Author: Mario Gabriele
Author: Mario Gabriele
Original compilation: siqi, zhangtingThe history of MetaMask dates back to the first-ever Ethereum Developers Conference. As the most widely used wallet product in the encryption field, the iconic "little fox" MetaMask has led tens of millions of users into the web3 world
, At the same time, its product design has also been criticized by many users.It's a controversial company with wildly different opinions about it. Supporters will emphasize the admirable universality of MetaMask, and believe that MetaMask has just started, and naturally there is still a lot of room for optimization;
Skeptics compare it to the Yahoo of web3, waiting for the emergence of "Google" to eclipse it and withdraw from the stage of history.
In today's article, we'll dissect MetaMask's place in the crypto space, outlining its history, core features, and importance. Competing players. It mainly includes the following contents:Crypto wallets are no longer a niche market:
The number of encrypted wallet users was 31 million three years ago, and today it is nearly 80 million. Although it will take some time for web3 to really come, products like MetaMask have begun to penetrate in the public life, and MetaMask alone has 21 million users.MetaMask earns quite a lot:
In 2021, the company's revenue exceeds $200 million. This is thanks to its “Swaps” feature, which allows users to exchange different cryptocurrencies within the product.Different types of consumers have different expectations:
MetaMask was developed for tech geeks, which is no surprise given the origins of cryptocurrencies. However, as mass users with weak technical backgrounds begin to get involved in web3, MetaMask will pay higher design costs on the front end.It will be very difficult for encrypted wallets to build a moat:
Because data is stored on the blockchain, encrypted wallets cannot actually bind users. Users can switch from one wallet provider to another in minutes without data loss, meaning providers must find other ways to build defenses.Today, MetaMask is the king of the field, but there are many competitors emerging, such as Coinbase, Block (fka Square), Rainbow, Phantom, and Argent are not to be underestimated. And, we are in the early stages of the crypto revolution, and wallets like MetaMask will have to adapt to changes in technology and society.
The following is the table of contents of this article, and it is recommended to read it in combination with the main points.
The following is the table of contents of this article, and it is recommended to read it in combination with the main points.
01. Origin: Vapor
02. History: The many faces of ConsenSys
Phase 1: Crypto’s Burning Man
Phase 2: Shrinkage and Survival
Phase 3: Split and streamline
03. Definition: What makes a crypto wallet?
as a "wallet"
As a bank account (or app in the fintech space)
as a "passport"
as a "browser"
The wallet is a magical "warehouse"
04. Product: Functional but flawed
05. Friction caused by the rapid development of MetaMask
more competition
wider application
wider application
More application scenarios
01 Origin: Vapor
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Miami
In January 2014, a rather inconspicuous group met at a beach house in Miami. These people came to Miami for the North American Bitcoin Conference, but gathered in this villa to discuss an entirely different crypto project: Ethereum. square.Just a few months ago, V God, who was only 19 years old at the time, released the Ethereum "white paper", in which he outlined the possibility of "world computer" as he saw it, and Ethereum quickly became popular among crypto enthusiasts. cause discussion.
These people gathered at the beach house are part of it. In addition to V God, other people at this gathering included two developers, Gavin Wood and Charles Hoskinson, and two entrepreneurs, Anthony Di Iorio and Joseph Lubin.
Among these people, Joseph Lubin looks a bit out of place. In addition to being almost 30 years older than V God, he also looks more like a financial practitioner than a technical geek in terms of clothing. In fact, Lubin did have a working experience on Wall Street. After graduating from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, Lubin worked as a data scientist for 7 years before joining Goldman Sachs. It is worth mentioning that during his study at Princeton, Lubin’s roommate was the now-famous cryptocurrency investor Michael Novogratz (founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital).
But Lubin is not the serious and conservative financial person in the public stereotype. On the contrary, if you understand his background, you will find that Lubin is very adventurous and open-minded. After graduating from college, Lubin's first job choice was to become a professional squash player. After the 2008 economic crisis, he also considered becoming a full-time soldier, and even planned to buy an obscure piece of land in Peru as a safe haven in the event of the end of the world. Later, he also founded his own record company., From the development of the entire Ethereum, this identity and V god formed a good balance, which laid the foundation for Lubin's later career choice and the decisive moment in the history of Ethereum.
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Devcon 0: Birth of Vapor
Eleven months later, the guys met again at Devcon 0. Devcon 0, the first official forum of Ethereum, was held in Berlin, and at this event, Vitalik, Wood, and other early core backbones of Ethereum all gave speeches.On the forums at Devcon 0, the Ethereum team made a key decision: Ethereum will remain its own non-profit.
This choice split Ethereum's leadership team, with some continuing to follow Vitalik and others, including Lubin, moving toward a more commercial path.
During Devcon 0, Lubin started a new venture: ConsenSys. The company's core goal is to provide a series of project incubation services such as capital, resources and industry contacts for enterprises built on Ethereum.
Meanwhile, in another conference room at the Berlin gathering, the precursor to what is now a star property of ConsenSys was born.
Joel Dietz was one of the early supporters of Ethereum. He had already established a certain influence in the industry at that time. In addition to publishing his thoughts on the future of cryptocurrency in the media, he also actively held a series of Ethereum enthusiast gatherings in Silicon Valley. . In addition, Dietz himself operates multiple blockchain projects at the same time, one of the more famous ones is the Bitcoin-based crowdfunding platform Swarm. Additionally, he has worked on a series of encrypted browser extensions. Dietz kicked into action on an idea discussed at the meeting, as he recalls:
"There was a lot of discussion on the Devcon 0 forum about the need for a JavaScript client and some web3 interface that bridges the gap between the standard web application world and the ethereum client world."
In one of the rooms of the meeting, Dietz gave V God and Gavin Wood a detailed description of his project plan: creating a JavaScript-based browser extension project in an attempt to obtain funding from the Ethereum Developer Funding Program.
Although he was not impressed by Dietz's project, V God still gave the project the name Vapor.
Although he did not receive financial support, Dietz still received the "new project" of Vapor. After returning to California, he began to use his network of contacts to work. He tried to talk to “every JavaScript developer in California who had done any kind of demo on an ethereum client,” and after a demo of the project, Dietz encountered a group of Apple employees, including “JavaScript hacker” Aaron Davis.
Like Dietz, Aaron Davis, better known in crypto circles by his pseudonym "Kumavis," recognized blockchain's potential early on and experimented with it early. After a crowdfunding campaign, Kumavis realized he needed a "spread link" and came up with the idea for an "Ethereum wallet".
Dietz and Kumavis decided to join forces to create Vapor. Kumavis is very interested in Vapor, but before Vapor gets the start-up funds, Kumavis will not leave Apple, but will participate in a part-time way. The third member of the team is Martin Becze, who has been living in Dietz to operate and assist Ethereum In the joint office building of Fang Foundation."For the financing of the project, three people signed up for Y Combinator, but in the YC interview, the team did not define the product they wanted to make as a "wallet", but described it as"Browsers and BlockchainAlthough this project was novel enough and aroused YC's curiosity, after the interview, YC did not choose to invest in Vapor, and YC's partner Blackwell also explained his views on the project in detail in the email.
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Joel Dietz provides YC's email
Although it seems that YC's judgment on Vapor is too pessimistic in hindsight, Blackwell's position did represent the views of most people at that time.
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Post-YC: The split of Vapor and the birth of MetaMask
Even without YC's support, Vapor's founding team continued to push the project forward, but gaps began to appear between team members.
After being rejected by YC, Kumavis continued to work on Vapor, but he soon discovered that he was the only one of the three contributing: Becze focused on other Ethereum-related activities, while Dietz was also involved in other projects , Kumavis insisted he did all the work.
Dietz himself also gave Kumavis high marks, confirming that he "did about 90% of the coding and browser extension work" and that Dietz himself "funded early development" in the beginning, such as paying for office space and team meals. However, Kumavis made it clear that Dietz "never paid anything" and asked him to provide a receipt.
Dietz and Kumavis also have their own logic and judgment on the issue of grants from the Ethereum Foundation, and the issue is too complicated for outsiders to know the truth. Eventually, a feud between Dietz and Kumavis broke out and split the team.
Kumavis removed Dietz from Vapor's GitHub and Slack groups, and Vapor was renamed "MetaMask". Regarding the split of the team, Dietz believes that he was forced to leave and was treated unfairly because of it. From Kumavis' standpoint, Vapor didn't actually get any development during Dietz's management, and he was frustrated with the lack of effort from his partners, so he decided to end the cooperation with Dietz and reapply for new project funding.
Kumavis applied for a new grant from the Ethereum Foundation. After the application was approved, Kumavis used the $30,000 he received on the development of his new project MetaMask. When the money was spent, he continued to work alone for a while. Time, considering salary and greater development opportunities, he finally handed over the project to Lubin's ConsenSys.After joining ConsenSys, Kumavis persuaded former Apple colleague Dan Finlay to join MetaMask.The addition of Finlay had an immediate impact on the project. Most importantly, Finlay brought a fox logo to the project, which is now synonymous with MetaMask.
Today, Vapor no longer exists, and MetaMask has become a member project of ConsenSys. Kumavis, Dan Finlay and Joe Lubin are the core souls of the entire project.
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02 History: The Multifacetedness of ConsenSys
Lex Sokolin, chief economist at ConsenSys, explains the various stages of the company's evolution and identifies three distinct transitions. We will investigate how these various changes affect the development of MetaMask.
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Phase 1: Crypto’s Burning Man
ConsenSys first tried to become an incubator for startups in the encryption field. It brought together outstanding technical experts, provided them with financial support, and gave them absolute project autonomy. Unlike YC, ConsenSys’ incubation has macro goals , it hopes to fully build the entire encryption ecosystem through its own incubation.Although this is a good idea, the loose incubation has led to the lack of a clear organizational structure within ConsenSys. Mike Demarais, the co-founder of Rainbow Wallet, has a very vivid description of ConsenSys during this period: "It's kind of like Burning Man with a paycheck.
” Demarais has followed ConsenSys closely and has hired people who have worked under ConsenSys sponsorship.
This organizational form is very suitable, but it also hinders the development of MetaMask.
On the one hand, it allowed Kumavis and Finlay to move forward with the project. "MetaMask, in a nice way, has become a never-ending, ever-evolving project," Sokolin said. MetaMask probably wouldn't have become as robust if there were stricter and clearer project deadlines or project deadline goals.
On the other hand, the looseness of ConsenSys means that the project has little clear corporate vision and goals, and although Kumavis and Finlay are very talented, they only see MetaMask as a technical open source project rather than a product. Phantom Wallet CEO Brandon Millman, who also worked with the MetaMask team, explained this preference and the logic behind it:
Although it was reasonable to focus the project on developers in 2014, the lack of user perspective and corresponding planning also hindered the development of MetaMask. Today, many users complain about the design of MetaMask products, but they have been buried since the beginning of the project. Foreshadowed.
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Phase 2: Shrinkage and Survival
After a booming 2017, cryptocurrencies entered a 2-year trough, with Bitcoin plummeting from $19,000 to nearly $3,000 and Ethereum plummeting from nearly $1,400 to $84.
Inevitably, the development of ConsenSys has also been hit hard. In addition to the plummeting value of the assets held by the company, the confidence in the team's efforts towards the future of cryptocurrency is also fading. At the same time, discussions about the potential of blockchain began to overshadow cryptocurrencies in the market. ConsenSys then turned to serve this pseudo-skeptic.
During this period, ConsenSys focused on providing knowledge services to some large institutions to explore the blockchain revolution. In several years, ConsenSys' consulting services have covered various types of clients such as banks, media companies, and governments. Sokolin said the firm has partnered with ten central banks to advise on digital currency projects.
However, ConsenSys' financial health is not healthy. In late 2018, the company laid off 13% of its workforce to improve its finances. MetaMask survived this period, marking that it has become a core part of the infrastructure.MetaMask has over 1 million downloads.
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Phase 3: Split and streamline
Starting in 2020, ConsenSys began to reorganize.
ConsenSys Software：In order to raise funds, in September 2020, the company split its main body into two independent entities: "ConsenSys Mesh" and "ConsenSys Software", corresponding to different business development plans.
ConsenSys Mesh：A comprehensive software company has formed a clearer product matrix by combining the company's leading technology assets. This architecture includes Infura (providing APIs for Ethereum and IPFS), Truffle (Ethereum smart contract development tools), Codefi (provides blockchain application suites for business and finance), Diligence (provides security audits for Ethereum smart contracts), MetaMask (Ethereum wallets), and Quorum (an open source blockchain platform for business services);
Complementary and independent of ConsenSys' software business, separating previous investment and portfolio management activities from the software business, for developers, researchers, founders, investors and communities working on the development of Ethereum and other decentralized protocols network to operate;
To facilitate change, ConsenSys cut another 14% of its workforce. And those changes have paid off, with ConsenSys Software announcing a $65 million funding round in April 2021, followed by another $200 million in November. The popularity of ConsenSys Software in the capital market is obviously related to the increasingly heated cryptocurrency market, but the support from Third Point and Marshall Wace also shows the industry's confidence in ConsenSys' new structure.
For MetaMask, the reorganization of ConsenSys has brought a new development logic.
On the one hand, ConsenSys seems keen to promote synergy between its six projects, which continues the vision set out at the company's inception, and since there are currently fewer products to focus on, "synergy" is more realistic.
With MetaMask rapidly developing into one of the most popular blockchain applications in the world in 2021, ConsenSys needs to prove that it is a suitable "steward".
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03 Definition: What makes an encrypted wallet?
Before discussing the development prospects of MetaMask, let's take a look at what users can get from the functions of encrypted wallets.
Parsing the domain of web3 is a complex one because a single analogy rarely captures the whole picture. With this in mind, we can draw an analogy of crypto wallets from five perspectives to gain a more concrete understanding of their function, place in the ecosystem, and importance.
as a "wallet"
as a bank account
as a passport
It is a magical "warehouse"
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It’s an easy conclusion to draw, crypto wallets get their name because they function just like regular wallets. They are designed to protect your funds and make them available for spending. Just like you might pull out your wallet at a coffee shop, when you're ready to buy an NFT on OpenSea, you need to log into your MetaMask.
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As a bank account (or fintech app)
It is not comprehensive to look at encrypted wallets only in terms of "wallets". There are two main reasons:
Crypto wallets do not actually hold your assets.
The functionality of crypto wallets is not limited to physical wallets.
Let's take a look at these situations.
First, traditional wallets do hold your money, but crypto wallets do not, your assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum are not actually stored on MetaMask. Instead, these assets live on the blockchain, and your crypto wallet simply manages a "private key," and in that respect, it's not much different from a bank account. When you fire up your banking app, enter your PIN, and check your balance, you're not actually looking at the money itself, but at your assets.
Second, you can engage in a wider variety of activities at the bank than with a physical wallet.Physical wallets only allow users to effectively operate two commands: addition and subtraction, i.e. you can only put money in (add) or take it out (subtract). But encrypted wallets are richer in interaction and more similar to bank accounts.
Just as you can get a mortgage with a Chase account, you can get a crypto loan with a MetaMask account.
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as a "passport"web3 is an online parallel universe. Different terms, different cultural norms, and different currencies run parallel in this macro time.
While you can participate in parts of the crypto economy without a wallet like MetaMask, having a crypto wallet is essential if you want to participate in most of the activity in this space.
For example, to use a decentralized exchange like Sushi, you need to have a wallet that you can interact with. If you want to obtain the amazing and possibly unsustainable interest provided by Olympus, you also need such a wallet. The same goes for buying NFT on OpenSea and playing the encrypted game Axie Infinity. Companies like MetaMask provide such interfaces.
A wallet is a passport, representing a sense of identity and opening a new world.
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as a "browser"Wallets are often where crypto activity begins, thanks to their utility in manipulating assets.
This gives the wallet an edge, much like a web browser. Crypto wallets serve as a starting point mediating our experience and interaction with the blockchain, between us and the actions we want to take.
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The wallet is a magical "warehouse"Lex Sokolin, chief economist at ConsenSys, gave an abstract conceptual description of digital wallets: a magical warehouse.
This is because it can contain many things, not just currency, but also shows your financial, social, artistic assets and social connections.
For example, in my wallet you can find:some cryptocurrencies.
Primarily Ethereum, which functions closest to fiat money. I use it to buy other currencies and NFTs, or to pay transaction fees for using the Ethereum network.An Ethereum domain name.
I purchased mariog.eth through crypto name provider Ethereum Name Services to use as an on-chain identity.Some visual NFTs.
Apparently, I own a Philosophical Fox, as well as several other NFTs.Token created by Generalist.
Earlier this year, we minted GENERALIST tokens as part of crowdfunding, multimedia and NFT experiments.Some tokens from The DAO.
It's a dizzying mix that shows just how powerful crypto wallets can be compared to real-world wallets. To better understand how these combinations come together, let's take a look at MetaMask's offerings.
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user
There are currently more than 21 million accounts using MetaMask, the vast majority of which are individual users. For these users, MetaMask implements four core functions:
manage:manage:
Users can see the tokens they hold and manage their private keys.transfer:
MetaMask provides an interface for users to send tokens to others or transfer tokens within their own accounts.Buy:
Swap：Users can purchase tokens or NFTs using their MetaMask wallets.
Through Swap, MetaMask allows users to remotely swap tokens through other exchanges, a feature that has proven to be a huge revenue generator for MetaMak.sign:
Through MetaMask, you can verify various transactions or on-chain behaviors, such as joining a DAO or minting NFTs.
The image below is what MetaMask looks like in the browser. The fox icon is located in the corner. Once logged in, users can access a micro-portal showing their wallet balance. The main interface provides quick access to three key functions: Buy, Send and Swap ).
MetaMask
A more complete view provides more information, showing more assets in the user's wallet.
MetaMask
image descriptionpressThe user will be prompted to open an interface. In this mode, in addition to providing direct deposit, the user will also be linked to the entrance of different encrypted financial service providers integrated by MetaMask.
MetaMask
image descriptionFunctionality allows users to transfer tokens between their own accounts or send them to other people's accounts.
MetaMask
image descriptionUsers can also click on the profile picture in the upper right corner in MetaMask. By doing this, you can also create new accounts, import other accounts, or connect hardware wallets.
MetaMask
“Swap”Allows users to exchange one currency directly for another at the best possible price. Users can exchange SUSHI with their own ETH.
MetaMask-Swap
MetaMask is also activated when some kind of on-chain transaction needs to be verified. For example, when you go to OpenSea and try to buy an NFT, MetaMask will pop up asking you to "sign" and confirm the operation.
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OpenSea and MetaMask
Although powerful, MetaMask can be a bit cumbersome to use, and while MetaMask tries to simplify the transaction process, its confusion of encryption terminology, launch times, and gas information can be confusing even for experienced cryptocurrency investors. And the functions are not complete, such as users can't see the NFT they bought anywhere in the product.secondary title
Developer
DeveloperMetaMask's confusing consumer experience may not be the point,Because this is a developer-first product.Lex Sokolin highlights this point. He pointed out that the team's top priority is to improve the core product and strengthen security, and then he pointed out that "。”
The second priority of the team is the developers
As he describes it, MetaMask exists largely to provide a user interface for cryptocurrency developers. And this idea can form a virtuous flywheel: as more developers use MetaMask, the product becomes more valuable, attracting more consumers, and thus attracting the next wave of developers.
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mechanism
mechanism
Earlier this year, MetaMask announced its next big move: supporting institutional clients, including funds, market makers, and traders. To this end, the MetaMask background has once again strengthened its security, custody and transaction functions.
MetaMask Institutional emphasized the simplification of the transaction process and lower transaction fees when promoting it.
MetaMask
Taken together, this appears to be a strong first attempt at serving large enterprises, and it builds on MetaMask's strengths. ConsenSys has been well thought out and has developed a strong reputation and network at large institutions; it should be able to leverage these relationships to the benefit of MMI.
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05Friction brought about by the rapid development of MetaMask
The weakness of the MetaMask product is also related to its background.The entire team does not have a complete organizational structure to support it, and in the past year, MetaMask has quickly gone out of the circle and experienced large-scale growth.Over the past year or so, MetaMask has grown 21-fold in monthly active users, from 1 million to over 21 million.
These good news also put great pressure on MetaMask's system and operation and maintenance teams. Commenting on MetaMask's shortcomings, Sokolin said, "It's an incredible strain on the team."
The rapid growth of MetaMask is not only reflected in the number of users, but also in income. In October 2020, the team launched the "Swaps" feature. As mentioned earlier, Swaps allow users to exchange currencies within MetaMask, and MetaMask charges a fee of 0.875%.
Despite being considered exorbitant by some, MetaMask has also successfully commercialized itself. According to a report by research firm Delphi Digital, revenue from MetaMask's Swap function will reach $200 million in 2021. In comparison, DeFi hits like Sushi only made $70 million over the same period.
Delphi's analysis of MetaMask's revenue states:
“Metamask’s Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a massive zero. Metamask has no token incentives, so their revenues cost almost nothing, and their profit margins are close to 100%. Bigger imagination is if MetaMask issued its own What about tokens?"
Such advice is not out of date. MetaMask has tried several times in its history to launch tokens. Recently, Joe Lubin tweeted a suggestion about $MASK:
Will tokenization help MetaMask?
It seems that issuing coins by itself does not get the company any farther.
First, MetaMask has so far not publicly articulated a clear idea of what function its own token will serve. Briefly mentioned in past discussions, the token allows users to vote on potential new features, which, according to Demarais, is the “weakest value proposition” for such a project.Another risk is that tokens only add short-term buzz to the project. In our discussion on OpenSea, we outlined how Rarible's $RARI token briefly gave them dominance in the NFT market, but it didn't last. In the absence of a token, OpenSea is still able to better meet the needs of consumers with its strong, focused product and outperform Rarible. Demarais noted, “”
Owning tokens can propel you to progress, not necessarily win you.
After 18 months of meteoric growth, MetaMask looks less like a company in need of a shake-up and more of a company in need of a reset. Phantom CEO Millman’s attitude towards the possible emergence of $MASK tokens is:
Overall, MetaMask is commendable for surviving the hyper-growth of 2021 and effectively commercializing it, while at the same time, in order to maintain its leading position, MetaMask also needs to adapt to new challenges.
06 Future: where will the wallet development go
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No industry is growing faster than cryptocurrencies. The field moves by the day, with new companies, technologies, and financiers emerging in the process. At the moment, we are only in the first minute of the first game, and there are more brutal developments ahead than before.
This means that encrypted wallets are still in their infancy, and they are not even half-formed. The scenarios for which the services designed by encrypted wallets are still changing, and the technologies they rely on may also be replaced by newer technologies.
This volatility presents both risk and opportunity. One can expect four factors in the web3 space that will directly impact wallet evolution, each of which will affect the future of MetaMask:
more competition
Larger scale applications
more applications
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more competition
When MetaMask was officially launched in 2016, one of its advantages was that there was very little market competition. In the following years, more and more people joined this competition. Although no one has subverted MetaMask yet, but with With new players and old players pouring into wallet services from multiple dimensions, MetaMask's leading position may not be the eternal norm.
Coinbase is a representative of cryptocurrency stock players entering the wallet market. In addition to the existing exchange business, Coinbase has also launched a wallet product, and Coinbase's wallet has just launched a feature update that introduces NFT into the wallet. While Coinbase is user-friendly enough, it feels unlikely that Coinbase will be the winner in this space due to its essential role. For example, the Swap function, MetaMask aggregates different exchanges and actively finds the best price for users, but Coinbase has little incentive to do so. Coinbase's core business limits its openness in the matter of wallets. Block (formerly Square) may face a similar problem.
Decentralized exchanges and other crypto projects are also actively pouring into the wallet space.
According to Rainbow's Demarais, both Uniswap and Aave may also launch their own mobile wallet products, but they will also face the same problem as Coinbase and Block in wallet products, that is, the expected wallet products are more designed to support their own. The core business exists rather than being a truly standalone project.
Of course, there are also some emerging projects in wallet products, and Rainbow is the most prominent one. The concept and success logic of the entire team are also very simple: to make a wallet that ordinary consumers can use, and to provide education and support worthy of new experiences.Phantom is also a user-friendly wallet, but the difference is that it chooses to cut in from the Solana ecosystem. With the rise of the Solana ecology even posing a challenge to Ethereum, the Phantom team wants to use the development dividend of this new ecology to develop itself. at present,
Phantom is already the first choice for Solana users. The latest figures show that Phantom has 1.5 million monthly active users and 100,000 new downloads and installations per week.
Argent focuses on the Ethereum ecosystem and emphasizes ease of use. Not only do users not need to memorize private keys or mnemonic words, transfers and transactions in wallets do not require handling fees (transaction fees are transferred to Argent by using meta transactions), and , DeFi applications are integrated in the wallet, making it easier for users to access DeFi applications. From a technical perspective, Argent has strong security features and a robust architecture. Argent has raised $16.2 million in funding from leading companies including Paradigm, Hummingbird and Index.Trust、Pillar、Dharma、Frame、Balance、Torus、WalletConnectThere are other wallet projects that deserve more discussion in another article.
(an SDK) and so on play an important role in the ecosystem. Beyond that, there are several unannounced projects that are already making waves.The crypto space is a market that is growing fast enough to accommodate multiple winners, which means that MetaMask can worry less about competition,
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wider application
wider applicationA big part of the reason MetaMask will face so many competitors is because "encryption" is entering the mainstream, with a wave of new users flocking to it, including。
Ordinary users, institutions and developers
Let's first look at the user scale. Three years ago, it was estimated that there were 31 million encrypted wallet users. Today, this number is approaching 80 million.
The 80 million user base still pales in comparison to the application of other technologies. In 2018, the World Bank estimates that 3.8 billion people are using traditional banking services, and there are currently 4.6 billion active Internet users. Will we see a similar scale of penetration of encrypted wallets?Whether or not they reach such heights, crypto wallet products are gaining traction with a wider audience.MetaMask does have its own first-mover advantage in this regard. Although the product is not perfect, MetaMask can be counted as the default wallet service provider because of its long enough development and large user base.
Rainbow's Demarais noted, "It's become synonymous, it's become a brand, and that's the challenge for us new players."
In order to replace MetaMask, Rainbow also actively adopted the opposite positioning. MetaMask's product design is obscure, while Rainbow focuses on its own user-friendliness and inclusiveness. Jackson Dame, Rainbow's community lead, said:“The future of Web3 and the onboarding of the next 100 million users will require moreUser-friendly and intuitive experience
. I don't think many people in the ecosystem would use those words to describe MetaMask. "
For MetaMask, it is not too late to catch up with the trend of "user-friendliness". It only needs to adjust the design structure, but the biggest challenge may be that the spirit of MetaMask's underlying products is aimed at developers, which is deeply rooted, and developers It is not completely consistent with user needs, so it is impossible to make a real transformation of MetaMask.
According to Demarais, “MetaMask will definitely not be an app on my brother’s phone.”But MetaMask is inInstitutional aspects
MetaMask has continued to focus onDeveloperDeveloper
will also work. Products like WalletConnect make it easier for dapp developers to simultaneously integrate with many different wallets, and MetaMask is often the first port of call in the process. Even though the team doesn't seem particularly ready for the "consumer revolution" right now, Kumavis and Finlay are probably the best in the world at understanding what tool developers might want next.
"Wallets do have a virtuous cycle and all sorts of network effects. Developer usage is an indirect avenue for wallets like Metamask to grow quickly, but users don't download Metamask because they want to use it; they download Metamask because they want to mint or buy NFT. Whoever can completely win the hearts of users and developers will benefit the most from this virtuous circle.”
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Increasing cross-chain demandA year ago, Solana was trading at $1.80, and more recently, it has been priced close to $200, an exciting price increase that is one of the hallmarks of the project's rise in such a short period of time.
In the next few years, we may see more other public chain projects repeat Solana's path, that is to say, we are moving towards a multi-chain, multi-network future. For example, one can simultaneously choose Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, and Terra as the means of interaction.
This proliferation has implications for MetaMask and other wallet makers. Should these companies accept the multi-network reality and expand their offerings? Or go the extra mile and specialize and build a rich feature set for a network? No one knows what the right move should be.
Adding support for a new chain requires a lot of work, which not only increases technical complexity, but also increases the possibility of confusion for users when using it. Exchanging between different networks based on transaction type requires a certain level of knowledge, and this education takes time.
But if users are constantly swapping between different chains, the lack of such functionality can have a major impact on the development of the product. Phantom CTO and co-founder Francesco Agosti summed up the dilemma neatly:
Currently, MetaMask mainly supports Ethereum and its ecosystem. For now, it doesn't need to do much else, but if projects like Solana and Terra continue to prosper, it may want to start considering support for different chains .
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More application scenarios
The concept of a universal wallet will slowly disappear.
As more and more transactions and interactions occur in the blockchain world, there may be opportunities for vertical products that serve specific transaction scenarios, and some wallets have already gained a foothold in some niche markets.For example, Gnosis Safe is a DAO-oriented asset custody product, and its multi-signature function makes it very suitable for DAO's public financial structure. A similar trend has also emerged in the field of games,Wombat is a wallet product for blockchain games, which has attracted nearly 1 million users.
As time goes by, more and more subdivided industries will need their own wallet products.
Again, Agosti summarizes this potential well:
“The massive crypto wave likely to emerge in the next 5 years will expand the market for wallets by an order of magnitude, and whoever benefits the most from this new wave, or creates their own, will be the ultimate winner.”
MetaMask shouldn't be expected to seize all of these opportunities, but it should at least ensure that it doesn't get swept to the beach as a front wave. So far, MetaMask has not been the quickest to respond to a series of changes.MetaMask is a legendary hero in the encryption field. Its team has been working for the past six-plus years to build a product that, while not perfect, is effective enough to be a trustworthy original program for developers.
Through these, MetaMask has helped tens of millions of users and thousands of developers open up the web3 world. “We wouldn’t be here without MetaMask,” argues Demarais.
Such an important contribution deserves respect, but it does not mean that the vortex of public opinion will bypass MetaMask. As more and more mass users flood into the encryption space, they will demand a higher level of design on MetaMask's front end, and until these gaps are filled, various complaints will continue.MetaMask itself may not mind, after all, it has withstood a lot of tests, withstood the constant changes of the parent company and the cruelty and vagaries of the encryption market.
Even if it's not popular, it's still useful, and that's MetaMask.
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