【DeBox Research Institute】 | Author: Crypto Ming | Date of writing: August 13

Summary

  • Decentralized identity (DID) is a new and unique identity proof. Whether from the practical application perspective of solving Web3.0 fraud and piracy, or from the technical perspective of building the Web3.0 world, DID is an important infrastructure of Web3.0.

  • DID and DeSoc (decentralized society) are inseparable. SocialFi is one of the main entrances to increase traffic to Web3.0, and social platform projects are currently the focus of SocialFi. Social platforms can be divided into content creation social (Mirror, Monaco Yacht, etc.) and relationship social (Blockscan Chat, Atem, etc.), but both have some defects.

  • DeBox defines itself as a community management tool based on blockchain DID. When users join a DAO holding tokens, it can capture and display on-chain information (DID) to help users make more realistic decisions during governance and voting within the DAO. This process realizes the primary application of DID in DAO, and its scenario is urgently needed in the current Web3.0 world.

  • Different from "content creation social networking", DeBOX is based on the relationship-based social networking that has less attention but high demand in the SocialFi track, and launched the pop-up room + voice service function to accurately acquire new users through public domain traffic. In the field of SocialFi, although the economic model of DeBox tokens is relatively simple, the user experience of the Social part of its APP is very good, which is in line with the usage habits of Web3.0 users.

  • There are two main points about the future outlook of DeBox: introducing or upgrading more mature DID to assist DAO governance; and further exploring the practice of capturing and precipitating traffic.

1. DID is an important infrastructure of Web3.0

Vitalik Buterin (hereinafter referred to as V God) proposed a non-transferable token called Soulbound Token in "Decentralized Society: Finding the Soul of Web3". This token will be used to build the user identity system of Web3, which can represent qualifications, credentials and credibility. In fact, SBT proposed by V God is a form of DID (Decentralized IdentiFier).

Decentralized identity (DID) is a new and unique identity proof. It should be a combination of on-chain proof and off-chain proof. The on-chain proof is mainly the user's wallet activity or asset proof, and the off-chain proof is mainly the user's social information proof. For example, Spruce ID requires users to verify wallet signatures while also verifying Twitter, GitHub and other accounts that can prove your social information.

From the application perspective, the popularization of DID is urgently needed in Web3.0. For example, fraud and piracy are restricted by laws and centralized personal identities in the Web2.0 world, and the cost of crime is high, so there will not be widespread fraud and piracy. However, in Web3.0, fraud and piracy activities are only carried out with a wallet address, which can be discarded at will, and basically will not affect personal identity and reputation, and the cost of crime is extremely low. Similarly, for those users who want to establish and display their personal reputation and credibility in Web3.0, they lack a widely recognized way of displaying.

The current Web3.0 DID is still in its early stages. Although there are some applications of on-chain identity credentials or proofs, they are not systematic. The figure below is an overview of the application of on-chain identity proofs in Web3.0 compiled by Shrey Jain. In the future, DID will have disruptive applications for DAO, DeFi, and SocialFi.

Figure 1 Overview of the application of identity proof on the Web3.0 chain

At a deeper level, DID is a core component of a whole new layer of digital identity and public key infrastructure (PKI) for the decentralized Internet (Web3.0). The impact of this decentralized public key infrastructure (DPKI) on global network security and network privacy may be as great as the development of the SSL/TLS protocol for encrypted web traffic (now the world's largest PKI). Therefore, in terms of application and technology, DID is one of the important infrastructures of Web3.0.

DID is a decentralized identity proof. The basic attribute of identity proof is social attribute. It is because we are constantly interacting with society that we need identity proof. Therefore, DID and DeSoc (decentralized society) are inseparable.

2. SocialFi may be the main theme of the next stage of Web3.0

Binance CEO CZ published an article on the Indian version of Fortune, saying that SocialFi and GameFi are likely to become key factors in promoting the growth of crypto penetration in 2022. Traffic brings increments, SocialFi is one of the traffic entrances of Web3.0, and only the incremental market can provide Web3.0 with a steady stream of power.

In fact, the crypto community has been exploring the field of SocialFi. Before the DeFi Summer in 2020 and the NFT boom in 2021, the user and application base on the chain and the activities on the chain were at a very low level. At that time, the crypto community did not have a high demand for SocialFi. Therefore, "coin circle" social platforms such as Huoxin and Bihu came into being, but they did not introduce on-chain activities and data, and still stayed in the perspective and method of Web2.0, and will eventually be abandoned by the times. In 2022, the crypto world has developed deeply into Web3.0. Web3.0 has a certain user base and on-chain data. At the same time, the financial attributes of DeFi and the social attributes of NFT need a way to show integration. Therefore, SocialFi is a part of the current Web3.0 world that urgently needs to be built. At present, there are no real star projects in the SocialFi track, and most projects are in the exploration stage. For investment institutions, this is also a value depression.

Currently, the types of SocialFi projects in Web3.0 can be roughly divided into the following four categories based on their functions:

  • Infrastructure/Tools: Mask Network, Deso, etc.

  • Social platforms: BBS, Monaco Yacht, Blockscan Chat (created by the Etherscan team), Atem, Lens, etc.;

  • Personal token issuance platforms: Mirror, Rally, P00Ls, etc.

  • Personal tokens: RAC, etc.

From the perspective of Web3.0 user needs, social platforms may be one of the most popular segments in the SocialFi field that users urgently need. These social platforms are also divided into two types, content creation social (Mirror, Monaco Yacht, etc.) and relationship social (Blockscan Chat-created by the Etherscan team, Atem, etc.). Content creation social is easy to understand. The first purpose of users is to obtain content. Even if a fixed relationship is formed in the interaction, it is for the convenience of further obtaining information. So what about relationship social? Simply put, users use the product to establish or maintain relationships and interact with other users. It is more inclined to real-time or instant social, such as Atem, where users can realize C TO C NFT transactions through chat.

Figure 2 Atem’s chat interface

The practice of early social platform projects in Web3.0 has proved that content creation and social networking pay more attention to Fi attributes, which will result in a bad experience for most users. The decentralized creation platform Mirror initially obtained Write tokens through regular weekly voting. In order to obtain tokens, a lot of junk articles and robot voting were generated. The project team also realized this problem and later cancelled this rule, preferring content creation. Monaco Yacht, invested by 3AC, also has weak value capture because it pays too much attention to Fi attributes (content mining leads to too much junk content).

At the same time, purely social on-chain interactions will limit traffic injection (Blockscan Chat-created by the Etherscan team, Lens). On the one hand, it is not friendly to new Web3.0 users. On the other hand, you will never pay Gas for saying "GM" on the IDM function of Blockscan Chat, although this is very cool; and you definitely don’t want to be talked about by everyone because you have collected a short video in Lens (on-chain data is transparent).

Figure 3 Blockscan Chat-truly decentralized on-chain message communication (Gas required)

In summary, although SocialFi is the traffic entrance of Web3.0, the current Web3.0 social experience is not friendly to users or institutions. SocialFi is still in its early stages and there are still problems that need to be solved.

3. DeBox-Web3.0 community management tool based on DID

DeBox defines itself as a community management tool based on blockchain DID. Since it is a community management tool, it is assumed that DeBox is benchmarked against Telegram and Discord, social and community management tools widely used by users in Web2.0. These two mainstream Web2.0 tools have pain points in information authenticity and fraud environment governance, and do not have direct access to Web3.0. How does DeBox solve this problem?

Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of DeBox and traditional Web2.0 community management tools

As mentioned above, there is a category called "ownership" in the overview diagram of DID's on-chain identity proof (Figure 1). The on-chain data of the wallet (such as transactions, owned NFTs and other cryptocurrency assets) is the easiest information to capture. DeBox associates the wallet address with personal identity through "ownership", making it easier for users to demonstrate their reputation and participate in community governance.

Here I would like to mention one more thing about DeBox's understanding of DAO. When a user holds a certain token, he or she actually has the membership of the DAO of that token. We call this DAO composed of token holders a native DAO. For example, when Constitution DAO ended its crowdfunding auction mission, the holders of Constitution DAO tokens PEOPLE spontaneously formed PEOPLE DAO. This is the natural right granted to the holders by PEOPLE tokens, and it does not require review by any person or organization. This is the charm of DAO.

Figure 4 Chat identity display in DeBox community (DAO)

Position chat: In DeBox, users can join the corresponding community (native DAO) only if they hold a certain token (token ownership), which helps users isolate more than 90% of useless social and spam information. After entering the community, users can see the user's position ranking (identity display), which helps users make more realistic responses when participating in community (DAO) discussions and governance voting. When users sell or transfer the token, they will automatically exit the community (DAO). In the above practice, the primary application of DID to DAO has actually been realized, and this application scenario is actually needed in the Web3.0 world.

4. How does DeBox find a new way in the field of SocialFi?

  • Application positioning of DeBox

Similarly, as mentioned above, most of SocialFi's current social platforms are still biased towards content creation. Although they are in line with the definition of Web3.0 creator economy, the practical effect is not ideal. DeBox has taken a different approach and set its sights on relational social networking (or real-time social networking), which currently has less attention but is in high demand. "Real-time social networking" focuses more on the frequency and online time of user social behavior, while achieving multi-form information transmission of one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many. Specifically for Web3.0, it is our DAO. You must know that the purpose of joining a DAO is not just voting governance. Information communication is also very important within the DAO. DeBox perfectly solves this problem.

  • DeBox's traffic diversion method

As mentioned above, SocialFi is the traffic entrance of Web3.0. So how does DeBox bring traffic increment to Web3.0 and DeBox products while meeting the needs of Web3.0 users? Friends who often participate in Twitter Space will find that Twitter Space is a good way to get traffic increment. People are attracted by KOLs or titles, and will follow him after hearing interesting speeches. In response to this situation, DeBox launched the pop-up room + voice service function, which accurately acquires new users through public domain traffic, and helps users find project opportunities (wealth codes) to quickly discover and participate in new projects to obtain early airdrop advantages.

Figure 5 DeBox community governance tools and voice functions (pop-up room) display

From the previous description, it can be seen that DeBox has a very good entry point for the Social part of SocialFi, so what about Fi? In fact, in DeBox's white paper, although DBX is clearly mentioned as its governance token, it also emphasizes that this part is non-essential. Therefore, the economic model of DeBox's token DBX is relatively simple. In the white paper, DBX tokens are mainly enabled in two ways: "deflation" and "staking". Deflation is mainly for the B-end (project party), and "staking" mainly serves the C-end (users). The way to obtain the DBX token is simpler. You only need to sign in every day or join a DAO that holds tokens to obtain it. This non-task token acquisition method will not cause pressure and disgust to people. The simple Fi model can give users a more comfortable experience. After all, it is not a "chat mining" project.

In addition, DeBox uses the Web3.0 interface of its APP to allow users to experience DID-based DAO social interaction while also participating in real-time on-chain interactions, without the need to switch between multiple APPs, thus ensuring user experience.

In summary, DeBox is exploring a relatively new model in the SocialFi track. Currently, the DeBox APP is also in the testing phase and can be downloaded and experienced on the official website. Compared with some PPT projects, the DeBox team has shown their greatest sincerity. If DeBox can strengthen product optimization and operation, it may have the opportunity to become one of the mainstream social tools of Web3.0.

5. DeBox Product Outlook

  • Introducing a more comprehensive DID system or interface will improve the quality and reputation of community management (DAO) and accelerate the application and popularization of Web3.0 DID.

  • Traffic is the core of social platforms. How DeBox absorbs and accumulates traffic requires further exploration and practice.

Original link: https://mirror.xyz/0xdebox.eth/J0Sp_UcWyqEjhqAfneE0O1nINR56DurYd1k9_ohP_ig