Dmail founder: The metaverse and Web 3.0 are the foundation for the development of the future digital era

As a hallmark of humanity's entry into the internet, email holds an unshakeable position in the online world. However, the email services we commonly use have encountered numerous issues. Problems such as data breaches, spam, and phishing emails have begun to affect our usage of email.

In many Web3.0 ecosystems, email has been prioritized for optimization as a Web3.0 product. In DFINITY (Internet Computer), the Dmail team is also attempting to transform email into a Web3.0 service to address the various issues present in current email products.

Rhythm BlockBeats had a chat with Dmail founder Lucas to hear his insights on Web3.0.

About the Track

Rhythm BlockBeats: How did you come to learn about the blockchain and Web3.0 fields?

Lucas: Before entering the crypto space, I was responsible for market work in a leading mobile industry company in an overseas country. Due to some client-related reasons, I became aware of the blockchain field and gradually became attracted to its charm. Later, I chose to return to my home country and joined a top-tier public chain to manage the developer community.

I started participating in the developer ecosystem about four years ago, and I personally felt that it was just the beginning of some embryonic forms of Web3.0. At that time, I also met many excellent developers, and we often discussed visions for the future of the industry. I believed that the industry needed a killer application product, but due to various factors, such a product never emerged. Since last year, as conditions have matured, we began to gradually conceive the Dmail product, which was officially launched this year.

Rhythm BlockBeats: With so many products in the Web3.0 field, why focus on creating the Dmail email product?

Lucas: Web3.0 is still just a concept at this stage, and different people have different understandings of what Web3.0 should look like and what products will emerge.

However, in my view, one definitive characteristic of the Web3.0 era will be: data ownership and information interconnection. In other words, in the Web3.0 era, centralized nodes and the connection barriers they create will significantly decrease. Everyone will have a digital identity on the internet, allowing them to freely navigate between different applications and interact with people, objects, and applications.

In this context, we believe that applications with identity recognition functions and the ability to facilitate information exchange will likely become important infrastructure tools in the future Web3.0 era. Email is a tool that everyone currently uses; it plays a fundamental yet indispensable role in the internet, and many people actually overlook the significant importance of email for identity recognition and information connection. Currently, successful blockchain email products in the market are few and far between, so we wanted to try using blockchain email as an entry point into the Web3.0 field.

As a communication tool aimed at Web3.0, we want Dmail to become a comprehensive information processing platform that aggregates multiple functions. On this platform, we can see various functionalities, including communication, information, asset trading, etc. At the same time, through the unique distributed storage mechanism of the Internet Computer public chain, we ensure that users enjoy the conveniences of the Web3.0 era while guaranteeing the security of their information and privacy.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Why are you optimistic about the Web3.0 field?

Lucas: As mentioned earlier, Web3.0 is still just a concept, but why are so many people willing to believe in this concept and work towards it? I believe that aside from the "business opportunities" we understand, Web3.0 can effectively address the pain points present in our current internet.

We refer to Web3.0 as the era of the value internet, so how is value manifested? I believe it mainly reflects in the amplification of individual value. The current Web2.0 era has enriched our material and spiritual worlds, but this has gathered people through a centralized model, where individuals relinquish some of their interests in exchange for information and convenience. For example, some of our privacy information is stored on centralized platforms, which poses a significant risk to personal privacy and information security.

Looking back over the past decade, there have been numerous major internet company data breach incidents that are readily available online; more recently, we often receive scam calls. However, when blockchain technology combines with the internet to create Web3.0, using decentralized encryption and distributed storage methods, the internet can ensure that everyone's information is protected, thus avoiding the risk of data breaches.

In the Web3.0 era, the underlying business logic of the internet may also undergo drastic changes:

1. Digital Identity: In the Web3.0 era, each user will have a decentralized universal digital identity, which requires users to manage their personal databases independently. No third party can access or tamper with this data at will. Users can autonomously authorize how their identity information is used for various purposes, without worrying about identity information being leaked or misused.

2. Data Ownership: In the vision of Web3.0, user data is stored in a distributed database controlled by the user. Any action seeking to obtain user data must receive the user's authorization, thereby ensuring the ownership and value attribution of user data.

3. Based on digital identity and data ownership, the pricing and value distribution rights of data will return to users. In the internet era, interactions between users and the internet inherently involve a hidden transaction—data. When we enjoy the convenience of online shopping, our data is handed over to merchants along with the final payment. Data can be traded in our era. With the assistance of blockchain technology, users can uncover the hidden value of their data and gain corresponding data pricing rights through token reward mechanisms. This is another important reason why I am optimistic about the Web3.0 era.

About Dmail

Rhythm BlockBeats: Can you introduce the Dmail product? What are its features?

Lucas: In simple terms, Dmail uses the "Internet Computer" as its engine to achieve distributed storage and privacy protection of information. It uses NFT to identify user identity and rights, realizing horizontal connections between information, assets, storage, and DApps, breaking data silos, and becoming an important information exchange tool in the Web3.0 era.

First, we are a blockchain email product, and in our recently launched demo, we have already implemented the functionality to send and receive emails with traditional email services. Therefore, compared to traditional email, we can communicate with any email service while also ensuring information privacy and encryption.

Secondly, we are also an NFT-based email service. The email name serves as each user's identity identifier, and we have already NFT-ified the email name. In other words, each email name is an NFT. In the future, we will launch a trading platform for NFT email names, allowing users to trade NFT email names freely while ensuring information security.

Thirdly, we are an important communication tool prepared for Web3.0. In Dmail, we will integrate multiple functions such as information, assets, storage, and DApps, forming a connection bridge between different applications, allowing users to navigate the decentralized world with their digital identities.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Why choose the Internet Computer network? What advantages does it have compared to other public chains?

Lucas: From a functional perspective, the Internet Computer may be an answer to fill market gaps. The vision of the Internet Computer is to become a "decentralized world computing cloud," which simply means building a distributed cloud computing platform that combines smart contracts. Compared to other public chains, its advantages lie in seamless connections for building various applications and unlimited performance. Since last year, Ethereum has been criticized for being "expensive" and "congested," while the Internet Computer fills the gaps left by Ethereum in these two aspects, which may become the most important piece in the development of various ecosystems in the crypto market.

1. Low Gas Fees: In the DeFi market, gas fees are an unavoidable topic. Users need to hold a certain amount of the public chain's tokens as gas fees. However, the Internet Computer operates on a reverse gas model, allowing users to interact with smart contracts without paying gas fees themselves. The gas fees are provided by the smart contracts (software containers) running the DApps. This design not only addresses the issue of high gas fees but also lowers the entry barrier for many small and medium-sized investors, making it easier for more investors to experience the convenience brought by the DeFi ecosystem.

2. Strong Scalability: The Internet Computer ecosystem has a unique language representation system. "Containers" refer to what we call smart contracts, "neurons" represent nodes within the network, and "neurons network (NNS)" can be understood as on-chain governance. Neurons are connected to software containers via subnets (i.e., sharding), and neurons can dynamically adjust the number of subnets based on the overall load of the network, thereby increasing the overall TPS of the network. Compared to ETH2.0's sharding and various layer 2 network constructions, the Internet Computer achieves network scalability through dynamic adjustments of subnets. In the network, the addition and merging of subnets are done on demand, and DApp services do not need to stop during the scaling process. For users and developers, the scaling process is smooth and imperceptible.

3. High Interoperability: In terms of interactivity, the Internet Computer considered Ethereum's foundational functions for the blockchain world from the outset, thus creating a unique Chainkey technology that allows for free invocation of Ethereum contracts. Using Chainkey can create a unique public key of only 48 bytes for the Internet Computer's blockchain, enabling any device (even smartwatches) to independently complete on-chain verification. This technology avoids the need to synchronize a large amount of signature data during the Ethereum verification process, significantly reducing network operation time and improving interoperability between the Internet Computer and Ethereum.

From an application perspective, the Internet Computer is more suitable for the development of email functions.

1. Advocating Application Functional Attributes: Currently, in the public chain market, most public chains are continuously advancing financial settlement functions, while one of the core visions of the Internet Computer is to hope that blockchain can break free from a single financial settlement layer function and potentially support more high-traffic applications like TikTok. A considerable number of social media DApps have already emerged in the Internet Computer ecosystem. The foundation for achieving all this is its technical architecture. The Internet Computer is currently laying out data centers globally, which host dedicated node hardware (such as servers), and the hardware communicates to reach consensus on the state of the internet computer. Combined with the aforementioned subnets and containers, the Internet Computer can achieve unlimited scalability, supporting any number of smart contract computations and storing any amount of data.

2. Distributed Storage Completes Email Storage and Privacy Functions: Dmail relies on the underlying distributed storage protocol of the Internet Computer to complete email storage. Emails will be divided into two parts for storage; depending on user needs, the email header and body will be split and hashed for storage across the entire distributed platform. The email header is on-chain, while the email body is token encrypted, and only the verified sender and receiver on-chain can decrypt and read it using the token.

It is based on these advantages that Dmail has chosen to position itself within the Internet Computer ecosystem. We hope that the decentralized email Dmail can develop in sync with the Internet Computer, together becoming an important piece in the Web3.0 world.

Rhythm BlockBeats: The most important aspect for users using email is security, which is also a pain point for current email products. User data is at risk. How does Dmail address security issues?

Lucas: In the email domain, data security and information storage are relatively closely related, especially since Dmail leverages the characteristics of the Internet Computer public chain for security and storage-related design. Therefore, I will answer both questions together.

Compared to traditional email, Dmail's greatest advantage lies in absolute data security. From the perspective of basic email functionality, Dmail is no different from ordinary email and can easily send and receive emails with any traditional email service. However, the concern with traditional email is that email information is stored on centralized servers, which creates risks of information loss or leakage.

Dmail, built on the Internet Computer public chain, which is known as the "internet computer," utilizes its unique "VRF (Verifiable Random Function) + BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) threshold signature + private containers" as the main technical means to achieve distributed storage. During the storage process, emails will be divided into two parts; depending on user needs, the email header and body will be split and hashed for storage across the entire distributed platform. The email header is on-chain, while the email body is token encrypted, and only the verified sender and receiver on-chain can decrypt and read it using the token. Through distributed storage technology, email information is stored across the entire network, ensuring information security and permanence.

About Web3.0

Rhythm BlockBeats: Recently, Web3.0 seems to have become a buzzword again, but it has actually been discussed for several years without large-scale adoption. How long do you think it will take for Web3.0 to achieve widespread use?

Lucas: The time it takes for a concept to go from proposal to commercial implementation can be quite long, often measured in decades. This process may experience several peaks and troughs. Just like the recently popular metaverse, it wasn't a new idea. Facebook (now Meta) began laying out the VR industry about 7-8 years ago. Recently, I saw an article by an investor discussing the metaverse, where someone asked him, "You previously said it would take 6 years for VR glasses technology to mature. What if the technology is still not mature in 6 years?" His answer was, "Wait another 6 years!" The same applies to Web3.0; none of us can predict when it will explode, but what we can do is work towards the direction we believe in.

Another critical issue is that the explosion of all industries is actually about ecosystem building. Web3.0 is currently a concept, but it requires further technological development, capital injection, and the development of various projects. Just like in 2020, when many people did not expect DeFi to take off. We studied the DeFi ecosystem in October 2019, and at that time, the developments of Uniswap and Compound were still niche, but suddenly, due to a catalyst, they became massive entities. This is the development of an industry; the basic ecological structure needs to appear first, and then a catalyst can lead to explosive growth.

What we are doing with Dmail is also laying the groundwork for the emergence of the ecosystem, waiting for the right moment to arrive.

Rhythm BlockBeats: What market scale do you think the Web3.0 field will reach?

Lucas: Before answering this question, we can imagine what the future market scale of the metaverse might look like. The metaverse builds a digital space where people can potentially live together. In many people's understanding, the metaverse is just about games or satisfying people's needs for sound, light, and electricity, but it is far more than that. We have already seen many metaverse concept projects applied in industrial design or new agricultural industries. Its application scope certainly extends beyond the crypto circle; how vast do you think its imaginative space is?

Web3.0 and the metaverse have significant functional overlaps. The digital identity, data ownership, and economic models of Web3.0 naturally adapt to the metaverse. It can be said that the metaverse and Web3.0 are the foundations for the development of the future digital age. Web3.0 provides the entry point and underlying infrastructure for the internet of the digital age for the metaverse and many more emerging concepts. In this sense, how large do you think the future market scale of Web3.0 should be?

Rhythm BlockBeats: Does Dmail have any plans for the future?

Lucas: Our demo has been launched, and interested friends can visit our official website or social media for specific information. We plan to launch our beta version this month. Dmail will soon kick off our bounty activities, NFT auctions, account registrations, and a series of related activities, with the official version expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022.