Use Cases of Status and SNT: The First Mobile Ethereum OS
Dubbed “WeChat for Ethereum”, the Status mobile app is improving the accessibility of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency payments.
The Status project as a whole is also working on a number of initiatives that will create a thriving ecosystem for developers building Web 3.0 infrastructure. In this article, we explore the current and future use cases for SNT, the native currency of the Status mobile app.
ENS Address Registration with SNT
Hexidecimal addresses have long created a significant barrier to adoption of crypto payments. Whenever sending crypto, it always seems necessary to triple check that you copy/paste the correct ‘0x4cbe58c50480…’ address. In contrast, fiat payment gateways like Venmo (username) and PayPal (email address) use much simpler ways to indicate the recipient accounts.
The first use case for Status is the ability to create an Ethereum Name Service (ENS) address at ‘stateofus.eth’. By locking 10 SNT into a smart contract, it’s easy to turn a hexadecimal address into a username that people can actually read and remember. By registering via the Status mobile app, you can hold on to an ENS address for a period of one year. After that, you have the option to release the ENS and get your 10 SNT back or renew for another year. This concept is kind of similar to the registration process for a traditional website domain name.
The cool thing about the ‘stateofus.eth’ domain is that a lot of popular subdomain names are still available. As you can see from the third image below, I was able to turn a long address into a short one called ‘future.stateofus.eth’. Additionally, the shortened address is recognizable far beyond the Status mobile app. For example, I typed ‘future.stateofus.eth’ into my MetaMask wallet, and it auto-generated the long-form hexadecimal address. Mist, My Crypto, My Ether Wallet, and several other wallets also support ENS.
DApp Browser
There are a lot of decentralized applications on the market today. Yes, there are even websites with full lists of dApps for each blockchain. However, many of these sites don’t offer the curation that the Status DApp Browser does. Oftentimes with other options, it’s unclear whether or not a given dApp is even functional.
The Status DApp Browser offers this searchability and curation all within its native mobile browser. You can find a list of exchanges, marketplaces, games, and other categories of dApps. Plus, you’ll find that once you visit a dApp website, it will appear on your Home tab on the Status mobile app. You also have the option to keep or delete these dApp links on your Home tab, essentially allowing you to create a customizable mobile bookmarks function for Web 3.0.
SNT Voting DApp
The SNT Voting DApp, which can be found in the DApp Browser, provides an innovative way of encouraging community participation in decision-making processes. You can easily vote by holding SNT in your wallet and by signing a transaction. There’s even an option to create your own polls within this dApp.
No SNT payment or locking is required for voting. This means only a small gas fee, paid in ETH, is necessary to participate. As you can see from the screenshots below, this dApp is being used for things like determining discussion topics at developer meetings and the naming of the Status hardware wallet.
Instant Messaging Platform
Another integral feature of the Status app is its role as an instant messaging platform. Public chats related to the Status project itself are available in a variety of languages: English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanis, hand Farsi. There are currently even public chats for general topics like dApps, cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and more. Status also has private messaging and closed group chat options.
While other IM platforms (i.e. Telegram, WeChat, etc.) focus more on public profiles, Status autogenerates usernames and doesn’t allow users to upload profile photos. This means that people have the option to interact on the app with some degree of anonymity. You might also notice that it’s not possible to view previous comments on public chats that existed before you joined the chat.
Upcoming SNT Use Cases
While ENS registration is currently the main use case for SNT, the Status team is actively working on new iterations of its mobile app. This will soon vastly expand the number of in-app features that utilize SNT as the go-to form of payment. Here are just a few those examples mentioned in the Status whitepaper.
Sticker Market: Buy and sell stickers that can be posted within instant messaging groups on Status.
Status Teller Network: Use geolocation to find other Status users nearby who want to exchange fiat-to-crypto.
Decentralized Push Notification Market: Lock SNT to enable the ability to receive Status mobile app push notifications.
User Acquisition Engine: Advertisers (buyers) run ad campaigns on Status, paying publishers (sellers) in SNT on a cost-per-action basis.
Major Infrastructure Projects
Status isn’t just focused on end-user accessibility on mobile. The project has also made significant progress in its efforts to build a true open-source community. The project currently has four core initiatives to accomplish this.
- Embark is a fast, simple, and powerful framework to help developers develop and deploy dApps. Embark simplifies the process of contract deployment on the Ethereum blockchains, decentralized storage with IPFS, decentralized communication with Whisper and Orbit, and integration of web technologies (i.e. React, Foundation, and Angular). Compared to other frameworks, it also includes a lot of innovative built-in features like an existing ecosystem of plugins, an interactive dashboard for development work in terminal, and easy configuration.
- Incubate provides funding, technical support, mentorship, and much more for Web3 projects — from scaling solutions and base layer protocols to end-user dApps. Projects are chosen on a rolling basis throughout the year. As of January 2019, projects within the incubation ecosystem include LeapDAO, KickBack, Pixura, and CryptoStrikers.
- Nimbus is a research project and a sharding client implementation for Ethereum 2.0, aiming to improve the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain.
- Keycard will serve as a hardware wallet option for SNT, ETH, and ERC20 tokens.
SNT Now Listed on Ethex
SNT is now listed on Ethex, a decentralized exchange that only lists useful tokens. We’re proud to support Status’ goals to expand the functionalities of Ethereum on mobile and build out innovative use cases for SNT. If you’re part of a project that’s interested in listing your token on Ethex, feel free to fill out our submission form.
Ethex can also be accessed on both iOS and Android with Ethex Trade Wallet, an innovative mobile trading app for ETH and ERC20 tokens.
