Onchain Onboarding: Challenges and Solutions

Onchain onboarding has faced significant hurdles over the years. Creating and connecting an external wallet often forces users to navigate confusing interfaces and manage complex setup requirements—all before they can even begin engaging with your app. This cumbersome process deters many new users, resulting in high bounce rates and stalled adoption.

Embedded wallets have emerged as a powerful solution, enabling seamless, in-app wallet creation for onchain onboarding.

What Are Embedded Wallets for Mobile?

Much like the advancements in desktop onboarding, mobile onchain onboarding has also evolved. Embedded wallets are crypto wallets integrated directly into a mobile app. They allow developers to equip users with wallets instantly within the app, eliminating the need to switch apps to connect an external wallet.

Before embedded wallets, developers had to rely on end users to complete the round trip of connecting a wallet outside of an application, resulting in a total loss of control over the user journey. For inexperienced onchain users without an existing wallet, the journey to create and connect a wallet was often daunting and complex, leading to high bounce rates.

Embedded wallets lower entry barriers to crypto by enabling developers to create simple, secure, and fast wallet experiences for users. Here is an example of equipping a user with an embedded wallet in just one tap:

What Are the Benefits of Embedded Wallets?

Embedded wallets do more than simply equip a user with a wallet; they provide a seamless way to enable onchain activity without friction:

Instant onchain onboarding

While wallets are the entry point to onchain experiences, asking the average consumer to create and connect one presents a significant hurdle. Embedded wallets enable developers to equip users with wallets behind the scenes, allowing them to start the app experience without going through the complexities of crypto onboarding.

Single-app user flow

With modern embedded wallet UX, developers can create wallets for users instantly in just a few steps. Embedded wallets eliminate the guesswork of relying on users to leave the app to connect an external wallet, creating a seamless, uninterrupted user experience that keeps users in-app.

Gasless transactions

Embedded wallets support gasless transactions, where developers or third parties sponsor gas fees on behalf of users. This combination makes the web3 experience feel entirely invisible to end-users.

The Challenges of Embedded Wallets

While embedded wallets are transforming the onchain experience, developers must carefully evaluate their needs when selecting an embedded wallet provider. Here are some key considerations:

Key Custody:

Embedded wallets leveraging technologies like MPC or Account Abstraction can simplify onboarding but often come with trade-offs in custody. For example, MPC solutions typically only grant users a minority share of their keys, while Account Abstraction services typically custody the EOA themselves or rely on a custody partner. These compromises reduce user control and introduce risks, such as potential censorship or the inability to secure funds.

Reliance on Third-Party Services:

Some providers continue to manage wallets, transaction data, and onchain activities even after the initial wallet creation. This reliance on third-party services can limit developer autonomy and prevent full control over the user experience.

Cost Implications:

Many third-party services charge ongoing fees tied to transaction volume or active wallet counts. As your app scales, these costs can grow quickly, impacting your budget and limiting your flexibility to adapt as needed.

How RallyProtocol Redefines Embedded Wallets

RallyProtocol provides a permissionless, open toolkit for onchain mobile developers. We believe in providing tools that are simple, accessible, and free.

Transparent user self-custody

Keys are always stored locally on the user’s native device and encrypted by the secure enclave, similar to a hardware wallet. There is no partial key ownership or obscured custody of EOAs, ensuring that no third party can own, censor, or seize a user’s wallet.

Full developer sovereignty

RallyProtocol eliminates the need for third parties by stepping back after the embedded wallet creation process. These embedded wallets use non-proprietary wallet generation, along with native device security and storage, to help developers bring users onchain without requiring a third party to facilitate transactions. We believe that developers should have full sovereignty over their users and their wallets.

Permissionless, open, and free

Our tools are freely accessible to all developers without requiring an account. We provide the essential building blocks that empower developers to create fully customizable onchain experiences. This is achieved without compromises or surrendering control to end-users or third parties.

About RallyProtocol

RallyProtocol is an open and permissionless onchain mobile toolkit that features embedded wallets and gasless transactions. Our mission is to enable developers to create seamless, end-to-end onchain experiences for native mobile apps while ensuring self-custody, security, and full developer sovereignty. Whether you're building an iOS or Android app in Flutter, Unity, React Native, or Expo, our tools empower developers to create better onchain mobile experiences quickly and easily.

Ready to bring your mobile users onchain with embedded wallets? Explore RallyProtocol’s documentation here.