At @sharddog.near we are seeing projects who want to drive users to NEAR social but there is the issue of funding, costs to interact, and wallet/account creation. ShardDog can solve these through links that allow wallet creation and then pre-funding the account for NEAR social. We can do this by adding to the storage amount directly instead of funding the wallet where they could then use the funds directly or leverage shared storage. This helps minimize one pain point of needing funds and having to pay for transactions. It's how you can make a tiered-based version where people would be willing to pay a small fee to have additional features which in turn more than covers the cost on-chain. While this onboarding experience can be really strong, the user experience still needs middleware. While this setup is not going to fit in the truly decentralized experience, the actual end input/output of data still is. Everything is still on-chain and can be used wherever. Middleware in this context serves as the bridge that connects the NEAR blockchain technology with the user-friendly, interactive space of social media. For the non-technical, it translates the complex, robust features of NEAR into a digestible and (arguably most important) responsive experience for users. Blockchain transactions, while secure and immutable, were not designed for real-time interaction. The inherent latency due to block confirmation times, as fast as they can be, limit the user experience on a social media platform, where instantaneous feedback is expected. Furthermore, data retrieval from the blockchain can be a time-consuming process, which again doesn't bode well for the immediacy of social networks. This is where a middleware-based solution comes in. It could gracefully handle these constraints by introducing a Temporary Storage Layer for new and editable content, and a Caching Layer for quick access to committed data. This allows for the immediacy users expect when posting or viewing content while still maintaining the benefits of blockchain's immutability and security for finalized posts. Additionally, the middleware manages the computational load of data aggregation and sorting for individual user feeds. This is paramount in ensuring a relevant and timely experience of content, two cornerstones of any successful social media platform. Users need that feedback loop of likes comments and new content. Also to be able to interact in real-time adds to this experience. Lastly, it allows for the introduction of some key features like **editing a post**, real-time threads, notifications, and with encryption, direct messages. A strong middleware could also open up an API to allow other services to interact with the data in a more nuanced manner vs everything directly on-chain today.