DRAFT - Browser Extension Spec

[0xdef1cafe]

Motivation

Bundling the web app as a browser extension allows the wallet to be more

• portable - users can connect to dapps as they would with MetaMask or Keplr
• front of mind - a one click icon in a browser is easier than navigating to our site
• sticky - users don't frequently uninstall extensions
• competitive - we can market the extension as a alternative to MetaMask
• familiar - users typically think of wallets as extensions, rather than web app able to act as a wallet via WalletConnect

Browser support

• Initially Chrome only. Chrome is ~70% of browser usage according to Mixpanel. Firefox is <3%.

Architecture

• Load app.shapeshift.com within an iframe in a thin Chrome extension. Rationale - Chrome Web Store update review time. We typically ship 1-2 releases per day that take <10 minutes to go to production for web and mobile users. The Chrome Web Store review process says most are reviewed within 24 hours, but up to 3 days. This is not ideal for UX consistency and bug fixes.
• Present as window.ethereum as per the EIP-1193 spec (as MetaMask/XDEFI do)
• This should live in the web repo such that we can share the Content Security Policy with the extension

Out of scope

• Injecting CosmosSDK support via window.keplr - this functionality is not popular per Mixpanel. EVM is where it's at.
• UTXO support (requires spike for existing competitors, e.g. XDEFI)

Tickets

• Service worker

  • Probably required to prevent a cold load of static assets (30mb+) from the CDN each time the extension is loaded
  • It would be ideal to avoid this if possible, if we can background the extension for example.

• Removing the native password modal/lazy password prompting

  • This is necessary such that they're not prompted for their password every time they open the extension.

• WalletProvider changes. We have a similar strategy for the mobile app where we only support connecting via WalletConnect and the ShapeShift wallet.

  • We will not support connecting to the extension as a dapp via WalletConnect initially, as
    • the initial V1 implementation where we are a dApp is a technical cluster fuck, and
    • V1 is being sunset mid 2023 by WalletConnect upstream
    • it adds additional scope
    • we want users to migrate from other wallets
  • We can't talk to other extensions, so MetaMask won't be able to connect to us.
  • TBD - KeepKey support.
  • We should simplify the UX to be similar to the mobile experience, and only support importing/creating a native wallet.
  • We should support the demo wallet for user acquisition purposes

• Implement support for EIP-1193 interface (window.ethereum). This allows us to inject into dApps as MetaMask does.

  • UI/UX for handling
    • Signing requests. We could repurpose the way we handle this in WalletConnect
      • 
    • Wallet switch requests to unsupported networks, e.g. as of writing we currently don't support Arbitrum

• Size and responsiveness

  • IMO MetaMask seems unnecessarily small
  • It would be ideal to perhaps be "mid sized", e.g.
  • 

• Extension build script

  • This needs a good developer experience for local development + updates
  • yarn build:extension
    • Creates a .zip file to be uploaded to Chrome Web Store
  • We may need to submit extension updates when the Content Security Policy changes, however this is infrequent

• Chrome Web Store developer account ownership

  • Ideally the Fox Foundation similar to the App Store and Google Play Store @willyogo

• Deployment documentation

  • Similar to the mobile app, as this is not deployed frequently, we need thorough correct documentation to be able to ship infrequent updates when necessary as developers will not be intimately familiar.

Marketing and branding

• We need a big bikeshed for clear naming and messaging, as we will be a web based dApp, wallet, mobile app, and extension (🤯). We've previously dropped the "native" word from the branding of the wallet.
• Limitations
  • The extension supports injecting to dApps like MetaMask as EVM only, and only the set of EVM chains that ShapeShift currently supports
    • Ethereum
    • Polygon
    • Optimism
    • Binance Smart Chain
    • Polygon
    • Gnosis soon
  • Users can use all the regular wallet functionality within the extension itself

Future improvements

• CosmosSDK support by injecting as window.keplr
• Hardware wallet support (KeepKey/Ledger/Trezor/Grid)

[0xdef1cafe]

lmeow wrong repo - reopened https://github.com/shapeshift/web/issues/4476