(中文按此) This is the second part of the two parts Forbole & Desmos Q&A. The first part is about Forbole. In this second part, we will answer questions about Desmos, our web3 social initiative.
You may be interested to read these related posts first:
- Why did Forbole appear in Taiwan?
- Forbole is the Gold Sponsor of Web3 Festival (12-15 April 2023, HK)
Q: What reasons led the team to decide to develop their own product ecosystem?
Our co-founders Kwun Yeung and myself, who have over 30 years of experience in Internet entrepreneurship, believe that to achieve growth and success, entrepreneurs must have their own product that is scalable and worth the risk. As grassroots come from a humble background without pedigree, our personal experience in a centralized environment has fueled our desire to bring more freedom, fairness, and diversity to user experiences and values in their own unique way. We aim to break free from the dominance of capital and technology tycoons and monopolies.
Q: Why did you choose Cosmos instead of other chains?
Assuming this question is about Desmos, then this is a common misconception. Desmos is not a DApp on Cosmos. Desmos Network is an L1 chain that uses the Cosmos SDK for development, just like Cosmos Hub, but Desmos has its own validators, its own native governance token DSM, and its own development kits Desmos Core. Desmos can function independently of the Cosmos ecosystem.
Q: Now that many social applications have appeared, is Desmos concerned about not attracting enough users by choosing to be on Cosmos? (Although Cosmos has many loyal followers, there is still a gap compared to EVM.)
As mentioned above, I want to emphasize again that Desmos is not on Cosmos. Desmos can function completely independently of the Cosmos ecosystem. However, in the early stages of Desmos development, we relied on our network and reputation in Cosmos to help Desmos.
Regardless of Cosmos or Ethereum, we believe that web3 is still in its early stages. Compared to the size of the developers and users community all over the world, the current user base of web3 is still very small. Therefore, our goals are much larger than just targeting at the existing web3 space.
Q: What advantages does Desmos have in the current web3 space? Taking Nostr as an example, everyone thinks it could be a competitor to Twitter, but the practical question is how to manage and prevent spam.
As an L1 chain, Desmos will use a decentralized governance mechanism to prevent spam. This is also one of the uses of DSM. Additionally, as a public decentralized ledger, the Desmos blockchain will accommodate different information, and there will inevitably be spam, just like all the spam ERC-20 tokens and NFTs on Ethereum. Therefore, the key issue is how the frontend application chooses to present the information on Desmos. We are confident that we can assist frontend applications in filtering and screening, as Desmos is specifically designed for web3 social applications and is not subject to the constraints and legacy problems of other L1 chains, especially those designed for general purpose.
Q: May I know how you plan to promote Desmos among the public?
First, we need to define the target audience for Desmos in the early stages. Currently, the most discussed web3 social networks share several common characteristics: they are driven by Silicon Valley venture capital, primarily targeted at European and American markets, operate on other L1 ecosystems, and target at the existing web3 users who are already familiar to cryptos. We believe that this direction is not enough to achieve wide adoption of web3 social networks, so Desmos has established several directions:
- Targeting web2 developers. Desmos aims to align the development experience of web3 products with that of web2. That is, web2 developers do not need to consider too many technical aspects related to blockchain but can use their existing web2 development experience to develop on Desmos. We hope that this will help us attract a large number of web2 developers to join the Desmos ecosystem, which is much larger than the existing web3 developers community.
- Targeting web2 users. From the ICO bubble in 2017 to the NFT bubble in 2021, their audience is still very small, which is somewhat related to the difficult user experience of the Ethereum ecosystem. For example, many novice users are forced to use MetaMask because of NFTs, but have always struggled to understand the messages displayed on MetaMask. The industry experts have been trying for many years, but has yet to make crypto and web3 popular.
We hope to focus on the web2 user experience - that is, when web2 users use Desmos' products, they feel no different from using web2. For this reason, we have incorporated the concept of "Optimistic UI" into Desmos. From the user's point of view, the advantages of Optimistic UI include smoother and more responsive user experience, as well as reduced waiting time and uncertainty when interacting with the application. This is particularly important for web3 novices. For example, they may find it difficult to accept having to wait several seconds after liking a post before the system confirms that the like was successful, but this situation will not occur on Desmos.
Q: How do you make profit from Desmos and social protocols?
When we can make Desmos the preferred blockchain for web3 social applications, it will drive demand for the governance token DSM, allowing all DSM holders to profit. Additionally, as more social applications and users join Desmos, there will be a need for data integration, complemented by AI and privacy-enhancing technologies. We will study how to conduct data analysis while protecting user privacy and develop a decentralized digital advertising platform governed by DSM holders, which could also be a potential source of revenue.
Q: If you focus only on one chain, would the risk be too high? What strategies do you have for this? There are also many competitors providing similar services, how do you see this?
I would say Desmos is an initiative for web3 social applications, and the Desmos Network as a L1 chain is a core part but not the entirety of Desmos. Everything we are doing will ultimately be integrated into Desmos. We believe web3 social is a very large topic, and it is a problem that the global netizens will face, so we need to focus to do it well.
As a founder in the web3 world, I currently do not pay too much attention to competitors because web3 is still in its very early stages. I hope to focus on what we want to do, rather than worrying about competitors.
Q: Desmos DPM is currently in the pilot phase. When will the official version be released?
We are currently applying to release DPM on the Apple Store and plan to improve its UX and functionality overall. (Note: DPM stands for Desmos Profile Manager.)
Q: Regarding Desmos as a social infrastructure, how do you view social applications in the current market, such as products like Lens?
Lens Protocol is a series of smart contracts operating on Polygon, a chain designed for scaling Ethereum with a "general-purpose" design philosophy. Either Polygon or Ethereum will specifically improve or enhance just for the needs of web3 social networking due to their "general-purpose" nature.
We believe that to create the web3 social product we want to see, we need to develop the infrastructure specifically designed for web3 social needs from scratch (i.e., L1 chain) and build communities outside of the existing web3 space instead of "recycling" the same group of web3 users which is very small when compared with that of web2. Otherwise, we will only repeat the fundamental problems that web3 has failed to popularize over the past few years.
Q: What do you think of Amethyst? Is there a similar app on Desmos currently?
"I don't have any particular opinion on Amethyst. In fact, I'm not interested in other "decentralized" social projects that are supported by Silicon Valley elites who made their fortunes through pedigree and monopolies in the centralized internet. Personally, I prefer to focus on what I think is right (I must emphasize that this is my personal opinion and does not represent my employer's position). Our team is developing a social project based on Desmos and we plan to launch it in mid-2023."
Q: I heard that DDK has Optimistic API. Does your company have any plans for the ZK part?
For Desmos, we are interested in how to use ZK technology and AI to analyze social graphs without violating user privacy. This can provide financial incentives for social applications to improve their service level without infringing on user privacy.
Q: Will you attend Cosmoverse this year?
Starting in 2023, Desmos will focus on web2 developers instead of existing web3 developers. Therefore, there is a high chance that we will not attend Cosmoverse this year (depending on their location). Desmos' keynote by our Tech Lead Riccardo at Cosmoverse last year can be found here:
We are planning a web3 gathering in April 2023 during Web3 Festival. I hope you can help by filling out this form to give us some suggestions how to make a better event. Thank you!