MASQ Network

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  MASQ Wallet Benefits page

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  MASQ user dashboard

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  MASQ Polygon Integration

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  User Serving Choice for Network

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  Live Browser Tab surfing from Netherlands to Korea

Inspiration

In our advancing digital world today, more and more private information is tracked, harvested, and monetized. At the same time, there is increasing censorship across millions of users through blocking social platforms, geo-restrictions, and a general lack of information freedom. Internet users are growing tired of being just an advertising ID number, losing their privacy rights, and being restricted from viewing the content they desire. Our team at MASQ Network has built the technology to address these issues, offering a private and censorship-resistant web3 experience through our MASQ software. Designed carefully for all users, including those just starting their journey into the Web3 and the blockchain (cryptocurrency) ecosphere, MASQ was built to run on a standard internet connection without the need for special hardware. This enables MASQ to serve as a strong bridge for Web2 users as they integrate into Web3 specific applications. With the VPN industry expected to grow to over $75 billion dollars (US) by 2025, there is no doubt that MASQ has the potential to capture a significant share of this user market by shipping a software product that gives internet users the privacy they deserve with the features they want!

What it does

The MASQ software has been carefully curated to provide privacy-centric benefits with instant everyday utility using the in-built software browser. MASQ users will install the software, set up through the onboarding process in just a few minutes will be able to enjoy core features such as:

• borderless browsing and privacy online without tracking
• ability to earn passive crypto by sharing their Internet bandwidth with the MASQ Network
• uncensored access to crypto platforms, web3 dApps, and the metaverse
• in-built web3 store curated by the team and community

For web3 builders, the MASQ Network enables you to scale your platforms across users globally without restriction and provides user privacy with data security.

The MASQ team is always looking for teams with market-ready web3 integrations to expand the MASQ feature suite and enrich User Experiences in both native web3 applications and everyday privacy-centric tools.

How we built it

For nearly three years, the core team at MASQ has been building the open-source software in Rust which operates within the network stack - We call it MASQ Node.

MASQ Node routes content requests internally within the user's machine to other connected peers in the MASQ Network, who route, fetch and deliver the content data back to the user. Securely encrypted across multiple MASQ user hops', the software achieves both VPN-level data security, encryption and the trace-resistance that Tor style onion routing provides.

To deliver this advanced software to users in an easy-to-use and feature-rich experience with minimal setup effort, MASQ formed a UI team that has built a React app deployed with Electron which is supported across Windows, macOS, and Linux. This allows users to experience the technology with a beautiful, modern browser feel while under the hood, all the robust advanced routing, security, and monetization components take care of the content delivery.

Since MASQ’s “new user” setup process can be done within minutes, the end product is delivered to a very broad audience ranging from everyday internet users, privacy and free speech advocates, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and all the way to advanced node-runners who want customized setups with more granular levels of control. All from the MASQ software Additionally, the software is designed to allow users to serve and consume browser content within the same application. There is no need to run a separate advanced Node utility to contribute to the Network and MASQ ecosystem.

Challenges we ran into

Overall the most significant challenges have been the speed of development and scaling:

Development speed has been less than ideal due to limited funding for a community-grown project. MASQ never conducted any public fund raising or Venture Capital funding, therefore most if not all our team growth has been within the community from very humble roots. That said, our progress and achievements from such a lean and under-resourced team are nothing short of amazing when you look at the product and its capabilities.

Scaling the network and user groups has also been challenging, as the team identified bottlenecks along the way while putting the software into beta production. What started as growing pains specific to blockchain transactions and gas costs (which naturally led the project to be Powered by Polygon!) then evolved into throughput, mesh network connectivity, and self-healing challenges.

Many of these challenges have been addressed, with milestones of the first 1000 and 5000 node networks within reach.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The community and development milestones throughout 2019-2022 are numerous, but to summarize the most impactful ones we are proud of:

• We have refined the core MASQ Node software, shown proof of concept, and conducted testnet operations on Ropsten and Mumbai test networks. Browsing speeds for users rival VPN and Tor tools and the throughput observed with up to 70 test connected nodes was impressive.
• We have built a desktop app from the ground up, providing a full-stack software solution for users to join, browse, earn and connect to the MASQ ecosystem.
• We have bridged the MASQ Network and ecosystem to the Polygon Network, started connecting with other communities to expand our audience and scale the user network on the Polygon Network secure PoS blockchain.
• We have shown that the software can operate as an EVM multi-chain* solution (*not cross-chain yet), allowing portability to other blockchains and customized use cases in the future.
• Built our community and social accounts - over 4000 Twitter followers, over 1700 Telegram, and over 2000 on Discord

What we learned

The lessons learned along the way include team building, leadership, blockchain communications, scaling, DAO style governance, DeFi, tokenomics, rewards structure, development styles, Test-Driven-Development environments, DevOps, CICD, app deployment, and the list goes on.

That said, as a team, we learned three core principles that have helped us not only survive the last three years as a community-grown start-up but also thrive and continue to reach milestones that seemed unlikely when looking from our humble beginnings:

1. In the blockchain start-up space, the Project Vision needs to be GREAT for you to scale progress towards successful user goals to grow and maintain a solid community foundation! The vision of purpose is relatively straightforward for MASQ: MASQ Network's vision is to unlock a borderless browsing experience for everyone, regardless of where they live. The need for privacy and fighting the censorship practices that hurt billions has never been more important in our history. This technology is critical to ensure that we, the future users of web3, secure our digital identity, retain control over our private information, and ensure that we enable millions of netizens around the world to be able to access, stream and view any content that they desire while earning cryptocurrency while they do it!
2. Underpromise & Overdeliver - we have held this principle closely because it is clear that many projects live and die by their roadmaps and force growth through hype without producing real progress or utility.
3. Take care of your contributors and community support, and show you appreciate them dearly.

What's next for MASQ Network

The web3 sky is the limit for MASQ Network!

• In the coming months, another expanded Beta test group will become live, allowing us to scale beyond hundreds of node users in the mesh network.
• The MASQ app will be refined to provide rich features to enhance the User Experience, including more browser features, user extensions, in-app wallet tracking features, privacy add-ons, and more
• MASQ Premium allows additional features available for users to enjoy in their everyday privacy browsing, including wallet analytics, in-app swap benefits, advanced browsing tools, and more.
• Partnerships are simmering under the surface, and these will expand the MASQ ecosystem, invite new communities to integrate and synergize with the software and also help build out the web3 Library for users to get to unique dapps and services in one click from the MASQ app

Built With

• alchemyapi
• amazon-web-services
• electron
• github
• gitlab
• infura
• react
• rust
• s3
• terraform