CyberConnect, The Experience Hub for Web3 Adoption

Key Takeaways

• Web3 has been attracting great attention, as it has the potential to create a participant-centered symmetric market where participants can independently control and share their data and content based on blockchain technology.

• Identity is a key factor that enables interaction between entities. However, current Web3 stack lacks a holistic identity that can interact with a variety of applications and different types of interactions.

• CyberConnect is creating a social graph that defines the holistic identity through account abstraction and builds Web2-like UX & participant-centric creative economy.

• As the most agile to the latest technologies in the Web3 space, CyberConnect has onboarded the most ERC4337-based smart contract wallets to see use cases of account abstraction, and integration with existing technologies such as DID & VC and ZKP has the great potential to bring further innovation.

• In addition, it is considered that CyberConnect is one of the protocols that is closest to Web3 adoption, with a broad ecosystem and the largest user base to actually transform technology into new experiences and share them.

1. Account Abstraction for Web3 Adoption

1.1 The Rise of Web3

The development of IT technology and the increasing time people spend in the online space have led to a variety of digital interactions. In particular, social media platforms first appeared only for social networking, but they have gradually penetrated into people's lifestyles and now become powerful channels for marketing, information search, and other purposes. As a result, the top social media platforms have become even larger, creating new types of participants and markets called “Content Creators”, “Influencers”, and the “Creative Economy”. In this market, where it is important to ‘stand out’ from the crowd, identity has become a way to increase one's own value and social impact, and Individual content has also become more than just a one-time-consumption item for interaction.

However, as the creative economy grew, concerns about its sustainability have increased at the same time. Centralized media platforms have used user data to maximize advertising revenue, and have also collected a significant portion of the revenue of content creators. Despite such a dismal incentive structure, content creators have been forced to continue to work with the huge media platforms, as they have no alternatives. Media platforms increasingly have prioritized one-way communication from brands to people, which has led to the spread of biased content and a decline in user interaction experience.

In order to restore the smooth interaction between people on social media and the creative economy to its original purpose, a new approach to the way participants interact with each other is needed, along with a new market structure that can be sustainable. And currently, Web3 is being mentioned as a promising alternative to this - By using blockchain technology, users can take full control of their data and content and decide how it is shared, without relying on any central platform. As the distribution path of the creative work can be transparently tracked, content creators can design a reasonable revenue structure for themselves. In addition, creators can inject properties into the creative work itself or issue their own tokens to redefine the way they interact or align the incentive structure with the community. In short, the existing creator economy was driven by a centralized and inefficient market, but Web3’s creator economy can finally be a symmetrical market centered on the entities that actually participate (i.e., creators and consumers).

1.2 Lack of Identity-Middleware In Web3

Nevertheless, it seems that adoption of Web3 still has a long way to go. There are several reasons for this, but the most intuitives are the inconvenience and lack of interactivity. If we think back to the early days of the Internet, we couldn't really interact with many different actors, just received information from providers. However, with the introduction of identity models that could characterize individuals, a certain degree of mutual trust was established and the internet began to experience a wave of innovation embracing a wider range of interactions.

Like this, identity is a key enabler of interaction by allowing people to better recognize each other. Therefore, for a wide range of interactions to take place in the Web3 space, a holistic identity must be defined according to a Web3 grammar - However, there is no clear mechanism for doing so at the moment.

The inconvenience and risk from this lack of a holistic identity falls entirely on the end-users. In addition to being unable to interact with different web3 services, they must go through a series of complex processes required by those services in order to use them, and the accounts at the center of all of these must be securely managed.

We often refer to this as an ‘UX issue’, and it is a major bottleneck in the adoption of Web3 by the general public, even though Web3 is currently receiving a great deal of attention. Therefore, if we assume that something like an identity-middleware that can define a holistic identity could emerge and solve these inconveniences, it would have to have the following properties.

1. It should support permanent identity and guarantee different types of interactions with each application.

2. It should adopt a scalable and flexible storage structure that can support a variety of data required for defining identity.

3. The data included in the identity should be controlled in a voluntary and flexible way.

1.3 Account Abstraction Unlocks Identity-Middleware

‘Account Abstraction(AA)’, which is being actively discussed these days, can satisfy a significant portion of the properties mentioned above and can be a great help in building an identity-middleware in Web3 stack - The main idea of account abstraction is to convert existing wallet to ‘smart contract wallet’ by enabling the sending of transactions and signatures for Contract Accounts - In other words, existing accounts, which were only able to initiate and send transactions, can now be embedded with different features to make them as easy as managing any other Web2 identity accounts.

The functions here include not only advanced transaction logics, but also the control method of the account through key management service, and defining data linked to the account, etc. This means that the security logic and data required for identity can be integrated into the underlying account - or more simply, account abstraction allows us to inject a concept of identity into an existing account.

Specifically, smart contract wallets can support a variety of features, including the following, to ensure a diverse and flexible user experience.

Customized Signature Schemes

• Currently, only the ECDSA signature algorithm is used in EOA. However, if account abstraction is implemented, other signature algorithms such as Schnorr, BLS, or quantum-resistant alternatives can be used in addition to ECDSA.

Flexibility in Paying Gas Fees

• Flexibility to user-service interactions can be added by delegating the payment of gas fees to other people (or applications) or allowing users to pay gas fees with a variety of tokens.

Batch Transaction

• Costs in the execution of contracts can be saved by implementing logic to process multiple transactions at once.

Signature Abstraction

• Custom logic can be implemented to make verification valid under certain conditions - This allows users to utilize whitelist/blacklist management to restrict transactions to specific targets, time-locked features to set the lifetime of signatures, and logic such as requiring multiple signatures for transactions over a certain amount of money.

Authentication & Key Management

• Users can freely add, remove, and change permissions for multiple accounts, and also use MFA(multi-factor authentication) and Session Keys to improve the existing transaction experience.

and more.

1.4 ERC4337 with Brief History of AA

In fact, the concept of account abstraction has been around for a while. Ethereum’s standard proposal "Abstraction of transaction origin and signature (EIP 86)" in 2016 was the first step towards account abstraction. Since then, there have been many other proposals that have further developed the concept, and the keyword "Account Abstraction" has been born - Of the different standards candidates, the relatively new ERC 4337 proposal has become the most talked about and advanced as it implements account abstraction without the need to modify the consensus layer. And leading up to Vitalik's presentation on the importance of this implementation aspect, account abstraction and ERC4337 became more popular together, and a significant number of projects are now moving to adopt ERC4337.

Below is a brief process of a smart contract wallet implemented with ERC4337.

1. Users send a smart contract called UserOperation to the UserOperation Mempool through an smart contract wallet - Here, UserOperation can include various logics beyond simple token transfer, and UserOperation Mempool is a separate mempool different from the existing one that the network usually uses to process transactions.

2. Bundlers bundle the highest paying UserOperations and package them into a Bundle Transaction.

3. Bundlers take this Bundle Transaction and call a smart contract called an EntryPoint - Bundlers simulate the validity of each UserOperation's signature and ability to pay for gas, and submit the Bundle Transaction along with the fees included in the Bundle Transaction to the EntryPoint.

4. (Optional) Users can optionally utilize a feature called Paymaster for other entities to pay for gas on their behalf, or to pay for gas in other currencies, such as ERC20 tokens.

5. EntryPoint is responsible for validating each UserOperation and executing it on the network - Whereas the bundler simply simulates UserOperations, the EntryPoint actually validates UserOperations. If the validation is successful, bundlers are paid a predetermined fee by the entities who generated UserOperations, and if there are any gas fees remaining after the execution, they are also refunded to the bundler.

To summarize, account abstraction is to bring the existing principle of smart contracts running on the network to the application level, configure specific logics by each account(steps 1-4 above), and verify & execute all of these logics with a contract called EntryPoint on the network(step 5 above).

The flexibility of ERC4337 allows smart contract wallet to be combined with a variety of existing technologies, in addition to the functions mentioned above - For example, it can strengthen identity or data privacy by using DID(Decentralized Identifier) & VC(Verified Credential), and ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof)*. As such, ERC4337 has seen a renewed interest with a wide range of projects quickly adopting or experimenting with it since the code audit by OpenZeppelin,

*To be covered later in this article

2. CyberConnect, Web3 Social Middleware with AA

CyberConnect is leading the Web3 space by being the first to adopt ERC4337 and are experimenting combining it with other existing technologies such as ZKP. CyberConnect is maximizing the use cases for smart contract wallets by implementing the full range of ERC4337’s features and agilely applying them to its broader user base and ecosystem.

2.1 Primer on CyberConnect

CyberConnect is a Web3 Social middleware project where various social-based apps can be built on top of the middleware that CyberConnect provides. It is preparing for the V3 update at the moment, including the application of ERC4337. With this update, CyberConnect envisions a social network that allows users to create a chain-agnostic account and centers that identity around a Web2-like user experience and participant-driven creative economy - Creators and consumers can move around different platforms with the holistic identity, realize a content-based community economy with the best user experience, and developers get all these data to build a more prosperous ecosystem.

2.2 Three Pillars of CyberConnect

CyberConnect has three core elements for all of these - 1) Identity, which is the center of all interactions 2) Social graph, which represents each entity’s connections 3) Network, which supports data solution and smooth communication

2.2.1 CyberAccount

CyberAccount is the core identity for creators and consumers in the CyberConnect ecosystem. Its compatibility with ERC4337 and ERC6900 enables users to enjoy an enhanced user experience when interacting with applications, as they can use the functions of account abstraction such as Paymaster, social recovery, permission management, relay transaction, etc. CyberAccount integrates data from Web3 as well as Web2-based social media platforms like Twitter and Discord. This gives users completely control over all their social data. There is also a special account for teams, organizations, and brands called ‘Organization Account’, which offers advanced account management features like multi-signature and customizable access control rules.

CyberAccounts can have separate handles called ‘CyberID’ - Since the CyberAccounts can store so much information, simple profiles showing only the necessary information are required for each interaction. cyberIDs are represented by ‘.cyber’ and are dedicated to interacting with applications with some identity information, such as basic personal information, username, avatar, metadata, etc. However, CyberIDs must renew their registration at regular intervals. If this is missed, the handles will be put up for public auction.

2.2.2 CyberGraph

CyberGraph is a social graph that receives metadata and activities of CyberAccounts, records them in storage, and represents the necessary data. In addition to identity information, the data flowing through CyberGraph includes (ERC721 based) collections, subscriptions, contents, W3ST(Web3-Status Token, ERC1155 based SBT) that defines the status of each user within a specific community, and other off-chain-managed information.

With traditional Web2 social media platforms, it is difficult for social interactions (or social contexts) to span multiple worlds without being connected to a centralized entity, forcing participants to either lock themselves into the platform or give up their identity and assets and start with a blank slate on a new platform. With CyberGraph, participants can continue to interact with the information they have accumulated through their CyberAccount in a variety of worlds with little or no switching costs between these platforms, and developers can support the expansion of the ecosystem through data APIs and various toolkits.

2.2.3 CyberNetwork

CyberConnect aims to encompass data from both Web2 and Web3 spaces(or off-chain and on-chain) and operate efficiently and seamlessly. CyberNetwork is a gas-efficient and scalable L2 network designed for the purpose of smooth sourcing of such data. Additional upgrades will integrate the network into CyberConnect in the coming months.

2.3 Comparison with Other Protocols

Protocols that are often compared to CyberConnect in the industry include Lens Protocol, Farcaster, and DeSo. While they commonly share problems for existing social media platforms and build user-owned profiles and social graphs, they have slightly different approaches and protocol designs. This article provides a brief comparison of the key features that influence each approach and discusses CyberConnect’s differentiation.

• All four protocols share a common mission of emphasizing scalable and flexible interactions through identity-based accounts, and currently only CyberConnect has fully implemented account abstraction through ERC4337 - CyberConnect was one of the earliest adopters of account abstraction as soon as the concept was discussed, and the largest number of ERC4337-based smart contract wallets in the industry are onboarded to use CyberConnect to create chain-agnostic interaction use cases across multiple chains(i.e., 450k+ as of August 16th). DeSo, on the other hand, does not directly adopt the standards around account abstraction, but instead introduces some of the functionality of account abstraction through ‘Derived Keys’, which can be used to authorize other entities to sign transactions. The remaining protocols are leveraging NFTs to define identity accounts, but have yet to fully implement account abstraction.

• One of the other most notable differences is the ‘Base Chain’. When a protocol becomes dependent on a specific chain, it can quickly absorb the chain's user base, which is a benefit, but it also has drawbacks, such as the inability to customize infrastructure configurations and limited interoperability. While Lens and Farcaster rely on a single chain, CyberConnect supports multiple EVM-compatible chains such as Polygon, Linea, Arbitrum, and Base - Optimism, opBNB, and more will be supported soon. DeSo recognizes the limitations of implementing Web3 on a general-purpose chain, so it has built its own Layer 1 that specializes in Web3 Social graphs.

• ‘Data Storage’ is another area of significant difference. CyberConnect and Farcaster have taken a hybrid approach that leverages both on-chain (including decentralized storage solutions) and off-chain - CyberConnect stores identity and major interactions data on-chain and other interaction data off-chain solution. Farcaster, on the other hand, tries to store as little data on-chain as possible and utilize off-chain solutions for the rest. Other protocols store all data on-chain by default, but Lens stores some data other than identity on decentralized solutions like Arweave or IPFS, rather than all on the base chain. These strategic differences stem from tradeoffs between the value and convenience each protocol wants to provide to its users.

• CyberConnect and DeSo do not have a high barrier to entry for users to create accounts, while Farcaster and Lens restrict accounts (or profiles) to be obtained by default through invitations from specific users or special events. As a result, the number of registered accounts differs significantly between these protocols. Interestingly, this fact also seems to affect the nature of each community - CyberConnect's community is heavily organized around sharing information about events, introducing and interacting with applications, while Lens is more artist & creator oriented, and Farcaster is more about participants having productive discussions. In the case of DeSo, it doesn’t seem to have any clear trend.

While some of the main differences are mentioned, the truth is that perceived UX of each protocol will vary from user to user, so it is best for them to try out each application and choose the protocol that works best for themselves.

• CyberConnect - Link3, Phaver, CyberTune, etc.

• Lens - Buttrfly, Orb, Phaver, etc.

• Farcaster - Jam, Warpcast, etc.

• DeSo - Diamond, etc.

The other most important point to consider is the macro direction of the project, specifically the direction in which the project is being refined - the infrastructure to build Web3 is still in its infancy, so comparing protocols in the current timeframe may be pointless. Therefore, rather than analyzing technical stacks, statistics, business models, etc. in the moment, it is much more important in the long run to judge how fast each protocol can adopt the latest technologies and be future-proofed in a flexible way.

From this perspective, CyberConnect is likely to be the most agile in that it quickly adopts the latest technologies, builds a diverse ecosystem to disseminate relevant experiences to as many users as possible, and enhances their core values(i.e., holistic identity) based on their feedback.

2.4 Ecosystem, Tokenomics, etc.

2.4.1 Ecosystem with Some Statistics

The combination of diverse interactions and synergies from the broader ecosystem can enhance the impact of identity and drive adoption by more users.

Having successfully raised two rounds of funding totaling $25M since launch, CyberConnect has now a broad ecosystem where the use cases for smart contract wallet with account abstraction can be fully realized  - recording 1.4M+ account onboarding, 1.8M+ contents, 11M+ collections, and hovering around 60k+ WAUs and 400k+ MAUs (with some variation). In particular, as mentioned earlier, CyberAccount has achieved the largest adoption of 450k+ within about 3 weeks of its introduction, demonstrating its dominance in the industry for account abstraction-based smart contract wallets.

The applications that this large number of users can interact with within the CyberConnect ecosystem vary ranging from social media platforms, memberships, entertainment, NFT marketplaces/issuance platforms, etc. With over 50+ applications in the CyberConnect ecosystem, CyberAccount can be interacted with in different ways fully utilizing the features of the account abstraction.

The diversification of interactions in the CyberConnect ecosystem can also be seen in the graph above. Until the beginning of the year 2023, the interaction rate was dominated by Link3 - the 1st party community application created by the CyberConnect team that allows users to easily create and manage their profile, as well as engage in communities to share and learn different sources of information. However, since March, various applications such as CyberTune (a platform for music NFTs) and Atticc (a community-based NFT platform) have continued to emerge and grow on CyberConnect alongside Link3 on CyberConnect.

CyberAccount users can further explore CyberConnect's ecosystem by participating in the cyberTrek’s rewards program or Link3's FanClub events with different interactions on multiple applications.

2.4.2 Tokenomics of CYBER and CyberConnect’s Milestone

CyberConnect's native token, CYBER, not only serves as the essential currency for users to make chain-agnostic interactions within CyberConnect's ecosystem, but also functions as the primary voting right for the ecosystem to prosper.

Governance - CYBER token holders have voting rights to improve the CyberConnect protocol and can delegate their voting rights to other entities. The scope of governance is as follows.

• Change in payment methods and fee structures

• Adoption of new base chain

• Allocation of funds for ecosystem development, such as grants and community contribution programs

• Organizing online and offline events to revitalize the ecosystem

• Etc.

CyberAccount Gas Token - CYBER is used as a payment method for gas for all transaction types within CyberConnect’s multi-chain ecosystem.

Payment methods for CyberID

The most important update for CyberConnect in Q3 will be the launch of CyberDAO, which discusses how to improve multi-chain interactions. In addition, there is also a plan to continue CyberTrek, a collaboration with six chains (Ethereum, BNB, Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base) to educate on the use cases of CyberAccount.

Q4 will see the release of the Login-SDK and CyberWallet app, and next year will see CyberNetwork and the launch of the grant program for developers.

3. Potential Opportunities with DID & VC, and ZK Proofs

There are several so-called ‘Game Changers’ in Web3 - DID(Decentralized Identifier) & VC(Verified Credential) and ZKP(Zero-Knowledge Proof) are some of them. DID & VC is a technology or specification that implements the concept of SSI (Self-Sovereign Identity) in a decentralized way, where users control their own identity information and ensure their privacy. ZKP is a cryptographic technique that can prove the validity of information without disclosing the details of the information.

They are attracting attention particularly in Web3, as their technology is well-suited to blockchain and enhances the autonomous nature of identity - Here, enhancing the autonomous nature of identity means that people can have more sovereignty over their identity information, and it allows users to express themselves better, eliminates the information imbalance between users by mitigating the data reliance on third parties, and thus enables different types of interactions based on greater trust.

3.1 with DID & VC

Currently, the environments where individuals can interact on-chain and off-chain are separated. However, if the DID & VC stack is connected to CyberAccount, it can provide a truly new user experience as the stack encompasses the entire digital and real world where individuals operate.

For example, if the government (or a high-trust entity) in the real world has a smart contract wallet such as CyberAccount and grants individuals citizenship (or corresponding means of expressing an individual's status) on the blockchain as a VC, individuals can interact in compositive ways on the blockchain that they can do in the real world - We have already observed the explosive adoption of various types of interactions on the web since the introduction of individual identity models and federated identity models in the early days of the internet. Conversely, if on-chain activities are also stored in DID in the form of VC, individuals can use them to create a more dimensional representation of their identity, enabling them to engage in a variety of activities with a specific purpose in the real world. Ultimately, these cases can promote a great synergy between the real world and the Web3 space, as well as make each space more reliable.

3.2 with ZK Proofs

Although smart contract-based identity vehicles such as CyberAccount claim to be able to control their data and thus curate externally disclosed data, all on-chain data is public, which means, there is a risk of data exposure to unintended parties or being tracked of a series of on-chain activities. Moreover, in CyberGraph, an individual's identity information includes not only static information, but also includes contextual or dynamic information such as claims and interactions. Therefore, by embedding ZKP into its infrastructure, CyberConnect will be able to provide users with a fully contextualized experience, where the social context they are exposed to is tailored to the specific application they are using. This whole new experience is previously impossible on existing social media platforms due to privacy concerns.

Or conversely, CyberAccount can drive adoption of ZKP. It is prohibitively expensive to validate ECDSA signatures, the conventional signature for EOAs, through ZKP. If smart contract wallets adopt ZKP-friendly signature schemes through account abstraction, these limitations can be overcome and the benefits of ZKP can be more fully utilized across the network.

To summarize, smart contract accounts can not only strengthen the holistic identity, but also have excellent external scalability as they can synergize with different existing technologies. In this regard, CyberConnect is the best place to see how such external scalability is implemented in practice and what interactions and use cases are created. Because it is the most agile protocol in adopting new technologies, having the largest smart contract wallet user base with a wide ecosystem.

4. Beyond Tech, Towards New Experience

As digital technology develops in the future, interactions between individuals online will become more sophisticated, and the importance of the creative economy may become even more important. As such, blockchain-based Web3 is gaining a lot of attention as an alternative for a sustainable creative economy in the future. In particular, the concept of smart contract wallet based on account abstraction can remove much of the complexity and limitations of existing blockchain-based accounts, help define the concept of web3 identity, and its synergy with other technologies reinforces the innovative natures of Web3.

However, even these innovative natures cannot truly realize their value unless they are eventually chosen by the public. If the adoption of technology is defined as the moment when a new experience spreads among people, then Web3 has spent a lot of time defining new experiences, but relatively little time discussing how they can spread.

We have seen that different interactions on social media platforms, such as Facebook(Meta), are being converted into new experiences and adopted by a large number of people. AI, also has long been considered a promising technology, but it was only with the GPT model that it was able to achieve widespread adoption so quickly thanks to the dissemination of a variety of experiences. Therefore, it is not convincing to simply attribute the gap between Web3 adoption and innovation to technical accessibility or UX issues, so that focusing on improving these is not the only way to achieve widespread adoption of Web3.

In that sense, CyberConnect is the closest protocol to achieve widespread adoption of Web3 - CyberConnect not only rapidly grasps and integrates cutting-edge technologies that can enhance the core value of Web3, but also transforms and shares these synergies into new experiences based on its largest user base and ecosystem. In other words, CyberConnect is the status quo for Web3, and the place where better technologies, values, and experiences are evangelized.

Thanks to Kate for designing the graphics for this article.