World x THX AMA

Q1

First off, could you guys introduce yourselves and your roles in the project so our community can get to know you?

A1

THX (y0urit) :

Thanks Ben! Great to be here. I’ve been working in advertising for about 10 years now, with a specialty in social media marketing. During that time I’ve worked for a plethora of small and big brands in different fields, but managing the global Heineken social media account for three years and being responsible for their worldwide brand image on social media was one of the biggest jobs I’ve done so far.

I’m now working as a freelance strategist, spending about half of my time on THX and loving every minute of it. Actually just quite recently joined the THX team, last November, to help out with the launch campaign. I’ve Bbeen a friend of our dev & founder Peter for a very long time. We’ve nown each-other since college. We did the same study but went slightly different routes, that’s how he ended up as a dev and me in marketing.

So now i’m looking to implement what I’ve learned about marketing and building communities for brands, for THX Network.

Super interesting for me personally, as I was working mostly in web2 and now we’re helping creators to move into web3, which is exciting!

THX (Steffen) :

I wanted to transfer my knowledge built up in M&A and Venture Capital while working closely with Tech Founders (i.e. creators: developers) and Investors to other creators like Athletes, Artists, and Music producers >> frontrunners, pioneers

With our applications we help creators to own, control and monetize on their intellectual capital through community engagement (create and embed your own token) and tokenizing your assets (think content, art, music and making them accessible and collectible)

World Token (Benjamin) :

Incredible stuff guys! Looking forward to where your journey leads!

Q2

Could you now tell us more about THX Network?

A2

THX (Steffen) :

It’s an application ecosystem that allows companies/creators to embed tokens within their running web2 software or community platforms without the need for web3 knowledge (strong emphasis on that web2 audience, since we really focus on getting that mainstream adoption). Building bridges between web2 and web3.

We focus on creators/makers and communities, but basically anyone that is willing to embrace the power of tokenization.

Our goal is to create easy to use tooling that enables you to embed tokens in your workflow and create new business models on top of that.

THX (y0urit) :

The name actually stems from this principle as well. Obivously THX is short for “thanks”, the logical reply for when one receives something from someone. Together with the tagline “a token of appreciation” we thought it covers both the purpose of the product and hints to the utility of the system

To make this a bit more practical: You use THX Network to give incentives for user engagement in your platform or to your marketing audiences. This comes down to loyalty and engagement programs that reward certain behaviour with tokens or collectibles. The possibilities are endless really..!

One of our launching customers is the United Nations, which uses our software to get more insight in their online communities, to identify community members who are passionate/knowledgeable about certain topics that they post about. By giving away small gamified rewards in their internal community platform (Sparkblue) they incentivize users to copmlete certain actions. Very interesting use case!

I’m sure those of us who’ve worked in corporates know that the intranet is usually a pretty boring and lifeless place, haha, so this really helps them to keep these communities active while generating value from the data they produce.

World Token (Benjamin) :

Oooh, that sounds like something that could massively push mainstream adoption, anything with zero knowledge features!

Q3

What do you guys think of the whole web 2.0 vs 3.0 transition? Where it will lead and what our possible roles are within it?

A3

THX (Steffen) :

Re: knowledge aspect > The most important benefit is in the fact that developers that want to integrate with THX require zero web3 knowledge. They should be able to set up an integration in days instead of weeks. This holds the same for creators or communities to launch their own token.

Lowering those costs (eg time) should in our opinion be a great driver for mainstream adoption

Next to that is our API that takes away the gas costs required to do anything on a blockchain. We think this is another important benefit for most users that want their audiences to onboard in web3

Eco-friendliness or our solution, using the polygon blockchain. We’re also looking into offsetting our own carbon footprint to THX Network can be carbon positive in the near-future.

THX (y0urit) :

Mainstream adoption is really important for all of our projects, indeed! That’s why we’re so happy to join these communities to discuss these kind of things. As for how far we are now, it depends on who you ask, I guess. For a lot of us here, it seems like we’re already in web3 and are enjoying its benefits daily. But for the majority of people worldwide, they’ve got no idea what is happening exactly in this space. They’ve heard about Bitcoin and NFT’s by now, but don’t know what the blockchain is, for example.

Having recently jumped in with both feet, I can say that there is quite a learning curve. I always thought of myself as having above average technical understanding, but it took me a while to wrap my head around certain things. Adoption of web3 will depend on user friendliness of the applications that are being built on it. With THX Network we’re definitely taking this into account when making certain choices. Making things as easy as possible for web2 users, using functionalities and concepts they already understand, like single sign on.

World Token (Benjamin) :

this is quite true too, I myself took a while to learn and adapt to web3 and defi in general.

Q4

What benefit does Web 3.0 have in store for creators like graphic artists, web developers, etc?

A4

THX (y0urit) :

It’s hard to tell what will happen exactly, honestly. I mean, did you guys see the NFT crazy coming, like two years ago?

When I was still in college, we saw the shift to web2. The social element of the internet came to life and Facebook like & share buttons were embedded just about everywhere. But only now we’re seeing the power of these social networks, for better and for good. I think something similar will happen with web3.

But of course we have our thoughts and theories. We believe that rewarding users for their attention, which creates a more level playing field. Before web3, engagement went one way. You as a fan give something to the creator (in the form of a like, for example), but in the end, the platform wins. Our solution doesn’t cut out the middle man, but utilises these platforms while allowing a direct connection between creators and their fans.

Steffen and I quite often talk about the new business models that tokenizing the web offers. Could you elaborate a bit on this Steffen ?

THX (Steffen) :

Yes > of course. Let me address this thru how we see web3 helps facilate creators.
We see community engagement as a very powerful aspect > to grow communities thru a creator’s token
With his/her (social) token a creator can add a total new dimension to their engagement.
Including immersive engagement ie. blending the on- and offline world e.g. thru the use of QR-codes
Next to community engagement, monetization is a next important element > rewarding your community with token collection and redeem options
Rewarding your audience with new token utilities.
We therefor provide next to a creator’s token launch, integrations with ecom providers to deploy a utility of the token.

Q5

How do you think World and THX can contribute to this new web 3.0 creator/supporter rewards economy?

A5

THX (Steffen) :

As a third important building block we see the aspect of tokenizing your assets.
Adding a total new business category to your activities ie tokenization of assets ie NFTs.
Furthermore, floating a creator’s token (i.e. secondary market) could extend your token purpose.

As we are not building a platform or marketplace, but offer applications to creators to deploy and use in their own environment, there is a logic for creators to connect with exchange platforms to distribute their digital assets.

THX (y0urit) :

We’re both pushing for adoption, but from two different angles I guess. You have already created a platform on which creators can get paid for their work, including an ecosystem that benefits its users. We are working to also tokenize other, less tangible, aspects of a creator.

To temper expectactions from the community, an integration between THX tokens and the World platform isn’t in the making 😉
But might be something in the future!

We’re all figuring out web3 as we’re building it, which makes it equally exciting as confusing sometimes, haha

Q6

What do you think will be your project’s hurdles and how you plan to address them in your roadmap?

A6

THX (y0urit) :

Think i’ve mentioned this here before, we run on the Polygon network at the moment but all our tech is built so we can support multichain the future.’

Good reminder BTW, we should update our roadmap, haha: https://medium.com/thxprotocol/product-roadmap-61b18806906f

THX (Steffen) :

Our applications can be embedded in your own and 3rd party channels. When working with 3rd party APIs there is a level of dependence (e.g. level of integration / quality we pursue for our users).

Furthermore, we actively are working with experts to challenge legal & regulatory boundaries.

Q7

Anything exciting coming up in the short term?

A7

THX (y0urit) :

YouTube and Twitter are live now, Spotify in design and then carefully look into Instagram, Facebook or any other platforms that our clients use that have a good API. But companies can already implement our tech in any excisting platform, as long as they’ve got a vision and dev capabilities obvs.

We’re launching an engagement token with a world class (no exaggeration, this guy is 9x world champ) athlete

So for those who are interested, join our communities to findout who it is: https://t.me/thxnetwork
We’re also always looking for testers to use features that are in development. So if you’re trying to get more out of your existing communities (now Youtube & Twitter are supported as we mentioned), get on board! 🙂

Also, something interesting we’re working on is incentivizing our community to help futher onboard their favourite creators and become part of the community in that way. Also, we’re always on the lookout for people who want to take up a more formal role in the form as a representative or even investor 🙂

THX (Steffen) :

In parallel: as mentioned before, ecom integration (e.g. to redeem tokens for promo codes for creator shops). High profile creators and especially athletes already have all sorts of sponsor contracts and usually work together with brands that run successful ecommerce businesses. We are in close contact while developing solutions on this front. We are currently exploring integrations with existing ecommerce software like Shopify etc.

THX (y0urit) :

Last shameless plug, we’re looking for more people to join our team as well. So if there are any solidity dev’s lurking here 😉
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17TmLsbpoXiGclCHYDC0psFbvAkNhzUsgfBXo6c1JP3k/edit?usp=sharing

That’s all for now from our side, thanks so much for the opportunity to connect over this subject @worldtoken!

Looking forward to continue this talk and learn more about World and your vision on things, Ben!

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