Shopify Launches Tools for Developers to Build for Blockchain Commerce

Shopify sees the future of e-commerce in blockchain and token-gated commerce. A Designer at the Shopify blockchain team, who goes by the Twitter handle ‘cordellsy.eth’, recently announced the update saying: “We’ve launched some fresh tools to help you build token-gating apps for Shopify merchants!”

The Shopify designer also shared github links to easy-to-use components, new docs and a “demo app to fork or help you follow along”. He also shared the link to blockchain.shopify.dev, which explains what Build for Blockchain Commerce actually stands for. Once open, the dynamic Shopify page constantly replaces blockchain with words like token powered and collaborative to explain Shopify’s new bet on commerce.

We've launched some fresh tools to help you buidl tokengating apps for Shopify merchants!

🧱 Easy-to-use components: https://t.co/hJtMB8IXTN

📖 New docs: https://t.co/zWfWoANUFw

🕹️ Demo app to fork or help you follow along: https://t.co/gILEfWQnRghttps://t.co/FSMVdPUKfU

— cordellsy.eth 🥬 (@ryancreatescopy) February 9, 2023

On shopify.dev, the company describes ‘Build for blockchain-enabled commerce’ by saying: “Discover UI components, robust APIs to develop your next token-powered app, drive loyalty, foster brand collabs, empower communities, and more. In this guide we’ll cover some common terms you’ll encounter, the major categories of blockchain apps on Shopify today, as well as some tools and resources that we’ve developed to help you build better blockchain apps.”

What is a blockchain app?

Shopify explains a blockchain app as one that connects merchants with blockchain assets or functionality. Some of its examples include cryptocurrency, minting, token-gating, and gifting.

The Canadian e-commerce platform has never hesitated from promoting crypto and blockchain commerce. In August, Shopify invested in London-based startup Thirdweb for the development of a Web3 toolkit. The investment helped Thirdweb raise a Serie A funding of $24 million with a valuation of $160M by Shopify, Coinbase and Haun Ventures.

About Web3 products

Web3 products include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and blockchain games. The new Web3 toolkit planned by Thirdweb will provide features like decentralized logins, smart contracts and publishing options. It will not only support blockchains but also attract new users by bringing Web3 products to the mainstream.

In July, Shopify partnered with the music commerce app Single to make the most of its NFT-based functionality. Single works on Solana blockchain technology to help Shopify merchants use NFT functionality to upload music and video files. NFT is a financial security system that helps store digital data in a blockchain. This data can then be sold, traded or transferred by the owner.

With the help of NFT technology in the Solana blockchain, Single enables artists on Shopify to sell music and video content like any other physical merch. NFT will act as a security key for the buyer to access creative content.

Shopify apps for NFT merchants

Shopify also welcomed applications like Verisart and Venly in September and January 2023, respectively. While Verisart allows Shopify merchants to mint as well as sell NFTs, Venly with its NFT Minter (Avalanche) and NFT Minter (Polygon) app ensures that merchants buy and sell NFTs on Shopify without any technical knowledge of the Blockchain.

In October, Shopify formed a strategic partnership with Novel to offer its merchant partners no-code Web3 technologies. Novel launched its Shopify app to offer a Web3 innovation experience without technical knowledge, time commitments and at a lower cost.

Novel uses smart contracts to work on the NFT collection and offer tokens to make purchases on the Shopify store. After the purchase, the Novel app automates the currency bridge by offering customers a corresponding crypto wallet.

Blockchain commerce tools

This time with the launch of developers’ tools for blockchain commerce, Shopify aims to promote token-gating application programming interfaces (APIs) to its merchant partners. Access to this feature was available in beta mode since June. Only a few Shopify merchants had access to this feature, as per cointelegraph.com.

The tools not only help merchants set up online stores with specific rules for token holders but also helps them feature exclusive products, NFT drops and benefits. Shopify verifies user eligibility before providing access to the blockchain tool, using a connected wallet. It also helps merchants reward specific users in NFTs and add exclusivity to showcased products.

To further boost support for crypto wallets, Shopify allows NFT merchants to sign in using the Ethereum (SIWE) protocol. The protocol is built and managed by Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and the Ethereum Foundation. SIWE not only ensures the security of user data during the sign-in process but also authenticates Ethereum accounts and ENS domains without the intervention of third-party apps. It promises to secure personal data like names, phone numbers and residential addresses.

Learning from past mistakes

Shopify is much more careful with the private user information it collects as it faced a class-action lawsuit in April, in relation to a data leak in 2020. In August, a Delaware federal judge denied Shopify‘s bid to pause a data breach lawsuit against it. The judge said that the stay will have no positive effect on the case that cost some crypto users their digital wallets.

The suit filed in April 2022 in the United States District Court of Delaware makes serious allegations stating that Shopify “repeatedly and profoundly failed to protect its customers’ identities.” Complainants claim that Shopify and TaskUs, its third-party data consultant, are responsible for leaking Ledger buyers’ personally identifiable information (PII) despite the assurance of full security. The plaintiffs went on to claim that both companies were aware of the breach and took over a week to notify customers. They want Ledger and Shopify to reveal the leaked information and compensation covering actual and punitive damages.

France-based Ledger “initially denied that any compromise of PII had occurred,” but later backed down, said the complaint. The complaint states, “Despite the repeated promises and worldwide advertising campaign touting unmatched security for its customers, Ledger—and its data processing vendors, Shopify and TaskUs—repeatedly and profoundly failed to protect its customers’ identities, causing targeted attacks on thousands of customers’ crypto-assets and causing Class members to receive far less security than they thought they had purchased with their Ledger Wallets.”

About SIWE integration

ENS Labs community advocate @sadaf.eth explained in a Tweet how SIWE integration with Shopify helps build the tool for merchants belonging to the Ethereum community. “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,” reads the document shared by @sadaf.eth.

Gm! @Shopify integrated @signinwitheth pic.twitter.com/uB16pOFlVy

— sadaf.eth (@sadaf_eth) February 10, 2023

Thanks to the SIWE feature on Shopify wallet connect, merchants are now able to sign in with Ethereum details. This will quickly connect the NFT merchants with SIWE’s partnered intermediaries like WalletConnect, Coinbase, Portis, Fortmatic and Torus.

About NFTs

NFT or non-fungible token is a type of digital asset that represents ownership of a unique item or object. Unlike other types of digital assets such as cryptocurrency, which are interchangeable and can be easily exchanged for other assets of the same type, NFTs are unique and cannot be exchanged for other assets in a one-to-one manner.

NFTs are often used to represent ownership of digital art, collectibles and other types of digital media.