 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 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.

Log in with Metamask

—realizing our vision to build the application layer for Web3—private, decentralized, and end-to-end encrypted.


Decentralization and privacy defy major trends in the last decade of the internet: Centralization and abstraction. Websites, services, and collaboration platforms serve content, aggregate user data, and run computations via massive data centers and cloud providers. Decades of new algorithms grew around these anti-privacy computation models, from operational transformations (which aggregate and compose user input in real-time collaborative applications) to MapReduce (which permitted massive clusters to sequence and process inflows of user data). Today, when using most cloud services, individuals’ personal information is constantly sequenced and analyzed to support new features - such as predictive typing - and better advertisements.


Today, the world is different. Decentralized finance, storage, and identity upend these traditional models and offer a brighter, more private, and more personal future for computing. Decentralized data structures (such as CRDTs), algorithms, and storage platforms (more below!) present a new model wherein computation can be distributed among users of an application, and data stored without levels of abstraction or control by cloud providers.


Decentralization and privacy go hand-in-hand. While privacy demands that users know exactly how and when their personal data is shared, decentralization keeps users’ information outside of anti-private, centralized databases. End-to-end encryption and decentralization together truly deliver complete control over personal data to Skiff users. Technically and organizationally, decentralization helps us deliver on our core promise to users.
In this world, we see:
The predominant communication and computation model as peer-to-peer (p2p);


Identity as defined by an individual’s keypairs, which can be used for messaging, finance, collaboration, and more;


Users are able to benefit from services without sharing any data with service providers.


In this technical model, Skiff empower users with more control over their work, creativity, and personal information.


Your identity is your keypair. Skiff’s products keep your personal information private to you. Our whitepaper details this approach to provisioning users with keypairs (for encryption and attestation). Like a password manager or a crypto wallet, this technical design represents the foundation of decentralized collaboration.


Decentralized real-time collaboration via CRDTs. As detailed in our pre-launch blog post on decentralized collaboration from March 2021, decentralization allows us to realize numerous technical and user-friendly advantages. In particular, CRDTs enable us to, in real time, synchronize data structures across multiple Skiff users around the world. Users communicate end-to-end encrypted document changes to each other and arrive at fully synchronized, independent copies of working documents.


Decentralized storage via IPFS: We are incredibly excited to announce our collaboration with Protocol Labs and IPFS to build fully decentralized storage into Skiff. In IPFS, Filecoin, and libp2p (for direct peer-to-peer communication), Protocol Labs is building foundational infrastructure to enable decentralized, privacy-first applications like Skiff.


Now, Skiff users can store files, static content, and more via the Interplanetary Filesystem (IPFS). Inside the settings page, users can enable or disable IPFS storage.

Skiff, Decentralized

One of the most substantial innovations in the blockchain and crypto spaces over the last few years has been the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency wallets. Wallets such as 

 have been downloaded, purchased, or used by tens of millions of users around the world. Wallets are the most basic form of crypto identity - safeguarding the private keys needed to transact, own tokens, and sign attestations

There are many advantages and benefits to using different kinds of crypto wallets, including custodial, non-custodial, and hardware wallets - some of which we will discuss in this piece - but something that has not been possible until very recently has been the ability to send messages directly between crypto wallets. New players in the Web3 field, such as 

 have been busy building the Web3 communication protocols and platforms for the future of communications.

In this piece we will cover how you can message a crypto wallet directly, either from your own crypto wallet, or in some cases, using a standard email address.

Before we get into how you can easily and securely message any crypto wallet with only a wallet address, we’ll first cover what a cryptocurrency wallet is and a few tips on how they work.

A cryptocurrency wallet is any device, hardware, software, or service that stores cryptocurrency private keys. 

 the most basic form of crypto identity associated with any wallet address on any chain. As a result, you will always have an associated private key with all wallets you use for every cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana. Private keys are one 

part of an asymmetric cryptographic keypair

; all private keys are derived from the particular 

 used on a given chain. For example, ETH keypairs use the 

. There are many different types of wallets, but the most common form are software wallets which exist as extensions on your web browser (such as 

Each wallet will also have an associated public key. You can think of your wallet’s public key as the public address of your wallet; unlike private keys, which are needed to generate signatures or prove ownership over a token, a public key can be widely shared. Depending on the blockchain in question, your address may be some transformation of your public key, such as a hash or a certain subset of characters.

If anyone wants to send cryptocurrency or an NFT to your wallet, they will 

 need to know your public key. Your private key, on the other hand, should never be shared with anyone. If your public key is like your public address, your private key is like the password to your bank account. Hackers and malicious actors are always trying to steal users private keys and drain crypto wallets, so be sure to never divulge your private key to anyone.

You might be wondering how users can be sure they are transacting with the real owner of a wallet. This is done by 

, Signing a message with a crypto wallet is a way to prove that you own the wallet and that you approve of the message. This can be used to sign transactions, to prove ownership of a wallet, or to sign a message from another person. To sign messages, you will need to use the private key associated with your wallet - another reason to be extremely guarded whenever using your wallet and private key. This signature will prove that you are the owner of the wallet and that you approve of the message.

While it is fairly straightforward for even new crypto users to sign and complete transactions using a browser based crypto wallet, there were previously no robust systems for communicating directly between crypto wallets. Users have had to rely on Web2 methods of communication, such as using text messages, phone numbers, messaging apps, or Discord to communicate between owners of crypto wallets. These platforms have been 

large sources of fraud, scams, malware, and spyware

Recently, however, newcomers to the wallet messaging space have released protocols and products to allow for private and direct communication between crypto wallets. So, whether you are doing a bitcoin transaction, or participating in any other form of smart contract, consider using one of these tools to help you communicate effortlessly with other crypto wallet owners.

 is an all-in-one Web3-native and privacy-first suite for communication and collaboration. Skiff Mail allows for end-to-end encrypted email, similar to other private email providers, as well as linking crypto wallets to an email account for seamless, private, wallet communication. This allows users to not only receive emails directly to their wallet address (which would be [wallet-address]@skiff.com), but also to send and receive emails to any standard email provider, such as Gmail or Outlook.

Skiff Mail currently supports connecting MetaMask Ethereum wallets, Coinbase Wallet, Brave Wallet, 

Skiff’s products are not limited to crypto wallet messaging. Skiff also offers fully decentralized private document collaboration and file storage. The decentralization is accomplished by 

leveraging the InterPlanetary File System

 (IPFS) network created by Protocol Labs.

 is another end-to-end encrypted and decentralized messaging tool. Unlike Skiff, which uses some of the customs and protocols from email for crypto wallet communication, dm3 acts more like an instant messaging service between users who have a MetaMask wallet and an 

dm3 also allows user to freely store messages in a variety of different ways, including locally on their browser, a local file, on IPFS, or on any other personal cloud storage provider.

dm3 is a great web3 messaging service if you prefer instant messaging style messages over email and you only need to communicate with other users who have an ENS domain and MetaMask wallet.

XMTP is a Web3 communication protocol built by 

. Unlike Skiff and dm3, XMTP is a protocol which other services and tools can implement to allow for wallet to wallet communication. The protocol is designed to be fully decentralized and aims to use cryptography and economic disincentives built into the protocol to reduce spam, scams, theft, and fraud.

XMTP is only available through an early access program at the moment but is a great choice for those who want to implement their own Web3 communication capabilities within their services without building out the infrastructure from scratch themselves. If you are a developer looking to build products in Web3 communication, we encourage checking out XMTP as well.

Communicating directly with a crypto wallet yields numerous benefits, including for trustworthy communications, facilitating transactions, and providing key anonymity benefits.

: On wallet-integrated communication platforms, such as Skiff, using a wallet can facilitate more trustworthy communications, either signed by your wallet or on a platform that requires wallet attestations.

: On DeFi platforms or crypto marketplaces, using a wallet for communication can help facilitate transactions or buyer/seller negotiations. For example, using 

, you could send and receive information about selling your ENS name on a single communication platform.

: A wallet is simply a private key. So, if you generate a new crypto wallet, you could easily create an email address for 

anonymous, secure, and private communications

The ability to communicate directly between crypto wallets solves a huge pain point for crypto consumers and users who often still find themselves in situations where there is no easy way to send a message to a counter-party in a transaction. Crypto wallet communication is in its early days but some players, like those above, are already offering users great utility and value which will no doubt will only improve with time.

How can you message a crypto wallet?

Our email addresses are our first lines of contact - added to business cards, shared publicly across the internet, and relied upon to store years of important messages and attachments. However, as private messaging (

, and more) grows increasingly popular and the security landscape changes, email is undergoing major technical and product shifts that could benefit from Web3 and crypto wallets.

This blog provides an overview of the many benefits that using a crypto wallet to log into your email provider, or as an email address itself, can provide. In particular, wallets yield excellent benefits for privacy, identity portability, and encryption - which are all must-haves for modern digital communications.

At the most basic level, a crypto wallet is simply a public private key pair, where your address, such as your Ethereum address, is derived from the cryptographic public key. In the case of an Ethereum address, the public and private key are 

 on the SECP256K1 curve. An Ethereum address is deterministically dervied from the public key using a hashing algorithm and omitting certain bytes. As a result, crypto wallets are simply derived from mathematical functions - providing complete privacy and a basic layer for identification (using public addresses), attestation (digital signatures), and encryption (using asymmetric cryptography).

So, in using a crypto wallet for your communications - such as as an email address - takes you close to the mathematical foundations of cryptography and can yield complete privacy. A wallet you generate can remain completely anonymous and never be shared.

Today, many email services offer anonymous aliases as a benefit that all forward back to your same inbox. This includes the 

, and more. A crypto wallet can provide many of the same benefits – a completely anonymous, mathematically derived identity that can be used to securely and privately send receive communications, own digital assets, and make attestations proving your identity.

Crypto wallets have become one of the most portable identity forms around the web. Wallets, which live inside 

, mobile apps, and soon operating systems, can be used for sending payments, owning digital assets, and sending secure communications. However, because they are simply a cryptographic public private keypair, they are completely portable and can be moved from one wallet app – like MetaMask to another wallet app – like Rainbow Wallet.

Wallets can be used across multiple devices, like mobile browsers, and easily 

. Furthermore as we discussed in the Skiff blog on 

using the Ethereum naming service with Skiff Mail

, a crypto wallet may be associated with a more personal form of identity, like an ENS name, a Twitter account (in the 

Unlike Web2 identity, where a single entity or organization controls your entire account, wallets enable owning and not renting identity, even if you want to transfer it across platforms.

Because crypto wallets are simply public private keypairs, they provide a strong basis for an asymmetric crypto system that can be used for encryption and decryption - a necessity for private messaging. In the last year, MetaMask and Brave Wallet released functionality to perform encryption and decryption using an Ethereum wallet (read more in 

encryption and decryption functionality as well

Compared to PGP, which requires a user to safeguard their private key, share this key across various web services, and use a trustworthy verification method to prove they actually represent a given public key, wallets (particluarly when 

) may be significantly easier to use and safer for consumers.

Crypto wallets have now given hundreds of millions of people access to public private keypairs inside of their browsers, mobile apps, and devices. Unlike past attempts to make encryption widespread, such as with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), wallets have a multitude of use cases and rely on user friendly interfaces.

Because wallets hold public private keypairs, they are also portable across different apps or devices - and are not owned or rented from a corporate entity. Given these advantages, we at Skiff encourage 

 using a crypto wallet to gain access to end-to-end encrypted, privacy-first email, collaboration, file sharing, and more.

Why you should use crypto wallets for your emails

Cryptocurrencies have the potential to revolutionize the global payments industry. They are fast, secure, and offer a level of anonymity that is not possible with traditional payment methods. Cryptocurrencies are also decentralized, meaning they are not subject to the control of governments or financial institutions. This gives users more control over their own finances and allows for the development of new and innovative applications.

Skiff recently launched cryptocurrency payments, allowing for you to check out for the Pro plan in a completely anonymous manner using a self custodial wallet. Currently, Skiff supports BTC, ETH, and USDC. This blog goes over why you may want to use crypto payments, how they work, and how you can use them on Skiff.

Cryptocurrencies are a type of digital asset that rely on cryptography for security. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning they are not subject to government or financial institution control. Bitcoin, the first and most well-known cryptocurrency, was created in 2009. Cryptocurrencies are often traded on decentralized exchanges and can also be used to purchase goods and services.

Cryptocurrencies offer a number of advantages over traditional payment methods such as credit cards or cash. Cryptocurrencies are fast, secure, and pseudonymous. Transactions are verified and recorded on a public blockchain, ensuring that they cannot be tampered with or reversed. Cryptocurrencies are also borderless, meaning they can be used to send and receive payments anywhere in the world.

When it comes to making payments with cryptocurrencies, there are a few different options. You can use a service like BitPay, which allows you to pay for goods and services with Bitcoin, or you can use a peer-to-peer payment system like Ethereum's. There are also a few different ways to convert your coins into cash, such as using a Bitcoin ATM or selling them on a cryptocurrency exchange. Crypto.com’s 

 product also allows service providers, such as Shopify online stores, to integrate digital currency payments.

Overall, cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency wallets are becoming more and more popular for payments and other transactions, and companies like BitPay and Coinbase have offered APIs and configurations for merchants to use. They offer a convenient and secure way to send and receive money, and their popularity is only likely to continue to grow in the years to come.

The biggest cryptocurrencies - namely Bitcoin and Ethereum - remain highly popular for supporting online payments. However, other currencies, including USDC, are also becoming increasingly popular for online payments. Offering payment products has also been a key route of expansion for crypto companies.

, which allows companies to accept cryptocurrencies in an online checkout interface, like Stripe or another online payment processor. When visiting a site - like Skiff’s 

 - users can simply connect a wallet, or sign in with their Coinbase account to checkout.

Other payment processors are also becoming popular. 

 is a large and commonly product for adding Bitcoinpayment processing to a site, in a manner similar to how Stripe (or Coinbase Commerce) would allow for online checkout).

All wallets inherently support the ability to perform crypto payments, including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, Keplr, and others. A crypto payment is simply sending cryptocurrency to another user - in this case, Skiff. Any merchant that has started accepting crypto can either provide a payment gateway, which will manage the transaction set up, or could simply provide a wallet address to deposit funds.

. You can sign up with a username and a password, or just use a crypto wallet, including Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, Brave Wallet, Keplr Wallet, or more. If you sign up without a crypto wallet, you can still pay for a Skiff Pro subscription with crypto!

After completing your account onboarding, visit the 

 to compare the Pro and Business tiers. Note that only the Pro tier can be paid for with cryptocurrency at this time; the Business tier requires a credit card or debit card to check out in USD as it may be used for businesses with variable numbers of people.

Once you’ve settled on the Pro plan, click the banner at the top that offers the crypto payment options. From there, you’ll be prompted with different options, including using a custodial wallet and signing into your Coinbase account. You can currently pay with USDC, BTC, and Ethereum, which will have variable transaction fees.

That’s it! You’ll be immediately upgraded to Pro features once your transaction confirms. If you have any questions about the process, email support@skiff.org.

Skiff currently accepts BTC, ETH, and USDC. Skiff also accepts fiat currency payments via Stripe for both the Business and Pro tiers.

You can use any Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USDC wallet. You’ll be presented with instructions and a QR code to send a transaction and confirm your payment.

Currently, you can only pay for a team on the Business plan with a credit or debit card. If you’re interested in paying for a larger team on the Business plan in crypto, contact hello@skiff.org.

What features are available on the Pro plan? What about the Business plan?

To learn more about Skiff’s payment plans, visit our 

. Generally, the Pro plan offers significantly higher storage, extra aliases, custom domains, and more. The Business plan offers a terabyte of storage, even more aliases, additional custom domains, and access to team sharing features for larger groups of people. The best plan for your use case depends on your storage needs, communication needs, and team size.

Can I still connect a crypto wallet without paying in crypto?

Yes! You can still connect many different wallet aliases and benefit from signup, end-to-end encrypted email, and end-to-end encrypted collaborative documents and files without paying in crypto. If you pay in fiat currency, you can also still connect wallets for communication and identity.

You’ll be prompted to renew in-app and will be able to subscribe for additional years of the Pro plan. If you choose not to renew, your account will lose access to premium features.

What level of privacy comes with crypto payments?

Most cryptocurrencies afford pseudo-anonymity but expose public transactions based on wallets. The most private cryptocurrencies are typically those that offer the greatest degree of anonymity and privacy for wallet address holders and transacting parties. Some of the most private cryptocurrencies include Monero, Dash, and Zcash. These cryptocurrencies typically make use of features such as stealth addresses and private transactions in order to keep user data hidden from the public ledger.

How to pay in crypto?

With prices lagging, auctions stalling, and Bitcoin below $20,000, many are speculating that crypto is dead. But, we think the opposite: Crypto is alive and thriving.

In the last year, crypto has fallen precipitously, prompting market analysts to predict a prolonged “crypto winter” and possible further declines. Bitcoin’s 60%+ drop appears healthy when compared to the steep decline in other currencies (90%+), complete project collapses (

), and unfortunate hacks or scams that have 

The most prominent reason is the loss of faith in these asset classes by nervous investors. This loss of faith is due to a number of factors, including the 

, the volatile nature of these assets, and growing but generally weak mainstream adoption.

Another major reason for the crash is overall market conditions. With minuscule 

 ˜and spending high in 2021, crypto prices soared as individual and institutional capital alike sought returns via crypto investments. Speculation was rife as investors “mooned” dubiously credible assets, such as 

However, the global economy is currently facing a number of challenges, including the ongoing pandemic and the resulting economic recession. This has led to a decrease in demand for risky assets, such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Beyond the crypto market, the stock market has experienced significant falls to the point of 

 recently. Finally, there has been a recent increase in supply of these assets. This is due to a number of factors, including the launch of new ICOs and the increase in mining activity. After original NFT projects - Punks and Apes in particular - soared in value, thousands of projects spawned, some with large communities and utility - and others promoting scams, malware, or other “rug” maneuvers to steal funds from participants. This increase in supply has outpaced the demand, leading to a decrease in prices.

Crypto became popular because it gave people the ability to trade digital assets without the need for a bank or other financial institution. The value of crypto assets is determined by supply and demand, rather than by a central authority. This makes crypto a decentralized asset class, which many people find appealing, due to additional censorship resistance and distributed authority.

. Since then, thousands of other crypto assets have been created. The total market cap of all crypto assets is 

 (with a peak at almost three trillion USD). Bitcoin is the most well-known crypto asset, but it is not the only one. There are now thousands of different crypto assets, including 

. Each of these assets has a different purpose and use case. Crypto assets are often bought and sold on exchanges, such as Coinbase, Gemini, or Binance. These exchanges allow people to buy and sell crypto assets using fiat currencies (like US dollars) or other crypto assets.

The popularity of crypto assets has grown exponentially in recent years. This is due to a number of factors, including the following:

1. The rise of Bitcoin: Bitcoin (BTC) is the first and most well-known crypto asset. Its popularity precipitated the rise of other crypto assets for a number of reasons, including increasing faith in the crypto market and a growing talent pool of developers (such as 

, who contributed to Bitcoin before founding Ethereum).

2. The increasing use of blockchain technology: Blockchain is the 

 layer that powers crypto assets. The blockchain can be considered an immutable, distributed database that is secure and transparent. For financial institutions and transactions, this distributed ledger of all participants adds an immense amount of trust and verifiability with decentralized control.

3. The increasing awareness of crypto assets: As more people learn about crypto assets, their popularity will continue to grow.

4. The increasing acceptance of crypto assets: More and more businesses are accepting crypto assets as payment. This is a trend that is likely to continue, particularly as crypto assets are accessible on mobile devices and operating systems.

5. The increasing regulation of crypto assets: Governments around the world are starting to regulate crypto assets. This is a positive development that will help to legitimize the industry.

In 2021, a number of factors led to an unprecedented rise in crypto prices, activity, and speculation. This includes the federal reserve maintaining many of the lowest 

 that led to trillions of dollars injected by governments into economies. Many governments, including the US government, wrote checks to give citizens hundreds of dollars of funds for discretionary spending.

As crypto prices soared, and the country stayed at home, new crypto innovations powered waves of growth and innovation. This includes the vast rise of the 

, from games and digital real estate to virtual reality and art exhibits.

Crypto action today is significantly below 2021 peaks. Across all crypto markets, from Bitcoin and Ethereum prices, to NFT sales and DeFi trading volume, activity has plunged. As an illustrative example, OpenSea 

 has declined across all networks - Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon - between 75% and 90%. In this section, we walk through three principal reasons for crypto’s decline.

: It is no secret that the current global economic state is tenuous, and nations are either facing an economic downturn or rising interest rates. Signs of a downturn are evident in a variety of ways, such as a slightly 

, and stagnation in consumer spending. Beyond unemployment rates, housing prices, global supply chain issues, and war, one of the main factors contributing to this economic downturn is the rising interest rates.

As interest rates rise, it becomes more expensive for consumers to borrow money. This, in turn, leads to a decrease in consumer spending, as people are less likely to take out loans for big-ticket items when they know they will have to pay more in interest. Additionally, rising interest rates make it more difficult for 

 or even maintain their current level of operation, as they must pay more in interest on their loans. This can lead to layoffs and further decreases in consumer spending. Finally, this also impacts stock prices, as business growth rates may lag with less capital to devote towards growth.

This change significantly impacts crypto prices as consumers have less money to spend on investments or purchases (such as crypto assets, tokens, or NFTs), and businesses recalculate their interest in investing in cryptocurrencies, or in owning crypto on their 

. With less money to borrow and spend on new investments, crypto startups and new projects also struggle as the whole market slumps. This is a key driver of a prolonged 

: Scams, hacks, phishing, and other security problems are perhaps the most damaging and infamous drivers of crypto skepticism. Notable hacks include Axie Infinity suffering a 

 (hurting the entire Terra ecosystem), and the Poly Network losing 

 to hackers. Unfortunately, thousands of hacks have also triggered consumer mistrust, from fake 

 to NFT projects with pseudonymous creators who suddenly disappear.

: Speculation on digital currencies and assets dominated the 2021 market rise. NFT prices skyrocketed, and DeFi protocols processed 

 in trade volume as newcomers flooded crypto markets. Celebrities participated actively in this promotion, with hundreds promoting 

 with varying levels of utility. Others promoted speculation on social platforms, perhaps none more notable than Elon Musk’s offhand 

 that triggered 1000%+ price spikes in only days. Today, as consumers have less money to spend and prices flatline, far fewer celebrities are participating in this movement, further suggesting that we’ve moved into a crypto winter.

Innovation and adoption accompanied this rise in speculation and scams. As many “crypto native” individuals suggest, a crypto winter is the best time to build high utility products that survive volatility in market prices and deliver true value to consumers. These projects replace critical workflows or apps on the internet with crypto-native protocols or features, thereby adding new levels of privacy, decentralization, or censorship resistance to existing products used on the web.

, a messaging app that integrates with Ethereum. Status includes chat functions, a crypto-native web browser for using decentralized apps (dapps), and a wallet for owning digital currencies and assets.

, the InterPlanetary File System, for distributed, censorship-resistant file storage. IPFS is a storage layer powering a new generation of sites and webapps, from file storage to online encyclopedias.

, the Ethereum Naming Service, maintains a product used in thousands of crypto-native apps as well as a decentralized autonomous organization (ENS DAO) that manages the protocol. ENS names add human readable names to Ethereum address, converting a long hexadecimal string (0xBC...19) into a simple name (skiff.eth).

, privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted mail, collaboration, and file storage built with wallet login and decentralized storage. Skiff has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of individuals and allows for 10 GB of free storage for all signups.

The future for many individual crypto projects is shrouded in uncertainty as asset prices fluctuate and decentralized organizations struggle to retain talent and interest from their users. However, crypto maintains a market cap of one trillion USD, and hundreds of millions of people and devices now have access to crypto browsers, wallets, and assets.

During this crypto winter, new projects will add greater utility to these wallets, networks, storage providers, and tokens. During the next crypto summer, these innovations will power a new wave of growth, making crypto more consumer-friendly, useful, and capable of delivering on its true founding promises of data ownership, privacy, and decentralization.

Is crypto dead?

Have you already upgraded to the Pro or Business plan and need some quick tips on setting up a custom email domain? You’ve come to the right place.

This blog covers how to connect your domain name to your account, add aliases for you and your colleagues, and create a business email or personal address with your own, custom domain name.

First, visit the Mail custom domains settings page: Click settings, then click “Custom domains.” On mobile, click the gear icon in the top right, and then “Setup domain” (yes, you can configure custom domains from mobile as well).

Then, click “add domain,” and type in your domain name. Click “next,” and wait for the loading spinner to finish loading.

Now, you’ll be on a screen with a list of DNS records for your domain, including an MX record, two TXT records, and two CNAME records. You’ll need to add all of these records to your domain from your hosting provider.

Once you’ve navigated to your hosting provider or domain registrar, add each record for your domain. Note that 

you must have the Skiff MX record at priority zero

, and the other records must be copied in perfectly for your domain to verify properly.

After copying in all of the records, that’s it! Wait approximately five to ten minutes for your records to publish, then for Skiff to verify them.

You’ve verified your custom domain. What’s next?

You can now add any number of aliases for that domain from the custom domains settings page. First, click “add alias” next to your domain. Then, in the popup, type in your desired alias, which can even be 

! From there, you’ll want to type in an alias, and then click “add.” You’ll see the alias show up below your custom domain.

From there, you can now send and receive mail using this alias on your custom domain!

Now, what if you want to add multiple users with aliases for your custom domain? This is a common case for business email addresses.

First, add people to your workspace from your Skiff Pages or Drive dashboard (

). Click settings, then your workspace name, and “add members.” Or, share your “Everyone” team. New users will need a new account to join your workspace.

From there, all users added to your workspace will be able to add aliases on any custom domains you’ve verified for that workspace. Once you’ve added users to your workspace, Skiff can become a great email provider for businesses, teams, families, and other organizations that seek to have email accounts for team members with a shared domain name. Startups can also leverage our 

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