Mini Programs in the Web3 World: An In-depth Analysis of MetaMask Snaps

MetaMask Snaps is a project with great ideals, but setting aside its "ideal" facade, it is more suitable to refer to it as a mini-program in the Web3 world, or give it a fancier name: dApplet.

For developers, especially those in China, this concept is not unfamiliar. In recent years, terms like "ecosystem building" and "super app" have frequently emerged in the internet sector, as business giants attempt to make the internet environment more closed in order to shift from service providers to standard setters. This trend now seems to be starting to spread into the Web3 space.

As of June 2024, despite Snaps having existed for nearly a year and the concept being proposed at least four years ago, the average user still knows very little about it. Even cryptocurrency market followers who open MetaMask every day may be completely unaware of MetaMask Snaps. However, when explained as "similar to mini-programs," developers usually show a knowing smile.

This situation reminds me of when WeChat Mini Programs were first launched. Due to the unclear access to features, usage was very low. It wasn't until the access was changed to display the Mini Program list in a dropdown on the homepage that usage began to increase significantly. For MetaMask, how to attract users into its ecosystem may be an important issue that needs to be addressed.

Since the birth of mini-programs, there has been ongoing controversy in the internet industry. Front-end engineers generally believe that they are merely a commercial tool for internet giants to monopolize traffic and block ecosystems, contributing little to technological development. It remains to be seen how much contribution Web3's Snaps can bring to the community. Browsing the documentation provided by MetaMask increasingly makes one feel that future Snap developers will face numerous limitations.

It has been almost a year since MetaMask launched the public beta of Snaps, but the number of available Snaps listed on its official website is not many, with only 68 as of June 2024. It is worth noting that the concept of Snaps was proposed as early as around 2020, and Web3 companies and developers have actually had quite a long time to understand it.

Currently, there are no dedicated developers for Snaps, but there are quite a few mini-program developers in Web2. The general perception of mini-programs is that the development experience is poor. Although mini-program development uses the front-end ecosystem, it is a stripped-down version, and manufacturers restrict what developers can do for various reasons. The technical capabilities and documentation quality of different manufacturers vary greatly, resulting in developers needing to encounter various pitfalls across platforms before they can be considered "experienced."

Returning to Web3, due to security and other factors, Snaps may face similar situations. It runs in an isolated security context, using "Secure ECMAScript," which effectively imposes some restrictions on the JavaScript API, such as not being able to access the DOM, Node.js, browser plugin APIs, etc.

For security reasons, a basic Snaps feature is limited. Most functions require corresponding permissions, so Snaps must request permissions from users upon installation. Available permissions include lifecycle, transactions, signatures, CRON, etc.

Compared to the thriving Web3 ecosystem, the number of available Snaps is relatively small, and MetaMask has categorized them.

Snaps Type

The MetaMask official website categorizes Snaps into four types:

Account Management

This type of Snap mainly enhances the security of private keys through MPC technology. Compared to traditional mnemonic phrase storage methods, MPC technology can automatically split the private key into multiple parts, which are stored separately, and only reassemble them to generate the complete private key when a transaction signature is needed, without ever generating the complete private key in the process, thereby maximizing protection against private key leakage.

Currently, there are only 3 account management Snaps: Capsule, Silent Shard, and Safeheron. They implement private key management in different ways, but their installation rates are not high.

interoperability

This type of Snaps primarily provides compatibility with non-EVM networks, including Solana, Cosmos, Near, Sui, etc. Currently, this type of Snaps accounts for the majority, making up more than half of the entire ecosystem.

Notification and Chat

Currently, there are fewer users of this type of Snaps, possibly because there are already many existing chat applications, and the number of users willing to send messages via the blockchain is still small.

safe

There is a significant demand for security-related Snaps, especially in light of MetaMask's insufficient warnings against phishing transactions. These types of Snaps can provide users with richer transaction information and analysis, helping to avoid asset losses. According to data from the official website, security Snaps are the most demanded after multi-chain support, accounting for 20% of the total.

MetaMask Snaps provides relevant permissions that allow Snap to read raw data during user-initiated transactions or signatures, analyze it, and display more security information to the user.

Future Outlook

MetaMask is attempting to expand its domain to other chain platforms through Snaps, but it is still difficult to predict how far it can go in the end. Referring to the development of Web2 mini-programs, if Snaps develops well, there may be more wallets that follow suit. This could lead to Web3 developers needing to develop different versions of "Snaps" for various wallets, increasing their workload.

In the future, various "Snaps-like" platforms may emerge, with significant differences among them, and developers will need to address compatibility issues. Ultimately, a Snaps Standard may be born, along with various "SIPs" for discussion, leading to a thriving community ecosystem.

Regardless, MetaMask Snaps is a product built by passionate developers, aimed at solving real-world problems. For most current MetaMask users, Snaps may not yet be a necessary feature, and MetaMask still needs to do more work in promotion.