DeSo-MetaMask integration brings decentralised social media to Ethereum users

Ethereum users can now use encrypted on-chain messaging and a Twitter-like microblogging feature offered by blockchain-based social media platform DeSo after it announced an integration with MetaMask this week.

MetaMask is one of the leading Ethereum-based crypto wallets with over 30 million monthly active users (MAUs). Integration with a widely used crypto wallet will help decentralised social media platforms get more traction and traffic. DeSo is the underlying blockchain of Bitclout, a decentralised social media network. DeSo also supports over 200 social dapps or decentralised apps such as Diamondapp.  

DeSo is planning to add integrations for other blockchains too.  

“Decentralised social is the next big narrative, ushering in an era of real utility and real usage of crypto,” Nader Deso, founder of Deso protocol, said in a Twitter post.  

Decentralized Social is the next big narrative, ushering in an era of real utility and real usage for crypto.

Nothing makes this more clear than cold hard numbers.https://t.co/EuXtzqNUgM is one of the top apps on DeSo, with social tipping, NFTs, and creator coins. Check it out pic.twitter.com/Bq23IEm1Iq

— nader.deso (D,D) (@nadertheory) September 26, 2022

DeSo is a blockchain network that can scale and store social media content like profiles, posts, followers and likes in the same manner platforms such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Polygon store crypto and its transaction data on their respective blockchains. Unlike Web2 social networks such as Facebook or Twitter which are controlled and regulated by a handful of companies, DeSo puts all the content on a public blockchain which makes it impossible for any single entity to control it.  

The biggest advantage of DeSo is portability. All user profiles and posts will be stored on the DeSo blockchain and users migrate or access them through any social dapp, unlike existing social networks.  

After the integration, anyone with a MetaMask account can create a social media account on DeSo and use its social media features without having to pay any gas fees.  

DeSo claims that storing a 200-character tweet on DeSo costs one ten-thousandth of a cent.  

Whereas on Ethereum, it can cost $50 due to the high gas fees. In a nutshell, storing 1GB of in-chain state on DeSo will cost $80, whereas storing it on Solana can cost $698,775 and on Ethereum, it can cost 393,750,000. The gas fee is the transaction fee that is paid to validators called miners in proof of stake (PoS) based crypto networks. They are used to pay for transactions, mint tokens, and execute smart contracts.  

Social media-based dapps are gaining traction, however, the user base is quite small compared to crypto platforms. According to Dappradar, the top social dapps such as PeakD, Steemit, kilmaDao have only got 2,000-3,000 unique users.