Dialogue Port3 Network: Departing from the task platform, heading to the social data market

Original Title: “Port3 Network: Starting from Task Platforms, Heading to the Social Data Market”

Interviewee: Derek Kong

Interviewed by: Chloe, Chain Teahouse

The crypto market is very fragmented, or decentralized. When you ask project teams what the market lacks the most, the answer is users. When you ask users what the market lacks the most, the answer is projects.

Logically, this situation should worsen in a bear market, as there are more stagnant projects (although most are in a semi-dead state), while active users are fewer, undoubtedly increasing the back-and-forth between project teams and users.

However, various marketing activities have become more active, as a large number of task platforms have emerged, acting as a bridge between users and project teams—helping project teams acquire more real users while also helping users gain more incentives.

But as a traffic platform, it is destined that only one or two giants will emerge in the end, and the current market competition landscape is still full of uncertainties. In this issue of Chain Teahouse, we invited Derek Kong, COO of Port3 Network, to help us understand Port3, the social data portal in the Web3 world.

1. When did the team decide to start Port3 Network? What judgments were made at that time to make this decision?

The popularity of X-To-Earn and the metaverse at the beginning of this year made us realize that the entire crypto field needs to develop towards Web3. However, before the track matures, there is still no complete infrastructure, such as dynamically reading on-chain data, so the road to building truly practical applications is still long.

Our team developed the DAO Tool Bot a few years ago, which is a community management bot that enhances community management through services to projects, enabling users to engage in some on-chain interactions while collecting effective social data.

After the emergence of Web3, we felt that we could upgrade the entire product architecture to create a data layer for the application of Web3, which can be called the Social Data Layer. Through this data layer, we can provide more open and higher-quality standard data and services for various application scenarios.

2. Port3 aims to become the social data portal of the Web3 world, consisting of three sections. What is the logic between them?

The three sections of Port3 are SoGraph, Social Aggregator, and Social Data Layer, corresponding to three stages: data collection, data aggregation, and data application.

As can be seen from the literal meaning, these three modules work together organically. The entire Web3 is still in the early stages of data layer development, and Port3 focuses on implementing some application scenarios to build a vast social data layer.

Social data is very different from the data needed in previous DeFi contexts; it cannot be easily verified like price data. Therefore, early applications like SoQuest are necessary, combining community bots to automatically collect data and crystallize standard behavioral data from users.

Finally, through SoGraph, we combine off-chain data from different Web2 social platforms with various on-chain data, processing it into market-required data indicators, member lists, social/spam volume, and sentiment indicators using ML and big data processing algorithms. This long-term comprehensive data can be used for the next stage of application scenarios, and diverse data applications and task incentives can attract more users to participate in building the data layer, thus achieving a virtuous cycle.

Therefore, the three modules of Port3 transform active but scattered community data into clear and standardized data, and combined with on-chain analysis tools, better serve project teams, investors, researchers, as well as community management and users.

3. Specifically, what are their application scenarios?

SoGraph Bot, as a DAO tool, can help users utilize crypto services on Web2 platforms like Discord and Telegram, such as airdrops, tips, and on-chain transactions. It can also detect whether crypto users have completed tasks in Web2 applications, such as joining communities or following Twitter, effectively serving as a bridge between Web2 and Web3.

SoQuest is an open Web3 task platform where project teams, KOLs, and DAO organizations can create their own Spaces and initiate customized Quest activities. In this process, diverse tasks can attract participants to map and associate data between Web2 and Web3, allowing projects to quickly acquire target users in Web3.

SoGraph is a social data dashboard that categorizes and analyzes the data collected from Web2 and Web3 platforms, and after privacy protection processing, outputs various types of data indicators, ultimately presenting them in a visual format for users to explore.

The data generated by our Aggregator can also be output to the Social Data Layer data market, where third parties can pay to read the data, and data providers can receive rewards for network distribution.

4. How to understand the decentralized social data layer Social Data Layer built on data aggregation?

The Social Data Layer is Port3's data layer, which can be customized to utilize integrated data.

The first issue to address is protecting user privacy; when users do not want to share, the data cannot be leaked. Secondly, users can profit from sharing this data, so it is necessary to collect enough and accurate data to directly connect it to third-party application scenarios.

The Social Data Layer introduces the concept of Proof of Content into the entire structure, storing the source data on decentralized storage platforms like IPFS. The data model algorithms operated by Aggregators in the network are also public, so anyone can verify whether the results are correct. The data model in the network is defined by developers, describing where to read data, what kind of calculations to perform, and what format of data to output.

5. How does Port3 utilize standardized data to generate revenue in the data market while protecting user privacy?

For example, in SoQuest, the scenario where users complete tasks and need to mint NFTs can be standardized. Users perform many actions on both Web2 and Web3 platforms (such as retweeting or engaging in on-chain interactions), and these tasks will be detected and generate fixed-format data. After completing the tasks, they will be marked as Winners, and we will connect the Winner List to other platforms (such as Galxe and NFTfair) via API.

The Winner List is essentially the standardized result; it is a list of addresses, and we will later open this data using Oracle, allowing third-party developed on-chain applications to use it.

Of course, these actions are executed in an environment that protects user privacy. Although users' addresses are associated with Web2 accounts, after aggregation and processing, this data will not be output to other platforms. We will also collaborate with privacy infrastructure like Automata to fully implement user privacy protection, ensuring that the platform itself cannot access users' private data.

6. There are many Quest products similar to SoQuest in the market. What advantages does Port3 have?

Currently, there are many Quest platforms, but most are still in the early stages and have little traffic, while SoQuest's user data is noteworthy:

SoQuest is just one tool for collecting and standardizing data. Our long-term goal is to build the Social Data Layer, so we will connect more users and scenarios, continuously expanding and enriching the dimensions and scope of data.

7. Could you introduce the background experience of the Port3 team and the areas you will focus on in the near future?

The Port3 team is an international team with many years of experience in the crypto field. Project members are distributed in various locations around the world, including Singapore, Bangkok, and Zurich.

Max is our Co-Founder, who worked at Apple after studying abroad and was responsible for the entire marketing. I (Derek) am the COO of Port3, with over six years in the crypto industry, previously working with teams at Citibank and BCG, and now mainly responsible for Port3's business development and operations.

Recently, we will focus on promoting SoQuest collaboration and the DAO Tool Bot. The former is a task activity service tool, while the Bot is a community management service tool that provides users with conveniences such as wallet creation and airdrops. We warmly welcome partners to experience our products and provide us with suggestions and feedback.

We plan to release the first contract version of the Social Data Layer in the fourth quarter of this year, at which point everyone can use our Oracle by paying with tokens. These fees will be distributed to network contributors and nodes, and the overall decentralized network construction is expected to begin next year.

8. Finally, what are the future opportunities and challenges for Port3?

Web3 is currently still in the early stages of explosion, with various infrastructures still being improved, full of opportunities and challenges.

The market is still in a bear market, and what remains after the bear market will be the true builders and valuable projects. Once the key issues in Web3 infrastructure are resolved, high-frequency application scenarios can become widespread, and such projects may achieve great success, potentially leading to unicorns in the Web3 track.

However, many practical problems need to be addressed in this process, as achieving the integration of Web2 and Web3 involves not only concepts but also technical and economic challenges. Port3 aims to create a systematic social data layer by building a bridge between Web2 and Web3, which is no easy task.

First, we will face fierce market competition, as many projects similar to Bot and SoQuest tools have already emerged. However, these tools are just our starting point, serving our long-term goals. Secondly, the technical challenges of a brand-new product should not be underestimated, such as how to collect and store massive amounts of data, how to protect user privacy, and how to standardize the processing of large data sets.

We are continuously iterating and upgrading existing products while researching various potential technical solutions to build our infrastructure. With the help of various investors and partners, we are ultimately confident and capable of achieving our goals.