Enhancing Crypto Safety with Web3 Domains

By Matt Gould, CEO and Co-Founder, Unstoppable Domains

In the earliest days of building Unstoppable Domains, we prioritized using Web3 domains to send and receive crypto. While the utility of Web3 domains has since exploded, sending crypto remains an important use case. Today, with 169 wallets integrated with Unstoppable, it’s never been easier to send and receive crypto using Web3 domains. But even still, some degens continue to rely on long, alphanumeric crypto wallet addresses for their day-to-day crypto needs.

Here’s why sending crypto to a naked address is never a good idea. 

To start, I’ll state the obvious: It’s too easy to make a mistake when sending to an alphanumeric crypto address. Unlike Web3 domains like matt.crypto, crypto wallet addresses are nearly impossible to memorize. With one mistyped letter or number, your funds are gone forever. This is exacerbated by the fact that many people have multiple crypto addresses to keep track of across the different coins they use. As a result, most people will use copy/paste to ensure they input to the correct address.

But recent malware attacks have made the need for Web3 domains even more urgent. A clipboard stealer, or “clipper,” reported in November 2022 recognizes when you're pasting a crypto wallet address and changes it, diverting payment to the attacker. Since most people don’t have their crypto address memorized, it’s difficult to identify whether that long string of letters and numbers you just pasted belongs to you – or to a hacker. 

In an instant, the funds you meant to withdraw or send are lost forever.

With Web3 domains like matt.crypto, you can avoid these attacks. It’s much easier to spot a problem if you try to paste in “matt.crypto” and instead see an unrecognized crypto wallet address – giving you a chance to correct the issue before you hit send. Shorter, human-readable Web3 domains are also far more memorable, so you can type in and confirm your wallet address without having to rely on copy and paste. 

While it’d still be possible for a hacker to try a similar attack targeting Web3 domains, the barriers to entry are more cumbersome – they’d have to buy and configure a domain name, then target users that had a similar Web3 domain to themselves in order to have a chance at success. 

Web3 domains also give senders the ability to look up additional info to make sure they’re sending it to the right person. For instance, you can check the user’s Profile and see whether the Twitter account associated with that domain is the right one. This acts as an additional check when sending crypto.

Best of all, with Unstoppable domains, you get a single address that you can use to send 310+ different coins or tokens, so you only have one name to memorize.

In short, there are many ways that Web3 domains and the blockchain can make the Internet and money safer. Sending crypto with Web3 domains isn’t just convenient – it adds an important layer of security for users.