From July to August, in the ups and downs of the crypto market, DeFi applications fell silent, the floor price of NFT projects plunged one after another, and the public chain track was deserted. Under such circumstances, two tens of millions of financings came from the decentralized social track.
On August 11, the decentralized communication protocol Satellite IM completed a $10.5 million seed round, led by Multicoin and Framework Ventures, with participation from Solana Ventures, Hashed and other institutions. On July 13, the decentralized social bottom network Farcaster completed a $30 million financing, led by a16z, a well-known crypto venture capital institution, with participation from Standard Crypto and Coinbase Ventures.
Neither Satellite IM nor Farcaster has launched a usable application, and the agreement is still in the development stage at the time of financing. Satellite IM will launch a mobile native app called UpLink in the fall, and Farcaster’s official Twitter has only released a few screenshots of the product, and users have not seen the full picture of the product.
Why did these two projects get the support of top capital before the product was revealed?
For a long time, decentralized social products have revolved around NFT assets, such as building various member communities or clubs with NFT. But as the NFT market cooled, these NFT asset-centric social products died down. However, if you want to make a Web3 version of Twitter, Discord, Telegram and other types of social or communication applications, you are always limited to resources and underlying facilities, and it is difficult to compete with Web2-style software. .
The advent of Satellite IM and Farcaster may break the ice.
Satellite IM is a communication tool and an underlying protocol that attempts to realize the communication between users on the chain based on wallet addresses. As the underlying infrastructure of social applications, Farcaster not only provides tools and components for developers, but also claims that social applications built on the platform are one of the most important. interaction is possible.
Satellite IM and Farcaster bring a new trend of decentralized social tracks. This issue of Web3 Honeycomb will show you the ins and outs of this trend.
On-chain applications require integratable communication tools
The emergence of DeFi, NFT, and GameFi finally shows the value of blockchain as the bottom layer of the new generation of Internet. Those programs built on the chain are called decentralized applications “DApp”, and the way users use these applications is also similar to the Web2 world. The App in the DApp is different – DApp does not need anyone’s permission, no registration, just use the wallet address on the chain to connect to the application and use the functions it provides.
At present, mainstream blockchain applications focus on financial attributes, such as decentralized encrypted asset trading platforms and lending platforms in the DeFi field; although on-chain games have achieved a certain degree of playability, the out-of-the-circle chain games are all prominent “Play and earn” attribute, earning encrypted assets is the main purpose of chain game players; although NFT can carry pictures and videos, people buy NFT more for its asset attributes.
The vast majority of applications and scenarios in the current Web2 era have not been developed on the chain. For example, people use the most frequently used social software, not to mention e-commerce, video platforms, and travel applications that are more and more closely related to daily life. . Compared with non-financial offline scenarios, online scenarios are easier to implement on the chain. This is likely to be the first direction to be broken during the transition from Web2 to Web3, and social networking has become an important breakthrough.
In the Web2 world, social products are roughly divided into two categories, one is communication products, which mainly function to realize information transfer between users, and can send text, files, sounds and images to each other. Such as QQ, WeChat, Dingding, mailbox, etc. This type of communication application is also known as IM (Instant Messaging) instant communication tool; the other type belongs to social media platforms, such as Weibo, Twitter, etc. These applications are mostly used by people to show their life status, express opinions, etc. online, and Interactable.
IM is no longer limited to communication tools, it can be integrated in various apps to realize communication between users and platforms. Your communication with merchants on Taobao has long been no problem. However, decentralized applications cannot currently interact with service providers.
The vast majority of DApps that log in based on wallet addresses have not yet integrated communication tools on the blockchain, let alone communication between users, even communication between users and the platform cannot be achieved. When you encounter problems when using Uniswap to trade crypto assets, you either have to look for answers on the user guide, or leave a message under the official accounts of Uniswap established on Twitter and Discord, or you can only ask experienced users on Telegram for help .
Transactions are Web3, and communication has to rely on Web2, not to mention socializing.
Developers have long been exploring communication tools for on-chain applications. From last year to this year, some wallet-based communication applications have gradually emerged in the market. The most well-known one is BlockscanChat, which was developed by the Etherscan team in January this year. An instant messaging product based on Ethereum wallet address-to-address, currently in test mode. When using, the user first logs in with the Ethereum wallet address, and then searches for the other party’s Ethereum address or ENS domain name to communicate information for free.
Earlier in November 2021, Rarible, an NFT trading platform, announced the launch of a messaging service tool, Rarible Messenger, which is integrated into the trading platform and supports platform users to communicate through wallet addresses without having to jump to other Web2 applications such as Discord and Twitter. middle. The emergence of Rarible Messenger allows potential NFT buyers and sellers to connect directly, not only to communicate information, but also to achieve peer-to-peer transaction needs without going through the platform. Rarible said it will spin out this feature as a standalone Web3 communication tool.
In addition to Blockscan Chat and Rarible Messenger, there are a few other messaging apps worth looking out for.
Cross-platform communication application SwapChat
SwapChat claims to be a decentralized communication application tool that supports users to create chat pages across platforms and complete information exchange. The product is built on Web3MQ, a software infrastructure that supports sending and receiving messages in distributed systems.
At present, SwapChat is available to users in the form of a plug-in. To use it, you need to add this plug-in to the browser (such as Google), and then connect the wallet address, which can be used as an instant messaging tool in different DApp applications.
SwapChat supports users to send messages across platforms, including decentralized applications and centralized social platforms. It links the user’s wallet address with the information of the centralized social platform, and realizes the function of sending information to wallet addresses on different platforms.
At present, the plug-in supports the use of social platforms such as Twitter and Discard. As long as the plug-in is installed on the user’s browser, a chat page can be created on the user homepage of these platforms to communicate with others.
For example, Xiao Ming is a well-known KOL in the crypto circle on Twitter. He holds a certain BAYC Boring Ape NFT. Xiao Li wants to buy this NFT. She can use SwapChat to click Xiao Ming’s personal Twitter homepage to create a chat page to inquire.
For encrypted asset trading applications, SwapChat can be integrated into NFT trading platforms OpenSea and SudoSwap. After installing the plug-in, users only need to create a SwapChat page to send information to NFT holders. Holders who have also installed the plug-in to receive information. That is, the interaction between OpenSea users requires both parties to have SwapChat installed. Users can also click on the homepage of the NFT project collection, click to join the “NFT Room (NFT Room)”, and view and reply to people’s group chat content about an NFT project.
SwapChat solves the pain point of users lacking communication tools in NFT trading markets such as OpenSea, and has the opportunity to become “Alibaba Wangwang” in NFT trading platforms. SwapChat does not rule out that it can be embedded in other DApp scenarios and used directly as an instant messaging tool.
A point that needs special attention is that when communicating on SwapChat, it is necessary to do a good job of reviewing user addresses to prevent being deceived.
The reason why SwapChat can realize cross-platform communication is mainly because of the underlying support of Web3MQ. However, it can be seen from its integration on OpenSea that it cannot really integrate with the blockchain and is not completely decentralized. It can be seen that on-chain social applications need the support of distributed on-chain communication bottom layers, and some developers have already made efforts in this field.
Decentralized communication underlying protocol Satellite IM
In 2020, developers Christopher Hogan and Thomas McArdle created SatelliteIM, which is both a decentralized communication platform that enables peer-to-peer private messaging and an infrastructure that attempts to leverage decentralization and encryption to provide a way to build scalable applications The program’s platform. It provides developers with custom modules and basic components for building decentralized social products, and developers can build products according to their own needs.
Satellite IM revealed that it will launch a mobile app called UpLink in the fall.
On the Satellite IM platform, the information is encrypted, and the user’s encrypted signature is required to transmit the information. This means that even if someone has access to the information sent, it cannot be read by anyone other than the specified recipient.
The official product of Satellite IM has not been launched, and only a beta version is currently available. As can be seen from the official product screenshots, the Satellite IM page is very similar to the PC version of WeChat familiar to Chinese users. Users can send text, audio, video and files, and can also create groups.
In addition, Satellite IM claims that its underlying protocol is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which means that developers can build social applications that can be integrated with the Layer1 network on the protocol, and interact with multiple Layer1 blockchain networks to become chain on communication tools.
Platform-based operations promote composability between social applications
Replicating the application scenarios of Web2 on Web3 is the direction that Web3 social applications can advance. If the use of blockchain smart contracts to realize the interaction between applications and break the barriers of non-interoperability of Web2 social applications, then the Web3 social applications will achieve breakthrough innovations.
The interactivity of smart contracts has been demonstrated in the DeFi track. For example, the liquidity reward model of encrypted assets in decentralized exchange applications (DEX) has spawned the application of Smart Pool, which can provide users who are willing to provide asset liquidity in Look for high returns in multiple DEXs. This parasitic or combined approach has been called “DeFi Lego” in the industry, breaking the barriers to the liquidity of financial assets.
This composability, if placed in the online social scene, will solve the data barrier problem of different platforms. In Web2 social products, information and data between different platforms cannot be communicated. Many users complained that Taobao links could not be opened directly on WeChat; original videos of Kuaishou celebrities could not be re-uploaded to Douyin, which limited the traffic aggregation of content creators.
In the social era of Web2, there are monopolies everywhere. Centralized social platforms segment users and keep user-created content for themselves. Some people hope that Web3 can solve these problems, allowing interaction between different products, and users’ social data can be freely migrated.
There are already many developers building decentralized social applications, and some developers are trying to provide other developers with the underlying foundation and build social projects through a common social graph or data model.
Among them, the most famous representative product is the Lens Protocol developed by the Aave team. It is a composable and open decentralized social media underlying protocol. It belongs to the infrastructure of Web3 social media applications. It is mainly used to help developers build Go Centralized social media platform.
Lens Protocol provides a complete set of module components such as “personal homepage NFT, content NFT, fan NFT, and collection NFT” based on NFT assets. These components provide developers with a complete set of components from creators, to content, and then to consumers. business chain. Developers can arbitrarily use these basic components to build social products. Social applications developed based on Lens Protocol will share the resources of the Lens ecosystem. For example, any decentralized social platform developed based on Lens supports users to use a wallet address to access, interaction between platforms and NFT assets built-in products can be exchanged, etc.
Beyond that, CyberConnect and Farcaster are also worth mentioning.
Decentralized Social Roster Farcaster
Farcaster is a Web3 social network developed by former Coinbase employees Dan Romero and Varun Srinivasan. It is an underlying application protocol for building a decentralized social network. It supports developers to build various applications on the protocol, and users can freely migrate social resources and identities between different applications. It aims to create a direct relationship between users and fans without relying on any intermediary platform.
Farcaster is still under development, and founder Dan Romero has released some product page maps. From the information that has been disclosed, the application functions similar to Twitter. Users can post content, comment, and get information notifications.
Farcaster is similar to Twitter on the product page, but we can expect them to be fundamentally different – on Farcaster, users can freely migrate social graphs and identities between applications, users always have connections with followers, and Not limited by application. Fans of Twitter users cannot be directly migrated to Facebook, but in the A application built on the Farcaster protocol, if the user has 100 fans, when he goes to the B application of the protocol, then these 100 fans and social resources will also be migrated. .
Farcaster officially stated that after users connect to the wallet address and verify, they can send information, read messages, and display NFTs in the wallet address, such as avatars. As a decentralized social network, Farcaster cares not only what users express, but also what users can prove on-chain.
In the official introduction of Farcaster, the product mainly completes the storage and reading of user information through On-Chain Registry and Off-Chain Hosts.
The on-chain registry is a smart contract database that stores user names, including user names, wallet addresses, and social data connections (off-chain host URLs). It is a tool to prove the uniqueness of user names; off-chain hosts refer to storing user social media. A database of data and other information, which can be used when retrieving users’ historical social data.
Farcaster is like a bottom layer built with a social roster, and any developer can use this roster to build social products. The core of the protocol is the name registration system established on Ethereum – users can register a unique user name with an Ethereum address and associate a content hosting URL. Only with the private key of the address can the content hosting address be updated. This is the secret of the user’s mastery of content association rights.
At present, some developers have deployed some native projects on the Farcaster protocol, such as the image uploading and publishing tool Instacaster, the post retrieval tool Searchcaster, etc.
Decentralized Social Graph Protocol CyberConnect
CyberConnect is a decentralized social graph protocol that aims to return data ownership and utility rights to users and provide Web3 developers with an underlying infrastructure to build applications or integrate data, it has been integrated on Ethereum and Solana chains . In May of this year, CyberConnect completed a $15 million Series A financing.
CyberConnect explained that the so-called “social graph” is a graph with “social relationships between people and people” as clues. The people that users know and connect with through various channels, as well as the things they follow and follow will form clues. In the online world of the Internet, such clues are mostly gathered on well-known social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, forming an online social relationship graph.
CyberConnect’s mission is to return the ownership and utility of social graph data to users, democratize social connections, make social graphs autonomous, portable, and composable, and make social graphs more than just blockchain. It also allows users to discover more social identity meanings through associations.
CyberConnect itself is not a complete Web3 social product, but a set of infrastructure services whose core service object is developers. It standardizes user portraits by analyzing user interaction trajectories and behaviors in different applications, and creates data standards, data storage infrastructure, and recommendation indexing systems. These data can be accessed by anyone and can provide better content recommendation and social discovery. , to provide a general social data layer for decentralized applications (such as DeFi, GameFi, NFT, DAO, etc.) in the Web3 world.
Products developed based on CyberConnect allow users to own the data generated when using the product, which can be migrated with the identity, and each person’s social graph can become part of the Web3 identity, switching freely between different applications.
After connecting to the wallet address on CyberConnect, ordinary users can follow other addresses, or search for the wallet address of the person they want to follow, and click on these addresses to enter the other person’s homepage and view his NFT, Mirror articles and other Web3-style content.
On July 19th, CyberConnect announced the launch of its native social app Link3, an identity aggregator in a Web3 social network.
Link3 will aggregate users’ on-chain and off-chain data through a profile page, which serves as the user’s overall identity in the Web3 world and forms a trusted network of connections with others and organizations. At present, users who want to experience the product need to apply for a whitelist.