Into The Interchain with Starshell

Starshell is a brand new wallet built for the Secret Network that prioritizes security and privacy above all else. Ideation and development of Starshell started approximately a year ago, and through leveraging all the features the Cosmos SDK provides are looking to push the boundaries of what it means to be a crypto wallet for both desktop and mobile. With SupDoggie’s professional background and skill set, he set off to make a better wallet for end users that brought both a more cohesive and secure experience. Security Audits are currently in progress for Starshell. Once the audits are complete, the team will make necessary and suggested changes and then prepare for Mainnet launch!

Upon discussing some of the successes and failures of existing wallets, SupDoggie noted that one of the most successful attributes of existing large wallet providers is the simplicity of the experience, which allows for easier and broader adoption. Meanwhile, these same providers lacked product cohesion, and it is evident that feature rollout was not planned as well as it could have been. The largest wallet providers in the crypto space are able to leverage first mover advantage, and gain a level of trust due to their sheer size. Unfortunately with greater growth comes potential centralization, which naturally will reduce the incentive to provide for the people.

SupDoggie discussed some of the current challenges and strategies StarShell is implementing to approach user acquisition. StarShell is approaching this from a few different angles, ranging from app integration, infrastructure buildout, as well as acquiring active users. Initially to make app integration as easy as possible, StarShell will be 1:1 with Keprl’s backend. However, on the client side, users will have access to a larger suite of features and security measures. From an infrastructure standpoint, StarShell is building their own API suite with privacy inherent to the way it operates and the features the wallet can provide to applications.

Additionally, StarShell has started an open initiative called Wallet Hardening Improvement Proposals (WHIPs) that is effectively a body of open standards producing specs to formalize interactions between wallets and dApps (specifically web dApps) with things like app and token metadata. Through this StarShell hopes to increase adoption of improved standards and improve interactions between the 2 interacting components. From the user acquisition perspective, StarShell is focusing on facilitating the ecosystems they support to organically onboard through increasing application UX.

Shade and Starshell teams also discussed the pros and cons of generalized vs specialized specifications for products, and the relative ease to provide both. From StarShell’s perspective, they are specialized for Secret Network, but through that specialization and care taken to improve all aspects of their service for a specialized chain, they have made it increasingly easy to provide the same service for other chains that aren’t as specialized. Starshell discussed some of their advanced and unique features including best-in-class on-chain notifications. The goal for StarShell is to provide a UX with the same level of ease and expectation of service from traditional financial services, while improving its technical and security value proposition for an array of user bases.

SupDoggie discussed the infrastructure plans for StarShell as well as their current priorities. Starshell is moving out of the heavy phase of product development and is starting to switch more towards marketing and education. While StarShell has an incredible design for complex infrastructure to support scaling endeavors, it is currently not needed and its respective priority has been reduced until usage and demand has increased.

Shade and StarShell discussed some of the most common security concerns for the crypto space, as well as what privacy means to both teams. Currently, scams and phishing attacks are the biggest cause for loss of funds in crypto, and are orders of magnitude higher than hacks. This isn’t to say that hacks are not still important to prevent, but as builders and educators we can reduce the largest leading cause of loss of funds through simple OpSec education and through adoption of WHIPs.

For StarShell privacy is at the core of the project and drives the development and innovation of the project. Without privacy, information asymmetry begins to develop and is often wielded by gatekeepers for their gain at the detriment of the masses. Privacy is much easier to solve than wealth disparity, and StarShell hopes to push the narrative, public trust, and technology forward to increase adoption of privacy Ethos and expectation.

Shade briefly discussed the launch of their new IBC Bridge, its capabilities, and how it fits into the larger vision for the growth of the Shade Protocol ecosystem.

Check out the new IBC bridge at https://app.shadeprotocol.io/bridge