Layer 3 - The Open Context Layer
Layer-3 blockchains represent a new frontier in the evolution of blockchain technology, building on the foundations of Layer-1 and Layer-2 solutions to deliver enhanced functionality targeted to overcome the limitations of previous layers by providing a more adaptable, efficient, and user-friendly blockchain ecosystem.
Plurality’s open context layer is a layer3 focused on improving user experience in a manner that enables easy onboarding and enhances retention on web3 platforms. The open context layer is the decentralized, chain-agnostic layer that holds the user's private profile data, only to be shared selectively based on the user’s consent.
Why was the Open Context Layer created?
One might ask, why was the open context layer created? Let’s take a look at what problems we intend to solve with this.
Fragmentation of User Data
Every online interaction a user makes is tied to a profile. However, these profiles have traditionally been fragmented and siloed, stored on centralized servers, and are not portable across different platforms.
As the boundaries between our online and offline lives become increasingly blurred, it’s crucial for users to have an aggregated view of their digital footprint, with the ability to selectively share it where necessary. Until now, the technology to enable this has been lacking.
Open Context Layer is a decentralized, privacy-focused, and chain-agnostic data layer for user’s smart profiles. It seamlessly integrates with any blockchain and any website, paving the way for a user-centric, interoperable internet.
Ownership of Profiles and Social Graph
Profiles and their associated social graphs are incredibly powerful, especially in a world where your online presence serves as social capital and contributes to your real-world reputation.
Your follower count and engagement directly translate into influence, impacting your life both monetarily and non-monetarily. Similarly, your social graph shapes your opportunities and reach in the world.
Yet, it's ironic that we spend more than seven hours a day building our online presence but have zero ownership over it. The internet is full of stories where creators lose thousands of followers overnight or are banned from platforms without explanation, wiping out years of hard work.
In the interconnected world of the future, ownership of profiles and social graphs is not just a "nice-to-have"—it’s essential if not a basic human right.
The Open Context Layer gives users self-custody over their profiles and social graphs, providing greater privacy and control.
Data Poverty and Cold Starts in Web3
Web3 has excellent tech for building the next generation of consumer-facing apps. However, until now, scalability was a major problem which is solved now through L2s. But, while solving scalability, L2s introduced user, liquidity, and data fragmentation.
When we talk about web3 platforms, user retention still remains at an all-time low (93% users churn on web3 platforms). Onboarding complexity and switching between screens for handling tokens/gas etc. introduces friction and affects retention but real reasoning for low retention goes deeper: the dreaded cold-start problem.
Cold start problem occurs because the system needs a certain amount of historical data or user behavior to function effectively, but at the beginning, it doesn't have enough data to draw from.
When a user connects a wallet to a web3 platform, it's essentially a blank slate for the platform.
All the major platforms on the internet e.g. Netflix, YouTube, Instagram etc. offer personalized recommendations and curation. These are large platforms that have tremendous amounts of user data. But for a new platform, it's difficult to gather the same amount of data quickly. The problem? In today’s fast-paced world, users don’t stick around long enough for the system to start making meaningful recommendations or personalize user experiences. This results in high churn rates on platforms.
Cold start problems exist on web2 platforms as well and that is why it is so difficult to break the hegemony of giant social media platforms, since they already have the user data that allows them to provide superior experience. It's no coincidence that Twitter was acquired for $44 billion—user data is invaluable.
However, the problem gets worse in web3 because on one hand, we don’t have enough user data on the blockchains since blockchains usually contain just transactional data and some metadata of assets. This data does not compare to the digital footprint that’s collected on web2 platforms. And, on the other hand, the little data that’s available is then further fragmented across the plethora of L1s and L2s that we have.
In a nutshell, today’s web3 user has:
very little context/data on blockchains since there is only transactional information on chain
the context/data is further split across all the different chains where the user has a wallet and performs transactions.
there is no straightforward way to verifiably link the different wallet addresses and platforms of the user
This creates a state of data poverty and fragmentation in Web3, making it even harder to solve the cold start problem.
By providing universally accessible, pre-populated user profiles, usable across any chain—or even on Web2 platforms—we aim to aggregate and unify context from disparate sources. This cross-chain and cross-platform approach will allow platforms to access data-rich profiles from the very first interaction, eliminating the cold start problem and enabling a seamless, personalized user experience from day one.
Interoperability
Web3 was envisioned to embody the principles of the Open Web, yet today, it faces a challenge similar to its predecessors: siloed ecosystems.
The lack of interoperability between different blockchains means users cannot easily use assets across networks without relying on complex processes like swapping, bridging, or other cumbersome workflows.
The Open Context Layer aims to bridge this gap by creating unified infrastructure that can be shared across ecosystems, simplifying the experience for end users and bringing these fragmented networks closer together.
Open Curation and Recommendations
A closely related concept is how content is curated on the internet today. Major platforms tailor what users see based on the information in their profiles, but the process behind this curation is often opaque. This lack of transparency has raised concerns, with critics pointing out that social feeds can amplify propaganda or give more visibility to negative content over neutral or balanced information.
This leads to an important question: Can users truly understand what data is being pushed to them and why? The Open Context Layer offers a first step toward transparent curation and recommendation systems, paving the way for more open and accountable content propagation.
If the profiles are under your own control, and you decide what data to share with whom, then we can also envision a world where the curation systems are also open with well-defined data inputs and outputs.
Wallet and Chain Abstraction
The open context layer enables a “profile” to be the point of interaction instead of a wallet. Of course, the wallet will be there, but the open context layer lays the foundations for the wallets and chains to be completely abstracted from the end user.
Self-sovereignty and Privacy
The Open Context Layer stores user profiles in streams hosted on decentralized storage, ensuring security and privacy. These streams are linked to Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and encrypted with keys derived from the user's wallet. Profiles are composed of verified credentials and can only be shared with the user’s explicit consent.
In this way, the Open Context Layer is designed in line with the principles of self-sovereign identity, giving users full control over their personal data and how it is shared.
Decentralized Cookies
A big chunk of user profiling done on the internet today is through third-party cookies. Ever seen an ad for shoes on a website just after you browsed through some shoes on another e-commerce site? Yes, that’s third-party cookies and are a major backbone of the Ads industry today.
However, third-party cookies infringe on user’s privacy and Google has repeatedly expressed concerns over discontinuing it.
Open Context Layer lays the foundations for decentralized cookies – a user-centric approach to sharing data based on user’s consent (also known as first-party data gathering).
This would be especially relevant in the post cookie era.
Last updated