Editor's Note: This article comes fromOrange Book (ID: chengpishu), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Orange Book (ID: chengpishu)

Orange Book (ID: chengpishu)

, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

"After talking for a long time, you still haven't answered my question. Why do ordinary people go to such trouble to send and receive encrypted messages on Twitter?" I asked Suji."Well... there's really no scene." Suji paused. "However, the new version of Mask Network also supports posting pictures that can only be viewed after payment. Think about it, a starlet can sell his own picture on Twitter, and anyone can buy it directly with cryptocurrency..."Fuck!

A ray of light suddenly appeared in Beijing's autumn night.

Old readers of the Orange Book are familiar with Mask Network. This rather heterogeneous product has unexpectedly become

One of the most out-of-the-box products we've covered

. At that time, I had a vague feeling that the demand for personal privacy was likely to be a giant dormant volcano. Once there is a suitable opportunity or product, it can be destroyed.

For unfamiliar friends, Mask Network is like this:

"I turned on my computer at a bookstore, and a few minutes ago, a plugin called Mask Network was installed on my browser. After everything was ready, I finally sent my first encrypted message on Facebook with the help of Mask Network.

The website shows that there is an extra meaningless garbled code under my Facebook account. But I know that this string of meaningless garbled codes has entered my friend's information flow. As long as the other party also installs the Mask Network plug-in, the correct information will be automatically decrypted, which is the sentence I just typed in the input box: hello world! "

It's amazing, isn't it? However, after chatting with Suji last year, I have always had a question. Although everyone thinks this product is cool, how many people will really continue to use it?

In other words, where are the real users and scenarios of Mask Network?

Different from other products in the crypto field, if it is to cater to everyone's speculative needs, it is enough to issue coins, and we can rely on the existing small group of people to play. But what Mask Network wants to do is social networking, which may be the most brutally competitive market in the Internet field. Usually, only one family can survive, and no grass will grow under the big tree.

In the past decade or so, social companies that have been able to survive in the shadow of WeChat and FB can be counted on one hand. This is still a relatively mature Internet product, which has far surpassed Mask Network in terms of user experience and usage threshold, and this is the result.

The masses don't need another FB to message unless...the new thing has black magic and fulfills wishes that couldn't be fulfilled in the past.

Going back to the scene at the beginning, I think Mask Network may have found an entry point. What everyone wants to do on social networks, but cannot do it for various reasons (such as pornography, gambling and drugs), may be the first batch of real users that Mask Network can obtain.

I think most boys can understand how many obstacles humans can overcome and use eighteen martial arts for specific resources. Not to mention Mask Network or asymmetric encryption, the threshold of quantum computing can be overcome.

The point is, privacy is nice, but the user prefers convenience, unless it's something he really wants, like...  

Mask Network also has a function for buying coins. You see the name of a token on Twitter. As long as you install Mask Network, you can directly check the token price and purchase with one click, and the whole process is completed on the original page.

These functions are an important foreshadowing. For social networks, they are only marginal requirements, but for the early Mask Network, it can attract the right early users, and the subsequent development has to be watched as we go.

Suji said that Mask Network's strategy is like a Trojan horse of contemporary social networks. It is not to kill any giant. It is too early. As long as you can leverage a corner and force these giants to deal with you, it will be a huge success. . If the giant can't kill you in the end, the sky will be brighter.