How to understand a16z’s focus on reconstructing user experience?

Written by: Heimi, Bai Ze Research Institute

a16z crypto It has always been the most cutting-edge and well-known top investment institution in the crypto industry, with more than $7 billion in funds to invest in crypto projects and technologies. As of the time of writing this article, a16z crypto It has invested in 26 projects across different fields this year, including DeFi, infrastructure, games, L3, interoperability, etc.

Recently, a16z crypto published a blog post titled "A Few Things We're Excited About Crypto (2024)", looking forward to nine key narratives worth paying attention to in the crypto industry in 2024.

Entering a new era of decentralization→ DAO The governance level will be further improved

Reconstructing the future of user experience→ Say goodbye to cumbersome interfaces, simplify the user experience, and make dApps easily accessible to everyone

The rise of the modular technology stack→ Developers will have more flexibility than ever before to build custom applications using interoperable components

AI+ Blockchain→ Artificial Intelligence andBlockchainTechnologies will further integrate to unlock new possibilities for innovation

"Playing for money" becomes "playing while earning"→ The focus of Web3 games will shift from earning rewards to simply having fun playing games

when AI When you become a game maker, usecryptocurrencyprovide assurance→ cryptocurrencyWill be due to AI Driven games offerSafetySex and transparency

Formal verification becomes less formal→ New tools and technologies will make verification smartcontractofSafetySex becomes easier

NFTs become ubiquitous brand assets→ Brands will increasingly use NFTs to build connections and loyalty with customers

SNARKs Go Mainstream→ Zero knowledge proofWill become common, private andSafetytransaction.

Thinking about these narratives, there are two points that AI andBlockchain, and cryptocurrencies, the rest are all centered around one goal, which is to acquire mainstream users in the bull market cycle that may have come and achieve Mass Adoption of Web3. Just like the popularity of NFT in 2021, the next bull market will depend on the adoption of new users. Whether it is modularizationBlockchain,Zero knowledge proofThis new infrastructure to improve chain performance and expand innovation is also a specific means of reconstructing user experience (UX), brand adoption of NFT, and transformation of Web3 game core. Among them, reconstructing user experience is the fastest way to gain mainstream audiences.

Simplifying the user experience is the cornerstone of Web3’s mass adoption

For crypto-native users,walletConnect to UniswapTokenSwap, then set the targetTokenIt is easy to transfer to dApp for staking and farming. But for mainstream users who are getting involved in Web3 for the first time, the situation is different.

什么是 Gas？在哪里买原生Token用于支付 Gas？交易批准？最终确认？

If you want to use different dApps on multiple chains, new questions will arise. What is Polygon? How to transfer tokens from Ethereum to it?

If new users want to interact with on-chain dApps, these rather esoteric and highly technical concepts/terms must be involved, so they need to learn and understand them first.

Intelligence in current account abstractioncontractwallet, providing users with social media login, social recovery and other services close to the Web2 product experience, which not only gets rid of the constraints of private keys/mnemonics but also improvesSafetyIts batch transaction, Gas payment and other functions have lowered the threshold for users to use dApp to a certain extent.

The Telegram trading robot, which is very popular this year, provides users with a new way to interact with Web3 and is widely regarded as an important channel for converting 800 million Telegram users into Web3. Through the Telegram trading robot, users do not need to switch back and forth between various dApps, and can experience trading, analysis, automatic airdrop trading, asset cross-chain and other services in one stop or even one click. The Telegram trading robot, which was created to simplify the trading experience, actually provides users with a core advantage - Intent. Users only need to indicate what they want to trade, and the question of how to do it will be automatically handled by the robot.

Therefore, the Telegram trading robot can be regarded as the first wave of Intent-Centric products.

In July this year, the Intent-Centric concept proposed by Paradigm became a hit, and related products have sprung up, including various L1, DeFi and infrastructure. Intent-Centric emphasizes the user's "intention", that is, users only need to express what results they want, without worrying about the process of achieving the results. If you imagine the Intent-Centric product as a big box, everyone puts their own "needs" into it, the solver matches these "needs" with each other, develops the best transaction route for each "need", and then returns the results of the "need" to everyone. The same is the result, and the difference is the person who implements the transaction process.

If account abstraction eliminates the concept of "account", then Intent-Centric can be said to be a higher-level abstraction that eliminates user interaction.BlockchainBelow we take the Intent-Centric project dappOS as an example to deeply understand the convenience and importance of simplifying the user experience for new Web3 users.

dappOS: Reconstructing the Web3 operating experience

dappOS is an operation protocol centered on user intent. It provides users with a one-click friendly interactive experience by becoming the "intention layer" between users and crypto infrastructure such as public chains and cross-chain bridges.

When the Intent-Centric concept became popular, dappOS quickly became the Chinese Crypto because it had received pre-seed financing from Binance Labs and seed round financing led by Sequoia China and IDG Capital. CommunityOne of the hottest projects. Other investors include OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, etc.

The author believes that the Intent-Centric narrative of dappOS can be understood from two levels.

• 一个以用户意图位中心的操作协议，实现了链抽象，不用切换wallet和网络，一键交互不同链的热门 dApp，无缝衔接公链热点

• A brand new on-chain traffic distribution terminal helps new public chains quickly build an ecosystem and eliminates the barriers for users to participate in the new ecosystem

An operational protocol centered around user intent

At present, new public chains with better service capabilities and response speed have increased exponentially, accompanied by specific application scenarios, such as AvaXiaobai NavigationLanche, the privacy-preserving Manta Network, or Oasys, a blockchain-based game chain with nearly 50 games, users have to create a wallet for each public chain and face the problem of asset fragmentation. Instead of frequently transferring assets from chain A to chain B, it is better to put some assets on both chain A and chain B.

From this perspective, inspired by the operating system, dappOS is committed to becoming a Web3 operating protocol, or dApp Store, which fully abstracts the complex and cumbersome concepts and processes such as public chains and cross-chains. Users can easily access dApps of multiple chains in this "central hub" and use assets from any chain to participate in the dApp of another chain. That is, assets from chain A can be used directly in the dApp of chain B.

In the current V2 version, dappOS has integrated popular projects including Perpetual, BENQI, QuickSwap and Stader. According to the roadmap, popular projects to be integrated include SyncSwap, Curve, DeFi Kingdom, Frax Finance, GMX, Lido, etc.

dappOS relies on dappOS Account, which is a "unified account" (smart contract account). The unified account allows users to directly manage the total assets of all chains. Common tokens such as ETH, USDT, USDC, and DAI can be used in any dApp on any chain. For example, you can use BNB Chain's USDT to make a perpetual contract on Optimism's Perpetual with one click.

Let’s take Perpetual, the first DappOS integration, as an example. This is a perpetual DEX based on Optimism.

First, let’s look at the difference between users using Perpetual on Optimism and using Perpetual on dappOS?

On Optimism:

1. Exchange $ETH for $USDT on Uniswap

2. Cross-chain $USDT from Ethereum to Optimism

3. Transfer a small amount of $ETH to Optimism to pay for the gas fees generated by the interaction

4. Deposit $USDT or $USDC in Perpetual and start using it

This asset transfer process takes almost half an hour to complete, and new users often give up halfway.

On dappOS:

Deposit $USDT or $USDC on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon and other chains directly into Perpetual to start using

One operation, takes only 5 minutes.

In summary, dappOS realizes Intent-Centric through unified accounts and dappOS Network, which greatly simplifies the user experience.

A brand new on-chain traffic distribution terminal

dappOS has been one of the top three dApps in Manta Network by transaction volume in the past few weeks, bringing in more than 100,000 transactions per week. You should be familiar with Manta, the star ZK modular blockchain, which has received financing from top investment institutions such as PolyChain Capital and Spartan. The author believes that the official cooperation between Manta Network and dappOS has played a big role, because dappOS users from other chains are also a force that cannot be underestimated.

In addition, after QuickSwap integrated dappOS V2, its TVL increased by more than 3.84 million US dollars in two weeks, the number of transactions increased by 110,629, and the number of new users increased by 6,558. In addition, the total amount of liquidity added by dappOS users on QuickSwap reached 3,840,217 US dollars, accounting for 41.02% of QuickSwap's TVL on Manta, and the transaction volume reached 2,641,538 US dollars.

I also experienced it on QuickSwap as soon as possible. After several swaps and LP formations, I felt that the Gas cost of using QuickSwap on dappOS was very low, and the total loss was no more than $1. dappOS supports users to seamlessly interact with QuickSwap on the Manta network from chains such as Ethereum, Arbitrium, and Avalanche, and the overall fee rate can be reduced by up to 85%. Even new users can participate in airdrop interactions by simply understanding simple Swaps and liquidity mining, based on Intent-Centric's simplification of transactions.

Today, when multi-chain development is inevitable, it is difficult for a dApp to distribute existing users and traffic to the newly deployed public chain. The reason lies in the asset fragmentation problem mentioned above. Take QuickSwap as an example. DappOS allows Polygon users to use existing assets to interact with the zero-asset Manta Network or any other supported public chain with one click. By resolving the dilemma of asset fragmentation, the traffic distribution of QuickSwap is realized.

Similarly, if a new public chain wants to quickly introduce new users and grab a piece of the pie in the public chain competition, it is doing economic incentives, whether it is the fascinating token airdrop or the beautiful ecological interaction fund. The most typical examples are zkSync, which has 2.3 million unique users, and Blast, which attracted 700 million TVL in just ten days. Why do this? It is also the reason for asset fragmentation. If user assets do not cross chains, they cannot use new public chains. Take Manta Network as an example. Based on Intent-Centric, dappOS allows users of any chain to interact in QuickSwap using existing assets.

According to the cooperation announcement between dappOS and Manta, the two parties will jointly provide $10 million in funding to support the construction of Manta's dApp ecosystem. It is expected that more new applications integrated with dappOS will appear in the Manta ecosystem soon. With the prosperity and development of the Manta ecosystem, more users will quickly integrate into Manta through dappOS and become long-term users.

Therefore, from this perspective, dappOS can become a new on-chain traffic distribution terminal, capable of supporting dApp and public chains to quickly attract users.

dappOS triple airdrop expected, by the way, ambush

In short, interacting with dApps in the Manta Network ecosystem on dappOS (only QuickSwap now) has a great chance of winning Manta Network airdrops. This is because when using other chain assets to actually interact, fund deposits and transactions do exist (handled by the solver). Similarly, there are two airdrop expectations around dappOS that are worth paying attention to.

One is that the dappOS official Twitter hinted that a new round of rewards airdrops will be held in December. Rewards can be understood as "trading to earn", and USDT rewards are given to users who continue to interact with a certain dApp on dappOS. The dApp of the last rewards round was Perpetual, which lasted for one month. The author observed on Twitter that users who interacted a few times could get 80 USDT airdrops, and those who interacted more could get up to 1,000 USDT.

The other is of course the native token of dappOS. Although it has not been explicitly mentioned or hinted, the luxurious investment lineup is still worth ambush. You don’t have to deliberately interact with it. Follow the official activities or rewards to get USDT airdrops, and you don’t have to worry about being left behind no matter when you take a snapshot.

Regarding how to use dappOS, I made a simple tutorial on Google doc, taking the still popular Manta network QuickSwap as an example:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hBu1bsTWrCE2Fs3FzTL1bjDNqG8gQ_VbPZV_IlVDacM/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion

Web3 represents a paradigm shift in the trust properties of applications, delegating power from centralized intermediaries to usersCommunityBut like any innovative technology, Web3 must overcome a number of obstacles before it can achieve mass global adoption. Simplifying the user experience is the most important one.

Just like dappOS solves a problem we often laugh at ourselves, "How to teach your elders to quickly get started with Web3?" Open dappOS, create a "unified account", deposit some USDT. Open the dApp aggregation interface that is like WeChat applet, and start trading.exchangeSimilarly, multi-chain assets are interoperable, and the operation is smooth and simple.

Make it easy to use first, then use it frequently.

In 2021, the emergence of NFT brought Web3 global attention, and the simplified user experience was just talk at the time. The influx of new users’ need to learn technical terms has spawned a large number of crypto education blogs.

With the advent of account abstraction and Intent-Centric, a16z's focus on simplifying the user experience has returned to the forefront. Can new Web3 users use dApps without learning complex terms? Can new Web3 users complete an interaction in just five minutes without looking up information? As the world's attention turns to Web3 again, will the entire industry be ready to attract the next billion users with a lower barrier to entry? We will wait and see.

The article comes from the Internet:How to understand a16z’s focus on reconstructing user experience?

Related recommendation: Interpretation of Vitalik’s blog post: Exploring the possibility of having Ethereum built-in ZK-EVM

Ethereum may not only regard ZK-EVM as an additional component in the future. Written by: Xiaobai Navigation Coderworld Yesterday, Vitalik updated an article titled "What might an "enshrined ZK-EVM" look like?" in his blog, systematically expounding on the...