Mask Network, an innovative Web3 developer and transaction infrastructure platform, is taking privacy and the benefits of Web3 technology to popular social media platforms such as Facebook and X (Twitter).
Leveraging an open-sourced browser extension, Mask Network acts as a bridge between the current web, known as Web2, and the superior Web3.
The aim is to empower the general public to experience the advancements of Web3 within the existing mainstream platforms, without dependency on APIs or centralized servers.
During recent discussions, Hannah Shen, co-founder of NextID and Head of Global Growth at Mask Network, along with David Phillips, Mask Network’s developer relations lead, shed light on the latest developments within the company.
They covered the vision of Mask Network to enhance Decentralized Identities (DIDs) and the concept of Universal Profile.
NextID is an open-source protocol that facilitates the creation and management of identities. The project, which was initiated by the team behind Mask Network, serves as a secure bridge between different web2 and web3 identifiers, including wallets, X (Twitter) profiles, ENS names, Lens profiles, and other forms of online identification.
David said that while traditional identities are like credentials from central issuers, suitable for the analog world, the transition of today’s world into the digital space necessitates identities that are portable, secure, and under user control.
DIDs – beyond wallets
He added that while a wallet is not an identity; it’s an identifier, like an email address, Mask Network wants to combine the multiple identifiers of users from Web 2.0, such as X (Twitter) handles, email addresses, or YouTube channels, and integrate them into a unified identity in the Web 3.0 ecosystem.
The goal is to create a portable and versatile identity that can be used across different platforms and ecosystems.
David also noted that the current identities in the real world are sovereign, portable, and secure.
However, in the blockchain world, wallet addresses are often limited to a single-chain ecosystem, which hinders true portability.
To achieve this new connected system, Mask Network proposes linking various identifiers to create a comprehensive identity.
This identity is formed using decentralized identifiers (DIDs), which are essentially key pairs used for signing and verifying ownership of different identifiers.
These DIDs are stored in a public database and include creating bonds between DIDs to establish a user’s reputation, querying these DIDs, and providing an easy-to-use software development kit (SDK) for working with these identifiers.
Furthermore, he said that the key idea is to make it easy for developers to create good user profiles, enable portability of reputations and identities across different online environments, and offer a new design of identity and reputation in the Web 3.0 space.
Projects using NextID
After David, Hannah took the stage to discuss bounties and past winning projects related to NextID. She discussed projects related to Next ID, such as Graph ID and Data for builders, its utility in building user profiles for web3 applications, and the bounties available for developers.
The bounties include building applications for cross-platform search, user analytics, and an identity solution for on-chain gaming, with a focus on account abstraction.
She said that Next ID aims to enhance user experiences in the web3 space by providing unified, seamless onboarding systems and preserving user reputations across different parts of the metaverse.
