Read the Verifiable Credentials section in Newton Protocol docs, and I keep getting stuck on a very small detail.
Among a bunch of SDK methods for Identity, Verification, and Credential Management, @NewtonProtocol is still reserved entirely for a method called unlinkApp().
At first glance, it seems like this is only an API for revoking the link between a user and an application.
But the more I think about it, the more I feel that the existence of this method may be more noteworthy than what it actually does.
A system truly only needs unlinkApp() if, from the very beginning, the team has accepted that users always have Exit Rights.
If that assumption is correct, Newton Protocol might be pursuing a Voluntary Lock-in strategy.
That sounds contradictory at first.
Usually, Lock-in is created by gradually increasing Switching Costs, making it harder and harder for users to leave the system. But with Voluntary Lock-in, the option to leave is always there. The only thing keeping users around is their own choice.
That also means Newton Protocol effectively gives up one of the most common Competitive Moats among Web3 platforms.
When Exit is always protected, Newton Protocol can’t rely on Switching Costs to retain Users.
In my view, this is the real point worth thinking about.
If Voluntary Lock-in is truly a choice in Product Design, then each Active User is no longer simply a growth metric.
They become evidence that even when Exit rights always exist, they still continue to choose Stay.
In other words, unlinkApp() may not just be an SDK method.
It may be a small signal that Newton Protocol doesn’t view Lock-in as the result of barriers, but as the result of voluntary decisions repeated over time.
#Newt $MAGMA $LAB $NEWT
Among a bunch of SDK methods for Identity, Verification, and Credential Management, @NewtonProtocol is still reserved entirely for a method called unlinkApp().
At first glance, it seems like this is only an API for revoking the link between a user and an application.
But the more I think about it, the more I feel that the existence of this method may be more noteworthy than what it actually does.
A system truly only needs unlinkApp() if, from the very beginning, the team has accepted that users always have Exit Rights.
If that assumption is correct, Newton Protocol might be pursuing a Voluntary Lock-in strategy.
That sounds contradictory at first.
Usually, Lock-in is created by gradually increasing Switching Costs, making it harder and harder for users to leave the system. But with Voluntary Lock-in, the option to leave is always there. The only thing keeping users around is their own choice.
That also means Newton Protocol effectively gives up one of the most common Competitive Moats among Web3 platforms.
When Exit is always protected, Newton Protocol can’t rely on Switching Costs to retain Users.
In my view, this is the real point worth thinking about.
If Voluntary Lock-in is truly a choice in Product Design, then each Active User is no longer simply a growth metric.
They become evidence that even when Exit rights always exist, they still continue to choose Stay.
In other words, unlinkApp() may not just be an SDK method.
It may be a small signal that Newton Protocol doesn’t view Lock-in as the result of barriers, but as the result of voluntary decisions repeated over time.
#Newt $MAGMA $LAB $NEWT