Since 2020, we witness a huge number of new web 3 entrepreneurs that are building on-chain businesses.
Those new businesses are decentralized applications built on top of decentralized protocols like the Ethereum Network.
Like Chris Dixon said : Blockchains are the new app store.
From play to earn games to NFT marketplaces to Defi apps, Dapps keep popping up each and every day.
And as new dapps emerge, we also see numerous creators and brands building businesses & careers on top of those decentralized applications.
We are seeing the same type of emergence as web 2 where brands and creators are building on top of centralized platforms like Youtube and Facebook.
Actually, this creator economy tops now at a 100b$ market.
As of today, the web 3 creator economy is made of :
Statement 1 : The emergence of Shopify type of dapps (as open platforms) will facilitate the access to web 3 opportunities lowering the entry barriers for creators & brands by allowing them to build on top of them.
Examples :
Statement 2 : Financial bridges are the last important piece of infrastructure needed to scale the web3 creator economy.
NFTs have drastically changed market dynamics because it brought culture to crypto.
We went from complex defi products built by degens to NFT drops from big companies like Adidas.
And it creates a gap with new needs.
The reason is quite simple : blockchain networks are economies where every transaction happens in crypto-currencies.
But, web 3 businesses are now built by brands, entrepreneurs and artists coming from web 2 with a financial structure based on fiat only (accounting, compliance, expenses, suppliers, banks…).
This raises questions like :
This is why we created Nilos.
Today, Nilos is a financial platform for web 2 businesses that want to enter the web 3 space.
To some extent, we are building the web 3 version of Stripe to bridge web 2 and web 3.
The product is composed of two core components :
So businesses can :
We combined different technologies to make sur the whole flow is covered.
Today, big brands and content platforms want to leverage their network pushing NFTs offers. They are the ones holding relationships with relevant IPs and are not only incentivized to create new experiences for them but kind of forced to as web 3 is turning relationships between creators and fans upside down letting them own part of the IP in exchange of financial investments.
They need to offer better experiences to their creators/artists.
So the first natural market to target are :
How ?
Today, most of brands see NFTs as part of their marketing strategy (and studios don’t have the technical expertise (handling wallets, minting smart contracts, handling cryptos) to create NFT experiences.
So they hire NFT studios or ask their advertising agencies to com up with creative solutions or partner with native web 3 brands in collaboration.
Those agencies/studios tend to handle all the web 2 brands’ wallets (therefore the private keys of their clients) and handle, track, report incomes manually. (yes, it’s the farwest ;))
We will distribute Nilos via those agencies/studios as it is both a selling argument for their clients and a huge value prop for them.
This is phase 1 : Nilos is the proxy wallet you need to enter the market.
We believe that as the market get structured and more companies join the space, we will see more abstraction and less complexity with :
And this is when things become really interesting.
We believe it will unlock the web 3 creator economy : brands/creators/freelancers building businesses and careers on top of web 3 platforms (dapps) using their wallets as financial bank accounts. (Nice article about it by JP at Felix)
This is phase 2 : Nilos becomes a neobank for web 3 entrepreneurs.
If you’re a studio/communication/advertising agency working with brands/creators/artists helping them entering the metaverse, please reach out, would love to learn more.
Eytan Messika, Co-Founder at Nilos