Understanding the Influencer Web3 Project RSS3: Is the "Next-Generation Information Indexing" a Genuine Innovation or a Pseudo Concept?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Understanding the Influencer Web3 Project RSS3: Is the "Next-Generation Information Indexing" a Genuine Innovation or a Pseudo Concept?
RSS3 Protocol, founded by Natural Selection Labs in May 2021 with the slogan of providing "information feeds for the next-generation internet," launched its testnet in September and has since released products such as Web3 Pass (user profile) and Revery (information tracking and social platform). In December last year, it secured investments from prominent firms including Coinbase Ventures and Dragonfly Capital.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsCompilation: Richard Lee, ChainCatcher
If you're not a post-00s generation, you've definitely heard of "RSS feed." RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, provides summaries of website content and allows users and applications to deliver article titles, abstracts, full texts, and other information to subscribers in a standardized format. By subscribing to RSS links from different websites, users can aggregate various information sources and read them within a single tool.
RSS3 Protocol, branded as providing the "next-generation internet feed," is a recently trending Web3 concept project. Launched by Natural Selection Labs in May 2021, RSS3 released its testnet in September and has since launched products such as Web3 Pass (user profile) and Revery (information tracking and social platform). In December last year, it secured investments from prominent institutions including Coinbase Ventures and Dragonfly Capital.
1. Products and Application Scenarios
Currently, RSS3's main products are Web3 Pass and Revery—the former being a user profile similar to a Facebook personal page, while the latter functions as an information feed aggregator.
(1) Web3 Pass
Web3 Pass collects users’ on-chain footprints via wallet connection and signature verification. Initially supporting Ethereum and BSC address verification, users simply click “add new account” and sign a message through MetaMask or WalletConnect to confirm ownership of a specific address.
Once verified, associated assets of an address are stored in an RSS3 file and displayed on the user’s profile page via Web3 Pass. Currently, Web3 Pass supports displaying on-chain addresses, domains, POAP records, donations (e.g., projects supported via Gitcoin), and more. Users can freely drag, drop, and rearrange these assets and information, and may also choose to hide any footprint or asset they prefer not to disclose publicly.
Web3 Pass also offers a naming service—RNS, similar to Ethereum Name Service (ENS), but powered by the RSS3 protocol. Users with RNS can generate their personal RSS3 address link, which they can display prominently on platforms like Twitter so others can view and follow their profile at any time.
According to the RSS3 team, RNS is non-transferable and does not expire. Registering an RNS requires burning 1 PASS token, which can only be obtained through a whitelist. The whitelist application is now closed. Regarding whether early adopters of Web3 Pass will receive an airdrop, the RSS3 team responded that this is still under discussion.
(2) Revery
Revery is a feed aggregator allowing users to view subscribed content. It serves as RSS3’s “minimum viable product” and was launched on December 25 last year, currently operating on the RSS3 Pre-node.
After following a number of users via search or recommendation, their activities appear on this page. Revery also provides a filtering function, allowing users to selectively view specific categories such as NFTs, donations, or activity logs.
Social media recommendation algorithms have long been a topic of interest. Revery offers two recommendation methods: “Featured” and “Explore.” The former features handpicked sources curated by the RSS3 protocol, while the latter provides random recommendations. However, the exact algorithmic mechanisms behind both remain undisclosed.
Joshua’s Revery page (RSS3 founder)
Notably, Revery’s information sources are not limited to Web3 platforms like Ethereum. According to the RSS3 team, in addition to blockchain networks, decentralized social platforms built on federated architectures but not based on blockchains—such as Mastodon (commonly known as “Longmao Xiang” in Chinese communities) and Misskey (a decentralized microblogging platform)—are also included, along with relatively user-data-respecting centralized platforms like Twitter.
The RSS3 team’s standard is: “As long as data ownership is verifiable and indexable, the RSS3 network will incorporate it as part of the content environment.”
Thus, Revery offers a “Web3/Hybrid” viewing option. When enabled, activities and posts from followed accounts on Web2 platforms like Twitter will also appear on the homepage. When disabled, only on-chain activities from platforms like Decentraland, Mirror, and NFTs will be shown.
Target Application Scenarios
Regarding RSS3’s applications, the project has a slogan: “Aiming to become the backbone for future social, content, and e-commerce applications by providing content, distribution channels, and economic environments.” For regular users, compared to fragmented personal profiles on centralized internet services, RSS3’s products aim to aggregate and display diverse platform information—including on-chain application data—in a trustless manner, enabling functionalities such as social showcasing, networking, and even recruitment.
On the commercial side, RSS3 claims it can provide distribution channels based on social graphs, offering pathways for social media content dissemination and e-commerce. For content creators and media producers, RSS3 aims to break the current tight coupling between media and platforms, aggregating the largest possible consumer base and offering a high-efficiency monetization channel free from platform commissions.
However, Web3 information aggregation has drawn skepticism from some industry figures. For example, TokenInsight CEO Wayne recently commented on Twitter about Web3,stating, “There are people building RSS feeds again—this might be awkward to say, but wasn’t this thing already被淘汰 by history? Why does slapping a Web3 label on it suddenly make it advanced? Make it politically correct?”
2. Operational Mechanism
To date, the RSS3 pre-node is operated by the RSS3 team, meaning it remains distant from its vision of a fully decentralized information indexing and distribution system. Additionally, according to the team, the current pre-node remains unstable and therefore has not yet been open-sourced.
In the whitepaper officially released on January 11 this year, Natural Selection Labs detailed its future operations and incentive plans.
(1) Network Operation Mechanism
According to the whitepaper, “online footprints” generated by user and application interactions are stored in units called “RSS3 Files.” These RSS3 Files are indexed and processed by one or more subgroups. Each subgroup consists of multiple service nodes (responsible for file hosting), and only after reaching consensus within the subgroup can the index content be finalized.
Subgroups are managed by GI (Global Indexer), which also routes client requests to the appropriate subgroup.
A GI comprises two parts: (1) a set of relay nodes for routing assistance; (2) a set of archival modules for network archiving, enabling recovery in case of network failure.
Both service nodes and GIs are elected by the RSS3 DAO. Candidates may face requirements regarding hardware and staked assets, with specific rules determined by the DAO.
(2) Incentive Mechanism
Regarding incentives, the RSS3 team believes that existing “transaction-based reward models” are only suitable for financial applications and ineffective in areas like social media.
Therefore, RSS3 plans to incentivize participants using network profits generated from advertising, value-added services, and social economic activities. Rewards will be distributed in three phases:
Phase One: System Incentives. The system rewards participation to encourage adoption. As user numbers grow, system rewards decrease inversely with network adoption rate;
Phase Two: Hybrid Incentives. As network adoption increases, profits from advertising, value-added services, and social economic activities will be generated and distributed as network rewards;
Phase Three: Self-Sustaining Incentives. All rewards are funded entirely by network-generated revenue, with no further support from the system.
According to the whitepaper, those eligible for incentives include node operators, developers, content creators, special contributors, and the DAO.
3. Project Timeline
RSS3 was founded by Joshua in May 2021. In August of the same year, it raised millions of dollars in seed funding from investors including Sky9 Capital, Mask Network, ByteDave, Hash Global, Liang Xinjun (co-founder of Fosun Group), Wen Chen, Variable Capital, SPT Capital, and Huofeng Capital’s Chen Yuetian.
According toPANews, Joshua said he initially worked on RSS-related applications back in 2018, during which he discovered the well-known RSS project RSSHub on GitHub.
“That app was a failure—I didn't expect this experience to help me at all. Afterward, I started working on various types of social network projects, gradually shifting my focus toward decentralized social and content networks,” said Joshua.
In late 2020, Joshua revisited RSSHub, hoping to “take its essence and discard the outdated,” and reached out to its creator DIYgod. With the help of Suji, founder of Mask Network, Natural Selection Labs successfully completed its seed round. Joshua also noted that Suji was the first person to suggest renaming the project—from its original name “AIR” to “RSS3.”
In September 2021, Natural Selection Labs launched Web3 Pass; in December, Revery was introduced.
In December 2021, RSS3 announced completion of a new funding round led by CoinShares Ventures, with participation from notable investors and institutions including Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Mask Network, HashKey Group, Arweave, Dapper Labs, and Balaji Srinivasan.
In December 2021, Web3.0 gateway Mask Network announced a strategic partnership with RSS3, the Web3 information aggregation protocol, to collaborate on integrating user footprints, Gitcoin donations, and NFT functionalities.
This January, the development team released the official whitepaper, building upon its earlier Lightpaper.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
