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blockchainethereumsmartcontractssignatureweb3js

Reason for using web3 signature request

Many dapps such as opensea requests for sinature request as user's authentication.

Is this primarily for off-chain database access and gaining access token or cookie?

If my dapp does not use off-chain DB, can I skip it?

I just have a simple buy token flow and wondering if this is necessary because i've seen most of the dapps are utilising signature request.

Solution

  • It is not going to hurt you. You are just proving that you have access to the private keys. what happens is the server retrieves an account address from the signature and checks if the retrieved account is the same as the one sent to the server. The signature request adds trustability to the website.

    In db example, if the user information is stored and retrieved by the account address, you can see the user information and have access to the private routes.

    Or let's say a user uploads an unsafe image to the website and sends an arbitrary address to the server. Now website will ban this sent address not the user's address.