From Web2 Social Paradigm to Web3

For most Chinese people, WeChat has become one of the most indispensable applications in their lives. It combines features such as social networking, payment, entertainment, and business promotion, catering to various age groups. It greatly facilitates people's lives and has gradually become a national-level application.

However, it is undeniable that despite its tremendous commercial success, as a social networking application, WeChat's development has been somewhat constrained by the paradigm of Web2. Of course, this situation is not limited to WeChat alone. Well-known events such as Facebook's data breaches and Twitter account suspensions are even more persuasive examples.

In the world of Web2, centralized giants go to great lengths to attract attention and repeatedly cross the bottom line of human nature to stimulate our nerves. At the same time, the push mechanism tailors content that aligns with each user's inclinations, aiming to seize their precious attention. All of this requires someone to buy into it. In this era of highly developed information, we are gradually trapped in an information cocoon, only able to see what we want to see, and even losing our objective perspective. As a result, centralized platforms in Web2 are reaping substantial profits.

In this situation, a paradigm shift becomes necessary because social interactions inherently carry a strong sense of individuality and privacy. The primitives of Web3 and decentralized narratives perfectly align with the privacy and autonomy of social interactions.

Social products in the Web3 era fundamentally differ from traditional social products, primarily in two aspects: whether they are on-chain or off-chain and the ownership economy.

In traditional social products, all social interactions occur off-chain, and social platforms maintain relatively closed relationships with each other. When a user publishes a message on one social platform, it is nearly impossible for users on other platforms to engage in cross-platform interactions.

In the Web3 era, social interactions may undergo a fundamental transformation. Users' activities shift from off-chain to on-chain, everything becomes open and transparent, and the differences between social platforms will no longer be barriers to interaction. When social relationships become public infrastructure, users can bring their accumulated social relationships and experience any new product without being tied to any single product.

In traditional social products, users are entirely reliant on highly centralized platforms to perform any action. This means that all of the users' outputs are controlled by the platform, whether it is content distribution or operational permissions. Users lack control over their social interactions. Web3 aims to reclaim control over social interactions, and the monetization of social content is a crucial method.

The significance of monetizing social content does not lie in evaluating the monetary value of social content (which is practically impossible to define), but rather in determining the ownership. When all social content is represented as assets, the issue of asset ownership naturally arises. Users can then determine the ownership of their social actions and strive for their own interests, truly achieving the vision of controlling their own network in the Web3 era.

Today, we will introduce an application that revolves around decentralized social networking as its core. However, compared to other competitors, it has some unique features, such as incorporating payment elements. If we were to draw a comparison to a Web2 application, I would say its direction is similar to WeChat, but it also incorporates some distinct designs. So, let's get to know this application together today—BESSAGE.

Product Introduction

BESSAGE is an application based on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that integrates payment, encrypted instant messaging, social media, and professional media. The most significant feature of BESSAGE is its construction on a relatively secure and stable decentralized network, providing users with information and payment anonymity. Additionally, it plans to subsidize users and creators through clean Bitcoin mining in the future.

Based on the above description, BESSAGE can be likened to a Web3 version of WeChat. In addition to the familiar features of WeChat, such as social networking and private interactions, BESSAGE incorporates elements of forum-style social interactions similar to Twitter. Therefore, BESSAGE is actually a quite comprehensive product.

As an innovative application on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, BESSAGE is the first social network that combines Bitcoin payments. With a large user base and strong consensus behind Bitcoin, this niche market indeed holds certain market potential.

It is worth mentioning that BESSAGE did not choose popular public chains as its development environment but instead opted for the relatively niche field of the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Many ordinary users may have heard of this concept, but they might still feel unfamiliar with its basic logic and applications. Therefore, in the following section, we will explore the basic principles of the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

The Basic Principles of the Lightning Network

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a "Layer 2" payment protocol built on top of the Bitcoin mainnet. Its purpose is to enable fast transactions between participating nodes, providing a viable solution to Bitcoin's scalability issues.

The Lightning Network is a peer-to-peer system that allows for microtransactions of cryptocurrencies through a bi-directional payment channel network without the need for custodial funds. The number of nodes and channels on the Lightning Network has been rapidly increasing in recent years, resulting in a significant increase in its processing capacity for information and transactions.

The Lightning Network is based on a technology called payment channels.

Before the Lightning Network, the concept of one-way payment channels had already existed for some time but had limited applications. For example, if A opens a one-way payment channel to B with 10 BTC, A can make off-chain payments to B within this channel. However, the channel is one-way, which means that B cannot make payments back to A through the same channel.

When B receives the Bitcoin, they can choose to close the channel and broadcast the transaction to the main chain for confirmation by miners, allowing B to receive the Bitcoin from A. Alternatively, if B knows that A will continue to pay Bitcoin to them in the future, they can choose to keep the channel open.

However, there is a potential problem with one-way payment channels. In a one-way channel, B has the final signature and broadcasting rights. If B acts maliciously and keeps the channel open indefinitely, A will never be able to settle, and A's 10 BTC will be held hostage in the payment channel. To address this, payment channels are typically accompanied by a mechanism called a "time lock."

A time lock, in this context, is a predetermined time agreed upon when the channel is created. Once the agreed-upon time is reached, the channel must be forcefully closed, and a transaction with the signatures of both parties will be broadcasted to the chain for confirmation. The balance without signatures will be returned to the original owner.

For example, if A and B agree to close the channel after 1000 blocks, B must sign and broadcast the transaction before the deadline to receive the Bitcoin from A. If B delays signing and broadcasting, once the agreed-upon time is reached, B will not receive any Bitcoin.

One-way payment channels are relatively simple because transactions are unidirectional, allowing only one party to send transactions while the other party broadcasts transactions. There is no trust issue involved, but the application scenarios are relatively limited.

Due to the limitations of one-way channels in terms of application, the Lightning Network aims to create trustless bi-directional payment channels, allowing both parties in the channel to freely engage in transactions. How does the Lightning Network address the trust issue and achieve bi-directional payment channels?

In the Lightning Network, from start to finish, the involved parties only need to interact with the Bitcoin blockchain twice. One interaction is to open the payment channel, and the other is to close the channel. All other transactions that occur in between do not directly interact with the main chain. This means that a transaction is confirmed only when both parties agree and sign it.

Suppose A and B intend to engage in frequent transactions. They agree to open a bi-directional payment channel and set a deadline for forceful settlement after 1000 blocks. To open the bi-directional payment channel, A and B must first create a multi-signature wallet on the chain.

At this point, both parties will generate a set of Secret Keys and Hashes. The Hash will be given to the other party, while the Secret Key will be kept privately.

After opening the bi-directional payment channel, each time A and B make a payment, they are essentially signing a new contract, and the old contract is invalidated. Importantly, during the invalidation of the old contract, they exchange Secret Keys from the previous contract, and the content of the contract determines how the assets in the fund pool will be reallocated.

Funds in the multi-signature wallet can only be unlocked under three conditions:

The time lock expires.

Either party unlocks funds from the multi-signature wallet using the other party's Secret Key.

Both parties sign and one party broadcasts the contract.

It is important to note that if one party decides to close the payment channel and broadcast the transaction, the party broadcasting must wait until the pre-determined time set during the transaction signing to receive their portion of the funds.

The BESSAGE team believes that the essence of information exchange and payment is actually a transaction. The Bitcoin Lightning Network can achieve the integration of borderless information exchange and payment, which is one of the reasons why they chose the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Project Development Plan

It has been reported that prior to the official launch of BESSAGE, the BESSAGE team will first introduce the PGC platform, creating a professional media outlet for the Bitcoin industry and attracting the first group of users with a Bitcoin background. Additionally, during this stage, BESSAGE will conduct project cold-start activities primarily targeted at bitcoiners, with the goal of becoming Bitcoin Talk 2.0.

In the subsequent stages, BESSAGE is expected to undergo three versions of updates:

1.     BESSAGE 1.0

BESSAGE is expected to officially launch version 1.0 in Q1 2023. The team plans to build a high-quality PGC network for the Bitcoin media and enable Bitcoin users to reward and pay creators in Bitcoin. Additionally, BESSAGE plans to establish a professional creator pool and attract an initial readership.

2.     BESSAGE 2.0

BESSAGE is expected to release version 2.0 in Q2-Q3 2023. This version aims to create an anonymous social media app that integrates space, instant messaging, and an information plaza, all based on the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

3.     BESSAGE 3.0

BESSAGE is expected to launch version 3.0 in Q1 2024. This version will support payment functionality based on the Lightning Network.

Conclusion

As a social network that combines Bitcoin payments, BESSAGE holds market potential due to Bitcoin's large user base and consensus foundation. However, social networking remains a field that has yet to fully emerge in the realm of cryptocurrency, making it a less perceptible track.

Furthermore, compared to the flourishing Ethereum ecosystem, Bitcoin's existing ecosystem may appear less robust. However, from a different perspective, this could also represent a blue ocean of opportunities.

I resonate with BESSAGE's approach, but it cannot be denied that this is indeed a challenging path. I also hope that BESSAGE will achieve significant development in the future.