Web3 Anonymous Dating Unicorn XO: Dual-driven by Personality Verification and AI Agents, Steadily Positioned for the Next Trend

Author: Mensh, ChainCatcher

As a pioneer and gateway for large-scale Web3 applications, SocialFi has garnered widespread attention from users and investors. However, as a censorship-resistant and privacy-focused SocialFi, it faces real issues such as uneven content quality and fraud. While attracting users with flashy economic models like "X to earn," platforms lack the ability to continuously engage content creators, making it difficult for leading SocialFi protocols to break through user number bottlenecks and prove market demand.

Farcaster's daily active user data over the past six months:

In contrast, the Web3 anonymous dating app XO has demonstrated real user demand with impressive data: in just over two years since its launch in 2022, users have grown from zero to 1.5 million naturally; Cyber L2 (the blockchain where XO resides) has a daily transaction volume exceeding 100,000; it generates 7 million clicks and 1 million matches monthly; 82% of users are acquired through organic growth or referrals; the 30-day retention rate reaches 15% (three times the industry standard); users spend an average of 40 minutes daily on XO (almost twice that of Facebook and Snapchat); AI agents are summoned over 100,000 times daily to facilitate interactions between users; and the average revenue per paying user is $38 (1.7 times that of Bumble). The high user stickiness and willingness to pay behind these numbers prove that XO is meeting genuine social needs. How did this dark horse of SocialFi emerge?

The First Dating App Combining Blockchain Technology

It is well known that the dating industry has always been a huge market, but scams are rampant, and current industry giants show no signs of wanting to change the status quo. The XO team's original intention is to create a safe social environment and believe that blockchain technology can bring change to the dating industry.

The opposite of privacy protection is security. XO employs multiple technical measures to prevent common fraud and fake account issues in social media and dating apps. A decentralized user verification system can provide verifiable credibility based on users' on-chain activities, such as when users match, engage in stable conversations, or pay for dating services, all of which are recorded on-chain and converted into social credit scores. When registering for XO, users receive a unique XO soul-bound token (XOUL). This token enhances security through various verification methods (such as facial recognition, social network verification, ENS, and partnerships with DID providers like CyberID and Farcaster) and utilizes Proof of Personhood. The application of Proof of Personhood is also one of the important trends in the crypto industry proposed by a16z for 2025, helping to prevent AI-related fraud verification. It allows a given registered account to be controlled by a specific real person, verifying identity without revealing it. Additionally, XO users can choose to connect their crypto wallets in their account settings. Once connected, if the wallet has on-chain historical records, the app can verify the user's credibility through on-chain activities. Therefore, the number of social media followers, NFT ownership, companionship ratings within the XO app, and user-generated content will also contribute to the social credit score, significantly reducing the likelihood of fake accounts and bots.

At the same time, XO features a diverse chat topic board, combining "anonymous chatting" and "community dating," allowing users to share mood stories and enhance interaction. Since over 70% of users identify as LGBTQ+, XO has thoughtfully created a members-only private community to foster a safe space for emotional expression and support. XO co-founder Carol stated, "XO's original intention is to create an anonymous tree hole for modern people, where users can feel safe being themselves."

For users with high social credit scores, XO also offers personalized AI agent services. This feature allows users to generate an AI "avatar" to expand their social interaction capabilities and incentivize users to improve their credit scores.

In comparison to current decentralized identity (DID) solutions on the market, such as Lens Protocol, which lack actual social demand and application scenarios, existing products with real use cases have limited user data collection capabilities. As a passive content consumption platform similar to Twitter and Reddit, Farcaster's data scope mainly focuses on user content interactions. In contrast, XO, as an active social application, can collect richer user data, covering information such as gender, age, and preferences, fully leveraging the potential of Proof of Personhood in cross-platform applications, such as integrating Web2 data into Web3 applications to provide personalized services. This approach helps address the cold start problem and allows for more personalized recommendations, while also being the true foundation of user privacy protection.
Currently, XO has also integrated Farcaster and Cyber ID, allowing users to use cross-platform services, connect data, and share credit scores, with plans to continue expanding the cross-chain social ecosystem in the future.

Content Matching + AI Agents for Precise Dating

Unlike traditional dating apps that use profile-based swiping for matching, XO matches users based on the content they post (such as emotions, confessions, or lifestyles). This matching scheme not only allows users to choose whether to remain anonymous to protect their privacy but also continuously iterates based on user dynamics for more accurate matches.

This year, XO launched the AI agent feature, with the AI pet on the XO platform named ROO, which can conduct MBTI tests and provide customized feedback based on user responses. For users who are not good at chatting, the AI agent can also act as an "icebreaker" to ease awkward situations.

XO has revealed that it is testing a feature called "AI Twin," which allows users to create their own AI agents, akin to avatars, to help them engage in matching chats before interacting with others. The behavior patterns of AI Twin are completely customized based on user preferences, making interactions feel more authentic. Through feedback from the AI agent, users can save time in selecting conversation partners and find suitable chat companions more quickly. This feature not only feels fresh to users but also makes it irresistible to explore future possibilities. The testing phase of this feature has already attracted significant attention, becoming a hot topic of discussion in the Web3 community.

With over 4 million messages sent daily and more than 1 million matches monthly, XO possesses strong data-driven capabilities that can be used to build robust AI assistants and recommendation system models. Similar to how AWS supports Web2.0 applications, XO's AI foundation consists of multiple large language models (LLMs), which input information based on user profiles, tags, and stories into a 16K parameter LLM to summarize users' language styles, personality traits, and interests, conducting reinforcement learning from real data and integrating on-chain data, significantly reducing the time cost of dating.
XO's AI agent system is not only a functional innovation but also a phenomenal application under the Web3 trend. As a dark horse in the Web3 social field, XO's AI system, driven by large-scale data and decentralized applications, has initiated several trend trends:

1. The Extensibility of Decentralized Identity: The AI system combines users' DIDs (decentralized identities) with on-chain activity data to establish a highly credible social environment, attracting a large number of high-quality users.
2. New Standards for Intelligent Socializing: Through ROO and AI Twin, XO provides users with an unprecedented interactive experience, allowing them to not only participate in socializing but also engage in the Web3 transformation.
3. The Shift from Tools to Culture: The AI agent, as one of XO's core features, transforms socializing into a cultural symbol, becoming a hot topic in the Web3 ecosystem and driving more user participation.

In this wave of Web3, XO has become an undeniable trend representative. Whether in data growth, functional innovation, or market influence, XO's AI system continues to amplify the FOMO effect, making it impossible for users and investors to overlook its future potential.

Sustainable Economic Model and Business Model

To avoid the "X to Earn" model being exploited by cash-grabbing studios, XO first launched the Chat2Earn mechanism based on $rStar before officially introducing its on-chain token, testing over 5 million chat records daily to detect potential algorithmic cheating behaviors and observe user reactions to earning in-app currency through chatting, exploring what behaviors and features users are willing to pay for or consume in-app tokens, ensuring a sustainable token economy with balanced income and expenditure.

Based on surveys and iterations, XO ultimately refined Social2Earn. The underlying PoC (Proof-of-Companionship) algorithm evaluates interaction quality based on user chatting and real payment behaviors, providing virtual currency $XO rewards. Users can enhance the health value of chat rooms through deep chatting, paid tipping, content creation, consecutive chatting days, AI game participation, etc., thereby triggering the reward mechanism.

Moreover, XO has a very robust business model, which is why it secured $800,000 in seed funding from the renowned incubator TechStars and Japan's Rakutan Group in its founding year. Currently, XO's revenue comes from both To C and To B segments.

The To C segment generates income for the platform through subscriptions, in-app purchases, advertising, and Social2Earn. Users can access richer social features through paid subscriptions, enhance interaction experiences through in-app purchases of virtual goods, and earn token rewards by participating in the Social2Earn mechanism. XO also provides unique digital assets and value-added services through virtual goods sales.

In the To B segment, XO offers brands customized market research and advertising services through AI chat advertising and opinion mining, helping brands better understand and reach target users. Enterprises can also integrate with the Web3 ecosystem through the XO platform, utilizing NFTs and DAOs for brand promotion and user identity management, further enhancing brand exposure and user engagement, creating a win-win commercial ecosystem. Currently, XO has achieved full profitability.

Conclusion: Airdrop Approaches, SocialFi Dark Horse Leads New Social Narrative

On July 11, 2024, the Xoul DID mainnet officially launched, and the team announced a $1.2 million airdrop. The $XO token is also set to launch soon.

XO has implemented Proof of Personhood to help users build their decentralized identities (DIDs) through interactive behaviors within the app. The team is actively seeking various Web3 partners, such as decentralized domain ENS and Web3 social identity IDs. XO hopes to truly integrate centralized identity systems into the dating scene.

At the same time, XO is also more broadly involved in the fine-tuning and optimization of AI agents, gradually developing them into decentralized autonomous chatbots to expand their influence more proactively on social platforms.
In the first quarter of 2025, XO is set to launch the $XO token, allowing users to earn $XO tokens through active community engagement or content publishing, as well as by completing verifications on the XO App and DID website to receive $XO airdrops, and share in the prize pool of periodically updated quests on the DID website.

With a verified user base and driven by both Proof of Personhood and AI agents, XO is undoubtedly set to take SocialFi further and become a disruptive force in global social platforms.