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How Web3Auth Works?

Web3Auth operates as a wallet infrastructure, providing enhanced flexibility and security for decentralized applications (dApps) and blockchain wallets. Throughout this documentation, we'll explore the functionality of Web3Auth, showcasing how it produces unique cryptographic key providers for each user and application.

High-Level Architecture​

The Web3Auth SDK lives solely on the user/application's front-end client and handles the interactions between OAuth providers and the Web3Auth Network.

The diagram below describes the relationship between the Web3Auth SDKs and integrating applications. It also depicts the difference between the products Web3Auth offers, to enable a developer-friendly integration of this infrastructure.

This diagram describes the relationship between the Web3Auth SDK and integrating application

Web3Auth Wallet Management Infrastructure​

Web3Auth's Wallet Management Infrastructure enhances security by distributing a user's wallet across various key shares, thereby avoiding direct exposure of seed phrases. These key shares form a 'web of trust' and enable wallet management akin to multi-factor account handling. Users employ OAuth logins, trusted devices, and other factors to manage their cryptographic key pairs. Importantly, the complete private keys are not stored anywhere within the Wallet Infrastructure system, including our databases or any participating nodes.

To create a social login share, users interact with the Web3Auth Network, where key generation operates via a 5/9 consensus system. This setup guarantees that wallets remain non-custodial, ensuring that neither Web3Auth, Social Login Providers, nor any other party holding a key share can claim full ownership.

managing wallets

For managing wallets, our infrastructure uses various cryptographic techniques such as Shamir's Secret Sharing, Threshold Cryptography, and Multi Party Computation. To learn more about how we manage wallets, please refer to our Wallet Management and Security of our Infrastructure.

Common Questions

The following questions can be answered using the information on this page:

  1. How does Web3Auth's architecture work at a high level?
  2. Where does the Web3Auth SDK operate in the application stack?
  3. How does Web3Auth handle wallet security and key management?
  4. What is Web3Auth's consensus system and how does it work?
  5. How does Web3Auth ensure wallets remain non-custodial?
  6. What cryptographic techniques does Web3Auth use for wallet management?
  7. How are user's wallet keys distributed and protected?
  8. What is the 'web of trust' in Web3Auth's infrastructure?
  9. How does Web3Auth integrate with OAuth providers?
  10. Where are private keys stored in Web3Auth's system?