Three Ways Crypto Platforms Are Building Communities Impossible for Traditional Businesses

As brands look to community building as the next killer marketing trend, Web3 already holds a key advantage since community features are baked into the very core of the model. Projects like Starkware, Slash, and Lens Protocol showcase how Web3 projects are leveraging the unique features of blockchain to build communities focused on security, loyalty, and creator empowerment.

Over recent years, traditional brands have become more savvy to the opportunities in community building. McKinsey called community the “big idea” of 2020’s marketing and is seizing the chance to tell companies how they can build and engage their own communities using techniques such as sharing authentic brand and customer stories. 

However, there’s a key element missing from their models. Brands exist to drive sales, which isn’t necessarily a goal shared by the community the brand is attempting to build. Therefore, the incentives between brand and community aren’t necessarily in alignment. 

In Web3, decentralized communities have always been the foundation of the entire landscape. Successful projects operate token-based reward models that ensure the personal incentives of the community are aligned to the bigger-picture goals of the project itself. Bitcoin and Ethereum are two of the most prominent examples – but here are three more. 

Starknet 

Starknet is an Ethereum Layer 2 platform that was developed by Starkware, a centralized software firm that also provides the StarkEx exchange infrastructure. However, the firm has been working on a roadmap that has seen the project become progressively more open-source and decentralized. The latest development is that the project announced an airdrop of its native token, which is designed to ensure a widespread distribution among the Ethereum and broader blockchain development community. In turn, the opportunity for staking rewards, which can be earned from an allocation of free tokens, creates an incentive for airdrop recipients to participate in Starknet’s shared security. 

Around 60% of tokens are reserved for existing Starknet and StarkEx users, ensuring ample rewards for the existing community. However, a further 21.99% will be allocated for ETH stakers, with the remainder split between various developer communities. By distributing the rewards to such a diverse spread of groups, Starknet can widen its reach and appeal. 

Slash

Slash is a Japanese fintech provider that has developed a payment solution called Slash Pay, enabling anyone to spend their crypto at participating merchants. In the tightly regulated Japanese markets, Slash has found a solution that puts it in a unique position as the only provider of crypto payments in the country that meets the high bar for compliance. 

Like Starkware, Slash is taking steps to engage the community using an innovative, token-based reward model. Whereas centralized payment platforms take fees for profit, Slash is developing a token ecosystem that will redistribute 100% of fees collected from all products back to its token holders. A partnership with Mantle Network means all collected fees will be used to buy MNT tokens as part of a community pool, while Slash will also allocate 10% of its own SVL token to a reward pool. 

The project will soon be adding a compliant credit card to its arsenal, enabling anyone in Japan to spend their crypto using a regular card for the first time. Furthermore, the fees generated from card use will be distributed back to Slash tokenholders, creating a virtuous cycle of rewards and incentives. 

Lens Protocol 

The allure of Lens Protocol is less in its own reward mechanisms and more in the fact that it’s a protocol for creators to own the links between themselves and their communities. Developed by the team behind leading DeFi protocol Aave, Lens Protocol opens up access to the hidden part of social media known as the social graph, which is the complex network of connections used by the algorithm to determine what to show on our feeds. In doing so, it allows creators to better tailor and target their content to audiences and, thus, more effectively build their communities. 

Unlike centralized social media, creators own their content and can choose the terms under which it’s viewed, including monetizing access under terms laid down by the creator. Since the platform doesn’t own the content, the creator can’t have it taken down or censored, although any user can still block it from their feed if they wish. 

One of the applications building on Lens Protocol is Phaver, a social network that smooths the onboarding to Web3 by enabling users to participate without necessarily broadcasting on-chain or having a wallet. It uses a reputation and curation system to ensure that each user has the most relevant feed for their preferences.

While Lens Protocol is still under development, with the V2 released last year, the project has created significant excitement among Web3 circles due to the credibility of the development team and the potential for Lens Protocol to support a wealth of other social media applications. 

If traditional firms are serious about building engaged, cohesive communities that really care about a bigger purpose, then there is plenty happening in the Web3 space to excite them. However, it will involve taking a leap into the realm of new technologies and embracing the benefits of openness and decentralization.