Jon @JonathanSt34198 - Twitter Profile

Multi-chain "brain wallets" 🧠 will finally take off in 2024 thanks to chain key crypto: – no wallet software – undetectable – compatible – friendly!! They're going to be HUGE in the developing world for security reasons, and more widely for usability, and censorship resistance reasons. Here's how they work... To access a crypto brain wallet, you simply open a web URL in a browser "incognito window," for example on your phone, which naturally will leave no trace. The URL connects you directly to an #ICP smart contract implementing a brain wallet, such as https://t.co/KlE4H7GuF6 (an Ethereum brain wallet prototype under development), which creates a web-based user experience in your browser window. Next you authenticate using Internet Identity. To do this, you only need enter an easily-remembered Internet Identity number, which is a short string of digits, like 97437899. Your device asks you to perform a hardware authentication step. Most commonly, this simply involves pressing the fingerprint sensor on your phone, but can also involve Face ID, or a PIN, as desired. You can connect any number of devices like phones and laptops to one identity (you can also connect external wallet hardware, like a Ledger or YubiKey, typically for identity backup purposes). Once you have authenticated, your device performs the job of siging a secure session that identifies you to the smart contract providing the multi-chain brain wallet functionality. The device uses a private key kept hidden and inaccessible – even from you – inside a special secure chip on its internal motherboard called a TPM (Trusted Platform Module). This key is created when you connect the device, and associated with the wallet smart contract URL and your identity number. The open WebAuthn and FIDO standards are involved, but you don't need to know anything about their complex workings. You just need to press the fingerprint button. Once you have authenticated yourself to the wallet smart contract, it displays the contents of your wallet, and provides access to functionality such as send and receive. The Ethereum prototype brain wallet at https://t.co/KlE4H7GuF6 can also be quickly connected to DeFi services such as Uniswap using WalletConnect functionality – it's fully compatible. This technology already works with bitcoin, ether, ERC20 tokens, and ICP tokens, including fast and cheap chain key "twins" such as ckBTC. In the coming months, extensions to the chain key technology powering the Internet Computer network will make it possible to create brain wallets that work with nearly ALL blockchains – no insecure and inconvenient bridges, just advanced math and cryptography. The magic behind the scenes involves the smart contract creating & signing transactions for OTHER blockchains, which is possible because the Internet Computer can sign in place of a private key – hence "chain" key. Arguably, this new web-based brain wallet paradigm provides a much smoother user experience than traditional wallet software, and it cannot be blocked or modified by Big Tech, which web browser extensions, and software that must be downloaded and installed from app stores, can be. The really really big thing, though, is that once the incognito window is closed, there's no trace of the wallet on your device – and there's no way that even you can see what's inside the TPM chip on your device, to see the private key there... This will be a GAME CHANGER in the developing world, where crypto is rapidly taking hold. Imagine being in country X, with poverty and instability. A mugger puts you up against a wall. A policeman wants a bribe at a traffic stop. They want to see what's on your phone. If you have crypto inside traditional wallet software, you're done, they're going to take it all. But you haven't. It's in your brain wallet: Undetectable, and safe from violence. This is just the beginning. DFINITY will propose more game changing crypto advances to the network. Stay tuned!

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