Harsh Rajat, Co-Founder of Push Protocol, on Bringing Notifications to Web3, Token-Gated Messaging, Web3 Native Communication | Ep. 311

Harsh Rajat, the co-founder of Web3 communication network Push Protocol, spoke with the Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab about the potential for Web3 to hit the one-billion user milestone and how Web3-native communication helps the industry achieve that goal.

Rajat further talked about the protocol’s industry-altering partnerships with Unstoppable Domains and MetaMask.

In this interview, Rajat discussed:

• Web3 UX and how Web3-native communication can help in getting to a billion users;
• Unstoppable Domains token-gated group messaging unlocking the power of community-based engagement;
• what security considerations are crucial when building a token-gated group messaging platform;
• Web3 notifications: bringing Web2 notifications to a Web3 world;
• MetaMask Snaps partnership: integrating with the most popular wallet.

Continue below to read a portion of what Matt and Harsh discussed, or listen to the full episode above.

A Billion-User Idea

Web3 can have a billion users in the future. Web3-native communications and user experience (UX) are a path to that number.

Push Protocol is working hard to contribute to the adoption.

Rajat explained that, in terms of communication, Push abstracts away all the Web3 complexities of “how to make the thing work,” how to make it compatible with wallets, and how to have the blockchain of communication.

All the protocols need to do is just use Push to re-engage the user and “get that entire Web2 UX to Web3.”

What Push did was invent the pre-notifications. These help all its users be notified about the things they are interested in and which they often engage with.

Therefore, Rajat noted that,

“This idea is so crucial, for Web3 to grow into a billion users. I always maintain and say that we have to remember that a million devs does not equal a billion users.”

He went on to explain that Push is a decentralized communication middleware. It enables protocols, blockchains, and even Web2 companies to send notifications (on-chain or off-chain), send chat, audio and video calls, etc. – that are now directly tied to a wallet address.

And because this is an interoperable and secure network, mobile apps or crypto wallets can now just tap into it and show their users all the important notifications about their activities. This can be related to loans, governance, social media, and pretty much anything you can think of.

With this, Rajat said,

“Push [has] changed user experience.”

More than 600 protocols are using Push. These include DYDX, Decentraland, Uniswap, Gitcoin, Polygon, and many others.

“They are using Push to basically make sure that this re-engagement is getting into Web3,” the co-founder added.

Unstoppable Path to Connecting the Community

The Push team has had a long relationship with the popular Web3 domain names and digital identity provider Unstoppable Domains. Unstoppable too has integrated Push.

In April 2021, Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) integrated .crypto domains to the EPNS products. In September 2023, the partners enabled business-to-user (B2U) messaging through Unstoppable Messaging.

And in January 2024, the two announced the launch of the token-gated ‘Group Chat’ on Unstoppable’s messaging platform.

With the Push integration, Unstoppable shows all notifications to its users. Per Rajat,

“When that integration was happening, we understood the value of community, and we understood that Web3 communication as a whole hasn’t tapped into the community part of it.”

Going back to the billion-user aim, Harsh Rajat said, they had to ask themselves why anyone would switch from a popular site where their friends are, for example Telegram, to something else and unknown.

“The user will shift when you provide them a feature which is over the top of what they are already doing, and that led us to creating this gated group functionality.”

The idea here is that a gated group works like a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Be it an NFT project, a DAO, or a project with some unique tokens – anything really – these entities can create a group via Push Chat and specify the parameters to join, i.e. how many tokens one needs to have to join and/or send messages within the token-gated group.

Unstoppable, on its side, has a Badges feature, which translates a user’s wallet transactions into achievements.

And all of these communities, “they love to talk to each other,” Rajat noted.

“And there is no way for Web2 chat to bring that community together.”

But with the gated group chat, you can define those Web2 chats, personas, or attributes, he added.

“And all of a sudden, you have a way by which all of these communities that shared the same vision can join this group chat and can talk about it.”

‘Huge’ MetaMask Partnership and Incoming Push Features

Unstoppable Domains is not the only major partnership for the Push Protocol.

It has also partnered with the popular MetaMask wallet.

MetaMask was working on the Snap feature, and “they asked if we would love to work with them so that notifications can be natively bought into MetaMask,” Rajat said.

And they did. In September 2023, the two announced Push Snap, a tool designed to seamlessly integrate notifications directly into MetaMask wallets.

Therefore, MetaMask users can now see the notification section where they can click to install Push snap.

“Once you do, whatever protocols you have opted into to receive notifications, they can send it right on your MetaMask, and it will appear right over there.”

As for Push’s near-term future, Harsh Rajat named two events the team is “very excited about.”

One is the upcoming launch of Push Network. With it, Push becomes, “let’s say, our Layer-2 for all the communications.”

The other thing is the unveiling of Push nodes, which will “basically make this a network in its own, or a blockchain in its own,” Rajat concluded.

____

About Harsh Rajat

Harsh Rajat is the co-founder and Project Lead of Push Protocol (formerly EPNS).

He has over 12 years of entrepreneurial experience in various spectrums of tech. This includes system architecture, as well as development and design in different tech fields, such as mobile, web services, SaaS, and blockchain.

Rajat previously spoke/judged at multiple tech conferences and hackathons, including Messari Mainnet, ETHCC, ETHDenver, Schelling Point, ETHAmsterdam, NFT NYC, Liscon, HackMoney, EDCON.