Ethereum Foundation (EF) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are working on a “decentralized solution” for user data as a way of challenging the Big Tech “Login with Google” and “Login with Facebook” systems.
As technology behemoths, Google and Facebook have grown in popularity, and incidents of user data being compromised have increased – one of the most visible examples being the Cambridge Analytica saga.
Unfortunately, the majority of people, however, cannot imagine life without them, and by giving these companies information, and using the same login for other apps, user data is being centralized.
While this provides users with security and gives them the ability to avoid using passwords, it also informs these companies of their online activities.
With the proposed Ethereum sign-in system, this is not the case, as the user data cannot be profited from, and by offering a web-wide sign-in option, Ethereum Foundation (EF) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are providing customers with a different option.
The groups are proposing a “Sign in with Ethereum” alternative that provides users with the security of the login but also lets users keep their own data.
It is reported that a proposal from Spruce, an identity software startup was chosen as the winning solution after the foundation issued a request for bids for establishing a “sign-in with Ethereum” system. The company will also work closely with ENS and EF to ensure that registration using Ethereum is industry-compliant.
According to the the group, users can log in to popular platforms such as OpenSea and Gitcoin using their Ethereum wallets rather than using other accounts. It will, however, work to standardize the internet’s use of this method.
In a statement, Spruce stated that, “We will be working closely with the teams at EF and ENS, ensuring that development will happen in the open, ample consideration is given to existing bodies of related work (existing implementations, EIPs, OpenID, IETF, W3C, etc.), and that the final result will be friendly to implementers while remaining vendor-neutral.”
Discussions regarding this technology have been opened to the Ethereum community. By creating decentralized systems across the internet, the system will be able to deliver one of the key benefits of blockchains and Web 3.0 applications.
Through the use of an Ethereum wallet, the method potentially removes this power from a government or large organization, which is one of the central goals of public blockchains since their inception.