Build UP! Hackathon Review: WordUP!

Login to WordPress with your Universal Profile, by Luksoverse

If you haven't heard of Luksoverse, one of the first community projects in the LUKSO ecosystem, you're missing out! They create and aggregate content, publish hot-off-the-press news, host the longest-running LUKSO community chat, and more.

Their website is a hub of information published by multiple community contributors, each requiring their own login to WordPress, which powers their website. Luksoverse was experiencing frequent attempts at unauthorized logins to their site, which prompted them to enable two-factor authentication for their users, adding another layer of security but also the inconvenient additional step of using an authenticator app.

Luksoverse turned inconvenience into opportunity and developed the WordUP! WordPress plug-in for the LUKSO Build UP! Hackathon. The app allows users to log in with their Universal Profile. Logging into sites and services with blockchain accounts not only brings our dreams of a passwordless world closer to reality but also provides significant security benefits.

Instead of passwords prone to these brute force attacks, logging in with a Universal Profile relies on signing a one-time-use random number to verify the UP address attached to a WordPress account. This method provides a one-step login secured by the cryptography of our favorite blockchain—gone are the days of remembering passwords and using authenticator apps for the Luksoverse team.

The plug-in automatically creates a WordPress account for new users using your Universal Profile's username and profile picture. Existing WordPress users can link the plug-in to their account through the WordPress dashboard. Currently, the plug-in is available on Luksoverse's GitHub, and anyone with a WordPress website can try it out. 

Further development of the app is in the works. Luksoverse hopes to have a better and smoother flow, implement more functions, and have the option to make login with UP the only possible login method. 

Also, Luksoverse is working to meet the requirements for approval in the WordPress app store. WordPress currently hosts 455 million websites. Providing the convenience of this tool to the masses could go a long way in promoting LUKSO and showcasing the benefits of blockchain.

Well done Luksoverse — WordUP!

For more information about the project, visit Luksoverse's GitHub and view their video submission on YouTube.