The problem Physical mail through your wallet address solves

Wallet Address Mapper

In the rapidly growing world of cryptocurrency, the use of wallet addresses for financial transactions is commonplace. However, these addresses are limited to digital interactions, leaving a gap when it comes to physical communication and logistics. Traditional mailing systems (at least in the US that we are familiar with) need a physical address to send mail to.

Please check the README of the submitted repo for more insight into what we envision.

Have you ever wanted to receive merchandise for a project you minted, but don't want to reveal your IRL address? Now you can.

The Wallet Address Mapper project addresses this gap by creating a secure and efficient system that maps crypto wallet addresses to physical mailing addresses. Essentially, this project acts as a mail forwarding service for web3 users that receives packages on your behalf and forwards them to you, without revealing either parties address to one another.

This innovation solves several key problems:

Enhancing Privacy and Security

Users can maintain their anonymity and privacy in the crypto space while still receiving physical mail without exposing their actual physical address to the sender. A physical location acts as a middle man to receive your packages and forwards them to you, if you choose to do so.

Facilitating Commerce

Businesses and individuals can send physical products, documents, or promotional materials directly to a crypto wallet address, streamlining the process for transactions that bridge the digital and physical worlds.

Improving Efficiency

By integrating with existing crypto wallet infrastructure, our solution eliminates the need for multiple steps and intermediaries in the mailing process, reducing costs and time delays.

This project ultimately brings the convenience and flexibility of cryptocurrency into the realm of physical logistics, enhancing the utility of crypto wallets beyond digital transactions.

Challenges we ran into

We wanted the signup process to be as seemles as possible for someone who isn't familiar with crypto. This is where Coinbase SmartWallet comes into play. By allowing users to register with passkeys, we have enabled anyone to easily register for an account.

We wanted to make sure that no physical addresses were leaked to the shipping/receiving party. There are a few different routes to take here. To do this, we decided that a physical address will act as a middle man to receive the packages. When the package is shipped to the facility, the shipping label generated will include an additional QR code that will allow us to scan and re-route the package to the destination address. The QR code will contain a unique user ID that maps to the destination users wallet/physical address.

While the above solution does prevent the leaking of addresses to either party, it increases the shipping cost associated with sending a package due to two shipments having to take place (User A to Facility to User B). Prices can be reduced through partnerships, but can't be ultimately mitigated.

Additionally, we need a way to make sure that the address is exposed as minimally as possible to our own staff at the physical location responsible for routing packages. To do this, staff will be separated into two teams. The first team will scan the incoming packages into the system, remove the initial shipping label, and label them with an additional unique ID for the next team. All packages will be pooled together. The second team will then select packages from the pool and enter the unique ID of the package into the system. A new shipping label will be generated, applied, and shipped out. No team will see both addresses or any wallet addresses.

The ideal goal would be to integrate directly with existing mailing solutions (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.).