It was March of 2023.

Even if it feels that way, not so long ago, Dharmesh Shah, CEO of Hubspot announced on Linkedin that he has bought the domain “chat.com” for 8-figures.

Reason? His words, not mine 👇

Why are billionaires betting on chat UI all of a sudden?

More importantly why are we talking about it now? What business does chat-based UI has in Crypto? Well, a lot more than you think. So today, we are up for a chatty session that includes:

• Why is Chat UI picking up as a preferred mode of user engagement?
• The big tech oligopoly and rent-seeking revenue splits
• Chat and Web3. Our savior?
• Chat UI in dialect
• Chat UI: Other use cases

Let’s roll, shall we?

Chat UI: The Sudden Surge

Isn’t it fun? I mean we are living in an era where Blockchains are trying to rewrite the history of internet as we know.

At the same time, there are machines that can now perform certain tasks better than humans.

Even then, some cute, little, naive tech interventions seem to be so befitting in a use case that you feel if we have exploited the existing ecosystem enough before deciding to swim in fresh waters.

Chat UI is one such simple innovation.

Which brings us to a very important question. Do they know something that we don’t know?

Let us explore.

The day OpenAI unleashed the GPT in the market, the chat UI became our go-to mode for interacting with a machine. It was so convenient that we wondered why are we not deploying it everywhere.

Before this, we always considered chat as a medium to converse with each other. All the blockbuster tools of past and present focused on this use case alone to gain massive popularity.

However, off late, things are changing rapidly. If chat is such an intuitive way of interaction, why not use it for other tasks as well?

What about verification through chat? Okay. You get the drift.

So while we were underestimating the power of natural language, it somehow creeped into our software and transformed the way we interacted with machines.

Today, Google is experimenting with SGE, wherein a user can ask follow up questions on top of a generated search result.

A company that makes its money from brands fighting for the top spot in search has decided to slowly pivot away from that model.

Chat UI is now and here!

Chat UI and The Great App Fatigue:

Wait. There’s more to it than just the functionality.

Let us do a quick experiment. How many apps do you have in your phone? I am at a staggering 94 applications.

This is in line with the BuildFire (2024) reports that suggests an average of 80+ apps installed on smartphones.

Interesting part is that only 9 are used daily and 30 monthly. This implies over 62% of installed apps go unused.

Go ahead. Count the number of apps you used today. I am sure you would be able to count it on fingers.

This means, while chat interfaces offer a potentially intuitive alternative, they also reflect a broader shift away from app overload.

Apple App Store and Google Play Store:

Now that we have established that app fatigue is real and Chat has somewhat become the preferred mode of engagement, let us try to crystal ball the future of the two largest app stores in the world.

Outside of China, Apple and Google control over 95% of the app store market share through iOS and Android, respectively. 143 Billion apps were downloaded between these two in the year 2022.

And that is the thing with power. It corrupts. And something similar happened with these two giants as well.

Recently, Apple proved that regulators can’t stop its App Store monopoly with its frustrating response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

What started as a humble distribution mechanism to foster innovation in software has now become rent-seeking.

Why Web3 Needs Chat UI Even More?

Okay. We get it. Chat is not only the need of the hour, but also picking up steadily due to recent AI advancements. Let us now understand why web3 needs it even more.

While app fatigue is a growing concern, the need for chatUI in Web3 goes beyond just addressing user overload. Here are some key reasons why Web3 might benefit even more from chat-based interfaces:

1. Business Model:

Web3 is often touted as an additional application on the internet. However, that is NOT true. It is a lot more fundamental than that. As fundamental as the internet itself.

Web3 applications often prioritize user empowerment and decentralization over direct user monetization.

Additionally, blockchain transactions incur “gas fees,” which are payments made to network miners or validators for processing transactions. The App Store and Play Store fees add an extra layer of cost on top of these already present gas fees, further straining the economic model of web3 apps.

2. Censorship Resistance and Decentralization

Web3 apps often promote censorship resistance as a core feature. However, relying on centralized app stores subjects these apps to the policies and regulations of these platforms, which can include content moderation and app removals that go against the ethos of web3.

3. Token Based Economy:

Web3 apps often utilize their native tokens for in-app transactions, rewards, and governance. The requirement to give a portion of these transactions to app stores can disrupt the token economics, affecting the distribution, valuation, and utility of the tokens within the ecosystem.

4. Stifling Innovation:

The industry could surely use a different distribution platform where innovation is not a function of cost.

Wen Chat UI?

I know you have been waiting for this. I will not disappoint you after the epic buildup above.

Turns out that experimentation on this newly discovered mechanism is on.

Recently, dialect, launched a telegram bot that can now turbocharge your crypto endeavors through, wait for it, CHAT.

Yes. All you have to do is open up Telegram, reach out to @dialectbot (Dialect operator) and connect your phantom wallet to it.

Once you are done, trading is simply a few menial clicks away.

For example:

This is like killing two birds with one stone.

• Skip the app store BS by squishing yourself in a pre-existing app.
• Also enhance the utility of existing application and leverage its existing distribution.

What Else With Chat UI?

Now, the question of the moment. What else can you power with this Chat UI? How will it look like in real life? Let us explore:

1. Educational and Onboarding Tools:

Chat interfaces could serve as educational tools for users new to web3, guiding them through the basics of blockchain, how to set up a wallet, understand tokenomics, or stay updated with the latest in the web3 space, all in a conversational and interactive manner.

Adding a layer of LLMs will also allow user to ask questions on top of it and get answers instantly.

Real-time web3 tutoring. Definitely has a vibe to it.

2. NFTs at a Breeze:

From minting to trading, NFTs can be simplified through the chat interface big time.

Current process of purchasing NFTs is simple for crypto natives, but a typical normie journey looks like this:

Find a suitable wallet compatible with Blockchain --> Create a wallet --> Note down the seed phrase --> Add funds to the wallet --> Visit the NFT marketplace --> Connect the wallet --> Make the bid --> Sign the transaction --> Buy NFT --> List it --> Sign the transaction

Of course a part of it is due to self-custody. But then, you cannot expect a feature to be a deterrent elsewhere in the journey.

Now imagine user could scroll for NFTs on their phone by invoking most popular NFTs and getting them as images on the chat.

Later, they decide to pick one and make a bid there and then using chat buttons.

If everything works out, they should have NFT in their wallet at minimal effort.

Something similar can also be envisioned in case of in-game assets. Platforms like dialect and Push Protocol provide an interface for the web3 applications to enable notifications for user on their mobile.

So literally every game trying to experiment with NFTs can enable transactions and information to the user through ChatUI.

2. DAOism

For the uninitiated, DAOs (Decentralized autonomous organizations) are Blockchain co-operatives that believe in democratic on-chain governance.

Too jargon(y)?

Okay, think of a system where everyone gets to have a say in the key decisions related to the organization. Their intent is recorded in this immutable ledger and since they are vested in the organization’s growth monetarily, they do not have any incentive to go malicious.

In principal, this looks like a world we want to live in.

Reality? Quite different.

Here’s a chart that shows the trend of people voting across the DAOs on 6 Blockchains made through xDAO (A DAO making platform).

The overall interest in taking part in decision making is constantly decreasing.

More importantly, as new DAOs are created, people chime in their opinion with voting. Later, they just give up! As the number of DAOs stopped climbing up, the number of votes decreased significantly.

You would have experienced the same while deciding to attend and vote in Annual General Meetings of the stocks you hold.

Why would someone be uninterested in knowing where there money is going?

I an not a UX guy, but this is how it could look like, in principle. Even if does not look like the cleanest way of doing it, it sure is super intuitive and would bolster the turnout ratio to all time highs.

4. Token Trading 2.0:

For the purpose of writing this piece, I met a prolific investor. This is a middle aged man, earning handsomely and trading in equities on a daily basis.

I asked him how does he have the time to track the market and place orders?

As per him, he watches the market every now and then and calls up his financial advisor. They have a dedicated resource allocated to him to take/exit positions at his command.

When asked why won’t he do it himself, he says all apps have tricky interfaces and it is not his core competency to deal with them. He’d rather deploy that time in understanding the market.

Recently launched Rabit R1 enables this functionality for basic apps like Uber, Calendar and Searches. Its a matter of time when trading interfaces are powered through chats.

5. Bridging:

Although it might not be a direct comparison, but bridging is somewhat an equivalent of moving money between two of your own accounts.

This is how you can do it in India through readily available applications built atop India Payment Stack.

It is a 3-step process that involves choosing the receiver account, sender account and the amount.

To do something similar in web3, one might have to perform an elaborate tango of events involving connecting wallets and praying that nothing goes wrong.

What if you could just ask instead?

“Move 20 wETH from Polygon to Ethereum”

Far fetched? May be. Dream come true? Oh yes!

And Finally:

Chat UI has become that on-demand 24×7 assistant that is slowly getting better each day. Microsoft has bet on it heavily by introducing Windows CoPilot. Instead of juggling between different settings, users could just write what they want and voila!

The beauty of web3 is that it is not contained to leveraging JUST Blockchain to transform the way we the work. While it remains fundamental to its functioning, the world is our oyster when it comes to experimentation.

In other words, we have just evolved from solving product to now solving discovery. The future is bright! And if you make your moves, right, you might just make it to the next level.

References:

1. Dialect Twitter
2. Dialect Website
3. Dialect Medium
4. Some images in this post have been generated using Dall E
5. BuildFire Report