Wallet-free trading & DEX API keys – dex.blue – Medium
dex.blue is a high-performance Ethereum decentralized exchange that integrates all existing DeFi liquidity in one order book: match your limit orders across different liquidity pools at the best rate.
In this post we will explore two dex.blue features that supercharge the DEX trading experience for both regular traders and advanced traders:
- Delegated Signing Keys (DSK): an Ethereum address delegated by your main wallet to only place/edit/cancel orders. Non-custodial API keys to access dex.blue.
- Trading Login: a 2FA and non-custodial Username & Password login system based on DSK. Trade without your wallet, from any device.
We believe that DEX traders deserve a first-class trading experience, superior to what any centralized exchange could ever deliver. Today we are moving one step in that direction.
Ethereum Dapps: usability vs security
Interacting with Ethereum apps today is often a constant balancing act between keeping your funds as secure as possible (e.g. dedicated hardware wallet) and having those funds accessible and ready to be used (e.g. MetaMask). The way you manage your private keys often impact your user experience with Ethereum apps: playing NFT games like CryptoKitties with your Ledger is neither fun nor handy!
Great research and effort are being put into the improvement of private-key-management, yet we strongly believe Ethereum apps themselves can do so much more in order to lower friction and improve user experience, regardless of how users decide to do custody of their funds or what wallet they keep them in.
Particularly in the decentralized exchange (DEX) space, UX has evolved significantly (e.g. Uniswap, Kyber) but order book DEXes still feel clunky and sometimes downright unusable. The user experience for demanding traders, sophisticated market makers and bot developers in the DEX space is still largely the same: poor.
Even after leaving aside obvious DEX roadblocks such as low liquidity, slower trading performance and less features (issues we are tackling at dex.blue), for most crypto traders centralized exchanges are still more accessible: you can trade from any device, from everywhere, no need for clunky hardware wallets or seed phrase hunting just to install your MetaMask in a new browser. And, if you are a DEX algo trader, you are still forced to expose your private key to a cloud provider when developing bots.
And to solve these UX issues, we developed the dex.blue Trading Login and the underlying technology of Delegated Signing Keys.
From Delegated Signing Keys to Trading Login
Delegated Signing Keys (or DSK) on dex.blue allow you to sign orders for your main wallet from another Ethereum address that was previously registered on the blockchain as a delegate.
Because the DSK can only sign orders but not deposit nor withdraw, your funds are always safe with your main wallet.
Essentially the Delegated Signing Keys functions as an API key to programmatically access dex.blue: just like a centralized exchange API but with full custody of your funds.
DSK are particularly useful today for dex.blue bot traders who don’t want to expose their private key to cloud providers and have now full control when developing their bots.
But DSK also helped us improve the dex.blue trading experience beyond just bot traders: we leveraged the Delegated Signing Key feature ourselves to develop a fully non-custodial, Username + Password + 2FA, login system that enables you to sign orders and trade from any browser or device, no wallet needed.
Creating and using your Trading Login on dex.blue is a fully non-custodial experience:
- A new private key is generated locally in your browser with the Argon2 algorithm from your main wallet address, password and a salt (also used for the 2-factor authentication token).
- This new key is registered as a Delegated Signing Key for your main wallet in the dex.blue smart contract.
- You can now log in and trade on dex.blue by using the Username + Password + 2FA which recreates the DSK locally in your browser.
Both DSK and Trading Login can always be revoked through your main wallet.
As it happens locally, in your browser, dex.blue has no access, cannot store nor has any visibility over your Trading Login details.
With your Trading Login, you can now trade from any browser, anywhere and the whole dex.blue trading experience will feel smoother than any centralized exchange as you place or cancel orders seamlessly while trading in real-time, non-custodial.
If you want to learn how to set up a Trading Login in the dex.blue trading interface, make sure to read this tutorial.
Accessing dex.blue
With the addition of Trading Login and Delegated Signing Keys, there are now 3 ways to access and trade on dex.blue.
- Metamask, Ledger, and Trezor (more wallets coming soon!)
- Trading Login
- Delegated Signing Keys
Both the Trading Login and Delegated Signing Keys are live on dex.blue now and other traders are already using them, try it out and give us feedback!
Published at Tue, 04 Feb 2020 14:11:03 +0000
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