nervos network. It allows users to sign up for a .bit username that works on 39 different networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Internet Computer (ICP), and many others. Registration can be done directly with a Nervos network wallet or indirectly using Polygon.
Did.id does not have a user interface with a "submit" function. However, it is integrated with nine different wallet apps, including imToken, Tokenpocket, MathWallet, Huobi Wallet, Bitkeep, HyperPay, AlphaWallet, ViaWallet, and MIBAO. Therefore, it is available to senders using these wallets.
Cross-chain usernames are another new development that may spur more adoption of Web3 usernames over time.
When will usernames become fashionable?
Despite these advances, it is still unclear how long mass adoption of Web3 usernames will take. Right now, more than 90% of Web3 addresses are not associated with any username. So there's a big hill to climb in terms of adoption. And meanwhile, users still need to cut and paste a complicated string of characters to find a person's Web3 identity.
There is also a lot of friction left for users, including the ongoing high cost of registering a name for users of most wallet apps.
Even so, these advances may pave the way for the mass adoption of Web3 usernames at some point in the future.
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