At 6:00 p.m. on January 13th, Math Wallet held the 17th issue of Math Show. We were honored to invite Suji Yan, the founder and CEO of Mask Network, and Wang Lujie, Director of Overseas Marketing of Winkrypto, as the special host. The theme was "Web3.0 The first stop: Mask Network", the following is the wonderful writing of the night.
Suji Yan：
Hello everyone, I am Suji, the founder and CEO of Mask Network; I dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to start a business, and I also worked as an independent reporter for Qdaily and Caixin Media before that; Act as an engineer. In my spare time, I also collaborated with RadicalxChange and other scholars to write articles; the previous Hacktivism (referring to using technology to try to change society) was also reported by Wired, Wall Street Journal (WSJ), etc.
Wang Lujie:
Let's first invite Suji to share with us about Web3.0 that Mask Network understands and practices.
Suji Yan：
Let me introduce Mask Network! The prototype of our project and team actually originated in early 2018. After several technical iterations, the current product and brand name Mask Network (mask.io) were finally formed.
Mask Network (formerly known as Maskbook) is a portal to help users seamlessly transition from Web2.0 to Web3.0. It allows users to seamlessly send encrypted messages, cryptocurrencies, and even decentralized applications (such as DeFi, NFT, and DAO) on the platforms of traditional social giants; thus, users can create a decentralized application ecosystem. In a word, what we have to do is to build a bridge to the new open network on the current network.
If you introduce it in plain language, practitioners or observers in this industry have seen various public chains, Layer2 or DeFi, DAO, NFT and other cool terms and things that are difficult for the traditional Internet, but these things seem to be far from ordinary The lives of cyber citizens are very remote.
For us, even more so. Is it possible for us to build a bridge or a gate so that users can easily go to this new Internet with one click on traditional Internet platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, and let the new Internet The function has a good experience, so that the general public can use it? It sounds beautiful and difficult, but all in all we finally got here and completed the first step of the product. So in plain English, it is a bridge to the new Internet without hassle.
So what is the bridge to the new Internet? Next, I would like to give you some demonstrations, so that you can better understand the meaning of this bridge from a functional perspective.
For example, a function: Galaxy’s first stablecoin encryption red envelope
This function allows users to directly send and receive virtual currency red envelopes on Twitter/FB and other places. During the Chinese New Year in 2020, Mask and MakerDAO cooperated in the first red envelope activity. This is a relatively novel content, which also attracted Vitalik's participation.
In the next year, we also successively cooperated with OKB, Darwin, Phala and other projects to distribute virtual currency red envelopes. Of course, many users also use this function to do some red envelope distribution activities.
In addition, during the severe epidemic period, we also helped Gitcoin, a subsidiary of ConsenSys, to implement a fundraising function. You can donate stable coins directly to NGOs such as the Red Cross through Mask. Now you can recognize Gitcoin links on Twitter and make donations as long as you install the Mask plugin. This is also the first time that it can help these disadvantaged groups to raise decentralized tokens.
In addition, Gitcoin has cooperated with the Red Cross and some non-governmental organizations of the United Nations. They can also use this tool to carry out public welfare activities, which is supported by Mask Network.
In the process of product development, we have developed each of the above functions into a system, and anyone can develop a small program or small application through the technical framework of Mask Network.
As we all know, DApp is currently the largest market in the blockchain industry, and both DeFi and NFT can be classified as DApp. There are people participating in the development on different tracks. This incident reminds us of a question: "Can you make something bigger than DApp, so that the DApp market will expand by 100 times or 1000 times?"
So we developed a technical framework called DApplet (Decentralized Applet), which can be directly plugged into Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. Simply put, Mask Network can put applets into Facebook or Twitter, and they will not know; or it can be decentralized through our technology, so that social platforms cannot block it. We should be the only team in this industry that has mastered this technical framework and is willing to open source it.
After completing the DApplet, the next problem we need to solve is storage: can a file be sent to the decentralized world and displayed on Twitter at the same time? It will become a very important part of the social network. So Mask Network and the decentralized storage project Arweave have carried out in-depth cooperation, and now it is possible to upload and store decentralized files on Twitter or Facebook. Recently, we also announced cooperation with another storage project, Sia, hoping to provide Mask users with more storage options.
In fact, Mask Network has more actions in the second half of 2020, and it has attracted more and more people's attention. The rise of DeFi has also given us opportunities. We have successively launched the market + transaction function, connected to Transak, and completed the first ITO project activities in the past two days. (Transak is an aggregation payment product based on ConsenSys / MetaMask.)
Let me introduce these functions next.
The first is the market + transaction function.
We found that when DeFi was on the rise, many people would use social platforms to collect the latest news. Twitter itself has some tags for users to use. For example, Hashtag# represents topics, and there are also $ symbols to represent some stocks or virtual currencies.
Everyone knows that the founder and CEO of Twitter and Square are both Jack Dorsey. He is also a staunch supporter of Crypto and decentralization, and this round of institutional bull market also has his credit.
Jack also talked about Twitter's decentralization process at the end of 2019. However, since Twitter/Sqaure are both centralized, it is basically impossible to achieve integration. Obviously users can see other people discussing projects on Twitter and interact with the Uni team, but they cannot directly trade in one step.
So we thought of a function that can automatically display the market when your mouse slides over $ETH, so we cooperated with Uniswap, CMC and CoinGecko to put them inside Mask and display them on the centralized Twitter, so now users who use the Mask plug-in can see the market with one click.
Later, we optimized this function. Now when Mask users search for virtual currency, we built the market into the search page, and you can also choose the data source yourself, just like this picture.
After we solved the market display step, we wondered if we could go deeper? Trading is a good choice. When users use the market function, we will automatically identify its address. If it is an Erc20 currency, Mask will be connected to Uniswap and 0x, so that users can perform the Swap function.
This cooperation has also received strong support from various partners. Everyone is surprised that Web3.0 can be directly used on the Internet!
Uniswap founder Adams also came to trade on his own.
In addition, many old users do not want to change their wallets or want to continue to use MetaMask or other wallet management. We have also cooperated with MetaMask.
It feels like Twitter/Facebook called Ethereum, which is very magical.
Dan is the CTO of MetaMask, and he has integrated this function with them for a while.
After doing this, the second thing to do is to connect to Transak.
Because the threshold of the blockchain is still relatively high, Mask Network and Transak have cooperated to enrich our functions, and users can now purchase directly on Twitter!
It is worth mentioning the Transak project, which is a legal currency aggregator incubated by ConsenSys, which aggregates legal channels from more than 50 countries around the world. If you open the mobile version of MetaMask, the default channel for purchasing ETH is Transak.
When Mask Network connected these functions step by step, we discovered that we are actually slowly opening up a whole line of open finance and building a collection, but there is still a missing function, which is ITO (Initial Twitter Offering).
ITO, the first Twitter release is a function based on IDO (Initial Decentralized Release), hoping to further draw users closer, abide by the user's usage habits, and use this to further upgrade. For many users who are used to and use DeFi, their information and user behavior are based on Twitter. A shorter user process is a core differentiator. ITO can directly hit the pain points of users and retain more users.
ITO supports "one price, multiple batches" issuance of tokens. After that, Mask Network also plans to support various forms of auctions and bonding curves to serve various ITO needs.
The first to participate in our ITO is a very well-known project, Loopring. At 2 o'clock in the morning on January 11, we sent out a post with Loopring ITO, the limit for one account is 500u, and within three minutes, the Loopring worth 50,000 US dollars was sold out. Give a very big encouragement.
Wang Lujie:
Question from users: Mask Network has integrated multiple projects in terms of privacy protection and has established an ITO model on Twitter, but the operating threshold is still slightly high. How to lower the threshold for users?
Suji Yan：
We think so. In the past, there were many projects that wanted everyone to leave the traditional Web2.0 platform and go to Web3.0 one step at a time. In fact, it was not reliable. However, simple wallets and DeFi/NFT are actually relatively difficult to use, and the current auction is also a game in which large players participate.
Our strengths and strengths are to continue to cooperate with these projects to optimize user experience. For example, cooperate with DAI to optimize red envelopes and payments, and cooperate with Uniswap. Our project has not been established for a long time, and it is not short in the blockchain industry. During this time, we have greatly reduced the user operation threshold. At the same time, we also operate one of the largest Twitter third-party clients. The goal is to continue to lower the threshold and make the blockchain grow on the Internet, which is as straightforward and easy to use.
Wang Lujie:
User question: Where is the innovation of Mask Network's ITO? Why do you provide ITO services for project parties? What was your core reason for getting into fundraising?
Suji Yan：
Our core innovation point (not only ITO) is to open the ecology, help everyone, be supported by everyone, and not compete with anyone.
We have seen a lot of auction items, and we really like them, such as Mesa, such as Sushi's Maki, and we will do it recently.
Our ITO system is actually the sum of all auctions and issuances. Currently it is our own Mask auction system, and we will soon announce some new cooperations. In the past, many project parties actually had no way to allow everyone to participate and make it easy to use.
"Getting involved in the field of fundraising" is not just about fundraising. For example, the sale and purchase of NFT is also a kind of Twitter Offering. We believe that the next step of Open Finance is Open Web, and we are accelerating its implementation.
Wang Lujie:
User question: Twitter banned Trump's account. Does this behavior comply with your principles for Web3.0 and user privacy protection?
Suji Yan：
We feel that although Twitter's CEO, executives and others have been trying to decentralize in the past, including FB wanting to make Libra (although it is semi-centralized), in the end the dragon-slaying boy turned into a dragon.
We believe that Web3.0 or the future Internet should be governed by users themselves, so I think it does not meet the requirements. This is why we continue to support various Twitter clients and decentralized social networks.
Wang Lujie:
User question: Following this question, how does Mask Network's products ensure the security of user privacy?
Suji Yan：
First of all, we do not have any centralized service structure at all, which fundamentally eliminates the possibility of us doing bad things.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that important companies in the Web3.0 era are also trying to change the Internet from the standard level to protect user autonomy, privacy, etc. For example, we are a member of ECMA/TC39 and joined at the end of 2019.
You can search for Suji or MetaMask, which should be one of the few companies in the blockchain industry to join.
And a new friend Coinbase:
So we make sure not to use centralized solutions, and then continue to transform the Internet itself, which has problems with centralization. At present, there are only 2/3 allies, and we have to work harder.
Wang Lujie:
One of my personal questions would like to ask Suji, why are there a large number of users willing to sacrifice their privacy in exchange for certain aspects of convenience? Is there any way to improve users' awareness of privacy protection?
Suji Yan：
I think it's not just about privacy, nor about encryption. At first, people thought it was just stealing data, and then they started blocking accounts, and then started blocking transfers and transactions. There are more and more examples of these.
Therefore, users are slowly waking up to the fact that leaking chat records may not be a big problem. We hope to tell users about this, and then systematically give them an entry.
Wang Lujie:
I hope that users' awareness of privacy protection will become stronger and stronger. Then the last user question: Mask Network also planned to participate in the Polkadot ecosystem before. Will it participate in the parachain slot auction?
Suji Yan：
Yes, there is no plan at present, because we are focusing on the bridge of Web2.0/Web3.0. In fact, slots are not necessarily completely needed, and we leave it to friends who need it more.
Wang Lujie:
Thank you very much to the "show" friends who participated in the Math Show #017 event tonight. After Suji's sharing of Mask Network, everyone must have a better understanding of it. I wish Mask Network better and better!
Link:
Link:http://mathshow.mikecrm.com/2QEz163
So far, the "show" friendship meeting of Math Show #017 is over, thank you again for your time and listening, we will see you in the next issue, good night everyone~
