thirdweb has completed the acquisition of Paper, an embedded wallet creator making Web3 accessible to anyone with an email address and a credit card.
thirdweb is a Web3 development platform co-founded by Steven Bartlett, Furqan Rydhan, and Jake Loo. It will add Paper’s email wallet and checkout solutions to its platform, boosting its offering as a 360-solution for those looking to harness blockchain technology to build apps and games.
These new capabilities will completely transform the development workflow for blockchain development, propelling the industry forward, as it means developers will only have to work with just one vendor, across compliance and security, technological integration and account management.
thirdweb claims that more than a third of all Web3 developers have used the platform and over 10 million transactions have been processed by apps built using their tools in 2023 alone. Paper has achieved similar success with the User Experience layer of Web3 development, creating 50,000+ wallets, minted 500,000+ NFTs, processing over $10 million in transactions.
With access to Paper’s technology, thirdweb developers can make the purchase of NFTs more accessible for their future customers, removing the barrier of entry into the marketplace for non-crypto consumers.
From now on, an email address is all that will be needed to create a wallet, expanding the potential audience for brands and developers entering Web3 and facilitating growth in a sector on track to become a multi-trillion dollar industry.
Furthermore, Paper’s wallet solution allows end-users to buy crypto assets using their credit cards, as well as Google Pay, Apple Pay, iDEAL, debit cards, and Ethereum for NFTs sold on other chains, removing the challenge of handling Web3 payments.
“When you are working with multiple vendors, it becomes hugely problematic,” said James Sun, founder of Paper. “You need to run them through your compliance and security process, integrate each piece of technology and work with a bunch of different account managers.
“Being able to work with one platform that covers all your blockchain needs, simplifies development and go-to-market. That’s where I feel thirdweb and paper are an extremely powerful combination.”
Rydhan added: “We’re acquiring Paper first and foremost because the team has built the best onboarding experience for Web3. By combining this with our development stack, we believe we can offer the most powerful solution in blockchain development to date.
“We truly believe that this will move the needle for the whole industry, and could spark the next huge wave of consumer application in Web3.
“We’ve worked very closely with them over the last year, side by side, and we felt like it was a natural fit. Together, we can go really far.”
Bartlett said: “This acquisition represents one of the biggest leaps forward in the blockchain infrastructure industry. Today two of the leading blockchain infrastructure players become one.
“We are hugely excited to be welcoming James and the team to the wider thirdweb team. Together, we’ll be able to revolutionise the way people interact with the digital world, streamline blockchain operations and continue lowering the barrier to entry for Web3 developers across the globe.
“Blockchains are going to change the world as we know it, and now thirdweb is perfectly-placed to enable this disruption.”