Where it all begins
We are living in an increasingly connected world. The so-called Web2.0 brings creators and consumers of information together, allowing us to enjoy peer-to-peer interactions on a global scale. However, the Internet we have today is broken. The data architecture is still based on standalone servers, where data is centrally stored and managed. We have no control over our data. A mismatch between a centralized and trust-enhanced Internet and urgent demand for interconnected and user-controllable data stirs up tons of conflicts. We don’t want the social media, e-commerce, or content publishing platforms to dictate all the rules and control our data. Instead, the ownership of data should be given back to us.
In this context, blockchains seem to be a driving force of the next-generation Internet. There are a few widely-spread arguments on why building social platforms on top of blockchains solve existing problems. Industry pioneers have already initiated their exploration, building blockchain-based decentralized social media since 2017. However, Web3.0 is a back-end revolution, and average users can’t feel or just don’t care about the architecture and technology behind the applications. Thus, these decentralized social platforms have little competitive advantage over Web2.0 incumbents with strong network effects. For two reasons, 1) Existing players have not yet unlocked new ways for people to interact and self-express; 2) Excessive development costs and switching costs hinder innovation and mass adoption.
For the longest time, I have been imagining an open Internet, where I can migrate my contact list from Wechat to Telegram seamlessly with one click. And the tacit teammates I meet by chance in one game can receive my invitation to play together in another game directly. However, it remains an idea that doesn’t get off the ground, since I have neither the knowledge nor the ability to realize the vision. However, things changed at the IOSG 8th Old Friend Reunion, where I met Wilson Wei, the founder of CyberConnect. Wilson, a bold leader with strong conviction and a brilliant mind, presented CyberConnect and the way it is going to disrupt the Internet to hundreds of audiences on site. From that moment I knew that this young man and his team would bring on a revolution, and IOSG has to be part of it.
The new form of social interaction for users
At present, SNS(Social Network Service) is the most mainstream form of social platform. People may not be familiar with the term. In fact, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are all SNS. SNS are developed for people to create social networks with other people who share similar interests. However, many SNS have deviated from the essence of “social”, turning into advertising platforms. For one, Web2.0 SNS prioritize monetization and compromise the user experience. For two, a closed environment and mindset hinder further development.
CyberConnect is here to break down the silos and unlock new ways for users and developers to create value in the irresistible Web3.0 era. Today, with CyberConnect’s decentralized social graph, we can together take a bottom-up approach to define the Web3.0 social landscape, unbundling social relationships with centralized platforms.
CyberConnect has already taken the first step, migrating our social connections to blockchains, where data is secure, tampered-proof, and cannot be manipulated by third parties. CyberConnect has accumulated over 12 million on-chain connections in the past few months. A rich dataset paves the way for constructing Web3.0 user-profiles and advanced recommendation algorithms.
Just imagine, CyberConnect is like a fertile ground on which a great variety of applications can grow. These applications are built upon an open and shared CyberConnect database. Users interact with each other and create new social networks on applications, and these data points will enrich a universal open social graph, which in return can empower more applications to grow. For example, if you start to follow a bunch of NFT enthusiasts on one platform, these new relationships are added to the open social graph. Other projects can capture users’ new preferences in time and start to push NFT-related content to users. Thus, the broken Web2.0 silos are disrupted and the Internet landscape is reshaped. In Web3.0, we have a whole ecosystem of applications built on CyberConnect, with one app being built on top of another, which facilitates a fundamental turn from an adds-centric system to a truly user-centric network
With this user-centric network, CyberConnect aims to improve user experience by prioritizing data ownership and portability, which unlocks new ways for us to self-express. We can truly own and benefit from the data points we create, we can interact with the underlying data however we see fit. Moreover, CyberConnect builds a graph database that runs advanced algorithms to find meaningful but implicit connections that enrich our social network, taking the user experience to the next level. Most importantly, a revolutionary “relational identity” is created. Our identity is not just about who we are, but also how we become who we are through how things and people around us shape us into. And our relational identity can be seamlessly migrated across platforms. No matter where you go and which platforms you use, the bond among us will never be broken. We are truly connected.
The powerful booster for developers
The excitement CyberConnect brings us doesn’t stop here. As I mentioned above, the high development and bootstrapping cost is another major impediment to innovation. Numerous examples prove that start-ups seldom gain upper hand against incumbents with strong network effects. Many projects even fail before they are eligible to join the competition because they cannot get off the ground. There are much more than technical issues to iron out, the biggest challenge, in general, should be user acquisition. How to attract the first 100 users and kickstart the flywheel? While in Web2.0, acquiring initial users is extremely difficult. Placing ads on users is the most common way to bootstrap a project. However, this is extremely costly and inefficient.
Fortunately, with CyberConnect, the story is rewritten. How can CyberConnect change the current situation? Imagine if you are a developer of a social platform tailored for crypto believers, who are your target users? The most common practice is to check Vitalik or other OGs’ follower lists. With one single query using CyberConnect’s API, all the wallet addresses that follow Vitalik are listed for you to explore. Moreover, CyberConnect is also building link3.to, which offers richer details and helps you precisely target a subset of followers. Once you get the whitelist of wallet addresses, launch an airdrop or even a vampire attack, and kickstart your early community.
To decentralize the protocol along the way and make the data more accessible to everyone, CyberConnect is building a democratized recommendation indexer, where data can be transformed, organized, and shared across applications for anyone to query with just a few keystrokes. However, democratized indexer does not come together at scale easily. Blockchain, by nature, is not designed to optimize indexing and filtering data, leaving developers more work to do. To truly empower Web3.0 builders, a collectively-defined standard must be created for social data. Simple functions like
- Call Vitalik’s followers
- Call Vitalik and cdixon.eth’s shared followers
- Call Vitalik’s followers that meanwhile have more than 5000 followers
- Call Vitalik followers that holds BAYC
…
requires a well-designed standard that can be used to fetch data efficiently and manage data collectively. CyberConnect has taken the lead in this initiative and helped define the follow/follower standards, and has always been welcoming the joint efforts from our community to build the Web3.0 social.
The incredible Future
Web3.0 is not a journey of one team, CyberConnect and IOSG team have a strong conviction in a collaborative and collective act of value-creation. CyberConnect has aggregated social graphs, thus making our data more self-owned and meaningful. But our bigger dream cannot be realized without people working together to build the infra. CyberConnect will open up the indexing and embrace the community to create even more value, which requires brilliant minds, guts, and coordination.
We are still early in terms of having a definite idea of what Web3.0 Social will be like, but we need pioneers to first tap into the uncharted world. CyberConnect answers the call. Right now, we need more dwellers to build with us. Whether you are avid builders, crypto believers, dreamers, degens, or thrill-seekers, everyone is welcome to be part of our journey and co-define Web3.0. Let’s CyberConnect, WAGMI!
🦄 About IOSG
IOSG Ventures, founded in 2017, is a community-friendly and research-driven early-stage venture firm with offices in China and Singapore. We focus on open finance, Web 3.0 and infrastructure for a decentralized economy. Our portfolio covers more than 60 projects, including Layer 1 (NEAR, Polkadot, Cosmos), DeFi (1inch, Synthetix, UMA, Dodo, Liquity, Gelato). We commit ourselves to work alongside various developer & DAO communities and helping the most aspiring founding teams to achieve success. As a developer-friendly fund with long-term values, we have launched Kickstarter Program which offers capital and resources for innovative and courageous developers. Since we consistently cooperate with our partners and connect with communities, we work closely with our portfolio projects throughout their journey of entrepreneurship.
If you would like IOSG Ventures to consider your project, please send a summary of your project along with a pitch deck and/or white paper to hello@iosg.vc
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