Show HN: Cipher – Mobile Ethereum Web3 DApp Browser (opens in new tab)

Your feedback is legit. Unfortunately the app has to initially cater to the early adopters of Ethereum, but making Ethereum and Dapps approachable is the #1 goal of this project. I will be spending a lot of time on further simplifying the UI/UX of the app and the what you see on the website. If anyone wants to help, please let me know.

It is a lot- but no harder to learn than the internet, or particularly esoteric apps. Eg www, http, web browser, snaps, stories, play store - all of these would mean nothing to a pre-internet person.

Lots of small UX improvements will add up to a lot, and if there’s genuine utility in dapps adoption people will overcome them

I think ethereal deliberately uses such fancy talk to wow people into buying ETH and pumping the value.

Yeah it's not like the good old days where I had to use my 'dial-up' 'modem' to connect to the 'world wide web' and go to AOL and use my 'keyword' to load a 'website' from their 'server' and 'download' my 'emails' - it was so simple back then without that jargon.

Usability isn't about only using existing terms, it's about explaining the process well during on-boarding.

Human language is malleable and we all now know 100x the technical terms we did in the 90s. The same will eventually happen with blockchain tech, you're just seeing it in the early stages.

Part of that is stating the value proposition for the user. Along with what it does, why would I use it?

It's actually the #1 benefit not the problem. It's not ready for the layman yet.

Dapp just means distributed app[lication]

Blockchains, distributed networks and especially the Ethereum community have called themselves web 3.0 and their primary javascript object to access web 3.0 functions is called web3

Think of the Ethereum network as a bunch of docker containers (nodes) that will execute random functions you throw at it and assume thats a good idea but either way you have to send ether for them to do it

Ether is a limited resource so therefore it has value because other people want to use it too. Ether is the gas on the ethereum network, and you have to use it as fuel to execute functions.

Still with me?

Okay great, before now it has been much more cumbersome to use any of this, and now you can do it from a mobile device

Erc20 is a standardized set of functions that make it easier to use the docker containers, it is the 20th one described and it caught on. This is analogous to REST protocols being made from a mere description in IETF RFCs. This particular standard primarily allows for the creation of new tokens. With this protocol, The docker containers will recognize the new unit of account and also execute the transfer functions to other Ethereum users. This works For all intents and purposes

Ethereum has been called the World Computer for these reasons

Just like Metamask, I wouldn't put more than a few hundred bucks of Ether in there and keep my real money in cold storage or coinbase.

Similar to how I put the majority of my money in a savings account and keep my savings account lower.

Exactly. Remember the recent Parity wallet fiasco?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/10/parity_280m_ethereu...

If that's really what I wanted, there are many much easier ways than making a full app, such as writing a lame whitepaper and doing a scam ICO. You will see a lot of open-source code from Cipher soon, hopefully that puts your mind at ease.

You can tap on skip button in the corner but do copy it down as soon as you are able (it can be viewed again in settings screen).

Cipher uses features like the Secure Enclave chip to make things more secure, but obviously the best practice is to treat it as a hot spending wallet and use a hardware wallet to store large amounts.

Now that it is available on both iOS and Android app stores, we will be open-sourcing a lot of code in the coming weeks - this is one of them: http://github.com/petejkim/wallet.ts

> Just to send money to other people in an ideologically pure way?

Ha. Never seen that put that way before, but sure.

But aside from just the currency aspect of it, blockchain protocols that support distributed apps (dapps) or smart contracts also allow for programs to be run on the blockchain; a sort of distributed computing network. This app, aside from wallet/currency functions, appears to also allow you to interact with these distributed apps and see their state.

Thanks! It should be available on every store except China (Apple didn't allow). Search for "Cipher Ethereum".

Status is still unreleased and supports testnet only whereas Cipher is available on both iOS and Android stores and supports Ethereum Mainnet. Cipher is also primarily a Dapp Browser before anything else, and we try to be compatible with as many Web 3 Dapps as possible and implement the latest enhancements to Web 3 API as quickly as possible. (e.g. https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/712 - eth_signTypedData)

I gotta say Status is a very cool project though (and really well-funded too and I own some SNT tokens as well) and I really appreciate all the work they are doing with Whisper protocol.

Status already got their ICO Lambos, have not released iOS app. These guys are just planning to get Lambos, but app is already in AppStore.

Yes, use the same recovery phrase. I wouldn't recommend making transactions simultaneously on multiple devices though.

Try this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrow...

It's mostly React Native for the UI, but there's a lot of native code for crypto/secure enclave operations.