Exclusive Interview with MetaMask How does Snaps Disrupt MetaMask’s Ecological Interaction?

Interview with MetaMask Snaps Disrupt MetaMask's Ecological Interaction

During the Token2049 conference, we had a conversation with Metamask, which dominates the wallet market, to explore the story behind the launch of Snaps.

Interviewer: Jack

Organizers: Sharon, Luccy, Kaori

Editor: Jaleel

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Last night, Consensys announced the public launch of the first version of MetaMask Snaps. According to the official website, MetaMask Snaps is a feature created by third-party developers that MetaMask users can install directly into their wallets.

In the initial release, MetaMask Snaps will provide 34 Snaps features, including transaction insights that can identify potential security risks, interoperability with non-EVM blockchains such as Bitcoin, and practical features such as Web3 notifications. These 34 Snaps features have undergone security audits and have been manually added to the whitelist by the MetaMask team.

As early as July this year, MetaMask planned to launch the Snaps protocol by the end of 2023, allowing anyone to securely extend the functionality of MetaMask. Wallet users can access new applications and perform cross-chain protocol interactions. MetaMask previously described Snaps as “an open-source system that allows anyone to securely extend the functionality of MetaMask” to create new Web3 experiences. This means that developers can use Snaps to build specific features on top of MetaMask.

Francesco Andreoli (left one) at the Token2049 conference

Today, during the Token2049 conference in Singapore, BlockBeats interviewed Francesco Andreoli, the developer relations maintainer of MetaMask, to discuss how the latest release of Snaps promotes permissionless innovation and interoperability between different ecosystems.

MetaMask Snaps: Continuing the Spirit of Permissionless Innovation

Francesco Andreoli is an ETH engineer and digital entrepreneur. He holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and an International Business Master’s degree from the Hult Business School. He is fluent in six different languages and enjoys working in emerging markets. He is passionate about venture capital and data-driven expansion strategies. He is primarily active in Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United States. He has served as a mentor for TechStars, Angelhack, The Hult Prize, and several other global startup accelerators and incubation programs.

Initially, Francesco Andreoli was an engineer at IBM Brazil and later co-founded washmyLianGuaints.com and Myinsurance, a Swiss startup that provides mobile-first microinsurance solutions. In addition, he is also a co-founder of a Swiss renewable energy-based DLT mining facility (acquired by the Petawatt Group in 2018). Since 2019, he has been actively investing in seed-stage startups in Sub-Saharan African countries together with Oui Capital.

Today, Francesco Andreoli is the developer relations maintainer (DelRel) of ConsenSys and MetaMask. He is also the founding partner of Oui Capital, former marketing director of Digital Asset, creator of Daml, and former developer community builder of Angelhack, the world’s largest hackathon ecosystem.

BlockBeats: Please briefly introduce MetaMask Snaps.

Francesco Andreoli: We launched the first iteration of MetaMask Snaps yesterday, which is an extension based on the existing functionality of MetaMask. The first version of Snaps includes different features such as transaction insights, interoperability, and notifications. The most exciting thing about Snaps is that they are owned by developers and the third-party community, which means they are not from the consensus team. It is this permissionless innovation ecosystem that allows us to further expand the functionality of MetaMask today.

BlockBeats: What are the main categories of functions in MetaMask Snaps?

Francesco Andreoli: As you know, we released the first generation of MetaMask Snaps to the public yesterday and introduced 34 Snaps. Currently, we have three categories. The first one is transaction insights, where users can gain clearer insights into transactions, allowing them to understand potential security risks or whether they are interacting with malicious contracts. The second category is Solar Bound interoperability. It is about the broader Web 3 multi-chain vision, enabling Snaps that are incompatible with the EVM to be added to the extension so that users can perform specific transactions with other chains. The third category is notifications, where users need specific information for many specific use cases and can stay informed at any time through web3 notifications in the MetaMask wallet.

BlockBeats: MetaMask is also pushing for features such as “Sell”. What role will Snaps play in the “Function Ecosystem” of MetaMask?

Francesco Andreoli: MetaMask’s vision is to create a more open ecosystem to encourage innovation. Over the years, we have received a lot of feedback from the community, and we have taken a very different approach to activation. We want to build a positive community that encourages members to participate in innovation. If a member discovers a specific use case, they can extend the current functionality of the program. I think this is not only MetaMask itself, but also the most powerful statement of consensus. We hope to have more inclusive innovation in our ecosystem.

Is MetaMask becoming the Google of the crypto industry?

Currently, MetaMask has opened a test version, which is different from the final version. The open test version hosts various Snaps that allow lists, and these snapshots have been reviewed by third parties and the MetaMask team. The open test version of MetaMask Snaps is the first step in building this permissionless system. Ultimately, MetaMask’s vision for the snapshots of the MetaMask wallet is to be completely permissionless, without any gatekeepers.

In a blog post, MetaMask co-founder Dan Finlay also tells some stories behind the development of Snaps.

The development journey of Snaps has taken the MetaMask team through some exciting corners of computing history and has made some great friends. In this work, MetaMask collaborated with Agoric, which resulted in significant value. He designed a JavaScript restriction API, proposed it to the JS standard committee TC-39, implemented a working polyfill for the API, and today it is available for use. We worked together to improve this system, LavaMoat, and our secure computing approach.

MetaMask also went through a particularly challenging period during the development of Snaps: Google proposed a major overhaul of how extensions like MetaMask work, and for a while it loomed over the entire project. This could have been a fatal blow, or at least a change that forced the MetaMask team to leave the extension platform. Fortunately, thanks in large part to ConsenSys and Google’s very smart and considerate developers, the MetaMask team was able to compromise on the way the extension platform changes, allowing MetaMask’s ambitious goals without compromising any company’s security ideals.

BlockBeats: Many people like to compare the functionality of Snaps to Google, making MetaMask more like Google. What do you think about this?

Francesco Andreoli: I can tell you some information about the extension. In the past few years, Snaps has had an environment for developers for 18 months. We realized that as builders in the ecosystem, we also need to consider future needs. For example, we received a lot of questions about new features, and we think we need to support builders and the community more to help achieve this permissionless innovation.

This is the whole story behind Snaps. We hope to achieve permissionless innovation in the ecosystem by further expanding the current functionality of MetaMask. I think this vision is also evolving. Now everyone knows that MetaMask has both a mobile application and a browser extension, but we are also trying to achieve more goals at a lower level of infrastructure, allowing community builders around the ecosystem to build the features they think the community needs to meet the needs of all end users.

That’s why we started releasing the first batch of 34 new features for Snaps. We are very excited because it is a combination of a series of use cases. For example, for Snaps that are not compatible with EVM, you couldn’t make Bitcoin transactions before Snaps were released; you can also receive notifications and even query your transaction history. I recommend that every user give it a try because it’s very simple. Basically, all you need to do is install Snaps in your current MetaMask account and the features will be automatically enabled and activated.

Why choose to be compatible with non-EVM?

BlockBeats: After the ordinals, the BTC ecosystem seems to have regained vitality. Is this why MetaMask chose to enter this field? Besides existing wallet products, what value can MetaMask provide?

Francesco Andreoli: Basically, Snaps is mainly aimed at promoting permissionless innovation and interoperability between different ecosystems. And I think the main needs of users are not only to build bridges between different ecosystems, but also to provide more transparency between different ecosystems. Ultimately, when interacting with the underlying infrastructure layer, end users are more concerned about the security environment and whether they can interact with different ecosystems. That’s where Snaps comes in.

We have non-EVM compatible Snaps, which is one of the 34 important features of Snaps that have been released. With the functionality of these Snaps, as an end user, you can expand your Web3 usage beyond just the Ethereum ecosystem and interact with other ecosystems such as Filecoin, StarkNet, BTC, etc. I believe this will be more beneficial for end users because there is currently a lack of transparency between the various isolated islands being established, which is exactly what end users need to seamlessly navigate between these islands.

BlockBeats: There is currently a lot of discussion about zkBridge or LayerZero as a multi-chain future solution. Can MetaMask be used as a solution for all these cross-chains?

Francesco Andreoli: Big companies like ConsenSys are our supporters. We have MetaMask, we have Infura, we have Linea, which is the zk-EVM on our mainnet that we launched during ETHCC. When it comes to the multi-chain future, we will also talk about things like Linea, making it easier for builders to deploy on the zk-EVM layer. At the same time, we enable Layer2 through tools like StarkNet Snaps, so it’s a hybrid.

I think the bridging function in MetaMask can aggregate different bridges, which is why it can provide multiple solutions for end users. However, we do believe that Snaps can achieve more usability at different levels, keeping this multi-chain future strategy consistent.

BlockBeats: What is the future roadmap for Snaps?

Francesco Andreoli: But I think games and applications can also be considered, as they are the main use cases. During the public release of Snaps, we introduced these three main categories and the main features of the 34 Snaps. I think the future roadmap will mainly revolve around the development of more types of Snaps within the Snap family. We are working with different third-party developers and communities to achieve more use cases around Snaps.

In the future, more Snaps will be gradually approved. ConsenSys will collect user feedback on the use of MetaMask Snaps and continue to develop to achieve the ultimate vision of MetaMask Snaps. MetaMask Snaps aims to completely change the way users interact with MetaMask, providing users with stronger operations and customization features.

How does MetaMask, which occupies half of the wallet market, view industry competition?

Among all wallet applications, MetaMask is the absolute leader in the same track. Uniswap, the DEX with the highest industry traffic, and almost everyone knows it. At that time, the official statistics showed that since the establishment of Uniswap, a total of 250,000 addresses had used Uniswap. Meanwhile, MetaMask, according to ConsenSys’ announcement, already had 30 million monthly active users at that time, a growth of 42% in four months.

It should be noted that the peak number of active addresses on the entire Ethereum network was around 9 million. If we calculate based on each user having only one address, MetaMask’s market share would exceed 50%, and each user does not only have one address. It can be said that MetaMask holds half of the encrypted wallet market. Undoubtedly, MetaMask has become a key participant in the Web3 economy.

Last October, MetaMask’s total revenue reached $320 million. ConsenSys, which owns MetaMask, has already completed a $450 million Series D financing round with a valuation of $7 billion, setting a record for the largest single financing in the crypto industry. As of August 9th this year, according to CoinGecko data quoted by The Block, MetaMask has been downloaded more than 22.66 million times, making it the most popular hot wallet in the encryption industry.

BlockBeats: Undoubtedly, after rapid development, MetaMask will be more competitive than other companies. How does MetaMask view its competition with other wallets? Is that why the team decided to establish Snap to gain more market advantage?

Francesco Andreoli: Launching Snaps allows the entire community to extend the functionality of existing extensions without permission, and I believe there will be different standards around our ecosystem. Compatibility with other infrastructure layers in the future is very important. But these are third-party Snaps, not developed by our internal team. And now we really open up the opportunity for everyone in the community to build these extensions. In this state, people from other ecosystems will build different Snaps, and we have already seen this in other ecosystems.

For example, today you can not only do non-DBN compatible Snaps, such as Bitcoin Snaps, but also install your Cosmos Snaps and Filecoin Snaps. In the second layer, you can also have your Startnet Snaps. So, in fact, Snaps are very powerful because today our ecosystem or different ecosystems in general are building very specific tools for those users, and I think we need more interoperability and permissionless innovation. This is the only way we can scale, and we can provide more tools to attract billions of users.

BlockBeats: Aside from ecosystem grants, what other benefits will builders in the wallet space receive in the future?

Francesco Andreoli: From the builder’s perspective, this is a very interesting question. In the past 18 months, Snaps could basically be used on the developer versions of Metamask or Flask because there are so many resources, and we never thought we would see so many different use cases and functionalities. And for most people, they are not just Snap developers, they are actually more like third-party companies, partners, and individual developers building these features.

We always see different resources and support provided to them. For example, at real-life events such as hackathons or conferences, you will see these developers building these Snaps, and we encourage them to submit their Snaps and proposals to the Metamask Grants DAO. We also invite them to showcase their Snaps on this builder consensus community platform, just like having conversations with those builders. We also encourage them to create specific developer content around our consensus blog, so there are different exposure mechanisms. Metamask Grants DAO is an important part of this because many times when you want to take your product or Snap to the next level, you would want to continue expanding its functionality.

BlockBeats: Speaking of Grants DAO, I also want to understand their decision-making process, who votes and decides which projects to fund, and who makes these decisions and carries out these operations.

Francesco Andreoli: Yes, I would like to introduce Mitterman’s Grants DAO. Firstly, projects after hackathons, either need a bridge or more support before they can obtain venture capital. We want to provide more positive support, so we established this Metamask Grants DAO, which is a DAO with a quarterly budget of 2.6 million dollars. An interesting point is that it is an employee-led DAO. This means that all decisions made in the DAO and due diligence are carried out by employees.

Therefore, we have established an internal system that allows us to vote and push proposals to the next round. This is how MetaMask Grants DAO operates. We also provide assistance in many ways, such as setting up proposals and providing different templates. In addition, we are currently launching a comprehensive accelerator program called Fellowship, which can take products to new heights. We also have different entrepreneurial packages that you can apply for, as well as various initiatives.

I also encourage all independent developers who want to build Snaps to pay attention to our recently launched ambassador program, where we provide you with a platform to build and expand the influence of all your outstanding Snaps.

BlockBeats: Will EIP-4337 and account abstraction significantly change the functionality of MetaMask?

Francesco Andreoli: Yes, we are very optimistic about the topic of account abstraction. We believe it is a great way to attract more users. Currently, we hope to achieve this goal by allowing Snaps developers to build use cases for account destruction. In the past 18 months, we have seen different interesting use cases, such as account recovery, NPC, sponsored transactions, etc., and it is very interesting to see these use cases being activated. We believe that by focusing on account destruction Snaps, there will be more user-friendly features in the future to attract more end users.

BlockBeats: Finally, is there anything you would like to say to Chinese developers?

Francesco Andreoli: Ultimately, we hope to strengthen the focus and personalized experience of end users in the process of Web 3.0 onboarding. I think this is also a very important part of our vision, which is that we see different user needs, heavy DeFi users, heavy NFT users, users who care about privacy-related transactions, etc. So I think customized journeys will be a very important challenge, and I believe that Snaps definitely has the ability to win this challenge. In addition, I also believe that Snaps can be built by third-party developers, which means that we are truly achieving the permissionless innovation we are talking about.

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