Social Graph Protocol Cyberconnect: Dismantling the Berlin Wall between Platforms, Individuals, and Communities

Source: The SeeDAO

Introduction
CyberConnect is the world's first decentralized social graph protocol, serving Web3.0 social networks and the metaverse. Its mission is to return the ownership and utility of social graph data to users while providing a foundation for all Web3.0 developers to integrate.

On any social platform, you do not own your social connections. This is not an exaggeration, but a fact. Think about it: your existing connections do not follow you across any social channels, and every time you migrate to a new platform, you must rebuild your identity, profile, and connections.

CyberConnect overturns this model, allowing you to regain control of your own social relationships. By simply connecting your wallet to CyberConnect, users can claim all their connections across the entire Web3.0, regardless of the platform they choose to participate in. You will be able to access all DApps built on CyberConnect seamlessly, where all your friends are waiting for you.

Currently, under the leadership of Multicoin Capital and Sky9 Capital, CyberConnect raised $10 million in a seed round last November.
Existing Problems
What does CyberConnect aim to solve in the current Web2.0 social platforms and social methods?

In Web2.0 social platforms, information and data cannot interoperate between different platforms. For example, on a novel reading platform, users' identities are mostly authors and readers, and the social graph is relatively simple (mostly author-reader or fellow authors/readers). An author and their readers may follow the same users on another social platform (like a gaming platform) because they enjoy the same game and even become mutual friends who frequently communicate, but the information monopoly caused by cross-platform barriers prevents users from realizing their deeper connections.

Moreover, on current social platforms, users are monopolized by the platform. Although WeChat may authorize Pinduoduo to read users' avatars and nicknames for login, it would never hand over user data willingly (but WeChat may share user data with other Tencent applications without user consent). Centralized social platforms fragment users and arbitrarily claim the content created by users for profit, even infringing on users' privacy. In Web2.0, users are components of the platform's product; for instance, Facebook sells user privacy data for profit while users remain completely unaware.
Solution
CyberConnect aims to solve the social graph problem for Web3.0.

The social graph centers around individual users, connecting different users who interact with them, forming an intricate web of connections in Web3.0. For example, on Weibo, taking user A as an example, starting from A, connecting users who follow A, users whom A follows, and users who mutually follow A will form a "graph" that marks A's social network on the platform. From these connected individuals, new graphs will be formed.

In this way, users can connect through the social graph. Relationships between people (not just two-way social relationships but also various intersections and overlaps involving three or more parties), such as real-life friends, multiple teammates playing the same game, and buyers from the same seller, will also become clear.

It's somewhat like a family tree; how is your father's uncle's mother's sister's grandmother's nephew related to you, or your cousin's aunt's grandson's niece? Family trees clarify these complex kinships. Similarly, in the social graph, what connects people is not blood relations but social relationships—such as followers, followees, buyers, sellers, and mutual friends.

In this way, CyberConnect breaks down the barriers between different platforms. Users can aggregate their social relationships across different interest circles, fields, and platforms into a single social network. This also means that users can freely leave one platform or join a new one without worrying about losing their friends, fans, content, or value.
Example of a social graph under Web2.0

Furthermore, to fully return data ownership to users, authentication is paramount. It is worth noting that CyberConnect only addresses part of the decentralized identity (DID) issue; it bypasses the verification of decentralized identity by using "Ethereum address pointing to identity verification" (users can connect to this web application using MetaMask and sign with their private keys), rather than a complete DID solution. CyberConnect recognizes wallet addresses, not "people."

One issue is that Ethereum addresses only display assets, which seems uninteresting or lacking in social utility, and does not fully realize a cross-community, cross-platform social graph. However, CyberConnect showcases users' NFTs on the homepage, using NFTs as a medium to build the Web3.0 social graph. This allows different addresses to follow, message, and interact with each other. This clever design enables Ethereum accounts holding the same NFT within the same community to find each other and follow one another, thus allowing the social graph to be drawn.
Users can see the NFTs owned by Vitalik Buterin in the web application
Technical Product
Currently, CyberConnect has launched a web APP directly for users, attempting to solve the social graph problem. Individuals can connect using MetaMask. It offers three main features: a follow button, retrieving the list of followers and followees, and obtaining a recommended follower list.

On the homepage, the wallet address used to connect to the web APP will be displayed. Additionally, users can connect to other existing social platform accounts, including centralized social platforms like Twitter and NFT trading markets like OpenSea, based on the listed logos. The NFT, POAP, and other asset information held by users will also be listed on the homepage.
Scrolling down the page reveals messages from other users to you.
Other CyberConnect web APP users leave messages for Vitalik Buterin
If no one leaves you a message, you can also leave a message for yourself or for others. CyberConnect also supports connection with Mirror, and blogs will be synchronized and displayed on the web application.

Moreover, users can directly search for friends using ENS or wallet addresses and perform actions like following and messaging. User interactions will also be displayed on the homepage in a message board format. Each action will require users to perform a digital signature, recorded on-chain.
Clicking on search results leads to the other person's homepage, where you can follow the desired individual, leave a message, or directly copy their wallet address to send them money.
Scrolling further down the page, CyberConnect also generates a recommended list for users, allowing for bulk following. CyberConnect uses the Stand Alone Complex algorithm to achieve this. The Stand Alone Complex algorithm is a recommendation algorithm that aggregates connection data from open data sources like the Ethereum blockchain, Foundation.app, Rarible, etc. This algorithm generates a customized recommended follow list for each address.
Connecting on-chain and off-chain wallet addresses and social software eliminates barriers such as user migration between different social platforms. This way, users can freely abandon or start using new software without worrying about losing followers, followees, and created content, thus saving them the cost and difficulty of rebuilding their social graph every time they register for a new APP.

Currently, CyberConnect has reached 400,000 users, with a total of 21 million clicks. However, users with rich pages, numerous followers, and high interaction in messages are mostly individuals who have already accumulated a certain social network or reputation, such as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, who holds a relatively large number of NFTs and has over ten thousand fans.
Personal homepage of Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin
The typical user list pushed by CyberConnect mostly consists of official accounts of Web3.0 projects similar to CyberConnect; or founders or investors of Web3.0 projects with personal ETH domains, such as fabien, the founder of the decentralized voting tool Snapshot, and Vitalik Buterin; or key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the blockchain field who also hold NFTs and POAPs. For example, in the upper right corner of the image, rolex1 has nearly 1,500 followers on CyberConnect's web APP, nearly 20,000 followers on Twitter, and 26,000 fans on Weibo.
Additionally, the current web application cannot aggregate and display users' content and dynamics published on different platforms. From the user's actual experience perspective, the operability of individual users and the interactivity between users are limited (the message board only serves as a one-way "confession" without response), merely serving as a display and browsing function, and the content display is fixed, with users unable to hide or customize the layout.

In contrast, although CyberConnect welcomes anyone to connect their wallet and use this web APP to showcase themselves, most "invisible" users' personal homepages appear monotonous and desolate, even less rich and personalized than Weibo homepages or QQ personal cards.

However, CyberConnect is also planning to launch an instant messaging social software called CyberChat to demonstrate how to utilize social graph data, but currently, it is only available for registration and cannot be experienced in detail.

Additionally, CyberConnect has just launched personal profiles on the Solana chain, but the content is relatively simpler. After connecting with wallets like Phantom, users can modify their avatar by clicking the small pencil icon next to the initial avatar through URL copying. The homepage displays users' followers and followees and supports connections with external platforms like Twitter and Solanart. In terms of displaying on-chain assets and activities, the Solana chain personal profile will automatically show users' voting activities on REALMS and the NFTs they hold. Furthermore, the Solana chain personal profile will also provide personalized recommendations for other users.

Unlike the personal profiles launched by CyberConnect on the Ethereum chain, when users click "Verify Twitter" on the homepage, they will be redirected to a page provided by bonfida, where users need to associate their Solana chain wallet address with their Twitter ID, and this step requires users to purchase a ".sol" domain.

Technical Architecture
From the user's perspective, CyberConnect directly lays out social graph data (like a large web) before users, not providing services to users but merely offering a processed set of data. Therefore, the construction made by CyberConnect at the technical level is not directly aimed at individual users; its social graph module and recommendation indexer provide a universal data layer for the next generation of decentralized applications—GameFi, NFT, DAO—to insert meaningful and context-specific social functions.

CyberConnect provides six APIs for DApps: Getting Started, Following & Followers List, Recommended Following List, Connect & Disconnect, Follow Button, and Playground. After embedding CyberConnect's code, DApps can access CyberConnect's social graph data. However, whether to authorize applications to read this data is also determined by individual users; DApps cannot read data freely like the social platforms in the current Web2.0, thus returning data sovereignty to users.

The wallet address, digital signatures, and other requirements to connect to CyberConnect are on-chain, but the sources and storage of social graph data are not entirely on-chain, as CyberConnect's data will ultimately be stored on IPFS through Ceramic—stored on centralized servers. This raises a centralization issue, namely the authenticity of the data.

CyberConnect's solution is to enforce data signatures using codecs. To query a user's social graph, CyberConnect first queries the user's keychain through their blockchain address and then queries the user table using the public key of the keychain.

Compared to the application-centric design in Web2.0, where each application stores some information about users, such as names and avatars, which are duplicated across different applications, in CyberConnect's design, each user's single user table contains all necessary information that can be used across all applications. By placing all social graph information in one user table, only that user has the authority to update any related data, and only parties with decryption keys can read the data inside.
As shown in the image, according to the technical documentation released by CyberConnect, the data sources mainly come from three aspects. First, data from off-chain data sources and transaction data sources is scraped, organized, and integrated; second, the indexer forms new data based on existing off-chain social graphs; additionally, after users authorize the use of CyberConnect login on DApps, the social graph data of users on DApps will also be scraped by CyberConnect. CyberConnect combines existing social graph data to form a social graph on Web3.0. CyberConnect integrates different data and pushes it back to users in the form of personalized recommendations for following, etc.
Potential Challenges
The problems CyberConnect intends to solve are critical but also quite grand, facing more potential challenges from both the perspective of directly providing services to users and from the perspective of business cooperation with DApps to indirectly serve users.

First, CyberConnect is based on wallet address authentication, which makes users' on-chain assets completely public and transparent. Privacy issues regarding assets may affect user scalability. The power to autonomously display and hide personal information and related content should also be returned to users.

Second, CyberConnect's future business expansion with DApps requires strong BD resources. From the technical architecture, it can be seen that CyberConnect's presentation is not a huge web of connections but mainly presented to users through data sharing with DApps. Therefore, it also needs to collaborate with DApps to launch specific presentation methods, such as "personalized recommendations" or "people you may know"; otherwise, it will be difficult to fully realize its potential.

Currently, CyberConnect supports users connecting to the web APP using wallet addresses from the Ethereum public chain and the Solana public chain. In terms of the Solana public chain, all connections made by users on CyberConnect will be automatically shared across different DApps in the Solana ecosystem. Specific partners include the metaverse Realy, focused on street culture; Bonfida, an integrated platform for data-driven cryptocurrency traders built on Solana; the GRAPE protocol for establishing token-based membership communities on Solana; the Move2Earn application STEPN; and Solanart, the first and largest mature NFT market on Solana.

On the other hand, CyberConnect has also reached data-sharing agreements with other Web3.0 projects such as zkLink (a chain-to-chain interoperability protocol, including swaps and liquidity), UniPass (a unified crypto identity across multiple chains), and ensdomains (Ethereum domains). The world's largest decentralized credential data network, Project Galaxy, has also integrated CyberConnect's API, becoming part of its social graph. Currently, exclusive NFTs launched by CyberConnect to attract users to connect their social graphs on the Solana chain can also be minted on Project Galaxy.

Additionally, CyberConnect has formed strategic partnerships with various NFT platforms. SphinxUP aims to enhance the efficiency and liquidity of the NFT ecosystem through a Web3 product matrix, which includes data analysis platforms (Eyesfi.com), NFT asset evaluation, NFT asset management, aggregation trading protocols, and liquidity solutions. This partnership will bring more utility to CyberConnect, and its social graph protocol will be utilized by Eyesfi (one of SphinxUp's products) to establish social relationships and introduce a decentralized IM system into future NFT communities.

Another platform, Treasureland, is a cross-chain NFT platform for NFT issuance, trading, collection, and customized in-store services. It provides a one-stop solution for enterprise users from 0 to 1 and offers a multi-chain aggregation experience for end users. Its strategic cooperation with CyberConnect will focus on bringing more content to the platform and enriching CyberConnect's functionality. Both parties seek to develop and establish a strong relationship, with the real winners being the users.
Conclusion
CyberConnect is an innovative project with practical application scenarios. When users own their data, developers can also more smoothly combine applications. This enables significant collaboration among all developers and creates a global data network effect cycle among all users and developers.

Allowing users to own their social graphs and carry their past relationship networks while switching services is one of the core public services that Web3.0 can provide. Empowering users to switch network services without losing any interpersonal relationship data is the best way to ensure the smooth operation of social services. The key is to wisely delineate on-chain and off-chain content to ensure users' ownership of critical data while minimizing fees and maximizing scalability.

This will also increase competition and innovation. For decades, there has been fierce competition between customers, hosting providers, security services, etc., in email. Web3.0 developers should focus on building better services and content rather than wasting time creating another walled social graph or another isolated network.

CyberConnect has dismantled the Berlin Wall between platforms, individuals, and communities.