GM DOers!
Right now, internet communication is fragmented af. We have several platforms to choose from including Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and more.
SMS is the protocol for text while SMTP is the protocol for email. What’s the protocol for internet communication? 🤔
Well, there isn’t one standard. Because Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, etc. all use their own closed system for messaging which means they own your DMs.
Luckily, the team at XMTP Labs noticed this and decided to build the communication protocol of web3 so you can own your DMs.
To help us understand what this means and how it works, we invited co-founder Matt Galligan to this week’s DOer Spotlight.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The problems with web2 communication platforms and why using a web3 substrate is a better option ✅
- How the XMTP protocol works—without having to be a giga brain to understand it 🗣️
- And how XMTP Labs (the company behind the protocol) is driving adoption 📈
Note: We’re looking for another writer to join our ranks and help us create kick-ass content! So if you’ve got a knack for words and a passion for web3,learn more about the role today.
Let’s dive in.
👉 Brought to You by Lens: The Future of Social Networking 👀
What’s Wrong With Web2 Communications?
Right now, we have a few different internet communication layers. We have mobile which includes SMS and iMessage for iPhone users, phone numbers, and in-app communication (Instagram and Facebook Messenger).
In particular, app communication is powerful due to its social element where stories and posts ignite conversations with people who aren’t even close friends or relatives. Then you also have WhatsApp for group chats and perhaps more formal conversations.
While this gives us many choices, you have to enter a specific app to interact with certain people. 😵
This phenomenon makes communication fragmented and means users like you and I don’t own our data, history, or accounts. For example, Kyle used to run a business in the health space through Facebook, but one day the platform decided to close his account.
Just like that, he lost his account and its history and had to start back from square one. 😓
But if it was built on a web3 substrate, he wouldn’t have lost his social data.
It’s not just an issue for entrepreneurs either. Think of all the photos, conversations, and memories with family and friends that can disappear overnight.
Another issue is a lack of interoperability. You can’t take your profiles and account history between messaging platforms so you end up with fragmented chat histories.
I sometimes have multiple conversations with the same person across different platforms!
Interoperability also reduces the switching costs for users which can ultimately improve a platform’s UX.
For example, Instagram started as a photo-sharing application and has since turned into something different. If you aren’t a fan of the direction they took, there isn’t much you could do unless you wanted to stop using the platform and lose your followers and conversations in the process.
But if it was built with interoperability in mind, you could simply take your history to a platform that’s a better fit, forcing platforms to act in the best interests of their users. 💪
That’s why Matt and the team are building XMTP, to allow people to own and control their communications and have the ability to pick which messaging applications they use without pigeonholing themselves by building long histories on a particular platform.
This solves the problem of builders and businesses not having a web3-native communication method along with giving users ownership over their conversations and data.
But why not just use email?
Firstly, Matt believes that email is amazing in that as a protocol, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) has stood the test of time and has become one of the primary communication methods today.
However, there are a couple of challenges.
Matt estimates that upwards of 90% of emails sent today are spam.
Thankfully, email providers spend millions on their spam filters and tools, otherwise, email would be very difficult to use.
However, this leads to another problem—centralization. Previously, email servers were more decentralized (you could even run your own!) but as spam emails proliferated, it became increasingly difficult to combat.
So now we only have a handful of platforms (Google, Yahoo, etc.) that are good at managing spam and providing valuable tools, such as calendars, online file storage, etc. 🤷
Consequently, when we send emails we must ensure that they pass these providers’ spam filters and to do that we generally have to use the same big platforms to send those emails.
That leaves us with a major element of centralization within an otherwise decentralized protocol (no one owns SMTP).
However, XMTP could be the solution. ✅
🟣 PRO ANNOUNCEMENT
We recently airdropped the first round of PRO and Founders Passes. Besides being a nice addition to their wallets (shout out to Valentina for the killer design), it also gives our members exclusive access and perks in web3!
The Airdrop of PRO & FOUNDERS Passes is due this week. 🥳 A 🧵
