Introducing the Portal Wallet Firewall

The Portal Wallet Firewall is a key feature in Portal’s wallet as a service and Web3 connectivity products. It automatically protects users from fraudulent dApps, smart contracts and addresses and comes with the flexibility to include additional suspicious addresses that can be defined by you.

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It’s part of Portal’s security-first architecture built into our Web3 Platform and SDK.

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How the Portal Wallet Firewall blocks fraudulent dApps and smart contracts

Businesses with a comprehensive Web3 strategy need to provide a safe and simple user experience to their customers. It starts by helping users navigate the growing Web3 ecosystem safely. The Portal Wallet Firewall is a powerful feature in our wallet as a service product that automatically blocks fraudulent dApps and smart contracts while allowing you to add addresses you deem high risk. You can unblock dApps, smart contracts and addresses at any time. 

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For example, you may want to design your offering in a way that prevents your users from engaging with OFAC sanctioned addresses or entities. With the Portal Wallet Firewall, you can block such addresses with a simple click of a button.

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Similarly, your organization may want to proactively protect users from an active exploit taking place in real time. You have the ability to block addresses for any length of time you choose. If later the exploit is patched or no longer poses a security threat to users, you can remove the address from blocked status.

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Dynamic scam and exploit protection 

Portal automatically blocks addresses, smart contracts and dApps associated with suspicious activity based on open source blocklists and updates the firewall with new information on a daily basis. 

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Additionally, Portal reviews transactions in process, checking both the to and data fields of a transaction. If either field contains an address that has been blocked, the transaction is rejected. This protects users from sending a transaction to an otherwise safe address if that address is associated with any blocked addresses or smart contracts directly (determined by the to field) or indirectly (determined by the data field).

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Any dApp, smart contract or address newly added to the block list will appear in the Portal web app dashboard:

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To block a specific address, you can simply log into our web app interface and add the address along with notes to make it easier to track:

Your active, inactive, and block list will then update with addresses that have been added.

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Whether a blocked smart contract, dApp or other address is added to the block list automatically or manually, you can unblock them at any time.

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Why the Portal Wallet Firewall unlocks web3 onboarding 

One of the main barriers to Web3 onboarding is the risk factor associated with scams and fraud. Even among existing crypto users, getting scammed is a barrier to further engagement in Web3. According to a study by Coda Labs, crypto gamers and crypto non-gamers alike stated that scams were the number one reason keeping users from adopting blockchain games. 

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Beyond gaming, transactions across DeFi, NFTs, payments, decentralized social networks and other use cases can give users pause when navigating the Web3 ecosystem because of the risk of being defrauded.

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No matter the use case, reducing the risk factor of engaging with Web3 apps will appeal to new users—and encourage more usage among those already familiar with crypto.

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The ability to curate which apps users can engage with through your custom Web3 offering is an important step in improving the user experience in this emerging industry.

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Additional firewall features will increase customizability

We are continuously improving our security features. Portal will soon release custom rules logic and additional ways to conduct security screening. Beyond delivering on additional security capabilities, our goal is to provide the flexibility to fit your business needs.

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The Portal Wallet Firewall is available now to all Portal customers.

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Interested in exploring Portal’s full set of features? Book a demo today.

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