Mask Network:the bridge connecting Web2 platforms with Web3 principles

GoPlus Security
9 min readDec 19, 2022

Web3 represents the next generation of the internet, one that focuses on shifting power from big tech companies to individual users. It could bring endless possibilities for new value creation.The other side of the coin is that the paradigm shift comes at the cost of completely different UI/UX, a steep learning-curve and potential security risks, and more. That all makes for a very tricky onboarding process. It feels so uncomfortable for Web2 users pivoting/veering into Web3 when it comes to user experience, especially for a new user.

Mask Network hopes to make cryptocurrencies and NFT assets become a fact of daily life instead of appearing in the media headline’s narrative. Mask Network realized it by bridging Web2 and Web3, because there is no easier entry than the social network platforms that people use on a daily basis.

With Mask Network’s extension, you can send encrypted posts to your friends, participate in cryptocurrency lucky-draws, hold NFTs in your wallet, invest in crypto assets and share encrypted files in a secure way on the platforms you are already using.

In short, Mask Network wants to bridge the New, Open Internet right on top of the current one. By doing this, Mask Network aims to bridge Web2 (the current web) and so-called Web3, to empower the general public to use the better web within the current mainstream platforms, without using any API or centralized server.

Take Twitter as an example. After installing the extension, on the left sidebar of Twitter, you can see two new buttons, Mask Network and MetaMask Wallet. The former one is a Web3 toolbox embedded in Twitter, which aggregates all the Web3 applications currently provided by Mask Network, while the latter one is a wallet named MetaMask that is embedded in Twitter. You can switch to WalletConnect and Fortmatic Wallet as well. Wallets are crucial if you want to get involved in trading cryptocurrency or other digital assets.

How could Mask Network leverage the magic of Web3 on Web2 platforms like Twitter via its killer extension? Let’s dive in.

Encrypt Messages For Friends’ Eyes Only

Mask Network allows you to send encrypted messages over Twitter and Facebook. Only users who have installed the Mask Network widget could decrypt the message and read it. You could also send the encrypted message and allow only your target audience to see it.

Decentralized storage

Mask Network allows you to send files to their friends via Twitter and Facebook and all these files could be stored on the decentralized storage solutions like Arweave, IPFS and Swarm. This makes it possible for users to publish content without sharing them with the platform giants, providing a way for privacy control and anti-censorship,like securing identity privacy and protecting sensitive data.

Take the following use case as an example, you can choose which file service they want to upload files to, and then see the file as encrypted text.

Swap crypto assets directly on social platforms

Mask Network allows you to directly view the real-time prices on Twitter, and swap assets via dex or aggregation platforms like Uniswap, 0x without having to leave the page.

It will automatically pop up whenever your mouse hovers on a “$+ticker” like $ETH or $UNI, showing the latest prices of these assets from CoinGecko. you then could click “Swap” on Twitter and get instant access to trading like they do on Sushi/Uniswap/0x.

Mask has integrated 11 public blockchains including ETH, BSC, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain (BSC),Arbitrum and more, which means the pop-up trading widget supports all the crypto assets issued on those 11 public blockchains.

Shop NFTs at Social Marketplaces

Buy and sell NFTs directly from social media platforms. Powered by OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces. It will automatically pop up whenever your mouse hovers on a “$+NFT ticker” like $INVSBLE3D, showing the latest data of the given NFT like market overview, floor price,volumes and more. And you can get instant access to trade NFTs on Twitter, like purchase and bid for NFTs.

Verify NFT Avatars

NFT as an avatar could build one’s own identity, served as a form of self-expression, and represents belonging to a culture and a community.

Mask Network verifies your Twitter profile picture using on-chain data. After installing the Mask Network widget, the NFT avatar button will appear. After connecting YOUR wallet with MASK ID, NFTs in your wallet could be set up as your Twitter avatar, along with a MASK-styled verified badge.

Invest in crypto right on Twitter

ITOs (Initial Twitter Offerings) is a proprietary IDO mechanism invented by Mask Network, which allows any Twitter user to buy crypto without leaving Twitter.

It’s very user-friendly for new users to participate in such an ITO mechanism. You only need to install the Mask widget,connect with your Twitter account and then create an identity profile which would come up with a newly generated Ethereum wallet address. of course you could import your existing wallet.

Gift tokens/NFTs to your friends

Mask Network’s Lucky Drop enables you to gift people with a variety of ERC-20 tokens through Twitter or Facebook, choosing from two options, split the Lucky Drop evenly(Average) or randomly, attached with a text message. Vitalik Buterin also sent his 1st ETH give-away red packets using Mask Network.

It supports ETH, BNB Chain and Polygon and the ERC-20 tokens could be replaced by NFTs, which could be wrapped as a gift sending to any user.

Vitalik Buterin sending red packets via Mask Network

Create Your Own Web 3 Profile on Twitter

Using the Mask Network widget, you can customize your own Twitter Web 3 profile on Twitter. With the Mask Network widget installed, you can check which NFTs you own in your wallet and curate them as a NFT gallery on your Twitter homepage. It also displays the history of donations and footprints.

Address security concerns and reduce the risk of financial loss

Web3 is still in its infancy. Like any new emerging technology, the nascent crypto industry has often been compared to a digital “Wild West” — a lawless place where there are so many creative hacks, phishing scams and other attacks out there,which likely leads to millions of dollars in losses.

Part of the reason why retail and institutional clients have less propensity to enter into the space is because of such incidents and situations creating elevated risk levels. Security issues matter more in Web3 than in Web2 since security risks are more about assets in Web3. Once a hack happens, it likely leads to millions of dollars in losses. And in the context of such a decentralized space, there is no recourse for any loss from such transactions. So Web3 security must be more proactive and prevention-oriented than Web2 security.

Mask Network offers a user-friendly way to access the world of DeFi and Web 3.0. In addition, it aims to address security concerns and reduce the risk of financial loss by integrating with the security API service powered by GoPlus.

When swapping crypto tokens with Mask Swap, an instant detection for security that would auto-detect tokens will be triggered. This service would identify risks and assess its risk levels around the tokens on its basic information, contract security, trading security, and information security . Once the token is detected with a security risk, the user will be informed with detailed risks info.

Token swap would auto-check the risk of security for the token. In addition,you can also go to the Check Security tab to manually check the security for a given token.

The powerful token security detection service of Mask Network is supported by the Token security API provided by GoPlus, which would detect the risks of security for the token, checking over 30 safety indicators from contract code, transaction security to info security, including but not limited to: whether the contract is open sourced, whether it is mintable, whether there is any risks of security associated with the owner address, the amount of token holders, LP info, the percentage of buy/sell tax, whether it is honeypot and more.

Taking the above token $SENSHI as an example, two security risks are detected during the transaction, sell tax and honeypot.

Slippage (be akin to a tax) is the percentage of variance between any transactions asked for price and the actual price at the transaction’s completion. As usual, above 10% is considered to be a high slippage, and a tax rate above 50% means that transactions may not be executed. In the above example of $SENSHI, the sell tax is as high as 100%, far more than a normal one. Another concern on the security is the transfer could be pausable, which is a honeypot. If the token’s contract contains code that suspends transfer,the token may not be bought and sold.

GoPlus Malicious Address API

GoPlus Security Engine has integrated several public blockchains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, HECO、Arbitrum、Avalanche and etc. Aggregating data sources from multiple security companies including SlowMist and BlockSec, GoPlus takes a leading spot in the market in terms of public blockchain compatibility(Supported public chains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, HECO、Arbitrum、Avalanche, etc.), token standards supported(ERC 20,ERC 721 and ERC 1155 supported), library pattern diversity(data sources from multiple security companies which provided different type of code analysis patterns ), sync-up speed(maintain a library to keep up with the emerging honeypot tokens related addresses in the market) and coverage(the library has accumulated more than 100,000 of black addresses now , and it keeps up adding newly ones).

GoPlus NFT Security API

GoPlus NFT security API dominates the security market with full coverage of NFT projects(more than 160M) and the most verified NFTs ( more than 4M+ verified NFTs have been indexed so far).

In the context of more and more sneaky traps especially the innovative NFT honeypots and many more fake name NFT scams, GoPlus goes for NFT security detection on the over 20 security checkboxes in the contract level from whether it is open sourced, whether there is an agent, whether there is malicious behavior, whether there is a blacklist doubt, preventing users from getting scammed.

GoPlus Approval Security API:

GoPlus has released version 1 of Approval Security API, which would auto-detect the contracts that are requesting approval when users are doing Approval for a dApp in dex and browsers. Once any potential risks are detected, an alert with a red flag mark would be displayed, informing that NEVER click the confirm button.

The version 2 of Approval Security API would check the approval activities of a given wallet address in the past and auto-check if there are potential risks of security for the contracts you ever approved whatever it is ERC20,ERC721 NFT or ERC1155 standard.

Approval Security API V2 checks the risk of security for a contract that requests approval from the basic info, main security and the contract info around the token. An alert with a red flag mark would appear once any of the potential risks are detected.

Serving as the Web3 security infrastructure, GoPlus supports for all these assets issued on blockchains including Ethereum, BNB Chain, AVALANCHE, Polygon, and Harmony, which means that once any apps on those blockchains integrate the API services provided by GoPlus, they could provide security detection for their users on the tokens security, malicious addresses, NFT security and approval Security.

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GoPlus Security

Empowering a #SaferWeb3 with user-driven, open access security solutions. Championing user education for a fortified front against adversaries.