Entering the “Meta Universe” does not happen overnight. It needs to lay a series of Web 3.0 middleware scaffolding to transmit the aborigines of the Internet to this new world. This is the mission of Mask Network, “that is, to act as a catalyst to accelerate “Meta Universe.” “s arrival.”
Interviewee: Suji Yan, founder of Mask Network Interview and writing: LeftOfCenter
On April 1st this year, Mask Network founder Suji posted an April Fool’s Day tweet about Facebook’s US$20 billion acquisition of Mask Network. It’s a joke, but this tweet shows the great ambition of Mask Network to some extent. That is, the seamless introduction of Web 3.0 experience on all mainstream social media platforms allows the aborigines of the Internet to unknowingly use Web 3.0 and enter the new world of Metaverse.
Metaverse (metaverse) has become a hot spot in recent capital pursuits. Aside from various long and grand narratives, Suji, the founder of Mask Network, has a simple insight into the essence of Metaverse, which is a new virtual reality that is more real than the Internet. Space, it gives cyber residents authenticity, whether it is tactile or political and economic rights. Residents who “live” here will have the concept of their own property rights, whether it is data, identity, social relationships, or the assets themselves. On the other hand, new organizational forms will appear to replace traditional corporate systems, such as DAO. The organization is bottom-up, flexible and free, and members of the organization have the right to vote.
Suji’s April Fool’s Tweet
In the “meta universe” world, mankind is no longer bound by the flesh, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, skin color or sexual orientation is no longer important, mankind will enter a new mental civilization. In Suji’s view, the human species will gradually transform from carbon-based to silicon-based (Virtual Being), and will eventually enter the “meta universe.” However, achieving this goal is not accomplished overnight. In fact, this migration requires the assistance of various Web 3.0 middlewares. As one of the largest Web 3.0 middlewares, Mask Network will be committed to building a simple and easy-to-use decentralization. The entrance, for this “meta universe”, continuously transports incremental users.
The main strategy of Mask Network is also very simple, providing a simple and easy-to-use Web 3.0 user experience for ordinary Internet users. “Allowing people who don’t understand blockchain can quickly enter the new world of Web 3.0.” Although this requirement for ordinary people is simple, it is currently the largest user requirement in the encryption world. Therefore, it is very valuable and has become the reliance of many DeFi applications. The source of traffic, all projects including Ethereum need Mask Network to introduce incremental users for it. In the early days, through the establishment of partnerships with a series of mainstream DeFi applications, Mask Network has successfully completed a cold start. With the transition to permissionlessness, Mask Network will gradually evolve into a self-growing ecosystem, a decentralized version of the Apple App Store.
For a blockchain project, the personality and beliefs of its leader will have a vital impact on the development of the project, the degree of community openness and even the future development direction. The same is true for Mask Network. Its founder Suji Yan’s early experience of studying abroad, as well as some people and things encountered at the time, and social practices involved in the society became the key clues for the subsequent creation of Mask Network.
Mankind will eventually enter the “meta universe”
Mask Network was founded in 2017 and was originally called Maskbook. It is not a new project in terms of time, but in fact, it was not until the last year that Mask Network began to make efforts and released a series of tools, including those launched in cooperation with MakerDAO, which can be directly promoted. Special small plugins for sending and receiving red envelopes, based on Twitter’s ITO model, sending encrypted messages based on Twitter, etc. In addition, Mask Network supports the black equal rights movement “Black Lives Matter” and opposes the 996 movement, etc. Social events show up on social media.
Whether it is from the name (Mask Network, formerly known as Maskbook) or the logo design, you can see the ambition of this project
Whether supporting equal rights for blacks or opposing the 996 incident, you will find that this team pays particular attention to and promotes social inclusion and social justice issues. In fact, this is inseparable from the life experience of the founder of Mask Network.
Suji, the founder of Mask Network, was born in 1996, which means he was only 21 years old when he founded Mask Network, but Suji showed a disproportionate maturity. Because he chose liberal arts in high school and was interested in political economy in history, this made him accustomed to thinking about deep-seated problems in the structure of human society. He believes that some of the current social problems actually have deeper roots. Human beings will eventually transform from carbon-based to silicon-based and enter a new cyberspace. The key to this new world being superior to the old Internet lies in its ability to empower individuals with economic and political power. Power, and only in this way can it be possible to build a more fair and open human society.
Although he studied liberal arts in high school, Suji studied CS in the United States. Although he dropped out of school soon after he went to school. In his words, “The school can’t teach me anything. It’s too boring.” While studying in the United States, Suji began to devote himself to real life. This includes working in TuSimple, an AI unmanned vehicle unicorn company, as the top 10 employee of the company; becoming an independent journalist working for Curiosity Daily and Finance, during which he had the opportunity to interview many Internet pioneers, such as the early employees of Netscape and Ted Nelson, the theoretical pioneer of the World Wide Web; worked as a reporter in the Japanese exchange, reporting on the problems facing the reconstruction of the Fukushima nuclear power plant; by chance, I met the developers of the Bitcoin core. In Suji’s eyes, “This group of people has both a technical background and a strong sense of social responsibility. They want to transform society and are willing to support social movements. It’s so cool!” Later, he indirectly learned of Bitcoin’s rival, Ethereum, and then The reader’s more open spirit has become the driving force for him to devote himself to in-depth research.
In fact, the people or things that you come into contact outside of these schools can be regarded as the real gains of those years of studying abroad, whether it is the belief and belief in the coming of the new Internet “meta universe”, the formation of “problem awareness”, or “seeing It’s unreasonable to solve it, no one will do it, I’ll do it”, which planted the seeds for the subsequent venture and the main strategy of Mask Network.
Mask Network is a catalyst to accelerate the arrival of “Meta Universe”
Suji believes, “In the last 30 years, the World Wide Web was caught in other problems, and the original vision of the Internet was not realized. Mankind needs a new Internet. This inevitable new Internet is the “meta universe”, and Mask is a catalyst to accelerate the arrival of the “meta universe.” . “
The decentralization, freedom, and openness advocated at the beginning of the Internet, or the original intention of the establishment of the World Wide Web-to give people equal access to information, these most valuable things have gone away from us. With the penetration of the mobile Internet into ordinary people’s food, clothing, housing, and transportation, people use various apps to accomplish everything, whether it’s communication, consumption or social interaction. However, these apps are all “information islands” that limit users to carefully constructed ones. “Walled Garden”. Under the “separated regime” of apps, equality and freedom have long been far away from the Internet. In addition, the misuse of users’ personal information by platforms, the monopoly of data by large online companies, and the proliferation of false news and propaganda have made the Internet more “centralized” today.
In Suji’s view, the Internet has gone farther and farther away from its original intention at this stage. The old Internet was like serfdom in the Middle Ages. Slave owners rented the means of production-land to the serfs for farming, so as to maximize their profits. Since serfs themselves did not own the land, they could not leave with the means of production, and had no bargaining power, so they could only passively endure exploitation and were firmly tied to the land.
Suji compares today’s Internet users to digital serfs . Just as serfs in the Middle Ages did not have the means of production “land”, today’s Internet users can only lie passively because they do not have the ownership of the means of production—data in the digital world. Swipe your phone to passively “enjoy” nipple fun.
Internet users’ data is owned by each company. Both identities and data are bound to the platform. Because they do not own an account, they face the risk of being reviewed and cancelled at any time; each application corresponds to an account and corresponding data, each Home data are not interlinked, isolated from each other and become data islands, and the platform relies on algorithms to track and analyze the data of these users to maximize revenue.
A person who has never enjoyed political rights may not understand the importance of voting rights. Similarly, a person who has never enjoyed data ownership may not realize the importance of data. The benefits of data may not be so easy to show, but the disadvantages of losing control of data have already penetrated into every aspect of daily life. It is just a question of awareness. Whether it’s the takeaway guy trapped by the system, the workers desperately completing KPIs, the social animals driven crazy by the project deadline, or the 996 programmers, under all these appearances that we hate, the deep-seated reason is simply that people are The “old Internet” technology is alienated, and the technology that should serve people has now become a tool to control us.
It can be said that in the past 30 years, the World Wide Web has become farther and farther away from the original intention of the open spirit when it was founded, and has become a new shackle that binds digital citizens.
This was even more convinced when Suji interviewed Ted Nelson, the theoretical pioneer of the World Wide Web when he was a reporter. Suji still remembers the scene clearly. Ted Nelson was over 80 years old at the time. Although he was getting older, his enthusiasm for the Internet has not extinguished. He still believes that “There will be a new internet. There will be a new revolution towards the new internet”.
This sentence is like a beam of light, which convinced Suji, “The new generation of Internet is coming, and it is Ethereum.”
Ted Nelson is one of the theoretical pioneers of the World Wide Web and the spiritual mentor of Tim Berners-Lee. The Xanadu project was proposed in 1965, with the purpose of publishing and publishing the world’s information in the form of hypertext, thus inventing the concept of hypertext and hypermedia. In his vision of the future Internet, every quote on the Internet can be clicked back to its source. If the reader does not read it once, the original author can get a small reward.
Xanadu, conceived by Ted Nelson
“Human society will enter a new virtual world. Whether it is “meta universe” or Web 3.0, mankind must be transformed from carbon-based to silicon-based. This new world needs a fair governance system, otherwise you will be more involved. . “
Suji has an essential understanding of the “meta universe”, a hot spot pursued by capital recently. “Meta universe” is a virtual world that is more real than the Internet, embodied in tactility and political and economic rights. The Mask Network will act as a catalyst for the “Meta Universe” to accelerate the arrival of this new world. “
Suji is optimistic about Ethereum. Compared with Bitcoin, it is more open and free, and you can do more on it. However, it will be the end of 2017 and the beginning of 18, Ethereum is very difficult to use, just like the early Internet, the experience is poor and the number of users is very small.
After gradually in-depth research on blockchain and Ethereum, Suji observed a phenomenon. At that time (end of 2017), many people were excited about the new blockchain technology, and various new public chains, new side chains, new Concepts, new protocols, but no one has made the tools for ordinary people to use the new Internet. This is very similar to the early Internet.
When I was an independent reporter at Suji, I interviewed the early employees of Netscape and learned the story of Netscape, the first browser on the Internet. After the World Wide Web was invented, it was not immediately commercialized. At that time, the Internet was as difficult to use as today’s Ethereum. It required dialing and typing codes to access forums. In this case, Microsoft monopolizes the entire consumer market by developing operating system software. In other words, ordinary people who do not understand the code must purchase Microsoft’s operating system if they want to go online.
This situation was not changed until the emergence of Netscape. At that time, a young man named Mark Andreson discovered that people were busy inventing new protocols, new layers, and new concepts, but no one developed products for ordinary users. So he made a tool. The goal of this tool is very simple, that is, ordinary people can access the Internet by double-clicking on Windows. This tool is a browser. At that time, Mark Andreson developed the first browser Netscape browser. Since then, ordinary users only need to download a browser to enter the Internet world without having to pay for an operating system from Microsoft. Mark Andreson later became the founder of the a16z fund. Although Netscape was later acquired, the browser was retained as an online tool. Later generations of browsers came out and became an indispensable tool for Internet surfing.
This made Suji realize that Web 3.0 requires its own Netscape browser.
Mask Network’s main strategy: seamlessly introduce Internet users into Web3.0
Even if the largest decentralized application Metamask has only a few million monthly lives (as of recently, it is 5 million). The reason lies in the high barriers to use of blockchain and encryption applications, which discourage ordinary users. On the other hand, whether it is personal data or social relationships, users cannot leave the original Web 2.0 platform.
Suji noted that, on the one hand, Internet users have an urgent need for Web 3.0, but they cannot do without the Internet in the contradiction. Then, the aboriginal Internet users can use it without leaving the familiar environment or dealing with complicated wallet passwords. The function of Web 3.0 is the most urgent problem that needs to be solved in the current blockchain industry. This is also the problem that Mask Network needs to solve urgently-to provide ordinary users with a Web3.0 entrance on Web2.0.
Positioned as the gatekeeper of the new Internet, a bridge linking Web2.0 to Web3.0, Mask Network has successively released a series of “DApplet” (Decentralized Applet), hoping to seamlessly introduce the aborigines of the Internet to the new Internet of Web3.0 middle.
Since ownership is tied to the identity system, the first step of Mask Network is to launch the DID decentralized identity system. Because only with a decentralized identity system can there be the concept of ownership, including data ownership. With a decentralized identity, you can log in to all platforms with one identity, and these data are connected. Decentralized identity also means that a centralized platform cannot arbitrarily dispose and review your account and data. With the ownership of your own data, you can migrate the data to other platforms, and each platform has no right to intervene.
When you have an identity that is not controlled by the platform party, you can even enjoy the economic benefits that this identity brings.
An example event is that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet “Just set up my Twitter” in 2006 through the auction of Valuables, a NFT casting tool, with a total turnover of 1,630 ETH (valued at more than 2.9 million US dollars). ).
It is worth mentioning that Valuables was born from the joint bounty program of Mask Network and Cent, and it is also part of the Mask Network ecosystem. It is an NFT casting extension application integrated with the Twitter platform, which supports Twitter users to directly sell and trade their own tweets in the form of NFT on Twitter, and also allows buyers to actively initiate a certain tweet in the form of NFT Bid to fund the publisher and support the direct display of the bidding history of the tweet on Twitter, including the current bid.
The digital certificate of the tweet represented by the NFT, and the certificate is personally signed and verified by the wallet address of the tweet creator, and contains the metadata of the original tweet: publisher, publication time, tweet content, etc., all metadata All are located on the Matic blockchain.
The Mask Network will soon launch a small plug-in that integrates Instagram, which will allow Instagram platform users to sell their published image content to fans in the form of NFT. Because of the identity system and data ownership that is not controlled by the platform, the income from the sale The platform side divides less than a cent. If you are a KOL with many fans, you can use this plug-in to build a fan economy without being exploited by the platform as in the Web2.0 era.
Mask has successively launched a series of DApplets including: In February last year, Mask Network and MakerDAO jointly launched the Twitter Red Packet (Red Packet) function, allowing users to send and receive encrypted currency red packets on Twitter without involving complicated mnemonic words. The results are also remarkable. It has become Maker’s largest source of traffic besides DeFi, and attracts the attention and participation of Ethereum founder Vitalik; the donation function jointly launched by Mask Network and Gitcoin allows users to directly contact Gitcoin without leaving the Twitter platform. Projects donate; Mask Network and the decentralized storage project Arweave jointly launched a decentralized storage function that allows users to upload and store decentralized files directly on Twitter or Facebook; and the cooperation with CoinMarketCap and Uniswap allows Users watch the market directly on Twitter and even conduct decentralized transactions.
The ITO (Initial Twitter Offering) model invented by Mask Network, that is, the first issuance of Twitter-based tokens, allows Internet users to directly subscribe for tokens on Twitter. The Mask Network project itself also issued its own governance tokens using the ITO model, which is very popular At one point, it caused a delay in the issuance of tokens, and the instantaneous traffic exceeded the number of users of Metamask. This means that Internet users do have an urgent need to use Web3.0, which proves that Mask Network’s main strategy of “building a bridge to the Web3 world through the Internet/Web2.0 platform” is correct, that is, focusing on solving the problem. An even more urgent need-to connect the Internet and the Web3.0 world, so that ordinary people can easily use Web3.0 functions.
“It is said that ordinary people have a high barrier to entering the world of encryption, such as terrible interfaces, complicated keys and mnemonics, etc., but Mask Network is only to achieve a simple goal, allowing users to not leave the Internet’s native experience. Becoming an NFT user unconsciously, holding tokens, making investments, and receiving encrypted red envelopes. This is a bit like the countryside surrounding the city, and it will eventually converge into the ocean of “meta universe”.”
“But entering the “meta universe” does not happen overnight. It needs to lay a series of simple and easy-to-use Web3.0 middleware bridges to transmit the aborigines of the Internet to this new world. This is exactly the mission of Mask Network to build decentralization. The entrance to the world has nurtured one after another Web3.0 scaffolding, which continuously transports incremental users for the “meta universe”.” Suji said.
Openness, cooperation and problem awareness
Mask Network focuses on solving the more urgent user needs in the current encryption world, that is, providing solutions to connect the Internet and the Web3.0 world, so that ordinary people can easily use Web3.0 functions. Solving more pressing needs means doing only the important things and never reinventing the wheel. All the applications currently released by the Mask Network ecosystem are launched in cooperation with other top projects, the Twitter red envelope launched in cooperation with Maker, the Twitter donation launched in cooperation with Gitcoin, and a decentralized storage launched in cooperation with Arweave.
Suji believes, “Whether it is Dex, DeFi, wallet or NFT, various projects and infrastructure in the Web 3.0 ecosystem are already very rich. Mask does not need to participate in this type of competition. Mask’s goal is very simple, that is, let ordinary people know Unconsciously use Web3.0 and enter this new world of Web3.0.”
“At present, the number of users in the industry of decentralized Internet is still very small. If we can use our infrastructure to make this new world have more users, it is very valuable. All projects including Ethereum need Mask. Network introduces incremental users for it.”
Just like the state of the world during the university years, the results of these collaborations are “talked out” with the current head DeFi projects. This rather open mind can also give birth to practical solutions. “After talking to the project, we can discover what is unreasonable and what problems need to be solved. This is not the same as just sitting in the office and researching.” Suji said.
In order to find more target users for Web3.0, another main strategy of Mask is to find users in the community closest to the blockchain, such as cooperating with the decentralized social network Mastodon to develop products. Mastodon is a federated social distributed network. Unlike Twitter, this service is positioned as an independent small community and community-based (rather than top-down) review and service operations. Mastodon currently has 4 million users, but because there is no VC investment and no commercial operation, there is no source of income. For this reason, Mask has donated to it.
On the other hand, Suji is also soberly aware that decentralization is not a panacea. It has its own limitations. Decentralization is not necessarily the most efficient, but it is indeed a meaningful organizational structure and should be used. Where you can play to your own advantages. Where the centralized model does not work, it can be done by decentralization. For example, traditional companies cannot directly complete decentralization. These can be done by Mask’s DApplet. For example, Mask’s transaction program can directly purchase tokens on Uniswap through Twitter. For example, Mask’s NFT program allows users to directly on Twitter. Complete the NFT purchase on.
There are currently more than 10 DApplet applets like this in the Mask Network ecosystem, of which 5/6 are exemplary products released by the official joint head DeFi project, and the remaining applets are born from Bounty activities. There are dozens of small programs under development.
The above is just the tip of the iceberg in Mask ecology. With the gradual transition to decentralization, Mask Network will gradually evolve into a protocol that does not require permission. Any developer develops a “DApplet” that connects the Internet and the blockchain based on it. These DApplets can be directly inserted into Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. In other platforms, help these centralized social platforms complete decentralization, or turn these centralized platforms into a decentralized social protocol through technical means.
For the foreseeable future, Mask will form a self-growing ecosystem, just like the Apple App Store. However, unlike Apple’s split and centralized review, Mask is decentralized and will use DAO review.
We cannot predict what the full picture of Mask Network will look like in the future, but what is certain is that Suji and his team will continue to look for incremental users for the blockchain with “problem awareness”, allowing ordinary Internet users to use Web 3.0, and , More and more independent developers from all over the world will join the Mask Network ecosystem to contribute code and develop applications. These small plug-ins with different functions are connected to Web 2.0 at one end and Web 3.0 world at the other. Adding a small plug-in like this will increase the number of users pouring into the new world. These trickles will eventually converge into the ocean, and Mask is the source.
Reference link
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Nj57Go7yZ9Zr6h-9IWKNbQ
https://www.wired.com/story/how-github-helping-overworked-chinese-programmers/
https://masknetwork.medium.com/mask-network-x-cent-buy-the-tweet-you-just-saw-on-twitter-6b3f697057d
