Mask Network: Making Web3 a Part of People's Daily Lives

Author: GoPlus Chinese Community

Web3 is a new type of network technology that represents the next generation of the internet. It encourages value creation and signifies infinite possibilities. On the flip side, Web3 has completely different usage habits, poor user interfaces, complex and hard-to-understand keys and mnemonic phrases, as well as potential security risks that can be daunting. It can be said that there is a significant barrier for users transitioning from Web2 to Web3.

Mask Network aims to bring cryptocurrencies and NFT assets out of "news reports" and into people's daily lives, allowing users to seamlessly own a crypto wallet, become an NFT user, hold tokens, make investments, receive crypto red envelopes, send encrypted messages to friends, and use permanent storage services without leaving the native internet experience.

The browser extension launched by Mask Network allows Web2 users to enjoy new Web3 features within a familiar operating interface. Users can enjoy secure, decentralized crypto tweet publishing, decentralized storage, crypto investment, token and NFT trading, and more without leaving mainstream social platforms or changing their usage habits.

It can be said that the centralized Web2 and decentralized Web3, two originally disconnected parallel worlds, are converging thanks to Mask Network, and the killer feature of Mask Network is this browser extension.

Taking Twitter as an example, after users install this browser extension, they will see two new buttons on the left side of Twitter: Mask Network and MetaMask wallet. The former is a Web3 toolbox embedded within the Twitter platform, aggregating all the Web3 features currently offered to Twitter users by Mask Network, while the latter integrates wallet transactions into the social platform, supporting not only MetaMask but also Mask Network, WalletConnect, and Fortmatic wallets. What are the Web3 application scenarios on Twitter? The following will explain the main Web3 features currently provided by Mask Network:

Support for Sending Encrypted Tweets

The Mask extension allows users to send encrypted tweets on Twitter and Facebook, which can only be interpreted by those who have installed the Mask plugin; if sending an encrypted tweet to a specific user, the visibility can be set to only that specific contact, meaning only that designated user can decrypt and view the content.

Decentralized File Storage

Users can upload and share all types of files on Twitter and Facebook social media platforms through the Mask Network plugin, permanently stored in encrypted form on Arweave, IPFS, and Swarm decentralized storage services. This feature allows users to share content without being monitored by the platform, better protecting users' privacy information, such as identity privacy and sensitive documents.

For example, users can choose to upload files to specific decentralized storage services and then receive a string of "garbled text" representing the files stored in the decentralized service.

Direct Viewing and Trading of Cryptocurrencies on Social Platforms

Mask Network supports users to directly view cryptocurrency market K-lines on Twitter and trade using decentralized exchanges (DEX) or aggregation platforms like Uniswap and 0x without leaving Twitter.

Specifically, when users view cryptocurrency-related tweets on Twitter, they can hover their mouse over "$+ticker" (e.g., $ETH, $UNI), and the extension will automatically detect and pop up the latest CoinGecko price table. If they wish to trade, users can directly click the "Swap" chart in the pop-up window to perform one-click operations similar to Sushi/Uniswap/0x. Currently, this feature supports 11 public chains, including ETH, BSC, Polygon, and Arbitrum.

Support for Directly Viewing NFT Market Trends and Buying/Selling NFTs on Twitter

In addition to ERC20 tokens, this extension also supports directly viewing NFT asset market trends and purchases on Twitter. Users can hover their mouse over the NFT ticker symbol, such as "$INVSBLE3D," to view relevant data on the market overview, floor price, transactions, and other indicators for that NFT asset. Users can also buy or bid for NFTs from mainstream NFT markets like OpenSea directly on the social media platform.

NFT Avatar Verification Feature

Mask Network supports verifying Twitter avatars using on-chain data.

NFT avatars, as a new digital identity symbol, can create a sense of community identity for buyers. Holding an NFT avatar expresses the holder's support for a particular NFT community to some extent, creating a better identity recognition and community experience for buyers.

Mask Network supports verifying Twitter avatars using on-chain data. After installing the Mask Network extension, an NFT avatar button will appear. Users only need to complete the binding of their personal wallet with MASK ID to set the NFTs held in their wallet as their social avatar and obtain a unique MASK certification mark.

Initial Twitter Offering (ITO)

ITO, short for Initial Twitter Offering, refers to the first Twitter issuance. This is a token issuance and certification method pioneered by Mask Network, allowing Twitter users to directly subscribe to tokens without leaving the Twitter platform.

In terms of experience, participating in ITO is particularly user-friendly for new users. Before participating, users only need to download the Mask extension, after which new users can follow the prompt steps to create an identity and link their Twitter account. When users create an identity, Mask Network will automatically generate an ETH wallet address for them, and users can also import an existing wallet.

Support for Sending Red Envelopes to Friends

Mask Network allows users to send cryptocurrency wallets within the extension, which is also the Twitter red envelope (Lucky Drop) feature that attracted Ethereum founder Vitalik's participation. The red envelope amount can be set to random or evenly divided, and users can leave a message. Users can directly connect to universal wallets like Metamask to complete payments, supporting ETH, BNB Chain, and Polygon across 12 public chains. Additionally, the red envelope feature also supports sending NFT assets, supporting ETH, BNB Chain, and Polygon.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin once used Mask Network to send his first ETH red envelope.

Creating a Web3 Personal Profile on Twitter

After the Mask Network extension is installed, users can verify their wallets. Once verification is complete, users can customize their Twitter page to create a Web3 personal profile on the Web2 social platform. For example, users can choose and manage NFTs in their wallet to display on their personal page. Additionally, this Web3 personal profile also supports displaying donations and footprints.

Alleviating Security Concerns and Enhancing User Confidence

For both retail and institutional users, a key reason hindering their entry into Web3 is the uncontrollable security risks. Unlike Web2, security issues are more critical in the Web3 space. For Web3 users, security risks are related to assets and can even lead to millions in property losses, while the decentralized nature makes it harder to recover lost assets.

Like any unregulated new technology, the early crypto industry resembled the Wild West, filled with various scams, frauds, phishing, and hacking incidents, which could lead to property losses if one is not careful. The emergence of various new scams and hacking incidents has made asset security concerns even more daunting for new users.

In addition to providing users with the optimal Web3 experience, Mask Network integrates API security service solutions provided by GoPlus, a Web3 security infrastructure, to offer effective security guarantees and reduce concerns for new users entering the space.

When users use Mask Swap for token exchanges, security checks are performed on the target tokens being exchanged. From the basic information of the trading tokens, contract security, transaction security, and information security, potential security risks of the trading tokens are assessed in real-time. If any issues are detected, users will receive risk alerts.

In addition to automatically triggering security checks for the target tokens during token exchange operations, security-conscious crypto users can also manually check the security of specific tokens in the Check Security tab.

Mask's token detection solution is supported by GoPlus's free Token Security API service, which includes over 30 security checks across three main categories: contract code, transaction security, and information security. This includes but is not limited to: whether the contract is open-source, whether there is a minting function, the security of owner-related code; the number of token holders, LP information, whether the address is locked, transaction slippage, and issues related to the "pi xiu" problem, among others.

Taking the aforementioned token $SENSHI as an example, two security risks were detected during the transaction: transaction slippage risk and "pi xiu" hidden risk.

Specifically, the first transaction slippage risk, also known as the sell slippage value (Sell Tax) (%), is generally considered high if this value exceeds 10%. A tax rate exceeding 50% means that trading may not be possible. In the case of the aforementioned token, this value is as high as 100%, far exceeding acceptable limits. The other security risk is the presence of a function in the contract that allows pausing transactions, which is a "pi xiu" issue or hidden risk. Typically, if a token's contract contains code to pause transactions, that token may not be tradable, which constitutes a "pi xiu" risk.

GoPlus's free Token Security API service is one of the most comprehensive and accurate security services available for token data on the market. As of October 21, 2022, it covers 1,600,904 cryptocurrencies (this database is automatically updated in real-time daily with thousands of new coins, ensuring the fastest and latest coverage of cryptocurrencies), with nearly 3 million calls made daily.

In addition to the Token Security Detection API service, GoPlus also offers malicious address detection services, authorization contract security detection services, and GoPlus NFT security detection services.

Malicious Address Detection Service

GoPlus's malicious address detection API service supports multiple public chains, including Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Heco, Arbitrum, and Avalanche, aggregating data sources from various security companies, including SlowMist and BlockSec. It leads the market in terms of coverage (across multiple public chains), cross-asset (supporting both ERC 20 and NFTs), sample diversity (data sources and sample analysis models from multiple security companies), timeliness of inclusion (rapidly updating and including the latest "pi xiu" assets on the market "Note: The most frequent occurrences of black addresses are in the "pi xiu" asset category") and completeness (currently, over 100,000 black addresses have been accumulated, and this dynamic sample library is continuously updated and growing).

GoPlus NFT Security Detection

GoPlus NFT security detection currently supports Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon public chains, and is the most comprehensive data service on the market (covering over 160M) and has certified the most NFTs (over 4M+ certified NFTs).

In response to the numerous NFT "pi xiu" schemes and counterfeit NFT scams currently prevalent in the NFT market, GoPlus conducts security checks at the contract level for NFTs, assessing over 20 contract security checks, including whether the NFT contract is open-source, whether it has proxies, whether there are malicious behaviors, and whether there is a black history, to identify and detect the authenticity of NFT projects on the market, preventing users from being scammed and suffering property losses.

GoPlus Authorization Contract Security Detection

GoPlus has released two versions of the authorization contract security detection service, namely V1 and V2. The V1 version targets scenarios such as exchanges and browsers that require instant authorization. Applications or platforms that integrate this service will trigger security checks for authorization contracts when users authorize transactions. If risks are detected, a red risk indicator will be displayed for that authorization address, reminding users not to proceed with the authorization "confirmation" operation to protect their assets.

The V2 version targets wallet addresses, allowing users to view the authorization history of that address, automatically detecting the contracts that specific addresses have authorized and relevant information about those authorization contracts. Additionally, while the V1 version only supports authorization contract detection for ERC20 token categories, the V2 version adds support for ERC721 NFT and ERC1155 NFT asset categories.

In other words, in addition to ERC20 tokens, the V2 version also supports viewing authorization information for two different standards of NFT assets. The authorization contract security detection service of V2 version will assess the security of authorization contracts from three dimensions: basic information of the token, main security of the token, and information/time of the authorization contract. If any issues are detected, risk alerts will be triggered.

As the "security infrastructure" of Web3, GoPlus currently supports security detection for crypto assets on public chains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, AVALANCHE, Polygon, and Harmony. This means that once applications on these public chain platforms integrate the API services provided by GoPlus, they can offer users security detection services for tokens, malicious addresses, NFTs, and authorization contracts.