Shopify launches suite of blockchain commerce tools for merchants

Crypto-friendly e-commerce giant Shopify has launched a suite of blockchain commerce tools to enhance the user experience of their web3-focused stores hosted by the platform.

Announcing the move via Twitter on Feb. 9, Shopify blockchain team designer @ryancreatescopy noted that “we've launched some fresh tools to help you buidl tokengating apps for Shopify merchants.”

In particular, expanded crypto wallet connect features and “tokengating” application programming interface (API) tools have been highlighted. The latter has been in early access beta access mode since June 2022 and was previously only available to a select number of merchants.

With tokegating, all applicable Shopify merchants can now set up their stores to dictate which token holders can and cannot gain access to exclusive products, NFT drops and benefits.

The tool verifies user eligibility via their connected wallet, and is being touted as a handy way for NFT Merchants to reward certain users or add exclusivity to specific products.

In terms of expanded crypto wallet support, Shopify has integrated with the Sign-In with Ethereum SIWE protocol led by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and the Ethereum Foundation.

SIWE essentially enables secure user sign-ins and authentication of Ethereum accounts and ENS Domains without giving away private identifiers to third parties such as names, phone numbers and residential addresses.

The topic of private user information has been a sour spot for Shopify in the past. In April 2022, a group of disgruntled users filed a class-action lawsuit against the firm and hardware wallet provider Ledger concerning a hefty leak of user data that stemmed from the duo back in 2020.

Related: Ethereum's Shapella transition is ‘on the horizon’

ENS Labs community advocate @sadaf.eth highlighted the SIWE integration with Shopify via Twitter on Feb. 9, and linked to developer documents explaining how to build the tool into Shopify stores, much to the delight of some from the Ethereum community.

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“The statementGenerator prop allows you to customize the statement displayed in a Sign-In with Ethereum message. The function receives the address of the wallet that has connected, allowing you to expand and customize your message statements to better suit your brand,” the document reads.

At this stage, once a merchant hooks up the SIWE feature on Shopify wallet connect, it appears that users will be able to click a “sign-in with Ethereum” button to connect their addresses via SIWE’s partnered intermediaries such as Coinbase, Fortmatic, WalletConnect, Portis and Torus.