Open any mainstream DApp - whether it's a leading DeFi platform like Uniswap or a top NFT market like Blur, WalletConnect always occupies a place in the 'Connect Wallet' option. This open-source protocol, born in 2018, has now become the 'must-have connector' for over 65000 DApps, supporting 47.5 million users to complete over 300 million on-chain interactions. It does not have flashy marketing gimmicks, yet it stands out among many connection tools, primarily because it addresses the 'pain points' of DApp and wallet connections with three major advantages: 'fully chain-compatible, safe and reliable, and ecological collaboration', ultimately becoming the 'infrastructure standard' of the Web3 ecosystem.
In the early development of Web3, the adaptation between DApps and wallets could be described as "an inefficient game." At that time, each blockchain had its own independent wallet ecosystem: Ethereum's MetaMask could not connect to Solana's DApp, and Solana's Phantom was also incompatible with BSC applications. If developers wanted their DApps to reach multi-chain users, they had to connect to different wallet APIs one by one—connecting to a mainstream wallet typically took an average of 2 weeks, so connecting to 10 wallets would take 20 weeks, consuming a lot of energy in repetitive adaptation work, leaving no time to optimize the core product features. Even more awkwardly, despite incurring huge costs, they could only cover a few major wallets, leaving a large number of users of small and medium wallets outside of the DApp, resulting in a high user churn rate.
The emergence of WalletConnect has completely ended this inefficient model with its "standardized protocol." It acts like a "universal USB interface" in the Web3 world; regardless of which ecosystem the wallet and DApp belong to, as long as they follow WalletConnect's protocol specifications, they can achieve "plug and play." For developers, integrating WalletConnect just once allows automatic compatibility with over 600 mainstream wallets, covering 47.5 million users, directly reducing adaptation costs by 90%; for DApps, integrating WalletConnect means instantly acquiring multi-chain user reach capabilities, without needing to develop separate adaptation modules for users on different chains. A leader of a certain DeFi project publicly stated that after integrating WalletConnect, their user coverage expanded from 2 chains to 8 chains, with monthly active users growing by 120%. This advantage of "one integration, full ecosystem interconnection" has led more and more DApps to actively list WalletConnect as their preferred connection solution.
End-to-end encryption is the "key confidence" that WalletConnect has earned from DApps. For DApps, the security of user assets is directly related to the platform's reputation—if user assets are lost due to connection vulnerabilities, it not only leads to user rights protection but can also cause the project to lose market trust entirely. From the very beginning of its protocol design, WalletConnect prioritized security, adopting a "zero storage + point-to-point encryption" architecture: every time a user initiates a connection, the system generates a pair of temporary public and private keys, with the wallet holding the private key and the DApp acquiring the corresponding public key. All transaction authorizations and message signing data are encrypted with the public key and transmitted directly between the wallet and the DApp, without passing through WalletConnect's servers or storing any sensitive user information.
A third-party security organization conducted penetration tests on 100 DApps integrated with WalletConnect, and the results showed that there were no security vulnerabilities in any of the connection links. As of May 2024, over 65,000 DApps using WalletConnect have never experienced any asset loss incidents due to protocol issues. This record of "zero security incidents" has made WalletConnect the "safety benchmark" in the eyes of DApp developers and has also made users feel more at ease when using DApps.
The full-chain interoperability continuously expands WalletConnect's "ecosystem coverage." It abandons the cumbersome model of traditional connection tools that "develop adaptation modules for each chain individually" and achieves flexible compatibility with different blockchains through a unified "chain ID recognition" mechanism. Currently, WalletConnect supports over 20 mainstream blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, and Arbitrum. Regardless of whether it is a Layer 1 public chain or a Layer 2 network, as long as developers add the corresponding chain ID according to the protocol specifications, they can quickly complete the connection with over 600 wallets.
After the Aptos public chain was launched in 2023, a certain NFT platform completed the adaptation of the Aptos chain through WalletConnect in just 3 days, becoming one of the first platforms to support the Aptos ecosystem and quickly capturing the traffic dividend of the new chain; when the Sui chain ecosystem exploded in early 2024, multiple DeFi projects took advantage of WalletConnect's full-chain compatibility to complete Sui chain adaptation within a week, seizing the opportunity for user growth in a timely manner. This ability of "rapid adaptation + multi-chain coverage" allows DApps to keep pace with the development rhythm of the Web3 ecosystem and not miss any new market opportunities.
As the scale of the ecosystem expands, WalletConnect has also twisted DApps, wallets, and users into an "interest community" through the WCT token. The WCT deployed on Optimism and Solana is not only a "voting credential" for ecological governance but also a "value bond" that incentivizes participation from all parties. DApp developers who stake WCT can apply for ecological fund support for market promotion or functional development; wallet teams that stake WCT can participate in protocol upgrade testing first, enhancing product competitiveness; users who stake WCT can receive token rewards and vote on DApp recommendation lists. This model of "co-building and sharing" allows all parties in the ecosystem to no longer be in a "one-way cooperation" but instead in a "two-way empowerment"—as of May 2024, over 5,000 DApp developers have participated in WCT staking, and over 600 wallet teams have joined ecological governance, forming a positive cycle of "more DApps → more users → more wallets → more DApps."
Today, WalletConnect's "standard configuration" status has deeply penetrated various scenarios of Web3: In the decentralized exchange field, over 95% of leading platforms use it as their preferred connection solution; in the NFT space, mainstream platforms like OpenSea and Blur achieve multi-chain compatibility through it; in the gaming and metaverse scenarios, it supports real-time interactions for millions of users. In the first quarter of 2024, the average monthly connections of WalletConnect exceeded 30 million, a year-on-year increase of 50%. Behind this data is the joint recognition of over 65,000 DApps and 47.5 million users.
For the Web3 industry, the significance of WalletConnect lies not only in providing an excellent connection tool but also in defining the "connection rules between DApps and wallets" with standardized thinking, lowering the threshold for ecosystem collaboration. It proves that true Web3 infrastructure is not about "single-point breakthroughs" but about "ecosystem empowerment"—only by allowing DApps, wallets, and users to benefit can the long-term prosperity of the ecosystem be achieved.
In summary, the fact that WalletConnect has become the common choice of over 65,000 DApps is not a coincidence, but the inevitable result of "solving real pain points + creating real value." It acts like the "adhesive" of the Web3 ecosystem, connecting the growth needs of DApps, the user traffic of wallets, and safeguarding user asset security. On the road to the popularization of Web3, such a "standard connector" will continue to inject momentum into the collaborative development of the ecosystem.
