A Deep Dive into Masa

Last week, we announced the Masa Community Sale, taking place March 7, 2024 at 16:00 UTC.

Masa is the world’s largest decentralized personal data network, shifting the power of data back to users.

We sat down with the Masa team to learn more about the real world problem they solve, how they address scalability challenges, MASA token utility and growth strategy, the blockchain data segment more broadly, and novel data monetization strategies and incentives.  

Let’s dive in.

1. What is the Masa Network and what problems does it solve?

Masa Network is the world’s personal data network, empowering users to own, share, and earn from their data.

Today’s personal data — from browsing history to Twitter messages — is locked up in walled gardens controlled by big tech. Your personal data is resold without your consent or compensation. This data landgrab is accelerated by the proliferation of AI, as personal data is consumed in vast amounts to train AI models and agents.

With Masa, your data pays you. Anyone with an internet connection will be able to contribute their data and earn passive rewards. Users decide what data to share and with whom. Developers utilize Masa Network’s data to build innovative apps, train AI agents and models, power decentralized advertising, and more. This is all done privately and securely with Masa's invention of Zero-Knowledge Soulbound Tokens (zkSBTs).

2. What are the inherent use cases of the MASA token?

At our core, Masa is building a new data economy to shift the power of data back to users. MASA, the native utility token of the Masa Network, is designed to fuel the data supply and demand.

In our data market, users earn MASA rewards when their data is used. Businesses and developers pay fees to access data and services on the Masa Network. Fees are collected in MASA, stablecoins, and other blockchain-native tokens, then converted to MASA. MASA tokens are distributed to the users who supply the data, node operators who operate the Masa Oracle, and the foundation treasury for ecosystem growth.

The MASA token creates a complete data economy flywheel. MASA is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and other EVM chains, as well as a native gas token on the Masa Avalanche Subnet.

Outlined below are the core utilities of the MASA token:

• Incentivizing data supply: Masa incentivizes users for contributing personal data to the Masa Network. Users earn passive rewards in MASA when their data is used by businesses and developers.
• Paying for data use: Businesses and developers pay fees to access and utilize the data, products, and services on the Masa network. Fees can be paid in MASA tokens, stablecoins, and other blockchain-native tokens. All non-MASA-denominated fees are subsequently swapped to MASA tokens, with a portion burned.
• Managing personal data: Users pay MASA gas fees on the Masa Avalanche Subnet to mint and manage their zkSBT, an encrypted personal data locker, with a portion of gas fees burned.
• Rewarding node operators: Masa Oracle node operators stake MASA to operate Masa’s zk-oracle nodes. Node operators receive staking rewards for the first two years of oracle operation. Staked tokens are locked for a vesting period.
• Governing the network: MASA holders can participate in network governance, voting on proposals like technical upgrades, fee structures, and others.
  

3. How does Masa ensure that users have full ownership and control over their personal data when contributing to the network?

Masa’s secret weapon is our invention of Zero-Knowledge Soulbound Tokens (zkSBT): think of it as your encrypted “personal data locker”. Within zkSBTs, you can actively or passively store your digital footprint across the web and activities across blockchains.

What’s brilliant about zkSBTs is that a developer can request data from you, which can be verified without ever revealing the underlying raw data. For example, if a developer is requesting you to confirm you are above the age of 21, Masa only needs to provide a "yes" or "no" zero-knowledge proof without revealing your raw Date of Birth data to the developer.

Masa’s zkSBT invention was debuted and published at the 2023 7th Cyber Security in Networking Conference. Our pioneering implementation of zero-knowledge proofs and fully-homomorphic encryption preserves full data privacy. You can earn rewards by securely sharing your data anonymously, while developers and AI models benefit from building on privacy-first data.

4. With over 1.2 million user wallets and 30 million proprietary data points, how does Masa address scalability challenges, especially considering the increasing demand for decentralized applications?

In December 2023, Masa announced that we are building the Masa Network on a dedicated Avalanche Subnet. By deploying core data points and data access contracts on a dedicated Masa Avalanche Subnet, Masa optimizes for horizontal scaling and throughput on a dedicated app chain, where Masa is the dedicated gas token with its own economic policy. Over time we will scale into Avalanches Hyper SDK as the state of the Masa Subnet exponentially grows. The Masa-Avalanche infrastructure can scale to handle billions of data points at any point in time.

5. You note partnerships with Web3 projects like Polygon, zkSync, QuickSwap, Injective, and Celo. What do these partnerships unlock for Masa and what other use cases are you most excited about?

As we are building a new data economy, the proprietary data volume in our network is our north star. Our partners play a critical role in both contributing and utilizing data in the Masa Network. Since launching in August 2022, Masa Network has rapidly amassed over 1.2M unique wallets actively contributing over 30M proprietary data points. Our goal is to cover over 50% of all web3 users’ personal data in 3 years — we can only achieve this through partnering with the largest user ecosystems in web3.  

Big Tech giants like Google get access to vast amounts of user data because they have popular applications and services like Gmail, Chrome, Search, Maps, etc. In the Masa ecosystem, we build killer applications and products to quickly amass data, too. Users and partners, like Polygon, zkSync and QuickSwap, permission data into Masa's network in exchange for user analytics and actionable data insights, all the while without compromising data privacy.

For new products: we’ve been incubating our AI products in the background, and cannot wait to introduce it to the world. The idea is to use privacy-first personal data in the Masa Network to train AI agents and AI models for highly personalized user experiences. Stay tuned!

6. What security measures are in place to safeguard both user data and the integrity of the Masa Network, especially in the context of potential cyber threats and attacks?

Masa established infrastructure audits and smart contract audits with industry-leading firms, and leverages bug bounties to secure infrastructure, smart contracts, and core protocol logic. Subnet validation nodes run on proprietary hardware with enhanced monitoring and DDoS protection operated in partnership with Avalanche. Masa implements cutting-edge zero-knowledge proofs and encryption at rest to preserve data privacy and prevent exposure of raw user data. Access control to data allows authorized data access per user consent.

7. Can you share any innovative approaches or models that Masa encourages for users to monetize their data beyond passive rewards, and how does this contribute to a more dynamic data economy?

At Masa, we coined a new concept called “personal data staking.” Token staking is well understood by the web3 community. For the first time, personal data staking lets you profit from your digital footprint.

Masa enables every internet user to seamlessly own, share, and earn from their data, even without a web3 wallet. We securely and passively collect your data through the Masa App, the upcoming Masa Chrome Browser Extension, and our Partner ecosystem. When Masa Mainnet goes live in April, you can visit our app (app.masa.finance) to view your digital footprint in one place. Just as crypto staking earns yield, you can stake your personal data to earn rewards. You can either actively stake select personal data into a staking pool, or choose to auto-stake your data by delegating it to the Masa Oracle Network; the Masa Oracle Network will then optimize yield for your personal data staking in the background.

You can stake and unstake your data anytime, while fully remaining in control of your encrypted personal data locker (zkSBT).

8. What are your thoughts on the current state of the blockchain data segment, and how do you see this sector evolving over time?

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) is pushing the blockchain data segment into the limelight.

AI is radically changing the world before our eyes at an exponential rate that no one can yet comprehend. We foresee a world where AI will know you better than you know themselves, predicting your needs, and desires and offering hyper-personalized experiences.

The exponential growth of AI relies on access to vast quantities of high-quality and granular personal data to train ever-more complex models. However, this creates a privacy paradox – where will this data come from, who owns it, where is it stored, and how will rights be protected?

As AI progresses, blockchain provides solutions like zero-knowledge proofs for data verification, decentralized data storage, and decentralized oracles to process data at scale. Vitalik outlines the opportunities in decentralizing AI and increasing AI safety using the benefits of the blockchain in his latest paper “The Promises and Challenges of Crypto + AI.”

At Masa, we are completely aligned with Vitalik’s vision for the future of AI x Blockchain data. We are well positioned to become the leading supplier of privacy-first data to power the next generation of AI models and AI agents.

9. What is the best way to get involved in the Masa community?

Masa has built one of the most inclusive communities in web3, and we’d love for you to join. You can get involved in the following ways:

• Join our thriving community: You can join more than 300,000 global web3 users in Masa’s active Twitter, Discord and Telegram channels and subscribe to our weekly newsletter on our website. Every Friday, you can tune into our Masa Weekly Drop Twitter Spaces for the latest and greatest.
• Participate in the Masa Data Market: When Masa Mainnet goes live in April, you can visit our app (app.masa.finance) to view your digital footprint in one place for the first time. If you choose, you can stake your data in our open data market to earn rewards, in exchange for anonymously sharing your data.
• Build Innovative Apps and Train AI Models Using Masa’s zk-Data: You can build groundbreaking privacy-preserving applications powered by the world's largest decentralized personal data network. Sample use cases include: train cutting-edge AI models, build hyper-personalized experiences, enhance decentralized reputation scoring. Learn more at masa.finance/developers.
• Run Nodes on Masa’s zk-Oracle: Masa has attracted over 40,000 testnet node operators. Join our Discord node operator community to learn more about our upcoming incentivized testnet launch.

Legal Disclaimer

Not available for residents of the United States, China, Canada, South Korea, and certain other jurisdictions.

This post is being distributed by CoinList Global Services, Ltd., dba “CoinList,” or one of its subsidiaries. Use of the CoinList website is subject to certain disclosures, restrictions and risks available here.

The content in this post shall not constitute or be construed as an offering of securities or as investment advice, tax advice or investment recommendations (i.e., recommendations as to whether to enter or not to enter into any transaction involving any specific interest or interests) by CoinList or any of its affiliates.