Why developers choose Portal to build Web3 products

Web3 app development can be difficult. As it is an emerging industry, libraries and tools can often be hard to integrate, require additional dependencies, and are poorly documented. Simple features can entail complex build outs requiring significant implementation time. At Portal, we’ve taken a developer-centric approach to ensure businesses using our Web3 infrastructure don’t experience any of these problems.

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Whether a company needs to provide wallets for users or build connections to native protocols,  at Portal we have built our tools to be as frictionless as possible for developers. Our composable building blocks, lack of standard dependent libraries, and clear and concise documentation reduce the time and effort required to build your Web3 application.

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Portal’s composable building blocks

We make it possible for our customers to bring their Web3 plans to life via a slate of composable building blocks:

• A single mobile SDK that provides all the tools needed for Web3 development 
• A white-label wallet as a service solution powered by Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) MPC that enables you to launch EVM wallets in minutes 
• Connections to existing dApps via our dApp browser component or WalletConnect
• Simple integrations that simplify access to native protocols
• Helpful tooling for building your own application with an EIP-1193 compliant provider that drops right into any other Web3 SDK or library 
• Security tooling that proactively protects users against phishing and malicious contracts 

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With fully featured and highly composable integration, Portal reduces development time for customers to add a full suite of services to their own products. Our SDK supports multiple flows from which developers can pick and choose as appropriate for their needs. 

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For example, a Fintech company may want to build an account management flow for simple yet secure onboarding with more advanced transaction management features. They may choose to integrate Portal’s recoverable TSS MPC wallet as a service with account abstraction capabilities. This combination provides a secure user account experience and removes the hurdle of gas fees for each user transaction.

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A blockchain gaming project, on the other hand, may want to set up Portal’s wallet as a service and also give their users access to gameplay on desktop-based games. They can do so by setting up WalletConnect via the same Portal SDK that enables the TSS MPC wallet.

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Our goal is to get customers up and running with whatever Web3 integrations fit their needs as quickly and easily as possible with a simple integration that doesn’t compromise security. 

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Scaling Web3 adoption requires lowering the barriers of Web3 building

Many Web3 libraries either require additional dependencies to support their integration or a series of complex steps to perform a seemingly simple action. At Portal, our approach is to solve these problems from the beginning.

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No dependent libraries

The Portal core library delivers all features and functionality in a single integration. Additional dependent libraries aren’t required. Other Web3 libraries often require dependent libraries to support crypto shims or polyfills (code that fills missing functionality) which can lead to build issues, conflicts with other libraries in your app, and difficult debugging paths. And almost all Web3 libraries expect you to use another library for the EIP-1193 provider, the standard interface for interacting with wallets.

For example, if you want to build an application using a protocol’s SDK, depending on your environment, that SDK may require you to add shims for crypto functions with a dependency like @ethersproject/shims. It will typically require you to install another dependency like ethers.js or web3.js to wrap a wallet and expose the provider interface.

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We’ve built our libraries with minimal third party dependencies and functions without added value. This design reduces the size of the implementation, improves development speed, and removes potential third party conflicts with any existing build. 

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With Portal, the provider is included out of the box and no crypto shims are required to get started. You can build everything you need with one slimmed-down package to keep your application footprint small.

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Simplifying native protocol integrations

Although adding an integration to a native protocol can seem like an easy task, it can often become complex. For specific DeFi capabilities, for instance, there can be a significant learning curve to understand the nuances of how to integrate multiple DEXs and DeFi protocols. The related SDKs often lack robust customer support or docs. 

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At Portal we’ve simplified native protocol integrations by abstracting away complex interfaces so that integrating specific features means calling one simple function within the Portal SDK.

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We’re continuously building out new integrations so that no matter what feature you’re looking to build, Portal can take care of the hard part and leave the building to developers. 

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Great docs for a great developer experience

Clear and thorough documentation is key for a smooth developer experience. Docs must be:

• Comprehensive. It’s important to document as much as you can; you never know what detail will help someone understand a concept or debug an issue. Glossaries help to provide context on product specific language.
•  Clear & Organized. There should be consistent language, diagrams, and a logical structure. API + SDK specs should be consistent and provide all details about authentication, request/response formats, and errors.
• Example-Driven. There should be quick start guides to help guide users from 0 to 1, while advanced guides and example code can provide a better understanding of more complex implementations. 

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At Portal, we aspire to have our docs reflect these principles. We have invested time in getting started guides to help developers get up and running with our SDKs in minutes. We have an error reference and glossary of terms so that developers can quickly gain context. And we hope to continue adding educational material on how MPC works to protect users and how Web3 primitives build on top of each other. 

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A smooth and secure developer experience is as important as a robust feature set. We know that our customers are more likely to succeed in their Web3 strategy with simple integrations and comprehensive documentation. At Portal, we are proud of our ability to offer that. 

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Go read our docs or book a demo today to see Portal live in action.

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