Shopify Launches Blockchain Commerce Tools to Enhance User Experience

E-commerce giant Shopify, which is crypto-friendly, has released a suite of blockchain commerce tools with the intention of improving the customer experience of its Web3-focused businesses that are housed on the platform.

Particularly noted are the improved functionality for connecting crypto wallets and the “tokengating” application programming interface (API) tools. The latter was previously exclusively accessible to a limited number of retailers until it entered early access beta access mode in June 2022.

Through the use of tokengating, relevant Shopify merchants now have the ability to build up their businesses in such a way that they may choose which tokenholders have access to exclusive items, nonfungible token (NFT) drops, and advantages and which do not.

The application checks a user’s eligibility by using the associated wallet, and it is being marketed to NFT Merchants as a convenient method to reward certain customers or add an element of exclusivity to certain items.

Shopify has merged with the sign-in with Ethereum (SIWE) protocol, which is led by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and the Ethereum Foundation. This integration enables Shopify to provide enhanced support for cryptocurrency wallets.

SIWE enables secure user sign-ins and authentication of Ethereum accounts and ENS domains without giving away private identifiers to third parties such as names, phone numbers, and residential addresses. Essentially, SIWE makes it possible for users to securely sign in and authenticate themselves to Ethereum accounts and ENS domains.

In the past, Shopify has had some issues when it comes to protecting the privacy of its customers’ information. Concerning a significant breach of user data that occurred in 2020, a group of dissatisfied customers filed a class-action lawsuit against the company and the vendor of hardware wallets, Ledger, in April of 2022.

“The statementGenerator prop gives you the ability to modify the statement that is shown whenever a Sign-In with Ethereum message is presented. According to the paper, “the function gets the address of the wallet that has linked, which enables you to extend and adapt your message statements so that they are more aligned with your brand.”

At this stage, once a merchant hooks up the SIWE feature on Shopify wallet connect, it appears that users will be able to click a “sign-in with Ethereum” button to connect their addresses via SIWE’s partnered intermediaries such as Coinbase, Fortmatic, WalletConnect, Portis, and Torus. This is something that users will be able to do once the merchant has hooked up the SIWE feature on Shopify wallet connect.