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Web3 doesn’t have essentially the most inclusive status, but so many crypto founders discuss onboarding the following 100 million customers into the area. Statistically talking, the following 100 million can’t probably be comprised totally of a homogenous group of cis white males who spend most of their waking hours coding and/or day buying and selling (no shade, simply mentioning a truth)!
This week on Chain Reaction, I interviewed Devin Lewtan, a twentysomething founder who appears to have discovered the key sauce relating to bringing web3 to new audiences.
Her NYC-based media firm, Mad Realities, simply debuted its first season of “Proof of Love,” a actuality TV present centered on relationship that enables viewers to have interaction with the plot and vote on key selections via NFTs. This April, Mad Realities raised $6 million in a seed spherical from buyers together with crypto VC agency Paradigm and socialite Paris Hilton to construct a platform they hope will grow to be the ‘Netflix of web3.’ You may hearken to the complete interview with Devin beneath.
“We expect the factor that’s going to deliver the following 100 million individuals into crypto goes to be content material, as a result of it’s intuitive. It’s an actual shopper use case,” Lewtan stated on the podcast.
Lewtan, who catapulted into tech world fame when she co-released the viral Clubhouse present “NYU Ladies Roasting Tech Guys” in the course of the top of the pandemic, first received inquisitive about NFTs when began chatting along with her buddy and now-cofounder Alice Ma about how crypto might assist change the best way media is funded.
“We put out a weblog publish mainly saying, what would it not appear like if we placed on this relationship present the place individuals minted our NFTs they usually might vote on who made it into the present, what occurs and who wins and get enjoyable, particular, governance perks primarily based on the tier that they purchased,” Lewtan stated.
Shortly after the Mad Realities crew launched its first weblog publish in November, they’d raised the equal of ~$500k USD value of ethereum to finance manufacturing. In a matter of just some months, they’d whipped up a five-week, interactive present filmed in individual in New York Metropolis.
The viewers for the primary season, which wrapped up in April this 12 months, was ~65% feminine and comprised primarily of people that have been simply there for the leisure worth of the present at first relatively than for its connection to web3, Lewtan stated.
Mad Realities CEO and cofounder Devin Lewtan Picture Credit: Supplied by Devin Lewtan
As soon as viewers members noticed the perks and voting rights afforded to Mad Realities NFT holders, known as “roseholders” in a nod to “The Bachelor” franchise, they have been intrigued.
“They have been in a position to say to their associates, I’m fairly positive that these roseholders that hold showing are individuals who purchased NFTs, and people NF T’s allow them to vote on issues, after which the cash from the NFTs funded the present. After which they’re like, that truly is sensible to me, greater than most initiatives within the area … that’s not likely just like the scammy kind of use case that I take into consideration with NFTs,” Lewtan stated.
As for what’s subsequent, Lewtan stated the following season of “Proof of Love” launching this fall will inform the startup because it crafts a broader imaginative and prescient for what a web3 media platform might appear like. They’re experimenting with concepts equivalent to bringing different content material creators onto the Mad Realities platform and serving to them launch their very own NFT initiatives for his or her audiences, she added.
Above all, Lewtan emphasised the significance of preserving user-friendliness prime of thoughts whereas constructing the product.
“One of many issues that we’re specializing in now as we construct out our app is that it’s essential that [creating a crypto wallet] shouldn’t be one of many steps within the course of. It’s best to simply be capable of create an account and never take into consideration the truth that it’s linked to a pockets,” Lewtan stated.
“A pockets is suitable, however in case you enroll, it’s best to be capable of have an NFT in your pockets and your app and never even give it some thought … So lots of the stuff that we’re specializing in is, what’s the expertise prefer to be so consumer pleasant and mobile-first the place it doesn’t even really feel prefer it’s a crypto product?”