SPACE ID has received a lot of attention through its IEO on Binance Launchpad and ongoing airdrop activities. On March 21, the Foresight Talking IEO series invited Jerry, the strategic leader of SPACE ID, to help everyone better understand the development process and strategic planning of SPACE ID. During the conversation, Jerry also shared insightful views on the domain name and DID track.
Speaker: Jerry，(Strategic Director of SPACE ID)
Host & Editor: Karen (Researcher of Foresight News)
Translation: Kean (Editor of Foresight News)
Karen: As for a domain project that has only been established for one year, SPACE ID has made significant progress and breakthroughs in both its product and data. First, let’s have Jerry briefly introduce himself and SPACE ID.
I am currently responsible for strategy and operations at SPACE ID. I previously worked in the financial industry and did strategic investments at major internet companies. After the Ethereum ICO, I personally began to focus on crypto and blockchain, then I had the opportunity to work with the SPACE ID team to make some attempts in the DID field.
Regarding the SPACE ID project, let me give a very brief introduction. Actually, ENS is still very powerful and has given a lot of inspiration to this industry.
Before ENS came out, people thought blockchain was cool, but the interactions were still based on concepts that were relatively difficult to understand, such as hash values. Domain names actually provided a layer of encapsulation for addresses, making them human-readable. It’s like converting an IP address like 192.168.1.2 into something like www. or baidu.com that everyone is familiar with. So we think this is still very meaningful, and it’s a very fundamental thing.
If we want to try some non-financial applications in the blockchain field in the future, such as games, social media, or even mobile internet applications, we believe having a basic identity layer is particularly important. After all, we cannot always interact through addresses, and we still need an identity layer. Based on this identity layer, we can develop games, social media, and other applications.
Karen: Actually, in the mid of last year, SPACE ID received incubation from BNB Chain, and then naturally received seed round financing from Binance Labs. After releasing version 2.0 in February this year, it completed another $10 million financing round, with institutions such as Polychain and Foresight Ventures investing in SPACE ID. Jerry, could you tell us about the background and origin of SPACE ID?
Jerry: As mentioned earlier, we found that DID is a very worthwhile thing to do, and the domain name is a very important and fundamental component of DID.
ENS is very successful in the market currently, but it is only on Ethereum and does not support other multi-chain ecosystems. Moreover, the gas fees on the Ethereum mainnet are relatively expensive, so it is difficult to imagine doing large-scale applications on the Ethereum mainnet.
We saw the gap in this market, and there is indeed a lot of demand in this area. What we want to build is an all-in-one digital identity platform that includes domain names. I can briefly mention some of our current achievements.
We launched two domain name services. The first one is .bnb, which we started last year, and the second one is .arb (domain name service on Arbitrum), which was officially open for registration in February and March of this year.
If we compare ourselves with ENS, first of all, we are doing multi-chain, and we also plan to develop cross-chain solutions in the future. ENS is positioned as a domain name issuer, while our SPACE ID 2.0 platform aims to further integrate multi-chain, rather than just being a domain name issuer. Users can discover, register, trade, and manage “.eth,” “.bnb,” and “.arb” domain names (with SPACE ID).
In addition to multi-chain aggregation, we have also integrated all the upstream and downstream domain names related applications into our latest product, which provides users with a better experience. In the future, we will further expand into DID identity.
Karen: how many people are currently on your team?
Jerry: There are around 10 to 20 people on our team currently, and we will continue to expand based on our future plans.
Karen: Currently, it seems that there are few projects attempting domain name aggregation like this. I would like to ask Jerry, in your opinion, what are some other differences between SPACE ID 2.0 and its competitors?
Jerry: There is actually no particular threshold for issuing domain name services. However, in order to do a good job with a domain name service, the workload required or the overall threshold of the industry is still relatively high. Web2’s www.com domain names are mainly aimed at enterprises, while Web3 domain names define the concept of personal digital identity and have a higher to C attribute. There are high requirements for product Costumer-end operations, how to build consensus, and how to build a community, which actually has very high requirements.
At the same time, Web3 domain names also need to face Business-end users. If the domain names are really to be landed in various application scenarios, various project parties need to integrate them.
In addition, it also needs to face developers, and to make the domain name encapsulation tool APIs or SDKs as simple and easy to use as possible, as an intermediate layer in developer products.
In the end, the number of domain name projects that can actually run is still very small.
Karen: Jerry, can you reveal how many applications and exchange wallets currently have integrated SPACE ID?
Jerry: Since the official launch of the product until now (more than six months), we have achieved significant growth. The total number of .bnb and .arb domains should be around 600,000 to 650,000, with corresponding independent addresses ranging from 300,000 to 400,000.
In terms of application integration, there are currently more than 100 applications that have integrated SPACE ID’s operational services. For example, in terms of wallet integration, mainstream wallets such as Trust Wallet, BitKeep, and TokenPocket, as well as over 20 DApps related to wallets, have integrated SPACE ID’s domain name service.
Karen: What is SPACE ID’s strategic plan or development plan for the future?
Jerry: In the future, we will continue to promote the integration of important projects, bringing the .bnb and .arb applications into the entire BNB Chain and Arbitrum ecosystems.
other than wallets, blockchain browsers such as BscScan have also integrated .bnb, and there are also some gaming and social projects on .bnb. In these projects, integrating domain names is a good scenario because it provides a better user experience when playing games and interacting on the chain to see names rather than addresses.
Furthermore, we will also consider deeper integration in the future. Currently, the overall barrier to entry for Web3 is still relatively high, and promoting domain names is an important part of lowering that barrier. In an ideal future, there should be no more incomprehensible string of code as an address, and everything should be encapsulated using domain names. In terms of wallets, we have seen recent good development in smart contract wallets and account abstraction wallets, and there are opportunities in the future to take, such as (lower) Gas fees or simplize mnemonic phrases.
We hope to achieve deeper integrations with wallets, as well as other chain-related identities, whether it is data or entry, to allow users to participate more seamlessly in Web3.
At the same time, we will continue to promote the support for multi-chains, and even try out some ideas and experiments in cross-chain. We may also create some operational infrastructures, project teams can use our infrastructures to create operational services that meet their own needs.
In terms of the ultimate vision, there may be two aspects to it. On the one hand, we want to build a Universal Name that can aggregate the domain names, assets, and identities on various chains. Ultimately, we hope to create a concept of digital identity. Domain names, wallets, NFT avatars, on-chain interaction records, on-chain credentials, reputation, and some data combining Web2 and Web3 can all be connected together. These points can actually be connected in a line.
Karen: Do you have plans to add subdomains?
Jerry: We do. In Web2, it is easy to have a set of account systems like Google.com or Gmail. Web3 is indeed lacking a type of account system, and subdomains are actually very suitable for this system.
Karen: Generally speaking, the development plan for SPACE ID will mainly revolve around continuous project integration, reducing barriers, building a seamless experience, and striving to support multiple chains and cross-chain capabilities. Regarding the subsequent token reward mechanism, could Jerry elaborate on it in detail for everyone?
Jerry: Regarding the airdrop plan, the first phase has already been announced, and eligible users can go to the official website to claim their airdrop starting from tomorrow.
As for some future operational plans, they will be presented relatively clearly on the website. There is an entry called “Voyage”, where you can see your past journeys and some of our upcoming operational activities.
The Voyage 2 that we are currently working on is an activity centered around inviting new users through referrals. As long as the user registers for a .bnb or .arb domain name after the snapshot period of the first airdrop, they will be considered a new user and will receive a Voyage Box, which is a small box similar to a blind box. The specific opening mechanism has not yet been announced, but boxes can be claimed now. This Thursday, we will announce the opening plan.
Karen: Currently, there are pain points such as the lack of multi-chain support, inability to cross chains, privacy issues, and limited application scenarios for domain names and DID. For project teams, this is also a significant challenge. In your opinion, what are the main bottlenecks facing domain name and DID projects at present?
Jerry: I think there are two points to consider. The first is that the overall infrastructure threshold is too high, making it difficult for new users to join, which is a pain point, but also an opportunity.
Another issue with DID projects is that what everyone is doing may be somewhat related but also relatively scattered. For example, domain names, PFP avatars, wallets, credentials, and reputation, but there is currently no environment that links these related data and entry points together.
From our perspective, domain names are actually very suitable as a lever to integrate Web3 and DID-related digital identity information into an entry-level gateway.
Karen: What do you think are the potential use cases and applications for domain names and DIDs in the ongoing development of Web3, and in what areas do you think they will be most empowering?
Jerry: In the short term, the areas that may benefit most from the development of Web3 are probably gaming and social media. With blockchain technology, there may be a new way of playing games, where items collected during the process, such as treasures and points, can be turned into NFTs.
Social media can also be built in a Web3 manner. By putting social relationships on the blockchain, it becomes more decentralized compared to platforms like WeChat. This means that you have control over your social network, and you can use it to log into WeChat or other social applications.
I think we may still be a little way off from the ideal scenario, largely because the infrastructure layer of Web3 is not yet fully developed.
This is why defining user identity is a core logic behind our domain name project. For users, it is a very basic component that defines their identity. For Web3 projects, it is an essential tool for establishing a user system, account system, and membership system. Once these identity and account systems are established, applications built on top of them can achieve more significant development.
Karen: What is your perspective on the importance of domain names and DIDs in the world of Web3?
Jerry: In the real world, your identity is defined by your ID card, WeChat account, Alipay account, and so on. The development of digitization of real-world identity is already very high. The companies that capture the most value from this digitization are probably WeChat, Alipay, and Google. On the web, your identity is essentially your Gmail account. It aggregates various kinds of data, and if you have a Gmail account, you can log in to any web application directly using your Gmail. Your Gmail is an identity that carries a lot of valuable data from your activity on the web2.
We believe that in Web3, there is currently a lack of such an entry-level identity presence, which is hindering the development of other applications in Web3.
In Web3, we can create a more open DID through infrastructure, enabling us to reclaim ownership of our own data and achieve a more interoperable experience in a better ecosystem. In Web3, many important projects are based on open-source protocols. With a DID, our data is aggregated in our own hands, and we can directly access various protocols in Web3 using our own data, without the problem of data silos.
The most important value of this is that ownership of data is returned to the user. In such a world, the value created may more likely return to the user, rather than being captured by large companies. This is our optimistic vision for the future of DID and Web3.
Karen: To summarize, DID is not only a representative of Web3 identity, but also a reputation display and cornerstone of trust for social, DeFi, gaming, and metaverse applications.
In fact, the Matthew effect is very strong for DID projects, especially for domain names. The domain name projects that have taken the lead will have a very dominant position and track advantage. Currently, ENS, SPACE ID, and ARB ID have already met these conditions. In the long run, SPACE ID is continuously integrating into more exchanges and wallets, expanding its usage scenarios, and building a Web3 one-stop identity platform similar to Gmail and Alipay.
It is worth mentioning that in the plan to promote the development of Internet 3.0 issued by the Beijing (Capital of China) Municipal Government last week, it was pointed out that it will support the research and development of blockchain-based digital identity technology to support the construction of a trustworthy virtual system for Internet 3.0. Although the relationship between DID and these policies may not be very significant at present, when Web3 develops at a scale level, the user base and usage scenarios will increase sharply.