What is Plurality Network?
Introduction
Plurality Network is a layer 3 enabling the next generation of user experience on the open web.
Plurality does this through several novel techniques including:
Plurality Network is bringing forth new revolutionary concepts that not only make the login process for users frictionless but also create a foundation for experiences that can only be created with meaningful data and social graph attached to a wallet, all while respecting users’ consent and privacy.
We are building the blocks of a user-centric and accessible web3, created for everyday people who want to use platforms on the internet to get value and entertainment instead of getting bogged down by unnecessary friction.
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Motivations behind Plurality Network
To understand the motivation behind plurality, we have to first discuss the current problems of the internet.
The Internet, now also known as web2, was one of the most revolutionary inventions of mankind, connecting humans in all parts of the world and making them part of a global network. Initially, the internet was envisioned to be “open”, creating positive sum games for everyone involved. The “Open Web” emerged as a concept during the early development of the internet in the 1990s, largely rooted in the values and principles promoted by early internet pioneers like Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
Tim Berners-Lee advocated for an open, decentralized web where information could be freely shared without restrictions. He envisioned the web as a tool that would be based on open standards and protocols, accessible to anyone, and not controlled by any single entity. His creation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1994 helped formalize this vision by promoting open standards for web technologies, such as HTML and HTTP, which are foundational to what we now consider the Open Web.
However, as more applications started emerging on the internet (like social media giants and search engines), the internet became more and more centralized and slowly moved away from the concepts of its core ethos like open standards, net neutrality, user privacy, and decentralized platforms.
Today, there are a plethora of centralized platforms on the internet. An average person spends 7 hours daily on 7 different platforms and has a profile on each of these platforms.
With each interaction, they leave a small residue of their personality tagged to their profile, siloed in a walled garden and only to be used by the platform where the profile was created.
Challenges of Web2
As web2 progressed and more and more centralized platforms started being built on it, profiles became a powerful entity that could make or break businesses. Profiles on a platform had three distinct functions:
However, there is one big drawback to profiles: they are siloed to a particular platform.
No user truly owns their profile, no matter how much effort they have put into creating a decent following, or how long they have been using it. The Internet is full of instances where creators lose their followers overnight, get blocked or banned, and all of this without any explanation.
Profiles on a centralized platform are a rental space where you keep filling in your data and in return, you get to use that platform’s services.
Web2 platforms use profiles to provide an experience catered to the user's tastes and personality and this is one of the most important techniques that enhances user retention.
For example, you see the content you are interested in on social networks. Or you get job offers on LinkedIn relevant to your area of expertise. Overall, web2 platforms have successfully gained and retained users due to the personalized experiences that they provide - all thanks to the data consistently being aggregated in the user profile. So, on the one hand, profiles are necessary to create engaging and enjoyable user experiences that make the users feel seen by the platform. But on the other hand, profiles have turned into a business advantage, and the more data-rich profiles a platform has, the bigger the incentive to keep it siloed from the rest of the internet. After all, data is king.
Challenges of Web3
The blockchain technology has been hailed repeatedly as the successor to web2 and has numerous advantages like decentralization, censorship resistance, and most importantly, the focus on user sovereignty, that makes it ideal for building the next generation of platforms. In a way, web3 brought back the principles of “Open Web” once envisioned by the internet pioneers. However, despite its notable advantages, only 4% of the world uses web3 and there is a 93% churn rate on web3 platforms. This is due to a few key user experience issues:
Complicated onboarding: Users encounter wallet and chain related complexities during onboarding, making it difficult to complete the process.
Data and liquidity fragmentation: Data and liquidity is fragmented across various platforms and blockchains, which not only makes it difficult to create personalized experiences, but also require users to manage assets on multiple chains and navigate swaps and bridges, adding to the steps and friction that a user faces when they have to use a platform.
No meaningful data or social graph: Wallets lack meaningful data or social graphs, causing a "cold-start problem" for dApps and limiting network effects.
Because of the aforementioned problems, using web3 platforms is not only unengaging, but is also difficult for most end users, making it very difficult to onboard the masses.
Plurality aims to improve the web3 user experience by creating a Layer 3 with a decentralized profiles protocol that unifies data and liquidity across the web, abstracting wallets and chains into a "Profile" layer to address key UX issues.
Profiles have always been an integral part of the internet and every user that uses the internet knows how to use a profile. However, web3 until now has no concept of profiles. We expect users to change the way they have always interacted with platforms for using web3 platforms and deal with wallets instead.
Web3 until now has no concept of Profiles.
We believe that if we can bring the concept of decentralized profiles in web3 while respecting the core ethos, not only will we reduce the cognitive load on end users by letting them use web3 platforms in a way that they are already familiar with, but also improve the existing profiles technology, leading to a better, more user-centric internet.
Plurality profiles, called smart profiles, are self-custodial, data-rich, and interoperable amongst platforms across blockchains. No more silos, no more cold starts.
Moreover, smart profiles also abstract away all wallet and chain related complexities including gas fees, tokens, swaps, bridges etc. making it easier for users to use platforms without getting stuck in the technicalities.
By abstracting away all the complexities and providing users with an easy “profile” abstraction that they are already familiar with, we can propel web3 into mass adoption.
That’s the vision for Plurality.
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