What's ahead for Chainapsis & Keplr in 2021

Josh Lee

19 Jan 2021 • 3 min read

This blog post was originally published on Keplr's Medium blog on January 19, 2021.

A Little Backstory

It's been a little over 6 months since Chainapsis got started. And to be completely honest, we didn't have any roadmap or vision back then. It was chaotic, you could say. We were just trying to create a compelling product without massive amounts of resources available.

That being said, Chainapsis and Keplr today is no longer what it was seven months ago. We had 130 Keplr downloads when we started Chainapsis. Now we have over 8,700.

In the past seven months, we have shipped: Interchain Accounts for Cosmos SDK, support for CosmWasm, CosmJS signing, Secret contracts support, Ledger Hardware wallet support, Permissionless integration of new Cosmos chains, and many more features.

Currently, Keplr natively supports 8 Cosmos SDK-based blockchains (Cosmos Hub, Kava, Secret Network, Cyber, Straightedge, Akash, Starname, and CertiK), and continues to add support for more.

What's Next?

After some introspection, the conclusion I arrived at is that Chainapsis is a company that's meant to connect blockchains and humans. Keplr's primary purpose is to enable and empower blockchain application developers to autonomously reach out to users. Keplr simply provides a tool that enables developers to maximize their potential, and our success closely aligns with the success of these applications.

There's a chicken-and-egg problem in the blockchain space where builders aren't building because there aren't enough users, and users aren't using because there aren't enough interesting applications. The infrastructure to connect the two in a meaningful way didn't exist in Cosmos — and this is the mission we're setting ourselves to accomplish.

2021 Q1

Supporting the Launch of the Internet of Blockchains

IBC will be the most groundbreaking feature to be released this year — the success of the entire Cosmos ecosystem may depend on it. Composability was the biggest missing piece for the Cosmos ecosystem, and IBC is the first step at addressing it. A significant part of our Q1 efforts will be spent on making sure IBC works well on Keplr.

We'll be shipping a proof-of-concept level embeddable wallet model for front-end developers which should allow access to multiple key management solutions in a simplified manner. Think a cross between Web3 Modal and a 'wallet as a service' model. This won't be a breaking change with Keplr — you'll still be able to sign transactions using Keplr, with more options available.

Refactoring the Keplr Architecture

As we've added features at lightning speed, we've realized that there are architectural decisions that should be revisited to allow us to iterate faster and maintain the codebase better. We'll be somewhat 'slowing down' in terms of adding experimental features until we've completed the code refactoring process. We believe Cosmos is a marathon, not a sprint.

2021 Q2

Keplr Mobile

Keplr Mobile was something we've heard many requests about from the community, and we hear you. With a bigger team, we can finally begin tackling this massive task. Keplr Mobile will be built with the same philosophy as the browser extension: permissionless innovation, emphasis on application-specific transactions, and packed with powerful features.

Ethereum/Ethermint Support

I do think Ethermint/Peggy will be a crucial component of the Cosmos ecosystem in 2021. An extremely well-integrated user experience between Ethereum and Cosmos is a huge part of whether interoperability between the two blockchains turns out to be a success. If the state of Cosmos appears that it'll benefit from having Web3.js functionality within Keplr, you'll likely be able to manage your Ethereum, Ethermint, and Cosmos Peggy-ed assets all within Keplr. We're open to hearing feedback from the community on this.

Exciting Things Ahead for 2021!

I've always had the mindset that Keplr's utility will always be in the post-IBC Cosmos. Seeing the traction we've received in the pre-IBC world, I can't imagine the growth of the ecosystem once IBC is out. Beyond Keplr, Chainapsis will also begin to directly contribute to enabling a vibrant Cosmos DeFi ecosystem.

Let's connect in 2021. Blockchains, and as humans ⛓ Onwards 🖖