In December 2020, Numio launched the first mobile application on Google Play that supported zkRollups, and the first mobile wallet on zkSync. The goal of Numio is to remove and simplify the complexities commonly found in crypto and blockchain products. With that, we offer our users a fully customizable experience based on their personal preferences.
When we launched the application our onboarding experience was *entirely* focused on newcomers into crypto space. We built an onboarding experience where, when you generate your wallet, you are able to have keyless security. This is possible by the use of facial biometrics as a means of encrypting and decrypting the keys to your account; meaning you can recover your account by just completing an encrypted 3D face scan. This is great for any new individual who wants to start using cryptocurrency, especially through a noncustodial product. However, we quickly learned that not everyone wants this experience.
Within days of launching, we received a lot of incredible feedback about this onboarding experience. And to no surprise, it was both good and bad. As you can imagine, the feedback we received from most of our audience was, “This keyless security mechanism is great. I can easily recover my account on other phones, and different devices”. At the same time, we also heard the opposite. Many people in crypto are very privacy focused, as they should be, and felt a bit concerned about how the onboarding process/experience operated. For example, “Whoa. Why do I need you to scan my face? I’m not using this.” They did not want their face scanned, even though we don’t store any of that data, so this was obviously something that we needed to improve.
We want to focus on customization based on your knowledge set, personal preference, and former experience with cryptocurrency wallets. With that being said, we went back to the drawing board and decided to give people an option during the onboarding process. Instead of forcing a single onboarding process, we would offer one based on what they would *prefer* to do? So now, you can choose whether you want the basic, assisted, sign-up experience or the more “advanced” seed word based sign-up.
People have loved this change!
So what did we do next? We had multiple people complaining about needing to give their email and/or phone number while being onboarded. In the essence of pseudonymity, we decided to completely remove the requirement for accounts to need to give us either an email or phone number. Emails are still required for some services (Standard backup/recovery) but, for the most advanced wallet creation option, we removed it entirely. Again the phone number remains optional just to help provide a better UX for interacting with others socially.
We have a saying about products in Web3, “if you don’t like it, don’t use it”, and one of the greatest aspects of Web3.0 is that using different products is extremely streamlined, especially on web applications. That experience is a little bit different on mobile wallets as you always have to go through an onboarding process. While we can’t totally remove that process with our app, we want to make sure we don’t waste your time when choosing to use Numio. We were the first crypto mobile wallet to let you completely skip the onboarding process, and experience the wallet’s UI/UX before even creating an account. You can try this out for yourself by tapping “Preview” on the first app screen. Our goal is to just provide you with the best user experience.
What else can we do to help make that onboarding experience more simplified? Please let us know! Onboarding new people into crypto and Web3 is one of the biggest pain points, and we want to simplify that as much as possible.
Want to try the onboarding experience for yourself? You can download the app for free on iOS and Android. If you have any thoughts, feel free to reach out to support@numio.one- we’d love to hear from you!
