Web3 content platform Mirror was acquired. What are the highlights of the new product Kiosk?

Original title: "Web3 content veteran Mirror was acquired, interpreting its transformation process and new social product Kiosk"

Original author: Nan Zhi, Odaily Planet Daily

On May 2, Web3 content publishing platform Mirror announced that it was acquired by Paragraph. The Mirror team will continue to operate independently and will shift its focus to the development of Kiosk, a Web3 social application based on Farcaster. Mirror's parent company Reflective Technologies Inc. revealed that it raised $10 million from Electric Capital, and a16z crypto, Union Square Ventures and Variant also provided additional support.

Mirror started internal testing in 21 years and quickly became an important creation platform and tool in the Web3 field, but due to multiple factors such as positioning, development route, and products, its market share has declined rapidly. The most important official content and creator platform is Medium, and Paragraph, as Mirror's main competitor in the Web3 creator field, has also successfully completed its acquisition. Odaily Planet Daily will interpret Mirror's past and present and its latest product Kiosk in this article.

Mirror's past and present

Mirror was founded by Denis Nazarov, a former partner of a16z crypto. At the end of 2020, Mirror released its initial product prototype. Mirror stores content on Arweave. Most people understand it as a Web3 version of Medium or Substack, a "decentralized" content publishing platform, but this is not outstanding in terms of technology and imagination. Content creation platforms are already a red ocean. What innovative route does Mirror want to rely on to stand out?

At that time, Mirror's answer was toB, as a crowdfunding and media tool for DAO. At that time, Mirror explained itself as: "This is the essential web3 toolkit for sharing and funding anything. From writing about your latest idea, to building a home for the next big DAO."

So in addition to content creation, what other functions does Mirror provide?

First of all, Mirror supports the sale of NFTs for works. If users buy this NFT, it will be used as a reward for the creator (Mirror will share 2.5%). In addition, it also supports direct crowdfunding of projects and can issue coins.

In short, Mirror hopes that all projects that need crowdfunding will be published and raised on its platform and updated with information on direction and progress through Mirror. Well-known examples include basketball team The Krause House (crowdfunding 1000 ETH, soft rug), movie Ethereum: The Infinite Garden (crowdfunding 1035 ETH), wallet Balance Wallet (crowdfunding 883 ETH), etc.

Pure or lack of functions

It is worth noting that in the early stages of the product, Mirror did not have the common functions on content platforms. Including functions such as subscription, reading volume, portal, etc., creators cannot directly analyze and promote, and readers or users are also difficult to track directly. Creators need to use other platforms for promotion, while subscription, analysis and other functions require the use of third-party tools.

The Mirror team believes that the above are all application layer requirements and hope to leave them to the community. The team only builds the underlying services. Since the data is published in Arweave, there are no restrictions and all developers and users can read the data, so the "advanced" products and function iterations in the ecosystem are left to the community.

However, leaving the development of the above functions to the community does not mean that the Mirror team will let it go. The Mirror team will communicate with the team that has developed excellent Mirror additional products and invite them to join the Mirror DAO to build the ecosystem together.

Route Swinging

Mirror has achieved impressive data and achievements in the above-mentioned toB field, but in August 2022, Mirror announced the removal of all NFT and crowdfunding related functions, returning to the red ocean of pure toC. But the Subscribe to Mint function was launched again the following year. This series of mysterious operations may be related to the fact that the team is located in the United States and is affected by regulatory pressure, but we don’t know the truth.

On the other hand, the DAO narrative is no longer as hot as it was in the 21st year bull market, and crowdfunding token products have emerged one after another. Mirror has gradually lost market share under the combined effect of many factors.

Turn to Kiosk

After Paragraph acquires Mirror, Paragraph will take over the management of Mirror products, design systems and brands. The Mirror team will turn to Kiosk, a Web3 social application based on Farcaster.

At present, Mirror has not disclosed the details of the project. Odaily summarizes the key content of its existing information as follows: "Kiosk is a new Farcaster client that combines social and on-chain. It allows users to conduct on-chain transactions while socializing on the chain. With Kiosk, users can easily convert pictures into NFTs, discover and purchase assets collected by friends, and gather like-minded collectors and community members in token-driven channels or group chats.

The goal of Kiosk is to break down the barriers between on-chain social and on-chain transactions, allowing users to trade and interact on social media more seamlessly, thereby promoting the development of decentralized social media."

Based on the above content, it can be seen that the product aims to give users the ability to issue and trade assets on social media, and the service objects have also shifted to the community. Currently, users can mint Official announcement article 's NFT enters the Waitlist.

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