Arweave Ecosystem Tour Guide: ECHO - A Decentralised Yelp
💡 Arweave is the infrastructure that undertakes the important mission in terms of permanently storing the crystallisation of human wisdom. With the increasing development of Web3, Arweave being an infrastructure will be applied by more developers to create a brand new and more diversified ecosystem. Based on this background, PermaDAO is established by a community of some co builders. All of the participants can find their own roles here to contribute to the Arweave ecosystem. Any proposals and tasks about Arweave can be published here along with support and feedback from the whole community. Join PermaDAO and build Web3!
Table of Contents
1. "What is ECHO?”
ECHO is a decentralised social interaction protocol based on Arweave, aiming to provide infrastructure for Web3 social networking. ECHO can be embedded into any website through its widget, allowing users to freely express their opinions in a decentralised, permissionless, and censorship-resistant environment, as reflected in ECHO's slogan "Long live our opinion".
ECHO participated in the first hackathon event initiated by PermaDAO (Arweave ecosystem co-building DAO) and won the second place and Mask community award. Additionally, ECHO is also one of the core projects incubated and serviced by PermaDAO. ECHO has also been nominated for GitCoin GR15 and can receive donations from users.
Functions
Currently, ECHO mainly supports four major functions: commenting, liking, disliking, and tipping. In the future, ECHO plans to launch functions such as message push and content management platform.
Main features
Multi-chain login, tipping, and DID: ECHO supports MetaMask (EVM chain), Arconnect (Arweave), and Phantom (Solana), and will support most of the major chains in the future. In addition, all ECHO-related data is permanently stored on Arweave and bound to on-chain addresses, supporting reverse resolution of ENS and .bit.
Decentralisation, permanent storage: The decentralisation of the ECHO protocol includes login, data, and front-end. Wallet login supports data signing and uploading without front-end. Data decentralisation is implemented by Arweave, and ECHO provides multiple gateway nodes to support the synchronisation of effective data. The front-end page is deployed to IPFS, and the code for major versions is saved on Arweave. In addition, all data stored on Arweave has achieved permanent storage, which can resist censorship and ensure that data cannot be deleted or modified.
Opinion aggregation: ECHO uses target_uri to identify the comment object. It has designed a set of URL schemas to identify different objects. Regardless of which website or application a user comments on the same object (such as an NFT), as long as the target_uri is the same, their corresponding comments will all be displayed.
Plug-and-play: In theory, ECHO can be integrated by all DApps without a license, and all websites can currently embed the Iframe supported by ECHO. In other words, it is easy to use and plug-and-play.
Free: Each user has a daily free quota of 200 times.
Team and partners
Currently, the ECHO team consists of three people, including Reffo (Co-founder & CEO), Airyland (Co-founder & CTO), and Joanne (Front-end Developer & Designer). Among them, Reffo has worked in the real estate technology industry in New York and was responsible for the development of real estate digital products SaaS. In addition, he has three years of entrepreneurial experience. Airyland is an experienced full-stack engineer and also the creator of VUX, with 17,000 stars on GitHub.
ECHO has established partnerships with companies and products such as Arweave, everPay, Mirror, Planet, Mail3, and Permafacts.
Official links"
Email：gm@0xecho.com
Github：https://github.com/0x-echo
Mirror：https://mirror.xyz/0x-echo.eth
Twitter：https://twitter.com/0x_ECHO
2. Why do we need ECHO?
Mainstreaming and flooding of voices
Most people would agree that Twitter is an excellent social media product, where everyone can express their opinions up to a certain extent. However, in this public opinion field, the stage revolves around KOLs. The voices of ordinary people are usually marginalized and difficult to resonate, and many valuable voices are drowned or disappear in the sea of speech.
ECHO team firmly believes that everyone's voice should be heard and deeply understands the importance of recording and preserving opinions, just like ECHO's slogan - Long live our opinion. Therefore, the ECHO team is committed to creating suitable tools to achieve this goal.
Blank in comment function
When you focus on many Web3 social or content creation products today, such as Mirror, which is the most popular on content creation platforms, there is a regrettable reality: lack of comment or interaction functions. Although these platforms provide us with a free creative space, people have a strong demand for comments when inspiration strikes, and the inability to express this feeling in real-time can be frustrating. At the same time, the lack of comment function also means losing the opportunity for two-way interactive communication, which may also hinder the social and development of the platform.
ECHO's appearance fills this market pain point. As a decentralised social interaction protocol, ECHO provides a Widget that can be embedded on any website to achieve comments and other functions. ECHO allows users to freely express their opinions in a decentralised, permissionless, and uncensored environment, while also providing a more authentic and useful feedback mechanism for content creators and projects.
Centralisation of data
The most criticised aspect of Web2 social media is the centralised storage and management of data, where user data and content are usually stored on the platform's servers, which are owned and controlled by the platform. This centralised data management method not only has the risk of data security and privacy breaches but also easily leads to the platform's abuse of user data and market monopolies.
ECHO uses Arweave technology, which not only ensures that data is permanently stored on the Arweave network but also ensures data decentralisation. This effectively avoids the risk of a single centralised organisation monopolising user data and content, while also preventing them from arbitrarily modifying or deleting user data, thus better protecting user rights and making users the owners of data.
Social isolation caused by data islands
In Web2 social media, it is difficult for data to flow and share between different platforms, forming data islands. At the same time, data islands also lead to very low social mobility in Web2, putting users in a state of social isolation, making it difficult for them to share and transmit their social activities and content between different platforms.
ECHO provides a social solution for multi-chain, multi-platform, and multidisciplinary social aggregation, which stimulates social mobility in an aggregated way, solving the current social isolation problem in Web3. ECHO supports multi-chain wallets, Twitter accounts, Google email logins, and supports embedding on any website, aggregating and displaying user comments on the same object across different websites and applications, greatly breaking the limitations of data islands and enhancing the mobility of social activities.
3. ECHO Tool Components
Widget
A Widget is a small application or tool that can be embedded into a website or application, usually used to provide specific functions or services. ECHO's Widget is customisable, and we can embed it into a website or application in various ways, allowing us to use ECHO's functions through the Widget. If users embed the Widget using an iframe, they can refer to the relevant information about ECHO's official domain and query parameters in the documentation.
Users can use their own developed websites or supported websites to use ECHO by actively embedding the Widget. However, if using other platforms or applications, the function and service can only be used if ECHO has already been integrated. Even for websites or applications that have integrated ECHO, their integration methods may not be the same. Therefore, whether a website has integrated ECHO and its integration method have different levels of convenience for users when using the product:
Permafacts (on-chain prediction platform) has embedded ECHO's Widget, and users can use it directly.
Platforms such as Opensea, LooksRare, and X2Y2 require the installation of ECHO's Chrome extension to display the Widget.
After installing ECHO's Chrome extension, Mirror can use ECHO by embedding the Widget with one click.
Notion has not yet integrated with ECHO, but supports manual embedding of the Widget, which can be used after embedding.
💡 The fifth part of the article provides specific examples of how to use ECHO on the above websites and applications.
After the user or developer embeds the Widget into the web page, they can use ECHO to interact with visitors:
Through ECHO, visitors can leave their feedback, ask questions, and share their opinions."
"Through ECHO, we can increase visitor engagement and collect their feedback (likes).
ECHO provides a simple and intuitive interface and tools that allow visitors to easily provide sponsorship and donations.
ECHO Like Button
Users can embed the sleek and stylish ECHO Like Button into their web pages, allowing visitors to like content and enhance visitor engagement and interaction. ECHO provides its JavaScript library for this purpose, and specific details can be found in the documentation.
The ECHO Like Button provides a simple and effective way for visitors to express their appreciation for content, with just one click. This not only encourages more engagement and interaction, but it also provides valuable feedback to content creators about what resonates with their audience.
Like all ECHO tools, the Like Button is designed with ECHO's decentralised architecture, ensuring that all likes are recorded and stored permanently on the Arweave network, making it impossible to manipulate or censor data. This provides a more transparent and trustworthy feedback mechanism for both content creators and visitors.
ECHO Google Chrome Extension
ECHO's Google Chrome extension is an "embedded plugin" designed to embed ECHO's Widget directly onto web pages, allowing users to use the product's features directly on the web page.
Therefore, when users install the ECHO extension on their Google Chrome browser, the Widget is automatically embedded on websites like Opensea, LooksRare, X2Y2, and more, allowing users to use ECHO directly. When accessing Mirror, users can also embed the Widget with just one click, making it very convenient.
4. Exploration of Application Scenarios
Content Creation
Comments are an important part of content creation, reflecting readers' views on articles, news, or user-generated content (UGC), providing community feedback and interaction, and forming diverse opinions. ECHO can provide a better interactive experience for this scenario, allowing users to comment, like or dislike, and reward creative content. At the same time, ECHO is also decentralised, creating a free environment for users to comment and interact, and storing all comment data permanently on Arweave, ensuring that users' speech is not tampered with or deleted, protecting users' rights and interests.
On-chain Activities
In terms of on-chain activities, ECHO can provide a better mechanism for opinion solicitation and collection for on-chain transactions, governance, and voting activities. Users can express their opinions and ideas through ECHO, and can also see other users' opinions and ideas, which helps everyone to refer to and analyze. In another sense, ECHO also records the thoughts and decision-making process of community members, which is also convenient for future tracing and reference. In addition, ECHO is decentralised, which means that it is not controlled or reviewed by any centralized institution, ensuring the fairness and transparency of activities.
NFTs
NFTs come in many different forms and values, all of which are linked to creation and art, and comments are also very important. ECHO has developed a url schema to identify different objects, allowing users to comment on the same object (such as the same NFT) on different websites or applications, as long as the target URL is the same, the corresponding comments will all be displayed. Interestingly, the comment data for these NFTs will be stored permanently on Arweave, which is equivalent to ECHO recording the history of each individual NFT, giving NFTs cultural and historical added value. In addition, the comment data for NFTs provides valuable information for collectors and the public, providing better decision-making basis for future buyers.
5. How to Use ECHO?
To use ECHO, the Widget of ECHO must already be embedded in the website or application. After successful embedding, log in with a wallet (supporting multiple chains), Twitter account, or Google email, and you can start using ECHO.
If you are a developer, you can embed the code of the Widget on your own website. If you are just a regular user and want to use ECHO while using other websites, there are two ways - passive and active:
Passive: Use platforms that have already integrated ECHO (with the Widget embedded inside).
Active: Use platforms that do not have ECHO integrated but support embedding the Widget on the editing page (get the code and embed the Widget manually).
💡 The following are some examples of platforms that have integrated ECHO (with different integration methods and different convenience of use):
Permafacts (an on-chain prediction platform) has already embedded ECHO and can be used directly.
Platforms like Opensea, LooksRare, X2Y2 require the installation of the ECHO Google Chrome extension and can be used directly.
Mirror, after installing the ECHO Google Chrome extension, can embed the Widget with just one click before using ECHO.
Using ECHO on Permafacts
After entering Permafacts, ECHO is already embedded in the website, under the "Comments" section as shown in the figure below."
Using ECHO on Opensea, LooksRare, X2Y2
After installing the ECHO Google Chrome extension, ECHO can be used on any NFT page on these platforms."
Using ECHO on Mirror
First, install the ECHO Google Chrome extension. After installation, enter Mirror. When your article is in editing mode, you will find a small blue dot in the upper right corner of "Comments".
Click on "Comments" to set up ECHO's features, themes, etc. Then click on "Insert ECHO" and ECHO will be successfully embedded. (If you choose the "Tip" feature, be sure to fill in the receiver's wallet address.)
Then you will see a piece of code, place it at the end of your article, and click on "Publish".
"Congratulations! You have successfully embedded ECHO into your Mirror article! Anyone can interact with you here, commenting, liking, and tipping your article.”
Here is an example of a platform (Notion) that has not integrated ECHO yet:**
You need to manually set up and embed the Widget to use ECHO, which takes only 30 seconds.
Using ECHO on Notion
First, install the ECHO Google Chrome extension. After installation, enter the ECHO official website, and click on "Get My Widget"
Next, start setting the style and features of the Widget:
Select "URL" for Target URI Type;
Fill in "Your Notion link" for Target URI;
Choose at least one feature in the Modules (if you choose the "Tip" feature, you need to fill in the wallet address or .eth or .bit);
Choose a theme style you like in the Theme;
Description is an optional field.
After completing the settings, click on "Generate".
The embedding code of the Widget has been generated, select it all and copy it.
Go back to your Notion page, type "/embed" in the text, and press Enter.
Then paste the embedding code of the Widget and click on "Embed link".
Congratulations! You have successfully embedded the ECHO Widget into your Notion page. Share this page and anyone can interact with you through ECHO!
In the future, more and more platforms or applications will integrate ECHO. Stay tuned!
References
2、/0x-echo.eth/Q2sv4KQAEDczP7SqwBy4JJ9e0AnaSSFmsquXagmviRM
3、/watch?v=5lIiYr-lAzI&list=PLxwPZQnupYsqHo2X2qA9d3gjR7CrTkvXW&index=2
Translator: ChatGPT @ Contributor of PermaDAO
Reviewer: Xiaosong HU @ Contributor of PermaDAO
Author: Kyle @ Contributor of PermaDAO
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