Fast take:
Me Protocol has constructed a rewards platform for manufacturers, video games and different consumer-facing apps to attach their applications.
Anybody, web3 sport, reward token and so on. can acquire on the spot liquidity for his or her token by connecting it with the Me Protocol, says Wesley.
He additionally shares his ideas on the Starbucks Odyssey program, which closed in March and the way it was capable of display the scalability of an NFT-based rewards program.
Certainly one of crypto’s greatest speaking factors has been “whether or not folks can use it as they might some other foreign money.” Nevertheless, over the previous few years, cost providers like PayPal and on-line purchasing marketplaces together with Shopify began to embrace crypto funds, permitting crypto holders to seek out extra real-life use instances for his or her belongings.
Whereas the likes of PayPal and Shopify have expanded the utility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins, one rising phase of the crypto business, and one which Wesley thinks might play a component in onboarding lots to Web3 nonetheless lags.
Rewards applications date again many years, with manufacturers utilizing them to advertise buyer loyalty. Nevertheless, they’ve all the time been closed ecosystems, with utility restricted to the model itself or a centralised community, take Starbucks as an example, which launched the cardboard reward program in 2009.
However might you redeem the factors earned in your Starbucks card for fuel? In fact not. Not even for a cup of espresso at McDonald’s.
That’s one thing that Wesley and his workforce at Me Protocol consider might be mounted utilizing blockchain expertise. And though Starbucks did experiment with an NFT-based rewards program, it didn’t work out, and the restaurant chain finally shut it down.
Ramsey thinks that had Starbucks pivoted in the direction of the fungible aspect of the tokenised rewards for the mainstream, the corporate might have had higher luck with this system.
Even with the blockchain-based Starbucks Odyssey prospects might solely redeem factors for Starbucks services.
“If you wish to allow issues like straight redeeming Starbucks rewards for a pizza, you want a fungible reward in there, and our Protocol brokers the transaction with out Starbucks or Pizza Hut having to speak to one another,” Says Wesley.
Wesley discusses extra about his Web3 journey, buyer rewards and the significance of knowledge privateness within the age of AI in our dialog under.
Briefly inform us about your journey in Web3 and what impressed you to construct Me Protocol.
I really feel like I’ve lived a number of lives professionally, however they’re all related. From worldwide diplomacy to deep tech, I’ve been working internationally my total profession, and along with founding a number of corporations, I had the honour to work on among the most difficult problems with my technology. As for the origin of the Me Protocol, it dates to after I was growing an AI Agent for journey again throughout the peak of COVID, again earlier than all of the generative AI hype. I used to be constructing in journey, throughout COVID, so you may think about nobody was answering my emails. I believed “wouldn’t or not it’s nice if I might simply give somebody a present, a reward, for opening my e-mail, and even when they couldn’t use it they might give it to a buddy would might?” That’s how I began down the rabbit gap of blockchain. I met my co-founder Paul in that rabbit gap. He had been down there fairly a while having constructed a L1 and founding the blockchain program on the Pan Atlantic College. After we popped-up, we had an answer that will be the inspiration for a world rewards financial system. It was the Me Protocol.
What function do you see web3 buyer loyalty applications taking part in within the mass adoption of customers?
Effectively, rewards interoperability is a good use-case for blockchain tech. Most shoppers in superior economies have rewards from manufacturers that they don’t use, both as a result of they don’t realise they’ve them within the first place or as a result of they’ll’t simply use them on issues they need. About $180b value. How many people have unused airline miles? With the assistance of blockchain tech, we are able to make any reward a common reward that may be immediately redeemed throughout any related model. If you happen to make that straightforward sufficient for shoppers and types to take part in, you may onboard lots into web3 with out them even realising they’ve a pockets.
What would you say is the most important problem that present blockchain-based rewards applications face and the way does Me Protocol repair that? Can the identical be stated about conventional rewards applications?
They don’t supply a lot differentiation from non-blockchain-based applications, or in any other case haven’t created a person expertise that manufacturers and shoppers can simply undertake. Actually tokenising a reward can create much more friction if it can’t be simply used. Whereas all of us love the geeky features of blockchains, most shoppers don’t give sh*t. What they care about is determining a method to make use of all these accumulating airline miles that they earned, or getting a reduction on a cool new product that actually need however can’t fairly get the braveness to press the purchase button. You need to supply them one thing totally different. The Me Protocol makes one thing actually exhausting, very easy, for each manufacturers and shoppers. It permits any model to attach their reward program so their prospects can immediately use their rewards on merchandise throughout any related model. No have to alternate something, no have to know what a pockets is, simply “here’s a reward, go use it wherever and in all places you need”. That may be a real-world exhausting drawback that blockchain can clear up in a trustless, frictionless method.
What’s the greatest problem that you just’ve confronted up to now in your quest to “Liberating Web3 Rewards?”
Largely time (and cash). Anybody, web3 sport, reward token and so on. can acquire on the spot liquidity for his or her token by connecting it with the Me Protocol. Now we have been actually full-on constructing 4 advanced merchandise and penetrating a number of conventional industries together with journey and style. So, we’ve barely discovered time to achieve out to our personal web3 clan to welcome of their tasks. You wouldn’t consider how small our funds has been. It’s not sustainable, so we determined to speak in confidence to new financing. We’re additionally launching our token on the finish of November, which is able to open much more alternatives for the web3 neighborhood to get entangled.
In March, Starbucks closed its NFT-based loyalty program, Odyssey. What do you suppose might be executed to make such applications extra sustainable? How can manufacturers profit from integrating their rewards applications with Me Protocol?
The Starbucks program was a cool experiment in how scalable the “collectables” strategy could be in a shopper model with a big fan base. I used to be shocked they didn’t pivot the on-chain half to focus extra on fungible (factors) rewards for mainstream prospects whereas sustaining the NFT half for the segments wanting the next degree of engagement. In different phrases, I might have flipped the emphasis. For the Me Protocol, the fungible half is like the usual foreign money for the model that’s straightforward to make use of, switch and perceive. If you wish to allow issues like straight redeeming Starbucks rewards for a pizza, you want a fungible reward in there, and our Protocol brokers the transaction with out Starbucks or Pizza Hut having to speak to one another. Anybody can simply plug and play their rewards program.
As a Web3 rewards platform, Me Protocol offers with quite a lot of buyer information. Does it make use of AI and machine studying indirectly? And if it does, what measures has the corporate taken to reinforce person privateness?
We take into consideration the info when it comes to how we are able to let shoppers higher leverage their buying energy and shopper profile to be higher rewarded. For instance, I need to have the ability to stroll down a busy purchasing avenue and have manufacturers there airdrop me rewards as I get nearer to their retailer. They don’t have to understand it’s Robert Wesley strolling down the road, simply that somebody strolling by likes watches or video games, or no matter. The AI/ML filters out the noise for me so I’m not getting spammed, and perhaps jogs my memory I have to get my spouse one thing too so would I prefer it to let the shops know?
A number of Web3 VCs together with Paradigm have launched new funds to speculate on the intersection of blockchain expertise and synthetic intelligence, the place do you see the business in 5 years?
There may be quite a lot of funding being thrown at AI-related every little thing. A few of that is the everyday ‘lemming’ funding strategy, however AI is for certain massively disruptive and deserving of inserting massive bets. Blockchain-related tech will likely be a core enablement layer for AI, and particularly as we get down the highway a bit on extra autonomous brokers. Decentralisation, information provenance, information immutability, and so on. are all options which will show key to permitting brokers extra accountability. Accessing blockchain-based tokens, whether or not to make use of as foreign money to fund their work or to safe entry to information and different sources, might find yourself being accelerants for the AI business and thus Paradigm’s fund could also be extra than simply hype. If I used to be a fund like Paradigm, I might nonetheless focus the AI fund on key infrastructure and value tasks that AI can then extra simply utilise when the cross-over occurs. Our rewards infrastructure is a possible constructing block sooner or later AI stack.
Keep up to the mark:
Subscribe to our publication utilizing this hyperlink – we gained’t spam!
Comply with us on X and Telegram.
