Why do I need to sign a message when creating or accessing my account on a different browser?

Creating and accessing your account

As STARKs use a different signature scheme to the Ethereum blockchain, a STARK keypair needs to be generated, which allows for the interaction with StarkWare's high-speed settlement system.

Every time a rhino.fi trader submits an order to the exchange, or makes a deposit/withdrawal, they are cryptographically signing a message using their Ethereum wallet private key, which instructs their rhino.fi trading key on the required action.

This is a process that is common to all self-custodial layer-2 exchanges that use zero-knowledge cryptography (STARKs, SNARKs etc).

When you register your Ethereum address with rhino.fi for the first time (the registration transaction), a rhino.fi trading key is generated behind the scenes in a trustless manner and is associated with your Ethereum address. You can think of your rhino.fi trading key as similar to an API key on a centralised exchange.

For this key to be created and encrypted with your Ethereum account, you are asked to sign a message when you create your account and any time you use a new browser, as your key needs to be regenerated to access your account

Updated on: 28/04/2023