Dialogue MetaMask: How will Snaps disrupt the ecological interaction of MetaMask?

Interview: Jack, BlockBeats
Organized by: Sharon, Luccy, kaori, BlockBeats
Edited by: Jaleel, BlockBeats

Last night, Consensys announced the public launch of the first version of MetaMask Snaps. According to the official website, MetaMask Snaps are features created by third-party developers that MetaMask users can install directly into their wallets.

In the initial release, MetaMask Snaps will offer 34 Snap features, including transaction insights that identify potential security risks, interoperability with non-EVM blockchains like Bitcoin, and practical features such as Web3 notifications. These 34 Snap features have undergone security audits and have been manually whitelisted by the MetaMask team.

As early as July this year, MetaMask planned to launch the Snaps protocol by the end of 2023, allowing anyone to safely extend MetaMask's functionality, enabling wallet users to access new applications and perform cross-chain protocol interactions. MetaMask previously described Snaps as "an open-source system that allows anyone to safely extend MetaMask's capabilities" to create new Web3 experiences. This means developers can build specialized features on top of MetaMask using Snaps.

Francesco Andreoli (first from the left) at the Token2049 venue

Today, during the Token2049 conference in Singapore, BlockBeats conducted an exclusive interview with Francesco Andreoli, the MetaMask Developer Relations Maintainer, discussing how the newly released Snaps feature promotes permissionless innovation and interoperability between different ecosystems.

MetaMask Snaps: Continuing the Spirit of Permissionless Innovation

Francesco Andreoli is an ETH engineer and digital entrepreneur with a master's and bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich, as well as a master's degree in international business from Hult Business School. He is fluent in six different languages, enjoys working in emerging markets, and is passionate about venture capital and data-driven scaling strategies. He is primarily active in Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United States. He has served as a mentor for TechStars, Angelhack, The Hult Prize, and several other global startup accelerators and incubation programs.

Initially, Francesco Andreoli was an engineer at IBM Brazil, and later co-founded washmypants.com and Myinsurance, a Swiss startup offering mobile-first micro-insurance solutions. Additionally, he is a co-founder of a Swiss DLT mining facility based on renewable energy (acquired by Petawatt Group in 2018). Since 2019, he has actively invested in seed-stage startups in sub-Saharan African countries with Oui Capital.

Today, Francesco Andreoli is the Developer Relations Maintainer (DelRel) at ConsenSys and MetaMask, as well as a founding partner at Oui Capital, former head of developer marketing at Digital Asset, creator of Daml, and former developer community builder for Angelhack, the world's largest hackathon ecosystem.

BlockBeats: Please briefly introduce MetaMask Snaps.

Francesco Andreoli: We launched the first iteration of MetaMask Snaps yesterday, which is an extension of MetaMask's existing capabilities. The first version of Snaps includes various features such as transaction insights, interoperability, and notifications. The most exciting thing about Snaps is that they are owned by developers and the third-party community, meaning they do not come from the ConsenSys team. It is this permissionless innovation ecosystem that allows us to further expand the capabilities of MetaMask today.

BlockBeats: What are the main categories of features for MetaMask Snaps currently?

Francesco Andreoli: As you know, we publicly released our first generation of MetaMask Snaps yesterday, launching 34 Snaps. Currently, we have three categories: the first is transaction insights, where users can gain clearer transaction insights, allowing them to understand potential security risks or whether they are interacting with malicious contracts; the second category is Solar Bound interoperability. It is about a broader Web3 multi-chain vision, allowing Snaps that are incompatible with EVM to be added to the extension so that users can perform specific transactions with other chains; the third category is notifications, where users need specific information for many specific use cases, which can be accessed directly in the MetaMask wallet through Web3 notifications.

BlockBeats: MetaMask is also promoting features like "Sell." What role will Snaps play in MetaMask's "feature ecosystem"?

Francesco Andreoli: MetaMask's vision is to create a more open ecosystem to encourage innovation. Over the years, we have received a lot of feedback from the community, and we have taken a very different activation approach. We want to build a positive community that encourages members to participate in innovation. If a member discovers a specific use case, they can extend the current functionality of the program. I believe this is not only about MetaMask itself but also a powerful statement from ConsenSys that we want more inclusive innovation in our ecosystem.

Is MetaMask becoming the Google of the crypto industry?

Currently, MetaMask has opened a beta version, which, unlike the final version, will host various whitelisted Snaps that have been reviewed by third parties and the MetaMask team. The open beta of MetaMask Snaps is the first step in building this permissionless system. Ultimately, MetaMask's vision for the MetaMask Snaps is to be completely permissionless, with no gatekeepers.

In a blog post, MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay also shared some stories behind the development of Snaps features.

The development journey of Snaps has taken the MetaMask team through some exciting corners of computing history and has allowed them to make some great friends along the way. In this work, the value generated in collaboration with Agoric is not an exaggeration; they designed a JavaScript restricted API, proposed it to the JS standards committee TC-39, implemented a working prototype of that API, which is now available, and collaborated with us to refine this system, LavaMoat, and our secure computing methods.

MetaMask also experienced a particularly challenging period for WebExtensions during the development of Snaps: Google itself proposed a major overhaul of how extensions like MetaMask work, which loomed over the entire project for a while, potentially being a fatal blow or at least a change that forced the MetaMask team to leave the extension platform. Fortunately, largely thanks to the very smart and considerate developers at ConsenSys and Google, the MetaMask team was able to propose compromises on how the extension platform would change, allowing MetaMask's ambitious goals without compromising the security ideals of any company.

BlockBeats: Many people like to compare the functionality of Snaps to Google, making MetaMask resemble Google. What are your thoughts on this?

Francesco Andreoli: I can tell you a bit about the extension aspect. For the past few years, Snaps has existed in a developer-facing environment for 18 months. We realized that as builders in the ecosystem, we also needed to consider future needs, as we received a lot of questions about new features, and we felt we needed to support builders and the community more to help achieve this permissionless innovation.

That is the whole story behind Snaps, and we hope to achieve permissionless innovation in the ecosystem by further expanding MetaMask's current capabilities. I believe this vision is also evolving; now everyone knows that MetaMask has both mobile applications and browser extensions, but we are also trying to achieve more goals at a lower level of infrastructure, allowing community builders around the ecosystem to build the features they believe the community needs to meet the needs of all end users.

This is why we started releasing the first batch of 34 new Snap features. We are very excited because this is a combination of a series of cases. For example, for non-EVM compatible Snaps, before the release of Snaps, you could not perform Bitcoin transactions; or you can receive notifications and even query your transaction history. I encourage every user to give it a try because it's very simple. Basically, you just need to install Snaps in your current MetaMask account, and then these features will be automatically enabled and activated.

Why choose to be compatible with non-EVM?

BlockBeats: After ordinals, the BTC ecosystem seems to have regained vitality. Is this why MetaMask chose to enter this field? What value can MetaMask provide beyond existing wallet products?

Francesco Andreoli: Essentially, Snaps are primarily designed to facilitate permissionless innovation and interoperability between different ecosystems. I believe that users' main needs are not only to build bridges between different ecosystems but also to provide more transparency between them. Ultimately, end users care more about the security environment and whether they can interact with different ecosystems when interacting with the underlying infrastructure layer. That is the role of Snaps.

We have non-EVM compatible Snaps, which is one of the important features among the 34 Snaps that have been released. With these Snap features, you as an end user can expand your Web3 usage beyond just the Ethereum ecosystem and interact with other ecosystems like Filecoin, StarkNet, BTC, etc. I believe this will be more beneficial for end users because there is currently a lack of transparency between the various islands being built, which is exactly what end users need to seamlessly navigate between these islands.

BlockBeats: There is currently much discussion about zkBridge or LayerZero as solutions for a multi-chain future. I wonder if all these cross-chain solutions can use MetaMask as a solution?

Francesco Andreoli: Large companies like ConsenSys are our supporters; we have MetaMask, Infura, and Linea, which is our mainnet zk-EVM launched during ETHCC. When talking about a multi-chain future, we also discuss things like Linea, which makes it easier for builders to deploy on the zk-EVM layer. At the same time, we also enable Layer2 through tools like StarkNet Snaps, so it's a hybrid.

I believe the bridging functionality in MetaMask can aggregate different bridges to provide multiple solutions for end users, but we do believe that Snaps can achieve more usability at different levels, keeping this multi-chain future strategy consistent.

BlockBeats: What does the future roadmap for Snaps look like?

Francesco Andreoli: But I think we can also consider games and applications, which are major use cases. During the public release of Snaps, we launched these three main categories and the 34 main features of Snaps. I believe the future roadmap will primarily revolve around the emergence of more types of Snaps within the Snap family. We are working with different third-party developers and communities to realize more use cases around Snaps.

In the future, more Snaps will be approved one after another. Consensys will collect user feedback on the use of MetaMask Snaps and continue to develop to achieve the ultimate vision of MetaMask Snaps. MetaMask Snaps aims to fundamentally change how users interact with MetaMask, providing users with stronger operational and customization capabilities.

How MetaMask, Dominating the Wallet Space, Views Industry Competition

Among all wallet applications, MetaMask is the absolute leader in its field. The largest DEX in the industry, the almost universally known Uniswap, officially reported that since its inception, a total of 250,000 addresses have used Uniswap. Meanwhile, MetaMask, according to ConsenSys, had 30 million monthly active users at that time, with that number growing by 42% in four months.

It is worth noting that the total number of active addresses on the Ethereum network peaked at around 9 million. If we assume that each user has only one address, MetaMask's market share exceeds 50%, and each user does not have just one address. It can be said that MetaMask occupies half of the crypto wallet market. Undoubtedly, MetaMask has become a key player in the Web3 economy.

Last October, MetaMask's total revenue had already reached $320 million. ConsenSys, which owns MetaMask, has also completed a $450 million Series D funding round with a valuation of $7 billion, setting a record for the largest single funding amount in the crypto industry. As of August 9 this year, according to The Block citing CoinGecko data, MetaMask's app downloads have exceeded 22.66 million, making it the most popular crypto hot wallet currently.

BlockBeats: Undoubtedly, after rapid growth, MetaMask will be more competitive than other companies. How does MetaMask view its competition with other wallets? Is this why the team decided to build Snaps to gain more market advantage?

Francesco Andreoli: The launch of Snaps allows the entire community to expand the existing extension's functionality completely permissionlessly, and I believe there will be different standards around our ecosystem. Compatibility of Snaps with other infrastructure layers will be very important in the future. But these are third-party Snaps, not developed by our internal team. And now we have truly opened up the opportunity for all communities to build these extensions. In this state, people from other ecosystems will build different Snaps, and we have already seen this in other ecosystems.

For example, today you can not only create non-DBN compatible Snaps, such as Bitcoin Snaps, but also install your Cosmos Snaps and Filecoin Snaps. You can also have your Starknet Snaps on Layer 2. Therefore, in reality, Snaps are very powerful because today our ecosystem or generally different ecosystems are building very specific tools for those users, and I believe we need more interoperability and permissionless innovation, which is the only way we can expand and provide more tools to attract a billion users.

BlockBeats: For builders focused on the wallet space, what other benefits will they gain in the future besides ecosystem grants?

Francesco Andreoli: From a builder's perspective, this is a very interesting question. For the past 18 months, Snaps have basically been available on the developer versions of MetaMask or Flask, as there are many resources, and we never expected to see so many different use cases and functionalities. And for most people, they are not just developers of Snaps; they are actually more like third-party companies, partners, and individual developers building these features.

We always see the different resources and support provided to them. For example, at real-life events like hackathons or conferences, you will see these developers building these Snaps, and we encourage them to submit their Snaps and propose to the MetaMask Grants DAO. We also invite them to showcase their Snaps on this builder consensus community platform, just like having conversations with those builders. We also encourage them to create specific developer content around our ConsenSys blog, so we set up different exposure mechanisms. The MetaMask Grants DAO is an important part of this because many times, when you want to take your product or Snap to the next level, you will want to continue expanding its functionality.

BlockBeats: Speaking of Grants DAO, I would also like to understand their decision-making process, who votes and decides which projects receive funding, and who makes these decisions and executes them.

Francesco Andreoli: Yes, I would like to introduce Mitterman's Grants DAO. First of all, for projects after hackathons, they either need a bridge or more support before obtaining venture capital. We want to provide more positive support, so we established this MetaMask Grants DAO, which is a DAO with $2.6 million every quarter. A very interesting point is that this is an employee-led DAO. This means that all decisions made in the DAO and due diligence are done through employees.

Therefore, we have established an internal system that allows us to vote and push proposals to the next round. This is how the MetaMask Grants DAO operates. We also provide assistance in many ways, such as setting up proposals and providing different templates. Additionally, we are currently launching a comprehensive accelerator program called Fellowship, which can elevate products to new heights. We also have different startup packages that you can apply for, and we have various initiatives.

I also encourage all independent developers who want to build Snaps to pay attention to our recently launched ambassador program, where we provide you with a platform to build and expand the impact of all your excellent Snaps.

BlockBeats: Will EIP-4337 and account abstraction significantly change MetaMask's functionality?

Francesco Andreoli: Yes, we are very optimistic about the topic of account abstraction. We believe this is a great way to attract more users. Currently, we hope to achieve this by enabling Snaps developers to build account destruction use cases. Over the past 18 months, we have seen different interesting use cases, such as account recovery, NPCs, sponsored transactions, etc., and it is very exciting to see these use cases activated. We believe that by focusing on account destruction Snaps, there will be more user-friendly features in the future to attract more end users.

BlockBeats: Finally, do you have anything to say to Chinese developers?

Francesco Andreoli: Ultimately, we hope to enhance the focus and personalized experience of end users in the onboarding process of Web 3.0. I believe this is also a very important part of the vision, as we see different users' different needs, such as DeFi heavy users, NFT heavy users, and users concerned about privacy-related transactions. So I believe that a customized journey will be a very important challenge, and I am confident that Snaps absolutely have the capability to win this challenge. Furthermore, I believe that Snaps can be built by third-party developers, which means we truly achieve the permissionless innovation we have been talking about.