Exclusive Interview with Metya Co-founder Allen Soc: Building a New World of AI Social Networking, the Cornerstone of Web3’s Next Decade

Guest: Metya Co-founder Allen Soc

“To work in a bubble, one needs faith and a sense of direction.”

This is a phrase that Metya co-founder Allen Soc often repeats. As the former global growth lead for a top Web2 platform, Allen has long been deeply involved in user growth, product operations, and community ecology, possessing strong insights into how to create sustainable user experiences and scalable growth systems.

He has witnessed how traditional social platforms drive growth through centralized algorithms and has personally experienced the bottlenecks brought about by data privacy controversies and the decline of traffic dividends. Through numerous global operational experiments and localized implementations, Allen began to deeply contemplate the question of “whether users truly own their data and identity.”

“Web2 turned social interactions into a traffic business but forgot the original intention of connection.”
It is based on this reflection on digital identity sovereignty and the value of user participation that Allen gradually shifted towards Web3 and began to build a decentralized, incentivized, and evolving new social network system —— this is the starting point of Metya.

He firmly believes: The products that can truly transcend cycles are those that serve real users and possess long-term evolutionary capabilities, rather than fleeting narratives or speculative trends.

Metya was born under this philosophy —— a new Web3 social platform that combines AI Agents, DePIN networks, and on-chain incentive mechanisms, dedicated to redefining the “connection” between people. Since its launch in early 2025, Metya has surpassed 1.9 million registered users, rapidly expanding its global community, with the $MET token listed on multiple mainstream platforms, and several regional operational nodes established.

But all of this is far from the end.

Starting Point: Why “Social”?

Allen never shies away from his obsession with “connecting people.”

“Social interaction is the most human-centric among all applications; it inherently possesses the attributes of frequency, emotion, and value accumulation. Even amidst the cycles of AI explosions, GameFi innovations, and BTC narratives, the relationships and interactions between people remain the next super entry point for blockchain.”

Therefore, from the very beginning, Metya’s goals have far exceeded labels like “Web3 version of Tinder” or “decentralized WeChat.” It is a full-stack social system driven by AI, propelled by on-chain incentives, and supported by DePIN networks.

On Metya, users engage in matching, chatting, creating, and governance through AI agents, with all social relationships crystallized as on-chain assets. Data belongs to the users themselves, behaviors can be rewarded, and even chatting can create economic value.

“We are not building an app; we are reconstructing the social network protocol.”

Allen states that Metya’s long-term goal is to become the “Android system of Web3 social” —— developers can deploy various agents based on the protocol, users can freely switch between different social scenarios, hardware nodes provide computational support, and value feedback is realized through $MET in a closed loop.

Four Steps to Build a “Social Financial Operating System”

To realize this systematic vision, Metya has constructed a development path that progresses from shallow to deep.

In the initial phase, Metya focuses on cold start and the establishment of an economic model. The launch of the $MET mainnet token introduced a basic value circulation system to the platform; the deployment of the on-chain Staking module provides users with sustainable participation incentives; the introduction of Mini Apps creates a closed loop for early AI social experiences, planting the first seed of interaction for users.

Entering the second phase, Metya continuously broadens and evolves its tech stack. The AI system achieves multilingual matching, emotion recognition, and other functions, while the wallet module gradually integrates multi-chain support and cross-scenario transactions, paving the way for the assetization and tokenization of social relationships. At the same time, NFTs are introduced to the platform as an experimental form of social assets, laying the foundation for future Web3 personas and relationship networks.

In the third phase, the platform will introduce content incentive mechanisms and hardware entry points. The Mini Ear device, designed based on DePIN, not only has voice recognition and AI interaction capabilities but also achieves efficient responses through edge computing; meanwhile, an on-chain UGC mechanism will also be launched to encourage users to create socially valuable content that can generate income, truly activating the creator economy.

Ultimately, Metya will enter the stage of global expansion and governance implementation. Localized nodes in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Latin America will successively connect, building a multilingual and multicultural global social network; a community governance system will also be launched simultaneously, allowing users to participate in platform evolution through proposals and voting; Metya will also create offline “social centers” and event spaces, completing the ecological closed loop between the virtual and the real.

“We may not move quickly, but every step lays the foundation for the future.”

Not Chasing Trends, But Building Underlying Structures

While the entire market is chasing “AI concepts,” “Meme narratives,” and “L2 explosions,” Metya has taken a structuralist “slow path”:

• Not creating “virtual AI chat toys,” but building “personality agents”

• Not making “graphic social stacking,” but realizing “on-chain relationship financialization”

• Not developing “traffic tool platforms,” but constructing a “closed-loop social economic system”

Allen recalls: “Many people see our community’s vibrancy and impressive data and suggest we focus on exchanges, pump and dump, and making ‘quick money.’ But we have always been very restrained. The issuance of $MET is not for speculation, but to build a truly sustainable social economic system.”

In his view, tokens should not just be a financing tool but a “value protocol” that connects users, developers, and ecosystem participants: “If it were just for short-term boosts, we could choose an easier path. But what we want to build is an operating system that can support hundreds of millions of users and trillions of interactions.”

Instead of Pretending to Understand “E,” It’s Better to Sincerely Do “I”

Although Metya currently has a significant presence on X and Telegram, Allen describes himself as a typical INTP —— quiet, rational, tech-oriented, and fond of systematic thinking. He humorously states:

“Most of our team members are actually ‘I people,’ not very good at socializing and not very knowledgeable about marketing. But this is precisely the original intention behind Metya —— to provide a fairer, smarter, and more trustworthy way of connection for introverts, marginalized individuals, and cross-cultural users.”

Therefore, from product structure design to operational activity arrangements, Metya always adheres to “real interaction” and “pragmatism.”
Rather than desperately pulling people into groups, they care more about whether users are willing to stay and build long-term relationships on the platform.

Three Numbers Define the Next Three Years

When discussing the next three years, Allen only mentioned three numbers:

• 100 million registered users

• 10 million daily active users

• 50 million AI-Agent assets

He made it very clear: “We are not painting a picture of airdrops, nor predicting market value, but hope that one day, Web3 social will no longer be a concept but a part of people’s daily lives.”

He concluded the interview by quoting his favorite saying:

“Long-termism is not about waiting for miracles, but about doing the right things every day.”

Conclusion: The Future of Social is On-Chain

AI is the wave, DePIN is the breakthrough, Staking is the engine, and governance is the belonging. But the core that runs through all of this has always been —— people.

Those who desire to express, those who wish to respond, and those who long to establish real relationships in a complex world.

And Metya is attempting to reconstruct a new social universe for them.