Onboarding the Next Billion Users with Galxe | Yumin Xia

This episode unpacks Galxe's strategy for mass crypto adoption, detailing how Zero-Knowledge Proofs are revolutionizing user quests and digital identity, and the implications of its new high-performance Layer 1, Gravity Chain, for decentralized data and computation.

Yumin Xia's Early Tech Exposure in China

• Yumin Xia, co-founder of Galxe, recounts his early experiences with technology in China during the 2000s. He describes the period as a time of rapid growth for both himself and the country's tech scene.
• His first internet use was around 2003-2004 with an IM app (Instant Messaging application, software for real-time text transmission over the internet) for messaging classmates. By 2007-2008, he was already building websites and engaging in technical discussions on BBS (Bulletin Board System, an online meeting place where users can post messages, share files, and engage in discussions) and forums.
• Yumin notes the "Apple moment" with the iPhone's arrival, leading to a mobile-first environment in the early 2010s, with innovations like Alipay. However, he highlights a significant absence: "I was a kind of like a hacker but I actually never heard about people talking about like decentralization and like and crypto concurrency and stuff."
• This early immersion in web technologies, contrasted with the lack of crypto discourse, provides context for his later work in bridging Web2 and Web3 experiences.

Evolution of Chinese Tech Talent and Innovation

• Yumin discusses the shifting perception of elite Chinese tech students. Previously, they were recognized for strong problem-solving skills, especially in theoretical areas like math, but sometimes perceived as lacking in innovation or entrepreneurial spirit.
• He observes a significant change, citing his own undergraduate research experience in networking. While publishing in top conferences like NSDI and SIGCOMM was once extremely challenging for Chinese universities, it's now more common.
• Yumin states, "innovation is also a skill that Chinese student and the whole Chinese tech community has caught up a lot."
• Yumin's perspective, rooted in his academic and professional journey, underscores the growing innovative capacity within China's tech ecosystem, relevant for understanding global talent pools in crypto and AI.

Galxe's Mission: Learn, Explore, Earn

• Galxe's core mission is to create a crypto experience that integrates learning, exploration, and earning, moving away from the "buy your first crypto" model. This approach aims to onboard users by allowing them to earn tokens through active participation.
• Yumin Xia explains, "Galxe was our product and our mission kind of like revolve around the idea that we want to create a crypto experience that combines learning, exploring and earning."
• This model is compared to Deepen (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks, which incentivize users to contribute resources like bandwidth or storage), where users contribute to a network and earn rewards. Galxe users learn about the industry and become early adopters of new products, creating a win-win for users and projects.
• Strategic Implication: Galxe's "learn, explore, earn" model presents a scalable user acquisition strategy. For Crypto AI, this could be adapted for tasks like data annotation or model testing, incentivizing participation while educating users about AI technologies.

The Evolution to On-Chain Quests

• Galxe initially verified quests, like Twitter follows, through a centralized backend. The advent of Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology (a cryptographic method allowing one party to prove to another that a statement is true, without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself) has enabled a shift towards on-chain verification.
• Yumin highlights the benefits: "with zero knowledge proof right now you can verify your quest completion... and the beautiful part is that there's no privacy issue because... you don't have to review your Twitter handle."
• This allows verification of various on-chain activities, like trading volume or NFT (Non-Fungible Token, a unique digital asset representing ownership of a specific item) holdings, with enhanced transparency, verifiability, and decentralization. Galxe's raffle campaigns already utilize on-chain ZKP verification.
• Actionable Insight: The move to on-chain, ZKP-verified quests is crucial for building trust and scalability. Crypto AI researchers should note the practical application of ZKPs for verifiable off-chain actions, a precursor to more complex zkML (Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning) applications.

Technical Details of On-Chain Quest Verification (Twitter Example)

• For verifying Twitter follows, Galxe currently acts as a credential issuer. Users connect their Twitter via OAuth protocol (Open Authorization, an open standard for access delegation, allowing third-party services to access user resources without exposing credentials) and grant Galxe permission to check follow status.
• Yumin shares an interesting detail: "Twitter actually has blocked API for checking uh following status for most of these project. I think Galxe is one of the projects that actually have the capability to actually verify the follow quest."
• Galxe then serves as a notary, generating a ZK credential, which users can then use to generate ZKPs to prove the follow action without revealing their Twitter handle.
• ZK-TLS (Zero-Knowledge Transport Layer Security, a protocol to prove facts about a TLS session without revealing session contents) is not currently used due to user experience friction, as it often requires browser plugins or intermediary software. Galxe's identity protocol, however, is designed to allow any entity, including ZK-TLS providers, to act as a notary.
• Strategic Implication: Galxe's pragmatic approach to ZKP implementation, balancing decentralization with user experience, offers lessons for projects aiming to integrate complex cryptographic methods. The ability to verify social graph interactions privately is key for decentralized reputation systems.

The Rationale Behind Gravity Chain

• Galxe is launching its own Layer 1 blockchain, Gravity Chain, with mainnet expected in Q2. The initial motivation was practical: a decentralized ledger for features like "Smart Balance," which allows users to pay gas fees across different chains.
• Yumin explains that using a blockchain for this "is actually making our life easier instead of harder" compared to managing a secure centralized database.
• Another key driver is improving the cross-chain user experience. Galxe has integrated with 71 blockchains, and users often struggle with gas tokens and cross-chain complexities. Gravity Chain aims to serve as a state settlement layer to abstract these difficulties.
• Actionable Insight: The decision for a major application like Galxe to build its own L1 underscores the need for tailored infrastructure. For Crypto AI, dedicated chains could offer optimized environments for computationally intensive tasks or specific data handling requirements.

Gravity Chain's Technical Architecture

• During research for Gravity Chain, Yumin's team found existing blockchain tech stacks somewhat "outdated." They are building the Gravity SDK, a blockchain toolkit analogous to the Cosmos SDK (a framework for building application-specific blockchains) but incorporating state-of-the-art technologies.
• The consensus algorithm is Aptos BFT (a high-performance Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithm), enabling sub-second finality with over 150 validators. The architecture is pipelined for efficiency.
• A significant development is Galxe's own open-sourced parallel EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine, the runtime for smart contracts, with "parallel" indicating an ability to process multiple transactions simultaneously for higher throughput). Yumin claims, "our parallel EVM in our benchmark is the fastest uh parallel EVM as well."
• Strategic Implication: Gravity Chain's focus on high performance, low latency, and a parallel EVM could attract dApps requiring significant throughput. Crypto AI researchers and investors should monitor its performance benchmarks and adoption, as it could become a viable platform for decentralized AI applications.

Galxe's Perspective on Digital Identity

• Yumin addresses the question of how many identities a user should have by first asking, "how many identity does user already have?" He points out that users already possess fragmented identities across Twitter, Discord, blockchains (e.g., addresses, ENS - Ethereum Name Service, or Space ID names).
• Galxe's approach, embodied in the Galxe Identity Protocol, is not to force a single identity but to allow users to aggregate their various existing identities. This ZK-based, self-sovereign identity service enables users to prove attributes about themselves without revealing unnecessary underlying data.
• The protocol allows users to "profile based on every credential he has while revealing only the necessary and meaningful information."
• Actionable Insight: Galxe's flexible, privacy-preserving identity model aligns with the Web3 ethos of user control. This is highly relevant for Crypto AI, where managing data provenance and user permissions for AI model training and usage is critical.

Galxe Passport and Identity Protocol

• The Galxe Passport is presented as an application built on top of the Galxe Identity Protocol. It functions as a credential issuer for verified identity information.
• By working with KYC (Know Your Customer, a process to verify client identity) service providers like Sumsub, users can obtain a ZK credential containing their verified KYC information.
• Yumin clarifies, "password itself is a credential issuer... user can get uh zk credential uh listing um all his like verified KYC information on that and then user can gen generate arbitrary uh zk proofs based on um the the credential."
• Strategic Implication: The Galxe Passport showcases a practical use case for ZKPs in achieving privacy-preserving KYC. This is a vital component for projects needing to comply with regulations while respecting user privacy, a balance increasingly important for AI applications handling sensitive data.

Galxe's Business Model and Revenue Streams

• Yumin emphasizes that Galxe's primary focus remains on product growth rather than aggressive monetization. He states, "we're still like trying to like grow the product. That's our first priority."
• Revenue currently comes from both B2B and B2C channels.
  • Business-side: Integration fees are charged to some blockchains, particularly non-EVM chains where Galxe essentially builds a dApp within their ecosystem.
  • Consumer-side: Revenue is generated from services like the Galxe Passport, Web3 Score, and the GG rewards system.
• Yumin's candidness about prioritizing growth suggests a long-term vision for Galxe's ecosystem development and market positioning.

Conclusion

Galxe's integration of ZKPs for quests and identity, alongside its custom L1, signals a future of more private, verifiable, and scalable user engagement. Crypto AI researchers should note the advancements in ZKP applications, while investors track Galxe's platform growth as a key onboarding and data aggregation layer in Web3.