RTFKT World Merging Flow
New gasless transactions flow for the World Merging chip that authenticates RTFKT items
Last updated
New gasless transactions flow for the World Merging chip that authenticates RTFKT items
Last updated
New gasless transactions flow for the World Merging chip that authenticates RTFKT items
We are excited to share the new enhancements to the World Merging (WM) flow, particularly the migration to a gasless experience. For context, the WM flow is the process of linking your physical RTFKT items (such as a sneaker) to a digital collectible token stored on the blockchain. Using secure NFC chips and storing a record on the blockchain allows you to easily authenticate your RTFKT physicals while also being able to have a transparent and interoperable experience using the blockchain.
The core tenets we have built this system around are security, ownership, transparency, and interoperability. We have opted to store nearly all data directly on the blockchain to ensure the authentication of physical items is done transparently while also making the system interoperable to allow others to view and use the data as they wish.
Before jumping into the new changes, let’s walk through how the current flow works:
Existing Linking Flow
In this scenario, you may notice that after the physical item is authenticated, the user is prompted for a transaction confirmation in order to pay the gas fees required to store this record on the blockchain. We don’t like this user experience, and have rebuilt the system from scratch in order to fix it.
As alluded to, the new WM flow is a completely gasless experience. A gasless experience is one where the gas fees required in order to interact with the blockchain are handled by RTFKT and completely abstracted away from the end user. We designed the system in mind to not compromise on security while providing a much improved user experience. There’s a few new concepts we’ve introduced, as well as completely new features such as unlinking which includes an instant unlink or pending unlink state, transferring a link ownership, and unlink approvals.
Gasless Linking Flow
The linking flow starts off similarly to the existing linking flow. However, once the requestor has selected the digital collectible to link their physical to is where things start to change. First, you’ll notice that the requestor is no longer prompted to pay a gas fee with a blockchain transaction, but is instead prompted to sign an EIP712 plaintext signature — this signature does not require any gas fees to be paid.
Sample EIP712 Signature
The signature is used to ensure the same level of security is required in order to take action on the requestor’s behalf. In this case, the requestor is requesting RTFKT to link their physical item to the digital version they selected. The smart contract validates the signature to ensure it came from the requestor and only allows RTFKT to take action on the requestor’s behalf if they requested such action.
Additionally, the transaction is now submitted on Polygon instead of Ethereum mainnet. With that said, all RTFKT tokens still remain within ETH mainnet and only the link record is stored on Polygon. This is done all with a seamless user experience where the user does not need to use a different wallet or switch to a different network — all of that complexity is handled behind the scenes by RTFKT.
Link Edition
There is also a concept of “link editions” which is the number of times a physical item has moved from one person to another. The link edition starts at “1” and increments each time it has been unlinked and relinked. Link editions can also be maintained using different mechanisms described later in this post.
Once a physical item is linked, someone may wish to unlink it after they’ve sold the physical item or digital collectible, or alternatively to link to a different digital collectible. There are four potential unlinking flows covered by the below diagram. These are:
Unlinking as the physical owner and digital collectible owner
Unlinking as the physical owner but not the digital collectible owner (i.e. the new physical owner recently purchased an already linked physical item)
Unlinking as the digital collectible owner but not the physical owner (i.e. the new digital collectible owner recently purchased an already linked digital collectible)
Unlinking as the link owner (the user who currently owns the link between the physical and digital collectible)
Gasless unlinking flow
Within the above diagram, you may notice a few new concepts. Let’s dive into each of these:
Instant Unlink
Instant unlink occurs when the requester is either the link owner or owns both both physical item and digital collectible token. In either of these cases, the requestor is able to instantly unlink a physical and digital pair.
Pending Unlink
Pending unlink occurs when the requestor is either only the physical owner, or only the digital collectible owner. Once an unlink is in the pending unlink state, the link owner can either approve the pending unlink, or the owner of both the physical item and digital collectible can cancel the pending unlink. The pending unlink state is currently set to last 3 days. After the three day period, the unlink is complete unless the pending unlink is cancelled or approved during that time period.
The pending unlink state has been added to protect against accidental unlink requests, scenarios where a digital collectible has been stolen, or scenarios where your physical item is scanned and the scanner attempts to unlink your item.
Approving Pending Unlink
A request in the pending unlink state can be approved by the link owner. This will speed up the pending unlink period to allow an item to be instantly unlinked.
Cancelling Pending Unlink
If a pending unlink was accidental or not authorized, the owner of both the physical item and digital collectible can choose to cancel the pending unlink and allow the pair to remain linked without incrementing the link edition.
As the link owner, you can also choose to transfer the link ownership to a different wallet address. For example, if you no longer wish to use your current wallet but want to maintain your link edition, you can transfer your digital collectible to the new wallet and transfer the link ownership to the new wallet without incrementing the link edition.
Due to the fact that the new WM flow is gasless, we have added rate limits to protect the system against misuse. The limitations allow one of each action per tag every 24 hours. This means you can link and unlink tag ID A once per day, but that doesn’t restrict you from also linking tag ID B, C, and D on the same day.
We hope this article gave you a better understanding of how the world merging flow works behind the scenes. We have strived for a balance of a simple user experience, stringent security, and transparency throughout the whole process. We will always continue to make changes and add new features where we believe we can improve the world merging experience and are always open to community feedback and ideas!
Shoutouts!
Massive shoutout to our partners in building the World Merging flow for the past 2 years at Nike TIO. They have been an incredible partner to work with and have helped make this possible. Particularly, shoutout to Vic Lortz, Colin Creeden, Aaron Wilson, Eric Redmond, and the rest of the Nike team!
Also, shoutout to the RTFKT team that has been designing, developing, redesigning, redeveloping, and testing over and over again to put this WM experience together. Particularly, shoutout to Andreia Mota, Maureen Rogister, Rafael Santos, Matthew Warhurst, João Lourenço, Kosta Tsamouras, Hugo Campino, Acolad, Lamine Drame, Zach Rubenfeld, Samuel Cardillo, Maximonee, and the rest of the team.
