Unsurprisingly, internet login is as old as internet itself. In the early 1960s and 1970s as computer networks started to emerge, user authentication became a necessity. ARPANET, the predecessor to today’s internet, implemented the first formal login systems when it began operations in 1969. In order to use these pioneering systems, users had to enter a username/password to be able to access the network. Since then, billions have entered this information trillions times.
Web-based logins became commonplace with the advent of the World Wide Web, in the 1990s. They were a great way to access personalized digital experiences. The security of these first attempts to authenticate users was often shockingly poor. Many developers at the time saw little issue in storing passwords as plain text or—astonishingly—embedding them directly within HTML code.
The internet evolved, and so did the way we approached login security. In the 1990s, server-side scripting language PHP was introduced. This allowed more secure password verification and storage. Two-factor authentication and encryption algorithms were adopted as standard practices.
The basic username and password combination has stuck around despite two-factor verification and password managers.
The Login Challenge
Enter blockchain — or not. It’s not just that blockchain is making huge strides in various industries, from logistics to healthcare.
Let’s discuss why. LastPass’ survey revealed that users are most likely to use LastPass if they have a password. “average user has ~70 passwords to manage, and that users could log in 20-30 times per day.” NordPass in a survey of the same nature stated that “average users spend about 15 minutes of each day logging in and out of accounts.” NordPass survey results would suggest that between 15-30 daily logins, the average time is 30 to 1 minutes.
To be conservative, let’s assume the lowest number here — 15 logins per day. There are 8 billion people in the world, and 85% of them have smartphones. This could indicate that they can access technology that requires logins.
A rough estimate for the number of logins in the world is therefore.85×8 billionx15 logins. This equates to about 102 billion logins per day or 1.2 millions per second.
Cost and Scalability Problem
Ethereum, the leading blockchain platform, is only able to handle 6 verifications of zero-knowledge per second. For blockchain to singularly replace traditional login systems, we would need the capacity of nearly 200,000 Ethereum-like blockchains working simultaneously — and that’s before we account for other transactions that happen on these networks. Simply put, blockchain in its current form lacks the scalability to manage even a fraction of the world’s daily authentication demands.
But capacity isn’t the only problem. It could cost a lot to verify logins for a blockchain, like Ethereum. As a base case, let’s assume that the cost in gas units per login is the absolute minimum cost per transaction on Ethereum which is 21,000 gas units For reference, right now, Ethereum is priced at $2,400 per ETH. Let’s break it down.
Let’s assume that 1 gwei is equal to 1/1,000,000,000 Ethereum. This would mean that 240 million log-in verifications each using 21,000 gwei, at a price of $2,400 for ETH, would cost $60.5 million per week.
The cost of all this would also be burned by Ethereum. No one would make any money from the Ethereum network.
The current situation is unsustainable.
It is impossible for logins to cost the same as verifying an entry on a ledger. Decentralization, which offers transparency and great security benefits, also comes with an additional cost that renders it ineffective for a mundane but ubiquitous task like logging on to your favourite website.
Square the Circle
ZKPs are a small ray of light in a world that is otherwise very bleak. ZKPs allow users to prove their identity without revealing any sensitive information — a far cry from today’s world, where personal data is scattered across thousands of databases, each a potential target for hackers. ZKP-powered blockchain logins, which use ZKPs, could theoretically usher in an era where usernames and passwords will be a thing of the past.
Theory and reality rarely match up. ZKPs can solve privacy issues but they also introduce new ones, such as the high costs of verification and the requirement for large computational resources.
Ethereum is unable to meet these requirements. While other blockchains, like zkVerify, are working hard to reduce costs, this technology has not yet been ready for wide-scale deployment. And then there’s the challenge of user experience. The majority of internet users don’t have a background in cryptography, and any new system must be just as easy to use as the existing, flawed username/password combo.
UX is also important. It’s not enough that something is technically better to ensure it will be adopted widely (a great example of this would be the Linux OS). To succeed, the industry needs to combine both.
While logins shouldn’t carry any direct costs, they often do, hidden in the services we use. Worldcoin provides a blockchain login solution that uses retina scans for zero-knowledge authentication, which is verified by the Optimism Blockchain. The cost of this login process is $0.0033, but when scaled up to 240,000,000 per day it reaches a staggering $800,000.
The system is more expensive than Ethereum by 98.5%, but it has a different layer that’s more centralized, sacrificing decentralization to achieve scalability. AWS’ Cognito is a cloud service that offers a far cheaper alternative. It costs $0.0025 per person per month. The blockchain option, on the other hand, is 98.5% costlier. Blockchain logins could be improved.
Where does this leave us then? The blockchain has all the elements to revolutionize logins. But it lacks a recipe for how to do so. As advancements in cost efficiency and scalability—such as zero-knowledge-powered Layer 2 solutions—continue to develop, we could be approaching a tipping point. While cloud-based blockchain systems are currently struggling to compete against the high-speed, low-cost infrastructure provided by providers such as Amazon and Google the balance is tipping their way in favor.
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