IMPORTANT: This post contains research topics intended to spark discussion and gather feedback. These are not final concepts and must not be interpreted as implementation details. For official information about how XMTP works, see the XMTP technical documentation. Have questions about this post? We’d love to hear from you—post a reply.
Goal
Propose key properties of the contact directory.
What is a contact and what is it used for?
See here for more information.
What is the contact directory?
A place to maintain XMTP user contact information.
Value of the contact directory for the ecosystem
- Facilitates user ownership of XMTP contact identifier
- Represents the social graph of the messaging network
Key Properties
- Immutable
- Shelling point
- Perceived strength of trustless ownership guarantees
- Interoperable
- Censorship resistant
- Sybil resistant
- Affordable for users or providers to maintain contact information
Questions
- Does privacy matter for a user’s contact profile?
- Is there sensitive metadata, such as blocklist that will be stored in the contact directory?
- Are there existing solutions that maintain user privacy, yet enable public access to the state?
- What does interoperability mean here?
- Should users and providers have the option to pay for a contact identifier that is trustlessly owned onchain vs having a free version that is held by a trusted custodian offchain?
- How will installation keys be revoked? Does it make sense to have automated expiration?