
Show HN: Cipher – Mobile Ethereum Web3 DApp Browser - raingrove
https://www.cipherbrowser.com/
======
dchuk
I really feel like the #1 problem for all crypto stuff is that it is
completely unapproachable without having to learn a massive amount of new
terms/vocabulary.

Look at this description: "The Power of Ethereum in the Palm of Your Hand
Cipher Browser is the world's first full-featured mobile dapp browser and
wallet for the Ethereum blockchain. Cipher allows you to interact with dapps
powered by Ethereum on your mobile device and makes it easy for you to
securely store, send and receive Ether and ERC20 tokens."

I have absolutely no idea what this is saying. Whoever can crack the nut of
user experience for the layman (hell, even just technical folks who haven't
spent the time to study all of these technologies/terms enough to know what
the fuck they're talking about) is going to be very rich. Until then, this is
just nerds catering to nerds.

~~~
raingrove
Your feedback is legit. Unfortunately the app has to initially cater to the
early adopters of Ethereum, but making Ethereum and Dapps approachable is the
#1 goal of this project. I will be spending a lot of time on further
simplifying the UI/UX of the app and the what you see on the website. If
anyone wants to help, please let me know.

~~~
549362-30499
It would help if you define "Dapp" and give a few examples of "Dapps" that
people might get value from.

~~~
base698
An app whose data store is block chain based, as opposed to AWS infrastructure
owned by whoever.

Decentralized App.

------
eximius
Erm, who made this and why should I trust it? Wallet apps need a lot of trust
behind them, more than a normal app. It could be really well made and still
run off with my money if they're malicious or just implemented the crypto
wrong.

~~~
gator-io
Exactly. Remember the recent Parity wallet fiasco?

[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/10/parity_280m_ethereu...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/10/parity_280m_ethereum_wallet_lockdown_hack/)

~~~
DennisP
The general principle applies but just in case anyone's confused, Cipher's
wallet is a client running on the phone, and Parity's wallet was a smart
contract running on the blockchain. It's a bit unfortunate that the term got
reused for multisig contracts.

------
peterkieltyka
Nice work!

btw, there is also the Ethers wallet which is open source and also in the iOS
app store: [https://github.com/ethers-io/EthersWallet-
ios](https://github.com/ethers-io/EthersWallet-ios)

the author is quite skilled and has spent a tremendous amount of time to
consider a secure implementation throughout the entire code base. I highly
recommend it.

------
albertgoeswoof
This is really nice, it’s a bit annoying having to enter the entire recovery
phrase during setup, could you just pick a few random words instead to enter?

My biggest concern with these types of apps is the security of the wallet,
given everyone is rolling their own build, so personally I probably won’t put
any real funds in here for some time.

~~~
raingrove
You can tap on skip button in the corner but do copy it down as soon as you
are able (it can be viewed again in settings screen).

Cipher uses features like the Secure Enclave chip to make things more secure,
but obviously the best practice is to treat it as a hot spending wallet and
use a hardware wallet to store large amounts.

~~~
elcritch
Is there a way to copy the recovery password as text? I want to store it in my
password manager, but typing in 20 words (correctly) passes my threshold for
trying out new apps.

------
raingrove
iOS App Store: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cipher-browser-for-
ethereum/...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cipher-browser-for-
ethereum/id1294572970?ls=1&mt=8)

Android Google Play (Beta):
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrow...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrowser.cipher&hl=en)

------
hilalh
Curious to know if the source code is available out there? Would love to audit
it before putting it to use.

~~~
raingrove
Now that it is available on both iOS and Android app stores, we will be open-
sourcing a lot of code in the coming weeks - this is one of them:
[http://github.com/petejkim/wallet.ts](http://github.com/petejkim/wallet.ts)

~~~
shazow
In case anyone else is looking for the Android store link which isn't super
easy to find, here it is:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrow...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrowser.cipher&hl=en)

(Worth adding to the homepage, btw.)

------
chejazi
Awesome work Peter! This is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition
([http://status.im](http://status.im) and
[http://toshi.org](http://toshi.org))

------
tw1010
For someone who's not at all in touch or in synch with all this, why should I
install it? What is the value proposition? Just to send money to other people
in an ideologically pure way?

~~~
Cyberdog
> Just to send money to other people in an ideologically pure way?

Ha. Never seen that put that way before, but sure.

But aside from just the currency aspect of it, blockchain protocols that
support distributed apps (dapps) or smart contracts also allow for programs to
be run on the blockchain; a sort of distributed computing network. This app,
aside from wallet/currency functions, appears to also allow you to interact
with these distributed apps and see their state.

------
orta
I spent some time playing with this yesterday and showed it to a few
colleagues today. It's a cool implementation - feels like the beginnings of an
app store for DApps.

------
bastijn
Can’t get used to those iPhoneX screens. Still look awful to me.

Congrats on the work though. A major item for becoming a successful anything
is having a large community. Broadening access to the technology helps a lot
to achieve it.

US AppStore only it seems. Or at least not in NL.

~~~
raingrove
Thanks! It should be available on every store except China (Apple didn't
allow). Search for "Cipher Ethereum".

~~~
bastijn
That worked. Strange, normally links as on your FP redirect to the right app
store (region).

------
liamcardenas
This looks cool -- good luck! (I just followed you on twitter)

How is this different from Status?

~~~
raingrove
Status is still unreleased and supports testnet only whereas Cipher is
available on both iOS and Android stores and supports Ethereum Mainnet. Cipher
is also primarily a Dapp Browser before anything else, and we try to be
compatible with as many Web 3 Dapps as possible and implement the latest
enhancements to Web 3 API as quickly as possible. (e.g.
[https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/712](https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/pull/712)
\- eth_signTypedData)

I gotta say Status is a very cool project though (and really well-funded too
and I own some SNT tokens as well) and I really appreciate all the work they
are doing with Whisper protocol.

------
slphil
I use multiple devices, will it be possible to have two installs synced
together? For some reason I had some difficulty with this on Status.

~~~
raingrove
Yes, use the same recovery phrase. I wouldn't recommend making transactions
simultaneously on multiple devices though.

~~~
vkdelta
Why? They would be separate transactions on Blockchain

~~~
DennisP
Ethereum is different from Bitcoin in that it uses simple account balances,
which are easier to deal with in smart contracts. To prevent replay attacks,
each account has a nonce, which is included in the transaction.

You can check the blockchain for the current nonce of an account, but if you
sent from the same account simultaneously from two devices, both transactions
would get the same nonce and one would fail.

~~~
raingrove
That is correct! Thanks for explaining!

------
627467
Can't find the app in the play store . Is this country locked? Is there a apk
from f-droid or a legitimate GitHub repo?

~~~
raingrove
Try this link:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrow...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cipherbrowser.cipher)

------
la_fayette
cool project! is it a cordova app or facebook react? as you have typescript in
there it probably is something like that??

i think this really fills a great whole. i am happy that you did this work ;)

i would definitely be willing to contribute, if you open source it.

~~~
raingrove
It's mostly React Native for the UI, but there's a lot of native code for
crypto/secure enclave operations.

