MyETHMeta: Your Web3 Profile, and Much More

MyETHMeta is a simple profile service. It can most closely be compared to Gravatar or a Google account. From a technical perspective, it is a simple smart contract that allows us to associate a URL with an Ethereum address used as an account, which points to a standard JSON. The account can be either an EOA (Externally Owned Account) or a smart account (smart contract).

There are other existing solutions for associating metadata with an Ethereum account. For example, with ENS, it is possible to add metadata records, such as a Twitter account, etc. The advantage of MyETHMeta is that it is very simple and very cheap. The smart contract runs on the Gnosis chain, so writing a URL costs only a fraction of a cent, and this is a one-time fee. There are no recurring fees, and modifications can be made in the JSON file accessible via the URL. In contrast, with ENS, the data is stored on the blockchain, so data modifications require paying a gas fee.

The JSON file itself can be hosted on a traditional Web2 service provider, or we can use decentralized storage like IPFS or Swarm. Since both cases allow for mutable storage (using IPNS with IPFS or Swarm feeds with Swarm), there is no need to pay gas fees for modifications in this case either.

The structure of the MyETHMeta smart contract is very simple. The URL associated with an Ethereum address can be queried using the getMetaURI(address ethAddress) method.

For modifications, the setMetaURI(string memory uri) method can be used, which assigns the specified URL to the Ethereum address calling the method.

Although Gnosis fees are extremely low, many users still face challenges in funding their accounts with xDAI. However, by using EIP-712 meta-transactions, a profile provider can cover this cost, significantly improving the user experience. For users who can install MetaMask (or any other wallet), creating a MyETHMeta profile through a profile provider becomes a simple process.

The smart contract supports this functionality through the setMetaURIMetaTX method.

The schema used to describe metadata is based on portable contacts, similar to Gravatar. Since the portable contacts standard is now deprecated, the JSON schema found in the myethmeta-json-specification repository serves as the official specification. In the future, we plan to expand this schema with additional elements.

If you want to create your own MyETHMeta profile, you can easily do so on the project’s website. By filling out a simple form, the site will generate a JSON file for you, which you can host on IPFS, Swarm, or any Web2 service provider. For example, I made my JSON profile accessible on GitHub using GitHub Pages. Once you have the URL of the JSON file, you need to register it on the Gnosis chain via the smart contract, and you’re all set. You can verify your profile at https://myethmeta.github.io/#{your Ethereum address}.

Currently, MyETHMeta is a very basic service, but we have a few plans for the future that will show the true power of this protocol:

Profile Hosting: Our aim is to make MyETHMeta accessible to everyone, even to those without cryptocurrency or any blockchain knowledge. To accomplish this, we plan to launch a straightforward profile hosting service. This will allow anyone to easily create and publish their own profile for free, requiring nothing more than an Ethereum wallet.

Censorship-Free Social Networks: There are several distributed or decentralized protocols that can serve as the foundation for censorship-free social networks. The two most well-known are ActivityPub (Mastodon) and the ATProtocol (BlueSky). In both cases, the starting point for connections is the profile, which is based on a domain name. For ActivityPub, the user identifier takes the [email protected], while for ATProtocol, it is a domain name. However, both face the issue that the domain name system is centralized, making fully censorship-free operation impossible, as domain names can be restricted at any time.

In the future, profile information (such as the inbox/outbox URL for ActivityPub or the pub key and PDS URL for ATProtocol) could be made accessible via MyETHMeta JSON. With minimal extensions to these protocols, it would become possible for people to connect with each other using an Ethereum address or ENS name. This would ensure a completely censorship-resistant system.

My article about how ActivityPub works, and how it could be decentralized:

Decentralized ActivityPub Could Be the Future of Social Networks

Social Account Verification and Unique Humanness: A fundamental goal of MyETHMeta is to build trust between people. It aims to make an Ethereum address a genuine identifier for individuals, allowing us to know with absolute certainty who we are interacting with. Trust is essential and serves as the foundation for countless other services, such as decentralized Airbnb, Uber, matchmaking systems, universal basic income, and more.

To support this, MyETHMeta will, in the future, provide options for users to validate their social accounts (similar to passport.xyz) and prove their uniqueness and humanity through third-party services (e.g., Proof of Unique Human or WorldID). These proofs will appear on profiles in the form of badges.

Solutions like WorldID, which is based on biometric identification, offer strong evidence of a profile’s authenticity. This level of verification can even serve as the basis for financial services, such as microcredit systems, etc.

My article about how WorldID works:

What are Sam Altman’s WorldCoin and WorldID?

Trust-Based Currency Support: I’ve written several articles about the concept of Karma currency, a trust-based monetary system. The most critical aspect of such a system is ensuring that each individual has only one account and that users can establish mutual trust. A profile system like MyETHMeta is perfectly suited for this purpose, as it provides multiple ways to prove uniqueness and foster trust between users.

The MyETHMeta profile could include a Karma balance and enable access to Karma transactions linked to the profile. There are also other trust-based currency solutions, such as Circles UBI, where the trust established through profiles can help build and strengthen the network of connections.

My articles about Karma and other trust-based currencies:

• Beyond Bitcoin: Trust-based Currencies
• Karma: An ERC20-compatible Alternative Money on the Ethereum Blockchain

If you’re interested in the project, feel free to follow it on GitHub — I’m always open to ideas and contributions. While this is currently a one-person effort, I consider myself more of a maintainer than an owner. Since the system is entirely decentralized and I have no control over the smart contract’s operations, MyETHMeta doesn’t belong to me. If anyone disagrees with any aspect of the project, they are free to fork it and develop their own version. The system is fully autonomous and community-driven, and I plan to continue its development with this philosophy in mind.

You can find the GitHub repos here: https://github.com/MyETHMeta

MyETHMeta: Your Web3 Profile, and Much More was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.