Relay: web3 communication and identity - Agent Token Protocol

daopanel rebrands as Relay, the place to control your web3 life. The wallet encrypted chat client relay.cc is usable right now.

Foundations

A few months ago, in the process of designing and creating a feature-rich DAO governance dashboard, a key requirement revealed itself. Our proposal drafting and delegate interactions need messaging to function, and to do that with a long-term view, the messaging must adhere to web3 standards of decentralization and encryption.

Our search for solutions led us to XMTP. XMTP developed the ability to communicate between existing crypto wallets via its own encryption protocol and decentralized network.

When XMTP released their beta in April, we were on it within a week. Developing the messaging guts needed for governance operations led us to create the first XMTP generalized messaging client.

This work plus our relationship with XMTP further convinced us how much sense web3 native messaging makes, and how little progress has been made so far.

Due to this greater and more foundational scope for communication tools and identity, we need a new name: Relay.

Web3 needs messaging solutions that leverage the shared data commons of a user’s address. We see clear next steps to unlock new relationships of web3 identities, dapps, and smart contracts. Wallet attributes such as on-chain transactions, tokens and NFTs held, DeSoc reputation, and more will combine with XMTP messaging functionality to create meaningful interactions--some never seen or imagined before. Powerful integrations in chat panels will be the control panel for your web3 life.

Relay

Relay is multiple tools: A wallet chat inbox (direct messaging, group chats, and token-gated channels), profiles, a Receiver chatbox to embed in other sites, and the admin Broadcast functionality.

Here's quite a few examples of what will be live on relay.cc this summer, and how it can be used:

Wallets can be messaged directly when issues arise with dapps, protocols, DAOs, smart contract vulnerabilities. This solves “how do I talk to this anon wallet”, a common problem and part of the famous 25,000 Ether rescue by samczsun
Authenticated messaging from company wallets solves the impersonation and scam problem of trusting Discord and Twitter
Group chats between multiple wallets. No explanation needed here.
As a user, you can opt-in to receiving important messages, such as Snapshot Proposal vote alerts. Consequently, NFT ownership will govern what users and what companies will be allowed the privilege of messaging you.
Profiles: aggregate NFT & token wallet holdings plus Lens social plus Gitcoin Passport in one place makes it easy to start a conversation around any one of these
Relay Receiver: a drop-in chatbox for any website to support Relay messaging, saving dev time and database setup for a feature every site needs
- For NFT collectives, DAO membership, marketplaces & exchanges, web3 music, and any site that should support a user as a wallet. Talk to us now about adding Receiver for your users
- We will support a pro version (like Intercom) for companies/brands to have a verified wallet for customer support, integrated with modern chatbot help
Musicians/artists can Broadcast private messages to their NFT holders -> allows high-value relationships with the person behind the wallet. More details in blog post

All of this is underpinned by an encrypted and decentralized data messaging layer that works natively with web3.

The Relay platform is full of tools, features, and innovations that run wire and connect the space between and among wallets. Message everywhere using your web3 identity.

We’d love for you to try it out, either by a message to us at relay.cc/seanwbren.eth , or share out your own ENS to chat with anyone you wish!

P.S.

We still believe in the huge potential for DAOs and a growing need for better delegate and membership tools. With the chief role they have in the coordination and organization of online communities in web3, we know the work we put into the Athens Governance Engine will come to fruition next year, yet after Relay. The foundational and immediate unlocks that wallet communication give us need to be made first.