How MetaID is showing what BSV blockchain can really do

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MetaID has created a lot of, er, buzz recently with some huge transaction blocks appearing on the BSV blockchain. Apps like MetaBuzz and ShowBuzz are demonstrating how the platform can create social networks where user data is portable—creating a less-censorable internet.

Waves of censorship and “de-platforming” on popular networks have seen users suddenly (and often without warning) lose access to their content. For some, like YouTube creators, this can mean the loss of years of work.

MetaID allows whoever uploaded the data to retain ownership of it. Today’s reality means individual platform owners will always want control over what appears on their site, but personal ownership means users have the option to move and restore their content to another place.

That's what we aim to achieve👇
An interconnected, User-centered, Value free-flow world#metaid pic.twitter.com/oDUR4vLVOf

— MetaID: Enabling Web3 Reality on Bitcoin (@MetaIDio) August 5, 2021

As MetaID puts it:

So as long as the BSV mainnet exists, and the TXID of the MetaID protocols and Metaprotocols is known, the recovery can be achieved by getting the data from the BSV mainnet. MetaID and its sub-protocols are now chain-complete systems, all the MetaID-based applications can be completely recovered through the BSV mainnet.

Using BSV’s Metanet protocol, another party can use MetaID identifiers in BSV transactions to build a data tree diagram that includes all relevant information about the user and how the content was created. The user can then use their BSV private keys to claim/prove ownership and restore it on the new platform.

MetaID is the name of the protocol, and there are roughly 20 user apps built on its structure including MetaBuzz, MetaNote, MetaPhotos, ShowBuzz, and ShowTalk. To create a portable MetaID identity, they first download ShowApp to register their details.

MetaID transaction over 1 Million times!
We are foreseeing a huge increase in the future. It is just the beginning.🚀 pic.twitter.com/4KO9BSEVIs

— MetaID: Enabling Web3 Reality on Bitcoin (@MetaIDio) August 15, 2021

Over 11,600 people have created a MetaID and produced over 1,144,000 transactions. They have been incentivized in part by the ability to earn a token called MetaCoin, which uses a novel “proof of transaction size” consensus mechanism.

Whether you consider the kinds of files uploaded via MetaID apps “worthwhile” or not is less relevant—and the same could be said for any internet application, BSV or non-BSV. What matters is that the BSV network has the capacity to upload, process and store all that data at an affordable price. Other enterprise applications should take note of this, and start planning their own use-cases.

The important thing is how much data can be generated by the MetaID protocol itself, rather than the individual apps. Anyone can build a new app using the MetaID protocol and try new uses for themselves. ShowPay CEO Sunny Fung, who was behind MetaID’s creation, said that “MetaID is not a service, not a series of apps built by us nor a platform. It is a protocol of MetaNet; it is permissionless.”

What his companies are aiming to do is “prosper the ecology of MetaID, not to build or promote one or some MetaID Apps,” he added.

CoinGeek spoke to Sunny Fung briefly about the latest developments, and the contribution MetaID is making to the BSV ecosystem.

Interview with Sunny Fung, CEO ShowPay

We’ve seen some massive blocks on BSV lately. Is MetaID responsible for some of this?

Sunny Fung: According to our rough estimation, 90% of the block size comes from MetaID transactions.

TAAL and SVpool increased their block size soft caps recently. Was MetaID involved in this decision?

Sunny Fung: No.

There’s ShowBuzz and MetaBuzz: what is the difference?

Sunny Fung: They are two different apps from different teams. Most of the protocols they use are the same, so they display the same data from BSV, when user create a new post on ShowBuzz, it will be displayed automatically on MetaBuzz. Just imagine when you create a post on Facebook, it is also your new tweet on Twitter.

Which one is creating more data, and what kind of data is it?

Sunny Fung: I don’t know, maybe people prefer to use ShowBuzz. All kinds of data is possible.

Did you do much marketing for the apps? What kind of person (demographic) is signing up for the social networks? (e.g. age, men/women, interest groups)

Sunny Fung: No marketing, no statistics about that.

How many new users have signed up for the services?

Sunny Fung: There are more than 11,000 people have created their MetaID. You can check the statistics of MetaID here.

Watch: Sunny Fung talks about MetaID and portable identity on The Bitcoin Bridge