Ethereum's Communication Layer EPNS: Interview With Co-Founder Harsh Rajat At EthCC 5 Paris

Harsh Rajat, the co-founder of Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS), sat down with Benzinga last week at the Ethereum ETH/USD community conference in Paris.

Rajat discussed the importance of integrating push notifications, not just into Ethereum, but Web3 in general. His project, EPNS, has become a go-to protocol for Web3 users looking to keep on top of their wallet activity.

Rajat was asked to clairify this protocol and why it is just as important to have notifications in Web3 as it is in Web2. 

“Without notifications, how will you know that your social network has had any interaction, and what to do with it? And even right now, I mean, look at Defi. We have loans that get liquidated in wallet addresses, and we are not able to know exactly when the loans are liquidated," said Rajat.  

"We have governance proposals that come and go, and again, wallet addresses are users. They don't know that this thing is happening. Take a look at almost anything, you know, domain expiry, or whether it's something as simple as sending or receiving crypto.”

The need for a communications layer between wallets and DApps has become more and more clear, as did the impact the Ethereum network and community had left on Rajat. His appreciation for the platform, as well as for the community, shone through in the interview. When asked about this, Rajat explained Ethereum’s role in helping to build his vision.

“The support and the love we saw from the Ethereum Foundation, the more we started talking about the idea, the more the Ethereum community and even the mentors, sort of leaders, at that point of time, reached out to us and started helping us," said Rajat.

"That is where, you know, I got my love for Ethereum. And that is when I understood that innovation happens on Ethereum, you know, all you need is an idea and you just need to reach out for help. And no matter whether it is the Ethereum Foundation, no matter if it's Vitalik. I know that the mentors or founders or even the community, all of them, try to help you out in one way or the other.”

The support for Ethereum was unwavering, even in light of the recent market turmoil. Rajat, like many other founders at the event, seemed unaffected. 

“I do believe that bear market or bull market, it's probably for traders, it's probably for people who are investors,” said Rajat. “For builders, it doesn't matter in a way. It's very good for builders because, you know, if you look at the bear market or the previous bear market, OpenSea and Uniswap came out of it.

“So I don't see builders going away. I do see now funding becoming a problem for some of the projects. But at the same time, if you keep on surviving and if you keep on building, the next cycle will restart. And at that point of time, if you're growing your project or relatively growing your project, it will become more visible.”

His vision for the Web3 ecosystem is something that will hopefully be replicated as the space continues to develop and expand.