Skiff is a privacy-first workspace for collaborating and communicating with confidence. With secure Mail, Calendar, Drive, and Pages products, Skiff allows you to easily work together with end-to-end encryption of all of your sensitive information. Skiff’s products require no personally identifying information, and you can sign up or subscribe to paid plans using a crypto wallet, increasing user privacy. Today, we’re announcing an integration with the Interchain Name Service (ICNS) to support human-readable, memorable names across the multichain Cosmos ecosystem.

ICNS is built to be a name service suited to the unique needs and constraints of the Cosmos ecosystem with the basic goal to create a unifying, single name that can be used across Cosmos chains. As a result, ICNS builds upon multichain support; forwards compatibility for future wallets, addresses, and chains; and bootstrapping with Twitter account handles, an existing and highly used identity and communication product.

In a multichain ecosystem, having different naming services for each chain would yield fragmentation, confusion, and complexity for users. Instead, ICNS’s initial on-chain logic consists of three contracts (Name, Registrar, and Resolver) to manage name ownership, resolution, and bootstrapping with Twitter suernames.

ICNS is governed by contributors to the Cosmos ecosystem, including Chainapsis (the creators of Keplr Wallet and Osmosis), as well as Skiff, which has been deeply committed to supporting Cosmos users with secure communication and collaboration products.

Now, ICNS addresses will be usable for sending and receiving email. Since we announced our partnership with 

 to enable privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted email via Cosmos Hub and Juno addresses, ICNS addresses can also be used on Skiff for addressable, private communications.

 to be used instead of raw bech32 addresses. Overall, this greatly improved the sending experience for interchain email — rather than sending to 

Connecting your ICNS address on Skiff gives you a privacy-first identity that you own on the web. You’ll receive emails encrypted with your public key, using an address resolved in real-time from ICNS contracts.

How can you use an ICNS address for email?

First, make sure you’ve connected your Cosmos Hub or Juno account to Skiff. If not, you can go ahead and add this in our 

 hotkey for short) and select an alias in the 

 dropdown. There, you’ll be able to see all the email aliases you can send as. If you have an ICNS name for any of your connected Cosmos Hub or Juno addresses, you’ll be able to see a 

How can you contact another ICNS user on Skiff?

Simply send a message on Skiff to <ICNS>@skiff.com to send a message. If you are contacting a Skiff user, message subject and contents are end-to-end encrypted.

Skiff x Interchain Name Service launch

With the rise of decentralized tech and apps, more individuals are using crypto wallets to log into sites around the web. How is crypto wallet login possible?

 that allows users to store, send and receive cryptocurrencies. Crypto wallets can be software-based, hardware-based, or even paper-based. Software-based wallets can be further divided into desktop, mobile and web-based wallets. Hardware wallets are offline devices that resemble USB drives (such as a Trezor or Ledger hardware wallet) and can be used to store your cryptocurrencies offline, away from the internet. Paper wallets are simply printouts of your public and private keys, which can be used to store your cryptocurrencies offline.

Crypto wallets are important because they allow you to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe and secure place. They also allow you to send and receive cryptocurrencies. Crypto wallets may be associated with a particular crypto 

 (such as Coinbase Wallet) that allows you to convert your cryptocurrencies into other cryptocurrencies or into fiat currencies (such as US dollars).

Fundamentally, crypto wallets are built to store private keys - secret numbers that correspond with your wallet address and let you sign transactions, attest to your identity, and log into decentralized apps.

A crypto wallet stores your public and private keys and allows you to send and receive cryptocurrencies. Your public key is a public address generated from an elliptic curve; for Bitcoin and Ethereum, this curve is known as scep256k1. These curves are widely used in cryptographic applications, from encrypting and decrypting data to signing or authenticating messages.

A public key can be transformed into a wallet address (by hashing and/or truncation) used to receive cryptocurrencies. Your private key corresponds to that public key and wallet address and is used to send cryptocurrencies or sign transactions. When you send cryptocurrencies, your transaction is signed with your private key and broadcast to the network. Miners then verify transactions and generate additional blocks in a blockchain.

, allowing any user to verify how the code works ensure that it protects users private keys from exploitation or exfiltration.

Crypto wallets can be thought to define a unique mathematical identity corresponding to a user’s private key, or unique seed phrase. When you need to prove you own a particular wallet, you can generate a digital signature on a certain phrase or transaction.

Although many individuals use crypto wallets to hold digital assets (like BTC and ETH), buy NFTs, or to test out digital currency, a growing ecosystem of decentralized apps (dapps) are using wallets as their primary account and login mechanism.

For example, Skiff allows you to create an email address, share others on a workspace, and upload end-to-end encrypted files using your wallet (check out this 

 at the Ethereum Foundation’s Devcon event on the subject). This allows users to create a completely anonymous identity for communication and collaboration.

Comparisons to OAuth APIs and authentication

OAuth is an open standard for authorization that provides a way for users to log in to third-party applications without having to enter their username and password.

When you log in to an application using OAuth, the application will redirect you to the OAuth provider (such as Google, GitHub, Dropbox, or a social network) to login. Once you login, the OAuth provider will redirect you back to the application with a token that the application can use to access your account.

The OAuth process can yield additional security than having a password on every website because it doesn't require you to share your username and password with the third-party application. It also allows application developers to focus less on authentication and more on building out a user experience. Additionally, OAuth providers typically offer the ability to revoke access to third-party applications, so you can control which applications have access to your account.

However, OAuth requires you to completely centralize your identity on a single provider, both limiting functionality for app developers and reducing user privacy across services. Check out 

: One major limitation of crypto wallet sign in is limited mobile compatibility across iOS and Android. For example, on most mobile apps, you can sign into an application with a username and password, or with another OAuth account. When using a crypto wallet, you typically need to generate a signature to sign into a particular mobile app, which is currently not possible except on wallet-specific mobile apps (or using a non-custodial wallet). As a result, many of the security benefits of using a wallet for login are limited on mobile. Some new products, such as WalletConnect, are trying to bridge the mobile usability gap with wallet login APIs, QR codes, and backend connectors that perform validation.

: Unlike a bank account, where a bank can control and manage your user identity, a crypto wallet identity is based only on a private key. As a result, even though individual dapps or exchanges can require and enforce 2FA, wallets themselves may not have any mechanism for limiting private key access based on 2FA. Recent innovations in 

, which require multiple individuals to create signatures or sign transactions to manage crypto assets, can manage some of these security concerns.

To use Skiff with a crypto wallet, visit the 

 and create an account. You can also learn more about why crypto wallets make 

How can you login with a crypto wallet?

Skiff is excited to announce our partnership with 

 - a self-custody, multichain wallet used by over 6,000,000 users around the world. Over the last year, Skiff has launched an ecosystem of products for collaborating and communicating privately online, including Skiff Mail - end-to-end encrypted email, Skiff Pages - end-to-end encrypted documents and notes, and Skiff Drive - private, end-to-end encrypted file storage.

We’ve also bulit at the frontier of Web3, integrating login with crypto wallets and decentralized storage built on the InterPlanetary File System (

). With these launches and updates, we’ve become closer and closer to the workspace of the future - a completely private, user owned workspace for collaborating and communicating.

Our partnership with BitKeep brings us closer to this reality, bringing an entirely new form of utility to all 6,000,000 BitKeep users and enhancing trust, private communication, and collaboration abilities for the web.

BitKeep is designed to be a safe, easy-to-use multichain wallet for Web3. BitKeep is available on all major platforms, including iOS and Android, where it can be downloaded both from on-device app stores, added for iOS beta testing, or installed as an APK directly onto an Android device.

BitKeep also offers swap functionality for exchanging hundreds of thousands of tokens, as well as an NFT marketplace for buying, selling, and exchanging assets. The company advertises that over $50 billion is stored in wallets collectively among their users, a staggering amount at scale.

When you select “Connect Wallet” on the login screen, you’ll be provided with a list of wallets that you have enabled on your device and are compatible with Skiff for login. From there, choose “BitKeep,” and sign an attestation proving that you own your wallet address. You’ll then be prompted to create a password, which can be used to sign into the Skiff mobile and desktop apps. On the web, you’ll stay logged in with your new account.

From there, you’ll be given an option to set up your inbox or Drive/Pages apps first. We suggest selecting inbox, then viewing your new wallet aliases. In addition to the typical <wallet>@skiff.com, you’ll be given an @bitkeep.app alias that proves you’re sending from your BitKeep wallet address.

Once you’ve signed up for Skiff using your BitKeep wallet, you will automatically be given an alias with the suffix @bitkeep.app with your Ethereum address. You can use this as an email address to send and receive email, which makes it completely private and anonymous.

You can always create new wallets and link them from the settings page inside the Skiff app. If you’d like, you can also add normal, non-wallet aliases (up to four on the free plan) from inside the settings page as well.

We’ve written up more content on numerous areas for how you can use a wallet with Skiff, including an article on why wallets 

 for email addresses, how to send and receive with your 

 for cryptocurrency users. To send feedback or for help, join our 

BitKeep + Skiff launch

 that Skiff users can pay for Skiff Pro with cryptocurrency — quickly, privately, and securely from any of their Skiff workspaces.

 to design a seamless, reliable, and privacy-respecting crypto-payment system. Skiff users can now make purchases using a wallet of their choice (including MetaMask, Ledger, Rainbow, and more), or using their Coinbase account.

Today, BTC, ETH, and USDC are supported, with more coming soon.

From your Skiff dashboard, click on the Settings page, and select the “Plans” tab (or directly visit 

). From there, you’ll see an option to “Pay with crypto.”

From there, it’s simple! Choose to check out with your Coinbase account or the wallet and cryptocurrency of your choice. If not using a Coinbase account, scan the provided QR code with your wallet, and confirm the transaction.

Once the transaction is submitted, you’ll see your account upgraded to Skiff Pro.

Skiff x Self-serve crypto payments

Skiff is thrilled to announce the release

 of a new option to log into Skiff with a MetaMask wallet. Tens of millions of individuals already browse the internet with an Ethereum address as a primary form of identity. Now, Skiff has joined the ecosystem of forward-looking services that offer them seamless access.

This integration is technically groundbreaking (see more below) and provides all Ethereum wallet-holders access to privacy-respecting, end-to-end encrypted, and decentralized collaboration. Internally, Skiff already functions a lot like a crypto wallet - safeguarding keypairs and other sensitive information for your documents, identity, and team. We’ve written about this in past blogs on 

. Using similar functionality in the MetaMask wallet (such as eth_decrypt), we’re able to automatically create a Skiff account directly from a user’s wallet.

, you’ll now see an option to “Login via MetaMask” on the 

 login page. If you don’t have the MetaMask extension, this button remains invisible.

Once you click “login via MetaMask,” you’ll immediately be prompted to sign a login token - an attestation that you own your Ethereum wallet. You will first have to authenticate with your MetaMask wallet using a password. 

As the final step, you’ll then be asked for your encryption public key, which is used to secure your Skiff login token and password. From there, the normal Skiff login process begins - choosing a theme (light or dark mode), setting a display name, and enabling account recovery. For your collaborators’ sake, we highly encourage setting up a display name!

That’s it! You’ll then have access to writing, collaboration, and sharing — all with your Ethereum wallet address.

Now that we’ve covered the wallet-based login process, let’s dive into how it works behind the scenes!

First off, if you have the Metamask extension installed, you will see the option to log in with your wallet. If you don’t, you’ll see the familiar email-password login.

When you connect to Skiff with a new Ethereum wallet, the first thing we ask you to do is to verify that it’s actually you. To do this, we generate a challenge message with your wallet address and a random string for you to 

. We call this challenge message skiffLoginToken, which you can see in the Metamask prompt. This 

 attacks and other impersonation strategies that could compromise your information’s security.

After verifying that this digital signature is valid, we can rest assured that you’re not being impersonated. At this point, Skiff’s 

 relies on private / public keypairs that are subsequently encrypted with your password, which is never stored or sent over any network. But since the whole point of logging in with our wallet was to eliminate site-specific passwords, we won’t ask you to create and remember a password. Instead, we randomly generate a password, ask you to 

, and then store the encrypted result (which can be decrypted with your MetaMask wallet) for future reference. Your unencrypted password 

 leaves your browser (so we can’t ever see it!) and only you hold the keys to unlock your encrypted password.

That’s it! Using only your Metamask wallet, you’re securely logged in and ready to start securely collaborating on Skiff!

When logging in with an Ethereum wallet that you’ve used before, the process looks a little different. To start, we will still ask you to verify your identity with the same challenge-response authentication. Next, you’ll retrieve your password so you can generate your private and public keys for accessing all your end-to-end encrypted data on Skiff. We query your encrypted password in our database and then 

. As with Skiff’s email-password login process, your plaintext password never leaves the browser, ensuring that everything you do on Skiff remains truly private.

The email address has been the internet’s default login credential for so long that it’s easy to lose sight of alternative (and often superior) approaches. With the emergence of Web3 and the continued decentralization of the internet, new forms of identity — such as an Ethereum wallet address or a unique encryption keypair — are already proving their advantages to both user autonomy and privacy.

Metamask logins are only a first step. Skiff is already developing new features to ensure that private, decentralized collaboration remains seamlessly accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of how they choose to access it.

Richard Liu & Andrew Milich