The Correct and Incorrect Methods for Web 3 Adoption

<p>Striking a balance between individual empowerment and broad market usability.</p> <p>There was some consternation last week in the Web 3 community when a new protocol, DeSo, announced a change to its user login flow. Previously, the decentralised media service required users to enter their "seed phrase" into the project's web interface, which violated all commonly acknowledged best security standards and drew widespread industry condemnation.</p> <p>"While Chrome extensions such as MetaMask are more secure, they will never be installed by the majority of popular users. Rather than lecturing our users about security best practises, we took a new approach: We met them where they are today," remarked Nader Al-Naji, DeSo's creator. The team discovered, however, that they had not met consumers who had been told that "10% of people quickly lost their seed."</p> <p>Jill Gunter is a columnist for CoinDesk and a venture partner at Slow Ventures, where she invests in early-stage cryptocurrency and Web 3 startups. Additionally, she is a co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, a non-profit research group dedicated to ensuring everyone's right to a free and open financial system.</p> <p>To remedy this issue, DeSo now allows users to backup their seed phrases automatically to Google Drive from within the application. If anything, this is more insecure than their initial login flow.</p> <p>When it comes to seed phrases, it is widely understood that they should never be stored on any device that is connected to (or has ever been connected to) the internet. These 12-, 18-, or 24-word phrases help users to recover monies kept in a digital wallet if they lose or replace the device on which they accessed their cash. Seed phrases are so delicate because they enable anyone with knowledge of their magic words to obtain access to the assets linked with them.</p> <p>The majority of cryptographic and Web 3 applications recommend users to write down their seed words and keep them secure, such as in a bunker or physical safe depos