URL Format for Web3 Browsers
ERC-1710 proposes a standard way of representing web3 browser URLs for decentralized applications, which includes the use of "dapp" in the schema and an optional chain_id parameter to automatically select the corresponding chain ID. The motivation behind this proposal is to make the mobile experience of dApps more seamless and avoid conflicts with existing URL schemes.
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Original
Simple Summary
A standard way of representing web3 browser URLs for decentralized applications.
Abstract
Since most normal web browsers (specifically on mobile devices) can not run decentralized applications correctly because of the lack of web3 support, it is necessary to differentiate them from normal urls, so they can be opened in web3 browsers if available.
Motivation
Lots of dApps that are trying to improve their mobile experience are currently (deep)linking to specific mobile web3 browsers which are currently using their own url scheme.
In order to make the experience more seamless, dApps should still be able to recommend a specific mobile web3 browser via deferred deeplinking but by having a standard url format, if the user already has a web3 browser installed that implements this standard, it will be automatically linked to it.
There is also a compatibility problem with the current ethereum:
url scheme described in EIP-831 where any ethereum related app (wallets, identity management, etc) already registered it and because of iOS unpredictable behavior for multiple apps handling a single url scheme, users can end up opening an ethereum:
link in an app that doesn not include a web3 browser and will not be able to handle the deeplink correctly.
Specification
Syntax
Web3 browser URLs contain "dapp" in their schema (protocol) part and are constructed as follows:
request = "dapp" ":" [chain_id "@"] dapp_url
chain_id = 1*DIGIT
dapp_url = URI
Semantics
chain_id
is optional and it is a parameter for the browser to automatically select the corresponding chain ID as specified in EIP-155 before opening the dApp.
dapp_url
is a valid RFC3986 URI
This a complete example url:
dapp:1@peepeth.com/brunobar79?utm_source=github
which will open the web3 browser, select mainnet
(chain_id = 1) and then navigate to:
https://peepeth.com/brunobar79?utm_source=github
Rationale
The proposed format attempts to solve the problem of vendor specific protocols for web3 browsers, avoiding conflicts with the existing 'ethereum:' URL scheme while also adding an extra feature: chain_id
which will help dApps to be accessed with the right network preselected, optionally extracting away that complexity from end users.
Copyright
Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.
Adopted by projects
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