In a world where social media often feels like a curated highlight reel, SenSpace is taking a different approach. We sat down with Ren, who's building an anonymous social platform that emphasizes authentic connections without the baggage of social context.
Here's our conversation:
Hey Ren! What is SenSpace?
SenSpace is an anonymous social app that helps you break free from your existing social space, where context doesn't matter.
So, you talk to people without knowing who you're talking to?
Exactly! We want to facilitate environments where people can have authentic conversations without having any of the prior social context you have on regular social media.
Interesting. How does that work?
Well, when they onboard the app, people fill out what they're interested in so we can get a sense of who has similar interests. Then the main feature on the app is being paired with a stranger to have a live texting conversation. We do the pairing based on who is online at the same time and the topics they pick to talk about. The conversations are capped at 5 minutes.
The live component of this makes me think of BeReal.
Absolutely. BeReal and Clubhouse are the two most comparable web2 apps for what we're building.
So people just text with strangers, ok that's kind of fun. How do you make sure it doesn't get out of control? Have you ever had any bad experiences of people abusing it to say something inappropriate?
So far no, but it's something we're very aware of. Right now there's a "report" button in the app which you can press if you need it. That button flags the content with our team and ends the chat. But how we handle it from there is something we're still figuring out. We're also aware people could get really personal on the app which brings up questions around mental health. In some ways we see the app as a mental wellness app of sorts. But there's lots of risk involved with P2P wellness so we find that for now the best way to handle tricky situations is through the report button.
Makes sense. And you're building this onchain, correct?
Yes!
Can you break down how that works?
So, when people join they create an avatar that is minted onchain. The log in experience is really easy - you just use Face ID and then that automatically creates an account abstraction wallet for you on the backend.
Love how easy that is! So it's totally anonymous?
For users, yes. Technically our team right now could figure out which wallets map to which users, but users cannot and we think that's important - maintaining that anonymity is key to ensuring people speak openly with each other. In the future we're interested in leveraging zk to further encrypt the identity layer, but our first step here is the application layer. Data points that are tracked onchain are the following: the length of a conversation, the addresses that spoke to each other, how long they spoke for, and the topic discussed. Like I said earlier, there's several different topics that appear simultaneously and when you join you can decide what topics you want to talk about.
Very cool. What are some of the recent topics people have been discussing?
Well in the runup to Devcon we had topics like "ETH is dead", "Excited for Devcon", "Feelings Check", and "I hate my boss".
Which was the most popular?
I hate my boss.
Ha ok wow. Kind of depressing? But I guess this illustrates something interesting about this app too, which is that you can also leverage it to collect opinions. I know that privacy about what is discussed is a core part of what you're offering, but just by seeing what sorts of topics people are interested in you can collect interesting market insights.
Definitely. we want people to be able to take a break from their regular social space and really be themselves unmasked. But there's a lot we can learn even just from seeing the topics people want to talk about.
So talk to me a little bit more about the onchain element. Do you have a token that goes with this?
We do, right now there's a native token that you get for participating in the app. You receive tokens continuously based on the amount of conversations you have so they're structured as a continual stream of sorts. You also receive something we call "Auras" when you use the app which are basically like POAPs. They look like a flower and light up on the app, they're kind of a stamp of approval that you're bringing good vibes on the app. They're basically onchain attestations. With auras, you're building your social graph based on vibes vs. traditional social metrics.
What inspired you to build this app, Ren?
Most of our team is based in Japan and is pretty plugged into Japanese streetwear communities. There's a lot of pressure in some of those communities to be hyper-curated, so we really wanted to provide them with a space where they didn't have to worry about that. We think that lots of people are affected by the loneliness epidemic in a way that affects their self-esteem and sense of worth. Our hope with this app is that we'll provide an alternative that people feel good about using - we think there's something special about the privacy of this app too that really speaks to this demographic.
Awesome vision and perspective, thanks for sharing, Ren! Where can people connect with you to learn more?
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