EtherEthos

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why is it important that I *own* my profile data?

  Before EtherEthos, you give your data away for free, all the time. To every app that asks you to create a profile, from marketplaces to social networks. You give up control over that data and entrust its security to a centralized entity. Do you think their security practices as good as an Ethereum private key??? In addition, owning your profile data means that, with EtherEthos adoption, you only need to update it, delete it, turn it off, etc. in one place - the contract. If you build your EtherEthos, the apps will come to you.

• What is composability and why should I care?

  Composability allows for simple use of data across various apps and implementations. It creates opportunities for a more streamlined app development, and it creates opportunities for better user experience - your experience. I means that smart contracts can actually use the data and incorporate it into their functions. It creates a more 'open' world to share your data - if you want to.

• How can I remove my data?

  When you write your data to the EtherEthos contract, you create a permanent record of that data on-chain. Even if you disable composability (turns off live access through the contract) or overwrite the data entirely, the initially stored data will still exist and still be publicly accessible through blockchain explorers. You should not 'dox' yourself on EtherEthos unless you're already public about your identity. You should never write any personally identifiable information to the contract.

• How does this work with multiple chains?

  Data on each chain is by default separate - updating data on mainnet does not update data on an L2. We are entering a multi-layer world though, and on every layer, a user can update a timestamp (this is the timestamp ping). Apps that use EtherEthos data could search profiles on each supported layer and only pull the data from the newest timestamp. In such a scenario, one could write data on an L2, and if the timestamp is farther along than mainnet, the app would serve the L2's data.

• What is respecting, respect, and notes?

  EtherEthos evolved from a sort of 'on-chain resume' system, and viewing these features in that framework might help. Respecting an account shows that a user is publicly showing their respect for another. This could simply be used as a social signal, and this data is shown on both accounts - the respect giver and receiver. In addition, respecting an account gives the respect-receiving account permission to write the respect-giving account a note. These notes are public and visible on both account's profiles, and these can be thought of as professional endorsements/recommendations, or just simple notes 'Congrats on the launch!'. Given two accounts, A and B, if each account respects the other, each account can only write one note for the other. This note can be overwritten by the writer, and it can be deleted by either party.

• I'm an app/contract dev, and I want to use this data! Where do I start?

  Awesome! First and foremost, understand that it is EtherEthos's intention that apps only use live contract data, thereby adhering to the composability wishes of every account. If you don't agree to that, ask yourself if users will want to use your app when you don't respect their wishes. Right? Ok, check out the docs on docs.etherethos.com. Also note that this site does not store any profile data, it only retrieves data live from chain, and it is a public repo. Additionally, there are a growing number of NFT contracts that use EtherEthos data, starting with BLONKS. The relevant functions are included in this project's documentation.

• Is this free?

  Anyone, any service, and any contract can use the EtherEthos systems (website, contract, and the data within it) for free / only paying gas when applicable. There are no platform fees paid to EtherEthos.com, the contract, or the dev, @MonkMatto. There are costs associated with running this service for free to all Ethereum users, and any tips are appreciated at dev.EtherEthos.eth (0xC4D3972282107087eDA58f8BA2DE3C36e09DC236).