Ishan Pandey: Hi, TJ Kawamura. I am delighted to welcome you to our "Behind the Startup" series. Could you please provide insights into the inspiration behind Everyworld and how it aligns with Everyrealm's overall mission and vision?
TJ Kawamura: Everyrealm is, at its core, a social gaming company. There are some really interesting applications of social gaming and blockchain together. Cryptocurrencies have an awesome power to bring people together, rallying communities to collaborate toward common goals. We started to think about harnessing the positive aspects of blockchain technology, which bring communities together, and building a new product centered around an enormous and growing industry—video gaming—and serving a genuine business need by driving new customers to video games through a rewarded ads model, which is one of the fastest-growing ad verticals. What if the global content network of the future that rewards its users? That’s the idea behind Everyworld.
Ishan Pandey: How does Everyworld's blockchain-enabled protocol differentiate itself from traditional advertising platforms, and what advantages does it offer to both users and advertisers?
TJ Kawamura: Everyworld is the world’s first web3 ad network that was designed specifically to benefit users and the public good equally. The project is a rewarded ads protocol, where players are rewarded for watching video content. The more that users play and engage, the more chances they receive to participate in the drawing. This represents a complete reimagining of the traditional advertising model, giving users the opportunity to earn crypto rewards for simple things they already do every day. Everyworld is powered by its own cryptocurrency, called $Every.
Ishan Pandey: With the rise of ad-blocking software and growing concerns over privacy, how does Everyworld address these challenges while still providing value to advertisers?
TJ Kawamura: By explicitly and transparently embracing the desire for personal gain through an on-chain reward system, Everyworld is designed to provide the gamified satisfaction of unpredictable payouts. For each Drawing, Everyworld will use an on-chain randomizer on Base to produce a provably fair and randomly selected winner, which can be verified leveraging blockchain technology.
Ishan Pandey: Could you elaborate on your user acquisition strategy and provide insights into the level of engagement observed thus far?
TJ Kawamura: More than 90,000 people are playing the beta version of the Everyworld game in Discord. Collectively they have watched more than 50 million videos and earned more than 1 billion points. Users are rewarded for referring friends and sharing about Everyworld on social media.
Ishan Pandey: Could you provide details on Everyrealm’s strategic partnerships with venture capital firms and explain the ways in which these collaborations bolster Everyrealm's growth and success?
TJ Kawamura: Many Tier 1 venture capital firms who have invested in Everyrealm. Everyworld was developed by the Everyrealm team, which is backed by A16Z Crypto, Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Animoca Brands,, Dragonfly, Foresight Ventures, NGC and others. A complete list of investors is on the Everyworld website at everyworld.com
Ishan Pandey: As Everyworld evolves, what new features or enhancements can users expect to see, and how do these developments align with the platform's goals?
TJ Kawamura: A proprietary web and mobile app are in the works. The goal is to create an experience that resonates with a broad audience including one that is not inherently crypto-savvy by making a sleek UX and a familiar and fun experience that appeals to a young, tech-loving audience.
Ishan Pandey: Looking ahead, what are the key milestones and goals that Everyrealm aims to achieve in the next few years, and how do you envision the future of social gaming and digital advertising evolving with platforms like Everyworld leading the way?
TJ Kawamura: We look forward to onboarding the first million users and expanding into new markets, and becoming a global cultural phenomenon. Everyworld aims to become the first mainstream crypto project that attracts a significant non-crypto user base.
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