Friend.Tech Opens Doors For Web3 PWAs
The Blockchain Sector @ 2023-08-30
Friend.tech gained a lot of momentum and has onboarded a lot of crypto twitter to progressive web apps (PWA’s). Surprisingly there was very little kickback against a number of factors including:-
Virtual wallets with keys stored in the app persistent storage
Questionable Twitter permission requests which includes ability for the app to send tweets
Most importantly the installation of an app directly from the browser bypassing app stores
App stores are a problem for web3 because they are inherently centralized, heavily censored and their 30% revenue share terms make it impossible to facilitate transfers, trades or deposits of digital assets.
The user experience flow goes something like this:
Visit website and receives custom instructions on how to install app
User adds to home screen or installs app then opens using the icon
A new wallet address is generated and the user is prompted to fund it
The balance is checked until it receives funds and is ready to go
This week I experimented with creating a basic boilerplate for a PWA. There’s more information and the code is open sourced here.
I hope this opens the doors to mobile first web3 products. The UI on friend.tech wasn’t great and it would be interesting to see what other teams will do in the wake of this development.
I’ll be looking closely at any projects gaining traction in this space and creating consumer focused web3 progressive web apps.
Market Watch & Grayscale ETF
The increased volatility has emerged as expected in the last week. We have some clear trend lines forming on BTC/USD and even more so on ETH/USD which will likely offer support and resistance in the medium term. Any break outside of this would be a clear indication that things are starting to move.
Thesis hasn’t changed that prices will continue to grind up throughout the year unless some significant narrative such as Bitcoin getting spot ETF approval emerges.
In a significant legal victory, yesterday Grayscale emerged triumphant in its legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The United States Court of Appeals has granted Grayscale's petition for review, marking a decisive step towards the conversion of its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).
The court's ruling was based on the determination that the SEC had failed to adequately justify its earlier rejection of Grayscale's application for a Bitcoin spot ETF.
It now seems like a matter of when not if that Bitcoin spot ETF approvals will start to go through.
Recent Research Posts
Social links are below and if you enjoyed this newsletter I would appreciate it if you could share this content
