By Sergey Vartanov Khachaturyan
Innovations in crypto infrastructure have historically outpaced those in user experience [UX]. The focus has been on scaling and solving technical challenges, leaving the UX behind as an afterthought. However, with significant progress made when it comes to scaling through the advent of Layer 2s scaling and account abstraction, we’re entering a pivotal moment where UX becomes the key battleground.
Despite the advantages of decentralised finance [DeFi] and self-custody, centralised solutions [CeFi] still dominate in terms of user adoption. This is mainly due to the superior user experience that centralised platforms can provide, especially for new crypto users. Infinex seeks to bridge this gap by creating a UX that rivals centralised exchanges while preserving DeFi's fundamental advantages.
Even though decentralized finance [DeFi] offers superior features like transparency and trustless self-custody, it hasn’t been enough to draw users away from CeFi, particularly in the derivatives market, where centralised platforms continue to dominate.
Infinex aims to provide the “holy grail” of decentralized derivatives exchanges by combining a CeFi-like user experience [with security modules, account recovery, and user-friendly UI] with DeFi’s infinite advantages of transparency, self-custody, and permissionless derivatives.
Trust in decentralized systems doesn’t mean the absence of trust but minimising it. When users control their private keys, they place trust in themselves, which can sometimes be problematic. To truly win over a broader user base, Infinex offers a third option: a system that integrates trustless technology with familiar security measures, such as social recovery with centralised, MFA-gated guardianship.
Transparency is central to trust. Unlike centralised exchanges where users place blind trust in the platforms, self-custodial systems like Infinex offer transparency through smart contracts. These contracts not only provide clarity on how the system operates but also allow users to audit the execution of the code itself. This level of transparency is essential for building true trust in decentralized platforms.
The next wave of DeFi adoption won’t happen by itself. It’s not enough to be decentralized—we must provide an experience users can trust and feel comfortable using. Infinex has built a UX layer that removes the barriers to getting on-chain while maintaining the core advantages of decentralization.
With its Infinex Account, users can safely connect to on-chain protocols without learning anything new, setting the stage for decentralized products to finally compete with CeFi based on the value they provide.
The Infinex Account is implemented on EVM chains using Solidity and on Solana using Rust. While it borrows some elements from the ERC-4337 [account abstraction] standard, Infinex’s implementation is fully custom-built to optimise performance and security. The platform uses Gelato to pay for gas and relay transactions, while Triton and Helius provide RPC services for Solana transactions.
Infinex integrates with on-chain protocols through isolated smart contracts and programs that interact with the user’s Infinex Account via a limited interface. This modular approach ensures security while allowing for flexible protocol integration.
Passkeys are the core security mechanism for Infinex Accounts. A passkey, which is a public-private key pair generated by the user’s operating system or password manager, is stored securely on the user’s device. The private key never leaves the user’s device and can only be unlocked via biometric or password challenges. This significantly reduces the risk of phishing or key theft compared to traditional wallets.
Since passkey signatures are not natively supported on-chain, Turnkey is used to translate passkey signatures into ECDSA [for EVM chains] or Ed25519 [for Solana] signatures, enabling on-chain transactions without compromising security.
Infinex’s technical design strikes a balance between user experience and security. Unlike traditional DeFi architectures, which rely heavily on thin clients and result in poor UX, Infinex assumes that the rest of its stack [frontend, backend, and RPC services] will remain online. This pragmatic approach to censorship resistance allows Infinex to provide the kind of smooth, familiar user experience that will help onboard millions of users from centralised platforms into DeFi.
Funds Recovery is a key aspect of Infinex’s security design. Users can recover their assets if they lose access to their passkeys through a variety of methods, including social sign-ons (Apple or Google accounts) or signing transactions from an external wallet. This ensures that Infinex remains accessible and secure for a wide range of users, from crypto experts to everyday traders.