Taking Mask Network as an example, analyzing the value and application potential of middleware

The original title of this article is "Middleware Changes the World," published on DAOSquare, authored by Dashuo.

Monopolistic businesses are the best, but it's hard to create monopolies in the Web3 world (due to forking and composability). However, we find that middleware businesses are an exception. Chainlink is a representative of middleware, and The Graph is also a highly monopolistic middleware business. For ease of understanding, I refer to The Graph as a reverse oracle.

Chainlink Internet -> Blockchain (Web2 -> Web3), The Graph Blockchain -> Internet (Web3 -> Web2)

In the past two years, we have been searching for and laying out middleware projects. Besides The Graph, we also discovered Mask Network.

The role of middleware is to break the internet blockade and become a bridge from Web2 to Web3, which is a prerequisite for large-scale applications. Great undertakings first require building bridges and roads, so we see that $LINK and $GRT have both received market acclaim; capital is the smartest. But having only oracles and reverse oracles is not enough; both are for machines, while Mask is for people.

Chainlink: Middleware business for machines, The Graph: Middleware business for machines, Mask Network: Middleware business for people

Six months ago, we (Hunfan Research Institute) predicted that $GRT would be the next $LINK, and now we predict that $MASK will be the next $GRT. The latter part of this article will explore why it is so.

In 2020, many applications have already surpassed the valuation of public chains, and growth shows no signs of stopping. At the end of 2019, I shouted in the group, "The era of applications has arrived," and indeed KNC fired the first shot of the DeFi craze. This year, I still want to shout, "The era of applications has arrived," but this time it is about larger-scale applications landing (some projects have begun acquiring internet products).

Every major market trend is driven by meta-innovation, which ferments for a period before ultimately exploding. The meta-innovation of DeFi is Uniswap; some may think that lending and synthetic assets are also meta-innovations. They are innovations, but they do not play a decisive role. There are two reasons: first, without a large number of speculative assets on Uniswap, the demand for lending would not increase. Second, without Uniswap attracting a large amount of stablecoins, synthetic assets and derivatives would not become active. Being close to money makes it easy to make profits, and being close to users makes it easy to direct traffic. DeFi is about money; all other Dapps pale in comparison. It’s not that these non-financial Dapps are not good, but their time has not yet come, and they are waiting for meta-innovation to drive them, all eyes are on Mask Network.

"Mask Network is a portal that helps 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, NFTs, and DAOs) on traditional social media platforms; thus, users can create a decentralized application ecosystem." - This is from the official introduction.

At the beginning of 2020, I discovered Mask Network, which was then called Maskbook. Just by looking at the name, you can tell this thing is interesting: "Facebook with a mask." I remember my first impression after discussing with the founder Suji Yan: "Overlaid Network." While almost everyone accepted the fact that "users cannot live without Twitter," Mask's use of "overlaid thinking" might be able to break the unbreakable user monopoly. This is meta-innovation!

"When something is extremely powerful, you cannot defeat it, but you can overlay it."

"The software is eating the world" is a phrase originally from internet pioneer Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, in an article published in the Wall Street Journal in August 2011. Today, this statement has become a fact, but behind the software eating the world lies another layer of meaning: "programmers" guiding future trends. Many new technologies are initially used by programmers, and later, after gradually optimizing user experience, they are accepted by more users. Some seemingly geeky technologies will gradually optimize and reach the masses. For example, GitHub is no longer just used by programmers; the Python programming language has also been adopted by more industries, and Notion uses shortcuts like "/" that programmers love to help users improve efficiency (no longer Ctrl+Key).

Although large companies are constantly developing new software, there has never been a software that fits everyone. You might need at least three video conferencing tools: Zoom, Tencent Meeting, Google? There are also a bunch of choices for office suites, but when you want to share content, you first need to ensure that the other party is using the same software. Software companies are building their empires, while users are passively accepting; their innovations stop internally, and third parties rarely add new features to the software of large companies. This leads to a constant cycle of tearing down and starting over. In short, the continuous emergence of new software brings both joy and frustration to users, but only monopolies in internet software can make it more convenient for users. However, since large companies monopolize and are unwilling to open their platforms, how can a new generation of entrepreneurs survive? It's time for a change!

"When the mountains and rivers are exhausted, and there seems to be no way out, the willows and flowers in the middle of the road change the world once again."

There is a software that a programmer has loved for a long time called Greasemonkey, which was originally used to grab train tickets. The reason for using this technology to grab train tickets is that, on one hand, it is fast to develop and low in cost, and more importantly, it is easy for users to install, as it is supported by both Firefox and Chrome, making it easy to promote. In the dapplet market of Mask Network, there are a bunch of small programs similar to Greasemonkey scripts that allow any Web2.0 application to seamlessly connect to Web3.0. The most representative one is a dapplet called "Quick Charge." We even consider this "Quick Charge" dapplet as the milestone work of the App Store, akin to "Fruit Ninja."

"Quick Charge" Trader Assistant dapplet

After installing Mask, users can see a completely different world on Twitter and Facebook. Unlike the dark web, Mask Network is a new civilization network that allows users to enter Web3.0. Here, people need to rebuild everything, which means a lot of opportunities for young people. Mask Network is no less than the emergence of the App Store; it is another starting point for a new app boom, but this time it is called dapplet (decentralized small programs).

Vitalik also likes Mask

The shadow-dom technology used by Mask Network is mature but has not been valued. The most successful such small program is the aforementioned Greasemonkey, abbreviated as GM, commonly known in Chinese as "油猴子" (Yóu hóuzi), which is an add-on for Firefox/Chrome browsers. It allows users to install scripts that make most HTML-based web pages easier to use directly on the user side. Embedding technology can help existing software improve user experience without requiring permission. The popularity of train ticket grabbing scripts has proven this is feasible. Young entrepreneurs can leverage Mask Network's dapplet technology to pry open the iron wall of monopolies held by large companies.

People-centered, connecting everything

As shown in the figure above, software being people-centered is inevitable. Our understanding of software is often incorrect. Limited by centralized technology, many software exhibit internationalization and regionalization characteristics (e.g., TikTok), indicating that centralized technology can no longer expand. In contrast, decentralized technology is borderless. The original advantages have become disadvantages, and the original network effects have become network shackles. Large internet companies can no longer grow; they are in a cycle of rise and fall, which is a natural elimination mechanism in the rapidly iterating tech industry. Decentralized technology can achieve a larger network scale and will inevitably prevail. Ten years from now, users will forget Twitter and Facebook. You are neither Facebook nor any software; you are just yourself, composed of countless data fragments that form your network avatar. The whole implies rigidity, while fragments imply flexibility and composability. Decentralization and fragmentation are ever-changing, and being easy to combine can reduce innovation resistance, which is a fundamental condition for technological progress, especially in the software industry. Nowadays, a successful software will reference hundreds or thousands of open-source code modules.

The internet and blockchain are completely incompatible; it is precisely because of this incompatibility that the blockchain industry can develop independently without being eroded by large companies. Things that are easy to do on the internet are difficult on the blockchain, and vice versa. The blockchain can achieve a borderless, permissionless open financial market, which internet companies can never accomplish. The blockchain also cannot do what the internet does, which is why middleware businesses have received such market attention.

The internet is software-centered, while blockchain is people-centered. The best way to break monopolies is to destroy the foundation of monopolies. Large companies use private database technology to store user data, while blockchain is a form of public data. Bitcoin is built on a peer-to-peer network, which is also called an Overlay Network and can be understood as an overlaid network. No one can block Bitcoin because this decentralized peer-to-peer network is outside the control of the internet. Mask Network is such a network; it can be embedded into products with hundreds of millions of users through browser technology without needing approval from large companies, providing Web3.0 services to a massive user base without changing user habits. It offers a practical solution to break the internet monopoly. (Once again: The popularity of train ticket grabbing scripts has proven this is feasible.)

If I were to estimate the future value of the dapplet application market for Mask Network, I would guess it should be at the level of $LINK and $GRT. The theme of 2021 is optimization and expansion, and only when the three major middleware (LINK, GRT, MASK) come together can blockchain applications flourish even more.

At the end of the article, I will share some dapplets to give everyone a glimpse into the future. I believe that in the future, there will be thousands of Mask Network small programs emerging, perhaps meta-innovation will not appear to change the world, but simply because young people need more opportunities.

Mask Network: The Portal to the New, Open Internet.

A dapplet for sending cryptocurrency red envelopes on Twitter

Financing plan ITO (Initial Twitter Offering) dapplet

Content encryption dapplet based on image steganography technology

Secondary financing donation dapplet