User Installation requirements

Apps
#1

Hello,

I am new to BlockStack and would like to explore how best to build apps. I have seen the videos provided and read much of the content. The development environment is familiar since I have been using PWAs (with NodeJS on the server side). In short, super excited to soil my hands.

But one thing I don’t seem to have a grip on is in the production environment.

(a) How does the user get access to the App? Is the user expected to be provided some link (via Website, Facebook etc) ?

(b) What does the user need to have to install the App?

© The developer examples show the downloading of the BlockStack.api to the local computer and the running of the local NodeJS server. If this is required how do all this get conveniently packaged for the user.

Thanks and looking forward to working on an idea that I have.

  • R
#2

@Raju Thanks for picking up Blockstack! Let me try to answer your questions.

  1. The user would follow a link. In the example of the blogging application that would be guildblog.com. That URL serves the single page JS application.

  2. In order to use the Blockstack features (Identity, Storage, etc…) of the Guild Application users would need to have installed the blockstack-browser. This allows the user to authenticate with the application and provide the application access to their storage. There are no per application installation requirements here. The user just needs to have Blockstack installed.

  3. Hopefully the above explanation helps a bit.

Jack

1 Like
#3

Got it.

Thanks,

  • Raju
#4

This is the way it works now but got few questions :

  • Is it going to be improved in the future, from a UX perspective… installing an app (or browser, but for the regular user, it’s the same) in order to use an app is a deal breaker. Do you have technical constraint here or it’s a choice in order to get a global and centralized ecosystem?

  • how this works for mobile app? The user will have to install an app from the store?

#5

@jeromea We are constantly working to provide better UX for folks. We think that is a major bottleneck in wider adoption of Blockchain technology in general. As to your questions:

  1. We understand that it is a big ask for folks to install an app to use the ecosystem. This is due to a technical constraint right now. Our system requires each user to have their own wallet. The application is essentially a bitcoin wallet that allows users to perform blockchain operations. It is not to centralize the ecosystem.

  2. We are still working on our mobile strategy and that is in active development right now. See the BlockstackCoreAPI-ios repo for more information there. In the future we plan on moving all of this functionality to the browser which could eliminate the need for users to run the wallet daemon. That work is currently ongoing.

2 Likes