RSS3

RSS3 Essay

The Next Stage of RSS3

A note on tighter focus, a cleaner architecture, and the next phase of RSS3 across RSSHub, Folo, and Ethereum.

Dear RSS3 community,

Today, we want to share an important next step in the evolution of our work.

RSS3 began with a conviction that the open web deserved better infrastructure for information, and that decentralized networks could serve a purpose beyond finance. That conviction guided everything that followed. We spent years building the indexing layer, designing the network, shipping products, and working through questions that did not have clear answers at the time. In many ways RSS3 was a long attempt to answer one difficult question: whether decentralized networks could genuinely serve as the underlying layer for a new generation of consumer information.

We have made real progress. DSL has served over 404 million requests. Folo reached the top ten on the App Store in several countries and has grown to more than 700k users. RSSHub has quietly become the largest open RSS network in the world. RSS3 has become a meaningful part of the Open Information Layer of the Open Web, and the work we have done here has helped shape how many people in this space think about the problem.

However, over the past year, we've also realized that it will take a longer time to build the future we envision. Almost all non-financial deliveries of decentralized networks have been struggling with mass adoption and profitable business models. Many projects ended, and many of those that remain had to move away either from decentralization or from the vertical itself. At the same time, the emergence of LLM-based AI has significantly shaped the landscape of information services and the role of open information structures. We believe this environment calls for sharper focus, leaner execution, and a simpler architecture. In that context, RSS3 is evolving into a more sophisticated form by shedding legacy burdens that were necessary in an earlier stage but are no longer required today. This is a strategic pivot designed to concentrate resources where they can create the most leverage, reduce duplicated research and development effort, and move us closer to the protocols and products people actually use.

From here on, focus will be disciplined. RSSHub will be the core of our infrastructure work, with the goal of making it the definitive open information network of the AI era, the layer that both people and models rely on to reach the open web. Folo will be our flagship consumer product, built toward mass adoption. A product in this category can reach tens of millions of users, and we are working at that scale. $RSS3 will take on a more central role across both of these and the protocols and applications we release next, so its position becomes more concrete and closer to the products people actually use.

Today the RSS3 Foundation is entering its next stage, with a tighter focus on the protocols and products that can carry this vision forward. This change will now take shape through a series of concrete steps:

  • The foundation will focus on maintaining and developing RSSHub, as the world's best RSS network.
  • The foundation will focus on growing Folo for mass adoption.
  • The foundation will gradually integrate $RSS3 into existing and future protocols and applications.

Meanwhile, VSL and DSL will move into the next stage of this work through a migration to Ethereum.

  • VSL will hand its role over to Ethereum. VSL served an important role in validating the feasibility of onchain information networks. But the next stage calls for a more unified execution environment. As Ethereum L1 has become significantly more efficient in both cost and performance, it now makes more sense for onchain activities to happen directly on Ethereum, with stronger security, deeper liquidity, and better composability.
  • DSL will be integrated into the broader RSSHub stack as the migration completes. The open information supply it helped bootstrap will continue to live inside RSSHub and the products built on top of it, and future value distribution will happen through structures better suited to where we are going. All epoch rewards owed to DSL node operators will be fully accounted for through an onchain snapshot, so nothing that has been earned will be lost.
  • The VSL bridge withdrawal is now paused. For users who previously initiated a withdrawal but have not yet finalized it, these processes will be completed as part of the migration.
  • All $RSS3 on VSL will be migrated to Ethereum, with a portal to claim once the migration finishes.
  • $POWER on VSL will be converted to $RSS3 at a fixed rate of 23 $POWER for 1 $RSS3, and will be open for claim once the migration finishes.
  • The full migration is expected to be completed within the coming weeks, at which point all claim portals will go live together.

RSS3 will move forward with a tighter focus and a structure better suited to what comes next. The past few years have already answered part of the original question, open information can support real products, real usage, at meaningful scale. The work ahead is to build on that foundation in a form that can operate more efficiently, adapt more quickly, and carry this vision further.

That is where the next stage of RSS3 begins.

For questions or feedback: contact@rss3.io