3Box.js
SDK for user-controlled data and identity in decentralized apps. More than 100 early projects used it, including Uniswap, Gitcoin and Aragon.
const box = await Box.openBox(address, provider)
- Key signature derives deterministic 3ID signing & encryption keys
- Public profile resolved: { name: "Danny", emoji: "🛠️", image: "ipfs://..." }
- Zero centralized auth server — keys live in browser local keychain
await box.openSpace("gitcoin-quests")
- space.private.set("draft_submission", encryptedPayload)
- space.public.set("completed_badges", ["open-web-2019"])
- Replicated via OrbitDB CRDT log over libp2p pubsub
Why 3Box.js Led Directly to Ceramic
- Browser-based IPFS/OrbitDB peer sync took 4–9s on cold start
- Global GraphQL queries across 100+ apps needed indexing beyond per-user logs
- Lesson: replace client-heavy OrbitDB with Ceramic event streams + ComposeDB
An open-source JavaScript SDK that let decentralized applications store user-controlled data and identity profiles. Instead of every app building its own user system, 3Box.js was a shared layer where people owned their information and could carry it between apps.
More than 100 early projects adopted it, among them Uniswap, Gitcoin and Aragon. It covered encrypted private data, public profiles, messaging threads and sharing across apps, all tied to a user’s cryptographic account and stored on IPFS and OrbitDB, not a central server.
It proved people wanted this, and it showed where IPFS fell short for production: performance, reliability and queries all needed a rethink. That rethink became Ceramic.