What is thirdweb Engine?

thirdweb Engine is a dedicated cloud server designed to provide a friction-free backend for your web3 app, using smart wallets, nonce management, gasless transactions and more.

thirdweb Engine graphic with organized blocks

Things to know:

thirdweb Engine is a dedicated cloud server designed to provide a friction-free backend for your web3 app, using smart wallets, nonce management, gasless transactions and more.

If you’ve ever used a web3 app, it’s likely you’ve encountered a slow or stuck transaction. The truth is, the web3 user experience has been limited by slow throughput caused by the complexity of today’s blockchain app transactions.

When a network is busy, this puts extra stress on blockchain apps. To explain, nonces (short for “number once”) allow blockchains to organize transactions and guarantee that each part of a transaction is only processed once.

Nonces must be managed carefully by wallets, particularly when they are processing multiple transactions in parallel. But with each feature you add and each new active user your app gains, managing these transactions only becomes more complex.

But that’s where thirdweb Engine comes in…

With thirdweb Engine, you don’t need to worry about stuck transactions, low throughput or a complicated user experience.

You just plug your app in and thirdweb Engine handles the rest.

But what is thirdweb Engine, exactly?

What is thirdweb Engine?

thirdweb Engine offers secure and scalable backend servers to connect seamlessly to the blockchain. Essentially it allows you to auto-scale your app to millions, build friction-free user experience and trigger on-chain actions with webhooks.

It’s all about making your app’s on-chain actions smarter and more efficient.

Let’s see how:

What does thirdweb Engine do?

thirdweb Engine is made up of multiple tools to make your web3 app’s backend friction-free and ready-to-scale. But here are the main 3 things you should know about thirdweb Engine:

Offers Seamless user experience by abstracting the blockchain away

Onboarding new users can be a challenge with the complexity of blockchain transactions, but thirdweb Engine removes that complexity. There’s no need for new users to understand private keys, pay gas fees or even sign transactions. thirdweb Engine employs smart backend wallets and relayers to keep the blockchain’s complexity away from the end user — making transacting second nature!

Triggers onchain actions with powerful webhooks

thirdweb Engine can also trigger onchain actions, such as minting fungible and non-fungible tokens, or executing trades. Using purpose-built webhooks, Engine can read, write and deploy any contract on any EVM chain. You can even use this functionality to connect onchain actions to off-chain platforms such as Stripe or Zapier, expanding what was previously possible with onchain apps.

For example, with thirdweb Engine, you can easily set up an NFT checkout, linking whichever offchain payment provider you like with an onchain minting contract. With this powerful tool, your users can enjoy what the blockchain has to offer intertwined with their familiar trusted platforms.

Maximizes throughput and eliminates stuck transactions

thirdweb Engine can also maximize your app’s throughput using smart backend wallets equipped with automated nonce management, gas management, transaction queueing, and gas-optimized retries. Essentially it means that even when a transaction may get stuck, you don’t have to do a thing. thirdweb Engine will increase the gas and retry the transaction until accepted —and even send you alerts when your app is having issues.

Whether you’re testing locally or running a global enterprise, thirdweb Engine grows with you to send transactions consistently and easily— no matter how complex the need.

What is thirdweb Engine For?

Simply, thirdweb Engine is for blockchain apps that want to scale, but specifically, it's great for any apps that want to integrate the following features:

Direct Payments

If you want to handle direct payments onchain, thirdweb Engine can make sending those transactions seamless, and even connect them directly to events happening off-chain!

Airdrops

If you want to organize an airdrop, thirdweb Engine can help you access users outside of the web3 ecosystem, making it simple to airdrop NFTs to wallets accessed by social logins only. Or if you decide you want to set up a traditional airdrop, thirdweb Engine can optimize its gas efficiency so you don’t pay more than you bargained for.

Token Mints

thirdweb Engine can write, read and deploy any EVM contract, meaning it can make, burn or transfer tokens. If you want to set up a fungible (ERC-20) or non-fungible token (NFT) mint, Engine can handle the minting for you, making sure it’s an efficient, secure and seamless minting process.

Account Abstraction

Account abstraction allows your users to access your blockchain app without the stress of managing private keys or seed phrases. With thirdweb Engine, you abstract the blockchain away from the user completely, allowing them to login with familiar methods such as their Google account —they need not know they are accessing a web3 app at all!

Low Liquidity Token Distribution

If you use thirdweb Engine with thirdweb Pay, you can distribute your own token without using a decentralized exchange (DEX) and in the currency of their choice. thirdweb Engine uses webhooks to detect on-chain actions, making managing your token much easier.

How does thirdweb Engine Work?

To understand how thirdweb Engine works, let’s first clarify how web3 transactions work.

Web3 transactions involves: submitting an RPC request (to communicate with the blockchain), waiting for the mempool to broadcast the transaction, and then waiting for that transaction to be confirmed onchain.

This process takes at least 2 blocks or more depending on gas + other variables. That's 5+ seconds depending on the blockchain. And stuck transactions that need to be re-submitted add tens of seconds more. That’s far too long for some blockchain apps such as decentralized social media platforms or blockchain games that may have millions of concurrent users sending multiple transactions per second. These seconds quickly add up.

So what does thirdweb Engine do instead?

Engine stores transaction requests in a dedicated cloud server, at which point they are queued. Next, a pool of workers process these requests while carrying out other time-saving tactics like gas estimation and transaction simulation. Removing a layer of work from the blockchain greatly improves processing time, leaving only the submission of the transaction to the worker pool later.

Alongside this very simple way of maximizing throughput, thirdweb also employs various time-saving and experience-optimizing features such as:

  • Support for KMS-secured backend wallets
  • Relayers for gasless transactions
  • Contract deployments on any EVM chain
  • Account abstraction
  • Webhooks for low gas balance and transaction events
  • Contract subscriptions
  • Production-ready RPC and IPFS infrastructure

These elements all work together to ensure that thirdweb Engine is fast and secure, bringing an unparalleled user experience to your web3 app.

Does my app need thirdweb engine?

If you’re planning to scale an app from the hundreds to millions and you want to offer your users a seamless user experience without the stress of managing complex transactions, then yes: thirdweb Engine is for you!

Either sign up to get started yourself or book a demo with one of our team members to learn about what it could offer you!

Sign up to Engine here →

Book a demo on Engine here →

Apps Using thirdweb Engine

Not yet convinced? Just look at some of the top web3 apps already using thirdweb Engine:

Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase wallet is a non-custodial web3 wallet created by Coinbase. At ETHcc in Paris, they held an event at a Parisian cafe, including in-person experiences, a merch store and much more. To create this seamless, gas-free crypto experience, Coinbase wallet used thirdweb contracts to create a friction-free NFT airdrop for guests!

Read more about Coinbase and thirdweb here →

XO Social Network

XO is a blockchain social network that used thirdweb Engine to achieve their goals of automating nonce management, implementing gas optimization, improving transaction queueing capabilities and enhancing the ability to handle user interactions and on-chain identity updates. Since implementing thirdweb Engine, XO processes nearly 1,000,000 daily transactions!

Read more about XO and thirdweb here →

Zeeverse

Zeeverse is a free-to-play monster-tamer RPG set in an indigenous fantasy world. The game combines turn-based strategy, exploration, and creature collection, offering players a rich, immersive experience.

Zeeverse used thirdweb Engine to create a seamless experience for users in a few ways. Using Engine, it implemented in-app wallets powered by social logins, creating an accessible login experience. These wallets also leveraged account abstraction, removing the need to sign transactions or pay gas. Finally, Zeeverse also implemented Engine’s gas and nonce management, thus creating seamless gameplay with no interruptions.

Learn more about Zeeverse and thirdweb here →

How to get started with thirdweb Engine

Getting Started with thirdweb Engine is easy. If you haven’t already signed up to thirdweb, create an account here, then follow the steps below.

  1. Create an Engine Instance
  2. Set Up Backend Wallets
  3. Configure Allow Lists and IP Settings
  4. Generate and Managing Access Tokens

Want the full details?

Read our guide on setting up thirdweb Engine here →

Read the support docs on thirdweb Engine here →

thirdweb Engine: A Seamless Backend for web3 apps

In conclusion, thirdweb Engine is your swiss army knife for building friction-free blockchain apps. When it comes to building an efficient and adaptable environment for your blockchain app, thirdweb Engine is a one-stop-shop for all your needs.

So what’s stopping you? Sign up to thirdweb Engine and unlock your app’s potential to scale to its first million users and beyond!