Props -- The 'Middleware' That Will Make Internet and Blockchain Seamless

One month after its launch, the total transaction volume of Binance Smart Chain (BSC) exceeded $1.2 billion. Pancakeswap took only 5 months to go from zero volume to overtaking Uniswap, the leader of the Dex. Today, BSC has become a public chain ecosystem on par with Ethereum, and its success is not only due to Binance's resources, but also because its EVM compatibility makes it almost seamless for investors to move from Ethereum to the new ecosystem.

The fact that Ethereum spills over and quickly gains momentum suggests to Web3.0 app developers that only good apps can make users accept and enjoy the value of decentralization over time. In other words, decentralization can be a compromise, but the user experience should not be compromised. Only projects that adapt to the habits of existing users and improve accordingly will be able to catch up.

Similarly, blockchain tokens are not a master key to achieving commercial value from 0 to 1, as Internet commerce has already established solid barriers. In particular, we need to consider the natural dependence of "satisfied" users on the Internet for access to every aspect of their lives. Therefore, the value of tokens is more about enabling a 1-100 commercialization process. Projects that combine the advantages of traditional business models with the powerful incentives of a decentralized Token network have the potential to seamlessly integrate blockchain technology into consumer applications where user experience is critical, thus serving tens of millions of users.

Gradual decentralization is a better way to bring mature Internet products into the Web3 world.

Integrate, not replace

We've seen a plethora of attempts to improve or replace various Internet products, from Woolly Mammoth and ZeroNet in the early years, to "Bluesky," the Twitter founder's favorite, and even more blockchain concepts, that have so far failed to succeed.

The problem is not that Internet users are stubborn and unwilling to migrate, or that new products are not disruptive enough. The problem is more that there is friction between the two. When Internet users try to decentralize their applications, they may be blocked by seemingly complex concepts like private keys and Gas in the first place.

Bridging Web2 and Web3 products to drive more decentralized products is more realistic for the foreseeable future. The new question then becomes how to bridge the gap between these two very different products, preferably in a way that helps retain users of the original product while making the best use of the token incentive mechanism.

The Consumer App Token Issuer Governance System (PROPS) team is trying something similar to bridge the gap between the Internet and Web3.

Screenshot by: YouNow

Props isn't technically a native blockchain project, it was born inside the live social media YouNow and first landed within its ecosystem. From an established user perspective, it doesn't change the experience significantly, and even for first-time Internet users, it's perfectly acceptable to think of Props tokens as additional rewards that can be cashed in.

For platforms that access the PROPS protocol, because PROPS has already completed its pre-work, the project party will be able to seamlessly access the protocol in the existing architecture without any Token deployment work when it is introduced. Once users generally agree on Props tokens, it's even possible to consider extending the APP's original "platform coin" functionality to make it a separate, transferable APP token that turns the value of users' online engagement into a digital asset.

As it turns out, this kind of gradual decentralization is exactly what the current market needs. In addition to YouNow, Props has partnered with video chat platform PalTalk and Camfrog, as well as peer-to-peer marketplace Listia, behavioral data integration app Tegger and home rental platform Roomi. Connect the PROPS protocol to the original ecosystem.

Surprisingly, in addition to the above Web2.0 products, the project focuses on virtual real estate (NFT) trading and AR social meta-universeSuperworldProps integration has also been announced, becoming the first blockchain product to join the Props ecosystem. According to Props Asia Pacific head Kong Weiguang, another top blockchain institution in the industry will announce Props integration next. After a while, they will use Props 2.0 to issue their App Points (tokens) just like the other products in the Props ecosystem. Users will only be able to secure their App Points by pledging Props. This certainly gives Props a lot of imagination.

Web3 era, Props imagination space

For millions of users to move from the Internet to Web 3, there must be a solution to make the migration more efficient and less vertically integrated. When the PROPS project launched in 2017, it enabled the platform to convert points into tokens for a similar "chain change"; As the crypto industry iterates, Props is introducing Staking, incentive distribution, decentralized governance, and other gameplay features that are uniquely blockchain-like.

Props2.0, which aims to evolve Props into a fully decentralized network with incentives to compound success.

The new design (expected to be available within the next 2 months) not only allows partner apps to publish independently and motivate their users with their own App Points, but also creates an effective "predictive market" between Props coin holders, Props agreements and partner apps. Props coin holders to actively participate in all partner apps. Props users vote for the App by pledging their Props to a specific App. In order to encourage users to vote for them, the partner App will give back a certain percentage of App Points as a pledge.

· New token offering model

Tens of thousands of apps now have a new option than they used to have when they issued tokens and NFTs independently, operated projects independently, and dealt with regulations independently. They can plug into Props, make Initial offerings at Props or launch their own NFT products. Technical and operational issues are left to the Props team, and the platform side only needs to work on their own products and services.

In the cooperation mentioned above, we can see that this model is gradually being adopted by more and more enterprises, and even the best blockchain enterprises are using Props service instead of issuing tokens independently.

· A benign investment forecast market

For users who want to make long-term value investments in blockchain projects, they need a forecasting and screening mechanism to help them identify the projects they think have potential investment value from the tens of thousands of blockchain projects. And, because of the high risk of the blockchain market itself, they also need to minimize or control the risk of their investment.

IEO provides an idea of a way for the platform to conduct preliminary screening of projects and assist users to further understand the projects and provide reference for their investment decisions. "Pledge mining", this "zero cost" investment method, greatly reduces the user's investment risk. The way tokens are allocated by pledging results also gives users a new form of reference, in the sense that products that receive more rewards are more attractive to the market.

Props combines the best of all three to create a user-friendly investment forecasting market. Users can focus more on Props Ecolo partners and use the real-time reward data received by each App as a reference to the market's expectations for the future growth of different apps, and then decide to pledge their Props to one or more apps. Get Props rewards from the agreement and App Points rewards provided by the App "for free".

· Managed user engagement

For non-blockchain users, independent use of wallets to pledge Props into contracts is difficult to achieve in the short term. Therefore, a mode of pledging by APP will exist in APP for a long time. This approach is also widely used in exchanges, such as Binance, OKEx and other trading platforms. They will help users to participate in POS pledge or DEFI liquidity mining to obtain profits. This form can eliminate the high threshold that users outside the circle face when participating in blockchain projects to the greatest extent.

While cryptocurrencies are moving into the mainstream and more publicly traded companies are buying and holding bitcoin, compliance remains a top priority for these companies. Props is trying to make it easy for Internet tech companies to introduce token incentives with compliance.

The Web3 vision is something to look forward to, but it won't happen overnight. Right now, completely disruptive decentralized apps are only for niche groups and will take time to penetrate the masses. But if millions of mainstream consumer businesses are going to move to blockchain and break through the critical scale bottleneck between the two, initiatives like Props are going to be able to adapt to the existing architecture of the Internet, rather than completely discarding all models, to speed up the entire Web3.

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