Imagine you’re in a hurry to catch a flight, but as luck would have it, your phone battery dies and you miss your alarm, and your flight. Talk about missing a notification!

Push notifications, as they are called, are messages that alert users in the form of pop-ups or alerts on mobile devices or desktop computers. Push services such as Apple’s APNS, Google’s FCM, and Microsoft’s WNS have dynamic traits, such as easy configuration, notification delivery, platform support, and user control.

In Web 2.0, push notifications gave businesses an edge as powerful marketing instruments, leading to high conversion rates, better customer retention, and improved customer care. But as we move to Web 3, the next iteration of the internet, there is an increasing lack of cohesion in communication between users, applications, and services.

That’s when two tech-savvy individuals, Harsh Rajat, and Richa Joshi, felt the need for a genuine and organic communication medium and came up with Push Protocol (former EPNS Protocol).

Push Protocol underpins the Web3 communication network and is a decentralized notification system that provides real-time push notifications and messaging services to users of decentralized applications (dApps). This article teaches us more about this protocol and its impact on the blockchain space.

Building a Web3 world powered by seamless connectivity

From the basic push notification strategy to advanced features like abandoned cart reminders or new product releases, we all get notified of services we subscribe to. While this is true for Web 2.0, Web 3.0 users don’t have the same notification mechanism to notify users of important messages, updates, and actions required, affecting user onboarding and privacy.

Investors, developers, and builders of web3 apps and services primarily communicate with application and service users using web2 native services built on traditional centralized services, deviating from the intrinsic principles of blockchain- decentralization.

Push Protocol aims to address the communication friction and bring a user-friendly, simple communication interface to blockchain networks, along with a comprehensive suite of tools that will power all types of communication throughout the web3 ecosystem.

What is Push Protocol?

Push Protocol is a decentralized notification system that provides real-time push notifications to users of decentralized applications. It is built on top of Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS), with push notification capabilities, and is easily integrable with dApps across the Web 3.0 space. It is currently live on Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Chain.

How does Push Protocol work?

As mentioned above, Push Protocol is built on top of EPNS, a communication layer letting users receive notifications from dApps. EPNS app users can download and connect their wallets to enable notifications from on-chain events. The layer is network-agnostic, which means it’s compatible with various blockchain networks, including layer 2s, and censorship-resistant due to its decentralized middleware architecture.

Push Protocol assigns notifications payload (actual message) with a payload type to define its characteristics, such as the type of data and storage medium, along with rules between several channels of communication and their subscribers. The notification payload opens up avenues such as enabling payments, blacklisting addresses, and multi-factor authentication.

How long has Push Protocol been around?

Harsh Rajat and Richa Joshi co-founded EPNS in January 2020 in Mumbai. Push Protocol services have been widely adopted by Web3 applications. In 2021, EPNS launched its native governance token $PUSH. The $PUSH token enables governance over core functionalities of the protocol, including protocol fees, fee management, and network security among wallets that integrate Push.

$PUSH holders receive 70% of fees, while the ecosystem development pool receives 30%. $PUSH will issue 100,000,000 tokens, which will be divided among the community, investors, team, advisors, and foundation members.

EPNS rebranded to Push Protocol last year where the decision marked two commitments from the founders, which include moving beyond Ethereum and push notifications to other L1 and L2s and all forms of communication. Some of the early services included providing on-chain notifications, ENS domain expirations, and Oasis vault liquidations.

Some of the current services include:

• Push Notifications: Push Notifications enable easy connection of applications to users, enabling secure and personalized communication around customized on- and off-chain activity.

• Push Chat: Push Chat is a Web3-based native chat application with features like one-on-one chat, group chat, and sharing videos & images.

• Push DAO: Push DAO is the home of community ownership of the Push Protocol and lets $Push token holders view, propose, and vote on critical developments to the protocol.

Till date, Push Protocol has powered 17M+ notifications across 100 channels to around 60k subscribers and 450+ Push integrations. Some of the key investors include Tiger Global, Polygon Studios, Zebpay, Binance Labs, and Harmony Foundation, along with Web3 leaders like David Silverman (Aave), Andrew Keys (Darma Capital), and Justin Moses (SNX).

Push Protocol plans to expand to more L1s and L2s in 2023 as part of their multi-protocol, multi-communication vision and roll out Push Chat for community and technical partners to engage them in both in-person and digital events. The team also hopes to streamline feature requests through Push Improvement Proposal, which provides a forum for standardized, community-driven improvements to Push.

To sum up…

Web 3.0 is where the world is headed and it doesn’t have to be isolated. Push Protocol plays a big role in building a multi-chain communication future with seamless communication and engagement between users and developers in real time. This ensures a wider adoption of blockchain technology.