Decentralized networks require email. XMTP plans to provide such a decentralized communication layer to realize wallet-to-wallet-to-instant communication.
Written by: Paul Veradittakit, Founding Partner of Pantera Capital Compiled by: Perry Wang
Blockchain innovation is constantly evolving at an alarming rate. In the DeFi field, in just over a year, it has evolved from an early lending agreement to a large number of innovative financial instruments-perpetual swap contracts, liquid mortgages, structured financial products, and so on. NFT has finally entered the mainstream, pushing some existing projects to find product market fits, and attracting many ambitious teams to enter this field. With the “DAOization” of encryption protocols, important governance tools have also been created to meet demand.
In just a few years, the crypto ecosystem has established ways to conduct transactions, lending, payments, pledges, voting, and many other actions in a permissionless manner. But there is an obvious loophole in this new field: we haven’t really figured out how to communicate.
Communication problems in a decentralized world
Don’t get me wrong, the crypto community has found a Web 2.0 channel for communication: “Encrypted Twitter/CT”, Discord server, Telegram group, Signal chat, etc. But these band-aid solutions have not touched the core of the future needs of Web 3.0. Large platforms are still using our identity to monetize, the words of their users are censored, and their gateways to the world on the chain are restricted.
Although current chat rooms help promote social communication in the encrypted community, they are inefficient for functional communication. In order to explain clearly what I mean, look at the future Web 3.0 users may find the need for functional communication in the following scenarios:
- A certain NFT attracts someone’s attention, but this NFT is not for sale. All holders who want to contact this NFT to assess their willingness to sell and make an offer.
- The DeFi lending agreement hopes to establish push notifications to automatically alert liquidity providers (LPs) when they face liquidation risks so that they can increase their collateral.
- A controversial governance vote is underway. A giant coin-holding whale has not yet voted. A member of the DAO wants to contact him directly to try to persuade him to vote in a specific direction.
- A new DeFi project hopes to guide the spread of its community and attract early liquidity. They hope that instead of using traditional methods (Medium posts, Discord servers, etc.), they directly contact the addresses of advanced DeFi users and encourage them to use the protocol.
The infrastructure to support the above activities does not exist today: there is no permissionless wallet-to-wallet communication. But once these become possible, you can imagine the great value that frictionless, functional communication can unlock.
In short, a decentralized web needs email.
Introduce XMTP
According to XMTP co-founders Shane Mac and Matt Galligan, XMTP is the basic building block for the next network iteration-a license-free encrypted native communication protocol that connects communities, creators, protocols, applications, and users .
The current communication platform is surrounded by walls and centralized control, e-mail is flooded with spam, and chat applications are flooded with endless scams. We are here to build a better way of communication for the world, based on a decentralized network owned by users, and implement consistent incentives among network participants.
In short, XMTP is a decentralized communication layer that can realize wallet-to-wallet-to-wallet-to-instant communication.
The agreement emphasizes that decentralization is its vital characteristic. The XMTP network will be protected by an independent validator network, and the message will be fully encrypted by the user’s existing wallet. These characteristics give it an important feature of assemblability: there is almost no intervention at the protocol layer, and developers can build their own front-ends.
For example, a team can design an XMTP “client” with a sophisticated spam filter. This design mechanism retains the immutability of the message, while also encouraging third parties to innovate on top of the first layer of XMTP.
The team is still working on building the protocol, but they have hinted at some exciting features, such as “bounty” messages, when they are opened, the sender will pay the recipient a reward.
XMTP recently announced a US$20 million Series A financing led by a16z Crypto. Several big-name angel investors including Alexis Ohanian, Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant also participated in this round of investment. I am also very happy to personally invest in this company with these industry leaders.
Where are we from; where are we going.
In the field of encryption, we often talk about how the Internet uses information to create value: providing instant, cost-free, and programmable distribution. Of course we still have a lot of work to do, but we are working towards that future.
But let us not forget that just like the advantages that the blockchain gives to value: making it untrustworthy, composable and immutable, the blockchain can also provide a lot of empowerment for information. There are fewer and fewer teams to solve these problems, which is what makes me excited about XMTP.
Satoshi Nakamoto even talked about communication in one of his earliest emails:
[Bitcoin] can already be used to send emails for a fee. The sending dialog box can be adjusted in size, and you can enter any length of communication information as needed. Send directly when online. The recipient double-clicks the transaction to view the complete message. If a celebrity receives more emails than they can read, but still wants fans to have this channel to contact them, they can set up a bitcoin payment mechanism and provide an IP address on their website. “Send X bitcoins to the priority hotline I set up on this IP, and I will read the corresponding news myself.”
Now, after nearly 15 years, this vision may finally become a reality.
And paid delivery is just a result at your fingertips-many decentralized communication “killer applications” may be unimaginable for us today.
Please pay close attention to XMTP and the future of decentralized communication. The road ahead is long, but I believe that this road will push the entire industry forward.
Source link: www.veradiverdict.com
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