Stack Digest https://paragraph.com/@stack Recognizing and rewarding the relationships that matter Sun, 17 May 2026 19:56:28 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en Stack Digest https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/f2292acd773e30d6291ecd8333fbd7c8.jpg https://paragraph.com/@stack All rights reserved <![CDATA[Which artists have earned the most on BasePaint? And who are their biggest collectors?]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/which-artists-have-earned-the-most-on-basepaint-and-who-are-their-biggest-collectors TN4G7kSRecpyYX9OVmmZ Fri, 27 Sep 2024 13:17:14 GMT

When I want to show my non-crypto friends why crypto is cool and exciting, I show them BasePaint. BasePaint clicks with people because it is creative, collaborative, and fun. The 415th BasePaint is currently in development, with the pixel art community creating daily since August 9, 2023. So who's making the most money as an artist on BasePaint? And who are the top BasePaint collectors driving this revenue for artists?

BasePaint is a shared pixel canvas open for 24 hours. After that, it locks, and an open edition NFT of the artwork is available for 24 hours. Artists receive 90% of the NFT profits based on their pixel contribution, with 10% going to the BasePaint protocol.

To figure out who the top earning artists are - and how much they've made - I had to do 3 things:

  1. Find the smart contract that pays out the artists - which I found on the BasePaint analytics page

  1. Figure out which event on that smart contract is used to pay the artists - which I was able to figure out using Stack's Smart Contracts for Dummies GPT bot we made

  1. Assign points as a function of ETH paid out to the artist - using Stack's custom functions feature to issue points per ETH withdrawn (which excludes a small amount of unclaimed ETH in the contract).

And boom, there you have it. Bombadilus.eth, cryptmoogie.eth, and deanharvey.eth, the top 3 artists by ETH withdrawn, have made over 57 ETH (~$150K)!

BasePaint Top Earners Leaderboard

So who's collecting this stuff and supporting these artists the most? This was a bit easier to figure out using Stack's digital collectibles integration and entering the BasePaint contract (1 edition = 1 point):

BasePaint Top Collectors Leaderboard

There are 26,609 unique BasePaint holders and the top 3 collectors hold about 40,000 BasePaint NFTs! Wild stuff!

If you're looking for a group of dedicated, passionate pixel artists or art. collectors, you can reach them directly from these leaderboards by creating a permissionless reward.

-bradorbradley.eth

📯 Stack Updates and New Leaderboards

We integrated with Hypersub, the onchain subscription company so creators can recognize their subscribers! Check out this video explainer:

The 0xdesigner.eth, tednotlasso.eth, and UFO Club points programs are already using it to recognize and reward fans. Learn how to set yours up here.


Talent Protocol released their community leaderboard program in partnership with Stack to recognize and reward top community contributors! Talent Protocol is already a leader in builder reputation. Now, they are setting the standard for recognizing and rewarding community participation and engagement.

📰 Must reads and staff picks

Some creative New Yorkers are making $6,000 per month gaming the CitiBike bike sharing rewards program.

Why Loyalty Programs Fail from the Harvard Business Review

PayPal announced that US merchants in their network can now accept crypto payments

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Who are the biggest creators on Zora and who are their biggest fans?]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/who-are-the-biggest-creators-on-zora-and-who-are-their-biggest-fans enMxjbDnZ869I5KVjP83 Fri, 20 Sep 2024 19:17:45 GMT

Zora is the leader in onchain creativity and collectible media. It's the place where creators go to create collectible onchain media and collectors go to discover and collect it. So, who are the top creators on Zora? And who are their biggest fans? That's what I set out to find out this week.

I teamed up with Sealaunch, one of the best onchain data analytics teams, to answer the first question. Using Stack's Dune Query integration, I was able to create the Top Creators on Zora Leaderboard by pasting in the URL to Sealaunch's existing Top Creators (last 30 days) query, which ranks creators by the total amount of creator rewards they have received in the last 30 days. Looks like the Mint Podcast, Doodles, and Jimmy Edgar are top dogs this month.

But what about some of the most popular creators on Zora? Like the founder, Jacob.eth's, biggest fans? I added each of his 15 collections on Zora to Jacob's top collectors leaderboard, issuing 100 points per edition held using Stack's new Zora integration (more on that below).

I did the same for a few other top creators on Zora including Heno.eth, ccarella.eth, 0xen.eth, jameecornelia.eth, and lght.eth. As I added each creator's Zora collections to their Stack points program, I realized a few things:

1. It's impressive to see just how much content these creators have made over the last few years, trying out different chains and price points

2. Some people mint a LOT of onchain media. It's crazy.

3. A lot of collectors have Farcaster profiles, which makes sense given the strong user overlap and integrations between Farcaster and Zora.

I've always been excited about blockchain's ability to connect creators and their fans. I hope these creators and others enjoy it, too!

- bradorbradley.eth

📯 Stack Updates and New Leaderboards

We added Zora chain to our digital collectibles integration! Paste in the URL to Zora collections created on Zora chain to issue points per edition held.

Crowdmuse announced their Cyberphysical Brand Concept contest that will use Stack to issue points for participating

EthDaily, the daily crypto news show, launched their Top Patrons leaderboard.

TA$TE podcast also create a leaderboard for users who collect their podcast episodes

📰 Must reads and staff picks

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #12 - How big of a fan of Doodles am I?]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-12-how-big-of-a-fan-of-doodles-am-i 3nOcsDJ13DgY3vcNgVMf Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:04:55 GMT

"How big of a fan of Doodles am I?" I asked my self this week. Doodles represents all of my favorite things in one: Disney-style animation, TikTok-style short-form video, Ethereum-style PFP NFTs. While I don't own a Doodles OG myself, I do collect all of their onchain media, am an early follower on TikTok (see below), and am the proud owner of a Doodles G-SHOCK watch. I am provably, verifiably, undoubtedly a big fan. But how big, exactly?

That's what I set out to understand this week. So I did what anyone would do, I created a Doodles leaderboard on Stack and assigned points for collecting all Doodles onchain media and collectibles and following @doodles on Farcaster. I still need a zkTLS proof to prove I purchased the watch and was the 808th follower on TikTok to account for those activities, but this is a good start for now. I now know I am the 8,910th biggest fan of Doodles or top 8%, not bad!

I made this leaderboard in about 10 minutes on Stack, here's how 👇

Everyone is top 10% for something, for me it's Doodles. For you, maybe it's hours playing tennis, or supplying TVL, or making pasta, or visiting countries. I'm excited to learn more about myself and hope you enjoy doing so, too. Expect to see more leaderboards like this.

- bradorbradley.eth

📯 Stack Updates

You can now add Zora NFTs to programs on Stack. We'll be sharing more about this quite soon.

Talent Protocol created a leaderboard for top onchain builders based on their Builder Score. Anyone looking to discover and reach the best onchain builders can visit this leaderboard!

We created some leaderboards for the top PFP collectors, including Pudgy Penguins, Azukis, and Crypto Covens.

Scene Infra Co. and Archetype hosted a happy hour in Brooklyn this week, using Stack to power points for "meshing" (connecting) with other event attendees.

📰 Staff Picks

Blockworks agrees: Airdrops are dead and real chain loyalty is what's needed

Paypal and Venmo now recognize ENS domains for payments 

Limone.eth is launching a new onchain point-of-sale system to bring more merchant commerce onchain.

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #11 - The US Government Cares About Points?]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-11-the-us-government-cares-about-points 7duMFfjnBl8MOp09iAOX Fri, 06 Sep 2024 17:02:25 GMT

The US Department of Transportation is investigating airline loyalty programs on concerns the airlines are devaluing points and harming consumers. This could be the beginning of a dramatic change in the transparency and accountability standards airlines are expected to meet going forward. That could be good news for onchain loyalty programs that are far more transparent, verifiable, and secure than their traditional counterparts.

Americans value their airline points despite not knowing exactly what they're worth. The more consumers use their points, the more they care about them, and the more important it will be for points issuers to make that value clear to them.

Onchain loyalty can help by making loyalty programs more transparent about how points are earned and the value associated with them when it comes to rewards. Rather than trust the word of the point issuer, the user could see exactly how points are earned, rewards are distributed, and the total supply of points in a given program onchain. If an airline were to suddenly devalue their onchain points program by inflating the supply of points or price of rewards, customers would be able to see that and make more informed decisions about which carriers they choose to fly with.

Today, only the savviest points enthusiast knows to go visit The PointsGuy's monthly points valuation page to get a sense of what their points are worth. I wouldn't be surprised if airlines had to share this information directly on their websites in the future, like some credit cards do:

More transparency leads to greater consumer trust and can actually strengthen customer relationships with brands. That's what loyalty is all about, or at least it is supposed to be!

- bradorbradley.eth

📰 Stack Updates

We added Base names as a social badge program managers can choose to display on leaderboards.

Outposts launched their Season 2 rewards using a claim frame from Stack.

Sweetman.eth is using Stack in tandem with Zora and Base to index data and create points programs in record time.

📰 Staff Picks

PYUSD, PayPal's stablecoin, is seeing dramatic growth on Solana.

BeerMe users can now earn Blackbird $FLY points every time they purchase a beer with USDC.

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #10 - I create data, therefore I am.]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/web-proof-of-fandom kMglHB6Uk93uQX38BNWX Fri, 30 Aug 2024 15:35:08 GMT

Imagine if you could access your Spotify Wrapped on demand (not just once per year). Now imagine you had "[insert app] Wrapped" available, on demand, as well. You would probably learn some interesting things about yourself. The sum of all our online activity paints a digital self-portrait of sorts, a reflection of where and how we spend our time and money. For example, I am a top 1% FKJ listener on Spotify, I have 8.8K Twitter followers. I have Delta Gold Flyer status. I spend [$redacted] on dining annually with my American Express Gold card. You get the picture and with it, a sense of my interests, habits, and behaviors. "I think, therefore I am", Déscartes once said, but a more internet-age appropriate adaption might be "I create data, therefore I am."

A great work of art is known first by the artist who creates it before the rest of the world. The artist may publish the work so it gets seen by an art curator who places it in a gallery and later is sold at auction, benefitting the artist. Our data self-portraits are our greatest works of art, built bit-by-bit (literally) over a lifetime online and onchain and understood in each of our minds. Only the onchain elements are visible to others right now and, while valuable and increasingly robust, excludes our offchain/online (web2) "brushstrokes". The problem is we lack the means to share our online (web2) data portraits with the world because we don't have a way to access, verify, and showcase them. Much of the most valuable data about ourselves is stored and owned by private companies who set the rules and (heavy) restrictions on what information, if any, we can see - much less prove or share.

That's about to change thanks to "zkTLS proofs", an emerging technology better known as "Web Proofs" as coined by Pluto Labs and articulated by Dan Elitzer and Pete Shoemaker. Web proofs are a way to prove things about your online behavior, on demand, without the consent or action of the data owner. With web proofs I can prove and share my Spotify listenership, Twitter following, and Amex spend without asking or needing Spotify, Twitter or Amex. Web proofs unblock the ability to create and share our digital self-portraits, unlocking a world of new opportunities to be recognized and rewarded.

We spend a lot of time at Stack thinking about how we can help people paint their onchain data portraits so they can be recognized more often and meaningfully. Until now, I assumed I would never be able to paint a great online data portrait to complement my onchain one. But web proofs stand to change that and with them comes a whole new world of benefits for being ourselves and living our lives online and onchain.

I create data, therefore I am better off.

- bradorbradley.eth

(also bradley.base.eth now!)

🏗 Stack Updates

Harsha Karamchat built a GitHub repository leaderboard where developers earn points based on the number of GitHub repos they have worked on.

We partnered with Daylight, a transaction recommendation engine, to notify users when they become eligible for rewards on Stack.

We announced our partnership Bello, an onchain analytics provider, to help users learn more about who is on a leaderboard using Bello's wallet analytics dashboard.

Stack is now part of the Conduit Marketplace, making it easier than ever for roll-up chains to discover and integrate Stack.

📰 Must-reads this week

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

🧑‍🔬 Dan Elitizer shared his vision on how zkTLS Web Proofs could be the Apple Airtags of crypto.


☕ Starbucks announced a new CEO - Brian Niccol, the man who turned Chipotle around and famously green lit the Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco.

🤔 Jarrod Dicker shared his thoughts on the consumer crypto paradox.

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest # 9 - Gyu-Kaku is the Disneyland of Restaurant Loyalty]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-9-gyu-kaku-is-the-disneyland-of-restaurant-loyalty 9T1FAXno8QeiAgUD4RWn Fri, 16 Aug 2024 20:43:45 GMT If you want to experience the Disneyland of loyalty programs, go to Japanese BBQ chain Gyu-Kaku. I first went to Gyu-Kaku over twenty years ago when they opened their first location in the US in West Los Angeles. Twenty years later, I went back for the first time last night only to learn that they have since grown to over 800 restaurants globally with an estimated $159M in revenue in 2022 alone.

Gyu-Kaku is far from the only experiential grill-your-own-meats establishment around, but they stand out from the rest by providing a gamified and loyalty-centric dining experience unlike any I've seen. Here's how they do it:

1. Gamified menu - the all-you-can-eat menu is organized into visual food packages that seek to upsell diners for additional items. $50 for 45 items, $65 for 60 items, $70 for 80 items.


2. Loyalty offers - diners are heavily encouraged to download the Gyu-Kaku loyalty app while dining at the restaurant. Every booth has a QR code ad and the program details are printed out alongside the food menu. A $10-per-person discount at your next visit awaits you. Our server said most diners he sees sign up and come back.

  1. The app - Gyu-Kaku's app invites users to scan their receipt to earn points upon completion of their meal. This might seem simple, but getting anyone to download an app these days, much less use it, is not easy. The onboarding experience and UX were super clear.

    1. Experience - by far the greatest loyalty driver is Gyu-Kaku's commitment to service. The servers are Disneyland-level enthusiastic and chatty. They bring the staff out to sing guests happy birthday. It's corny and delightful in the best possible way. At a time when dining often seems less personal and more sterile than ever - ordering off QR codes, digital menus, etc. - real human connection and conversation was a breath of fresh air.

      tl;dr go to Gyu-Kaku, grill some meats, enjoy your life. Find a location near you, thank me later.

      Cheers,
      -bradorbradley.eth

👋 Welcome!

The Stack Digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

What's covered 👇

🧑‍💻Stack for Developers - developers are starting to use loyalty programs as an alternative to traditional databases

📰 Must-reads this week - MetaMask and Mastercard, Apple NFC payments, and SoundCloud stores for artists

🤔 Stack.so what?
Stack enables anyone to create and manage a points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Visit stack.so/explore to discover the best onchain leaderboards - and your place on them.

🧑‍💻 Stack for Developers

We just launched a Stack for Developers page to help developers understand how to use Stack as a faster, lower-cost alternative to Supabase. Using Stack as an alternative to a traditional database kills two birds with one stone: (1) save time building applications by issuing points directly from event data and (2) identify who your top users are based on their points balances.

❓ How it works:

  • Run custom functions on onchain event data to assign points for onchain activity

  • Add social gamification features out of the box

  • Monitor usage in a real-time analytics dashboard

  • Make points valuable by allowing users to redeem them for rewards

We've noticed some developers like Sweetman.eth and the SIC team have started using Stack as a powerful developer tool to save time and money while building applications.

Learn more about Stack for Developers here.

📰 Must-reads this week

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

🦊 MetaMask is starting the rollout of its blockchain-based debit card developed with payments giant Mastercard

🍎 Apple announced they are opening up tap-to-pay (NFC) tooling to third-party developers, which will have major implications for onchain commerce according to Jeremy Allaire from Circle

☁ Soundcloud launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store that allows any artist to create and sell their own designs and keep 100% of the profits (for now, at least)

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #8 - Friends With $BENEFITS]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-8-friends-with-dollarbenefits 4kv9gGcNMRca4Hzes30W Fri, 09 Aug 2024 18:43:02 GMT

👋 Welcome!

The Stack Digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less

What's covered 👇

🧪 Points program spotlight - Onchain Arcade, Coop Records, Sweetman, Scene Infra Co., and Rehash are all using points creatively to recognize and reward relationships with users.

💲 Stablecoins are exploding and will play an important role in the onchain economy. We've curated 3 must-reads on the future of payments and loyalty.

🤔 Stack.so what?
Stack enables anyone to create and manage a points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Visit stack.so/explore to discover the best onchain leaderboards - and your place on them.

Points Program Spotlights

Stack, Coinbase, and Atari launched Breakout, the second game in the Onchain Arcade! Mint to play and enter the onchaind leaderboard at arcade.fun

Scene Infrastructure Company team launched Mesh last weekend at FWB Fest 2024 and used Stack to power a community points system for Fest attendees. Attendees used Mesh to check-in to Fest, chat with one another, and connect with friends by 'meshing' -- a quick QR code scan that links two people together as part of the network of connections inside of the FWB universe. FWB is planning to use the Stack-powered points system in Mesh across all of its future events, with future rewards for top meshers including priority access to events, airdrops of the soon-to-be-launched $BENEFITS token, and more.

Rehash, the first community-owned podcast hosted by Diana Chen, announced their points program to recognize and reward fans who mint their episodes, participate in guest elections on JokeRace, subscribe to Rehash Podcast Club on Hypersub, follow Rehash on Warpcast, and were early to support Rehash during their April 2022 Mirror Crowdfund launch.

Coopahtroopa announced Coop Records platform, a home for onchain music with points powered by Stack. The platform combines minting onchain music with incentives and rewards from a number of onchain tools.

Sweetman started using Stack as an alternative to the Ethereum Attestation Service for indexing Base and Zora smart contract data. In the last week, he's started building new apps and leaderboards around onchain media.

📰 Loyalty must-reads

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

💲 Harvard Business Review details the growing race to dominate stablecoins and potential for "stablecoins to fade into the background and turn into loyalty points"

🎯 Andreesen Horowtiz thinks Target's RedCard Program is a model for future of payments

🎙Tether announced plans to double their workforce in the next year, coming off a hot earnings quarter

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #7 - My Olympics-Life Crisis]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-7-my-olympics-life-crisis zqhR13Hjjx4e69fhat4a Fri, 02 Aug 2024 14:46:02 GMT

Watching the Olympics always stirs something deep within me, a mix of awe and mild panic. Every four years I find myself in a midlife crisis. I mean, 11-year-olds are out there skateboarding for gold, and 51-year-olds are winning silver in sharpshooting. Meanwhile, I consider it a win surviving another day in New York City at 28.

I know it's too late to start my Olympic journey, but I've started wearing Kim Yeji's shooter glasses around the city and it is surprisingly effective at making me feel like a champion.

The Olympic Medal Table is the ultimate global leaderboard to find yourself on. It's a humbling reminder of what dedication and hard work can achieve, and here I am, wondering if I should have gone for a run this morning.

But then I remember that the Olympics isn't just a competition; it's a reminder to strive for greatness, even if our personal best is finally mastering the art of keeping a houseplant alive for more than a month.

- bradorbradley.eth

🏗 Stack Updates

🎁 Intersend.io, a new gateway to discover crypto apps, announced their partnership with Stack and Bitrefill. Users can purchase gift cards with one click, earn points, and cash out for thousands of gift cards worldwide with Intersend's utility-based crypto rewards program powered by Stack.

🍄 Bello.lol, an onchain analytics platform, announced a new Warpcast direct-cast feature that helped Adam Levy drive more permissionless reward claim from his leaderboard on Stack, leading to a 13% claim rate in 24 hours.

🎶 Sonata.tips, a music curation app on Farcaster, announced new channel monetization tools. Sonata allows users to earn and tip in NOTES points powered by Stack.

🕹 Atari, Coinbase, and Stack announced winners of week one's arcade.fun leaderboard! Congrats to the top Asteroid blasters Denjin, papacrypto, and [anonymous]. The leaderboard resets every week and anyone can mint and play to earn prizes.

📰 Loyalty must-reads and watches

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

🐓 Blackbird released their flypaper, detailing their vision for restaurant economy onchain and introducing $F2, the network ownership token

📰 JP Morgan recently released their report on Web3 as the future of social commerce

🛍 Jarrod Barnes from NEAR shares how the future of how we shop is being rewritten by onchain commerce

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #6 - Not your father's Asteroids]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-6-not-your-fathers-asteroids NplV9OZ4HNVJa3mTdhk7 Fri, 26 Jul 2024 19:49:51 GMT

👋 Welcome!

🕹 Atari and Coinbase partnered with Stack on Onchain Arcade, someone played 420 games of Asteroids

🎩 Rarible just awarded 3M $DEGEN to users via Stack's claim frame tool

📰 Points must-reads - Jesse Pollak interviews Graeme from Stack on arcade.fun, Google Cloud, Polygon and Accenture think web3 is the future of experiential loyalty, and Bradley from Stack gets interviewed by the PERCS team

🕹 Onchain Arcade

This week, Stack partnered with AtariX and Coinbase to bring Asteroids, the classic arcade game, onchain with Onchain Arcade. Users minted Asteroids NFTs, unlocking the ability to play the game on web or mobile and have their score stored in a Stack leaderboard onchain.

Stack's role included building the game itself and powering the onchain leaderboard that stores users' scores!

The game has been minted over 11,000 times since launch on Monday and was trending at #1 on mint.fun! Revenue from the mint is shared between Atari, Coinbase, Stack, @msenyil and @mx100m .

Over 20,000 unique wallets have connected to arcade.fun and, as of this writing, denjin holds the high score with 67,100 points! This user has played 420 rounds of Asteroids nearly-continuously for the last 24 hours!

You can still mint and play the game at arcade.fun , check it out!

🎩 Rarible x Degen

Rarible launched their fourth claim frame to recognize and reward users who have transacted in $DEGEN on Rarible! Users who bid or listed NFTs in $DEGEN were eligible for rewards, as were users who minted curated $DEGEN NFTs:

Mysteria Degen by @nygilia

Degen Druid Life by @jacque

Metropolis by @digitalgyoza

BASED DEGEN by @zafgod

📰 Loyalty must-reads and watches

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

💡 Google Cloud, Accenture, and Polygon released a research report on how web3 is enabling loyalty program transformation from value-based consumption to experiential consumption

🎙 Jesse Pollak interviews Graeme from Stack and Tyler from AtariX on arcade.fun for onchain summer

🛍 Chinmay Patel from PERCs interviews Bradley from Stack on onchain commerce and loyalty

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #5 - Earn Your Stripes]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-5-earn-your-stripes l1RUWIpbhP7AGagbqP3G Fri, 19 Jul 2024 15:44:44 GMT

👋 Welcome!

The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

What's covered 👇

🥋 Earn your stripes - a story on martial arts and the power of perceived value and gamification in loyalty

🚢 Product updates - we just released permissionless rewards, a new feature

📰 Points must-reads - Blackbird released Pay with Fly, Orangetheory is trendsetting loyalty in fitness, and the future of loyalty is onchain according to the Boston Consulting Group

🤔 Stack.so what?
Stack enables anyone to create and manage a points/loyalty program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Stack is for creators, communities, applications, and businesses of all types, stages, and budgets.

🥋 Earn your stripes

This week, I earned my first stripe in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Two months ago, I took my first steps onto the mat, completely new to the sport. Dozens of classes and many physical humblings later, I achieved my first milestone.

As my instructor wrapped a piece of white tape around my belt, he dropped a truth bomb,

"Just so you know, these stripes are just a marketing tool to make you feel like you're progressing. The real milestones are the belts, and it takes years to move from a white belt to a blue belt."

Despite learning the stripe wasn't "real", the sense of accomplishment and perceived value it brought certainly was. It represented the hard work and dedication of the past few months and fed a surge of motivation and pride in me to continue.

Perceived value and gamification are powerful principles of loyalty programs. Even something as simple as a piece of tape can create a strong sense of achievement and drive loyalty. Best of all - the cost to provide it is usually low. People want to earn their stripes, let them.

@bradorbradley.eth

🚢 Product updates

We just released Permissionless Rewards, a new feature that enables anyone to create a claimable ERC20 token reward directly from a leaderboard on Stack. They help streamline partnerships between token-based apps/ecosystems and point programs.

Permissionless rewards help establish an emotional connection w/ a potential new user through a memorable, branded experience. Coupling a surprise-and-delight reward w/ an immediate post-claim CTA helps increase the likelihood a user will choose to take a desired action organically.


Read the announcement blog or learn how to make a permissionless reward to get started!

📰 Loyalty must-reads

Here's what the Stack team read this week 👇

🍽 Blackbird, a blockchain-enabled restaurant loyalty app, just released Pay with Fly, enabling users to spend USDC in any restaurant that accepts Blackbird Pay

🟠 Orangetheory Fitness is setting the standard for loyalty in the fitness industry and helping redefine exercise as a feel-good, social, and positive lifestyle-related activity.

🔍 Web3 opens new paths for customer loyalty, as this industry report from Boston Consulting Group lays out with great detail and analysis

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #4 - Airdrops are cooked]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-4 49dZdPuXfHX02mAUIfkd Fri, 12 Jul 2024 18:47:45 GMT

👋 Welcome!

The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

What's covered 👇

🤑 Airdrops are cooked - bradorbradley.eth's take on how we went from "surprise and delight" to "disappointing expectation"

📰 Points meta must-reads - why points are here to stay and how to make sense of them from Arthur Hayes, Kenton.eth, and Graeme Boy (Stack's founder and CEO)

🤔 Stack.so what?
Stack enables anyone to create and manage a loyalty points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Stack is for creators, communities, applications, and businesses of all types, stages, and budgets.

🤑 Airdrops are cooked

Remember when you were actually surprised to receive an airdrop? The delight you felt? I remember my first airdrop like it was yesterday. I had claimed bradorbradley.eth (because bradley.eth and brad.eth were already taken) and exploded with joy when I learned that I had earned a few thousand dollars in $ENS for being an early adopter. It was a bull market, dopamine levels were off the charts, everyone felt like Sergito:

Fast-forward to today and airdrops are expected, and more often than not, a disappointment. It feels like airdrop farmers far outweigh the number of "real users" who are authentically interested in - and excited by - the projects they engage with. At the same time, it seems like many crypto projects have deprioritized, if not outright abandoned, building products for people that might actually value on merit over potential financial upside.

In 2024 we find ourselves in a dynamic where:

  • Supposedly-innovative infra projects build faux-communities of mostly-farmers

  • Farmers, project teams, and VCs/investors build hype to convince others the community is authentic and durable

  • Project airdrops token, everyone cashes out immediately, and the "community" is revealed to be the same group of profit-maximizing farmers from the previous airdrop

This coordinated pump-and-dump scheme is nothing new, but the playbook seems to be decreasingly effective with each successive attempt. Farmers must continually lower their expectations due to disappointing returns, as illustrated by the June '24 Blast airdrop, Bcheque shared:

That's why I am declaring the airdrop playbook of the last several years officially, finally - cooked. While few dispute that tokens and airdrops will continue to play a key role in the onchain economy, many are looking for solutions to make airdrops great / surprising/ effective/ meaningful/ useful again.

Many crypto KOLs believe points will play an important role in the next era of airdrops and token distributions and help solve some of the problems outlined above. Check them out below 👇

-bradorbradley.eth

Points meta must-reads

👉 Pointenomics 101 - Kenton.eth shares an in-depth analysis of how a new era of digital loyalty is dawning in Web3, powered by innovative point systems.

🏀 Points Guard - Arthur Hayes shares a history of participation and ownership, and how points combine the best aspects of ICOs and yield farming

⏹ Beyond Tokens: The Era of Onchain Points - Graeme Boy, CEO of Stack, makes the case for points onchain

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #3 - 🇺🇸 American Hustle]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-3-🇺🇸-american-hustle QaWpHOeEvxKk8j2LmSbv Thu, 04 Jul 2024 18:32:49 GMT

Once upon a time, I was a high school senior interviewing for the famed mailroom internship at William Morris Endeavor, a talent agency based in Beverly Hills. I took the day off from school and had nearly arrived when I received a call asking me to reschedule. The streets were shut down and no one could find parking, including the agents and employees. Fearing missing another day of school, I was determined to find a solution and did what anyone would do: I called my mom who helped me navigate to a nearby residential area. But it was permit parking only.

Fearing my car would be towed, I started knocking on doors, desperate for a permit - and the first house I tried gave me one! I sprinted to the office, sweating through my suit, and miraculously arrived on time. I then proceeded to totally botch the interview.

But as I was leaving, the interviewer asked me how I even got in the building when everyone else could not, so I told them the story. My resourcefulness and hustle qualified me for the job, apparently, and boom, I had secured my first internship.

And that's what America is all about, baby! Interviews, traffic, sweat, family, parking, showbiz. God, I love this country.

Happy Fourth of July.

-bradorbradley.eth

👋 Welcome!

The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

What we'll cover 👇

  • 🤝 Program showcase - Cyber just gave 26K tokens to Mint Podcast fans, but not in the way you're expecting.

  • 🇺🇸 Loyalty in the USA - 3 examples of how America is the the world's loyalty innovation lab.

  • 📰 Loyalty must-reads - the Sphere, FredAgain, and how web3 communities will define the future of brand loyalty.

🤔 Stack.so what?

Stack enables anyone to create and manage a loyalty points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Stack is for creators, communities, applications, and businesses of all types, stages, and budgets.

Loyalty Programs 101

🤝 Program showcase

This week, the Mint Podcast partnered with Cyber, a web3 social-focused L2 on the Optimism Superchain to reward Mint fans with 26,000 $CYBER tokens. This partnership highlights how blockchains and applications can onboard high-value new users by offering rewards through trusted loyalty programs they are already familiar with.

The Mint audience is a natural fit for a social-focused chain like Cyber - "chronically onchain, in the weeds always experimenting" as Adam Levy, Mint's host, shared in his announcement blog. By partnering with Mint, Cyber effectively introduced themselves to Mint listeners, providing clear context on how users can leverage their tokens to participate in the Cyber ecosystem. This approach helped reposition the $CYBER tokens less as a cash-back reward, but as a currency that can be utilized to do things - "that’s why I’m not selling any of it", Adam shared.

🇺🇸 Loyalty in the USA

While the earliest loyalty programs date back to Ancient Egypt, modern loyalty has deep roots in the USA and are the place of some modern loyalty inventions.

🧼 1850s - B.T. Babbitt invented the aspirational loyalty reward with bars of soap

In the 1850s, B.T. Babbitt sold the first individually-wrapped bars of soap and created the first promotional program where customers could collect 'trade marks' from the packaging to redeem for luxury items like Uncle Sam suspenders, jewelry, and handbags. Americans were amazed - for the first time ever, they could earn luxury rewards for purchasing everyday household commodities like soap.

B.T. Babbitt's Soap Advertisement

👵 1960s - Betty Crocker invented the Coupon Catalog

The Betty Crocker Coupon Catalog was released in 1962 and featured over 400 redeemable items from kitchen flatware to appliances that built a deep and lasting emotional connection with American families. The program became a staple in millions of American households for over 75 years until it was retired in 2006 due to changes in shopper behavior.

Original catalog, 1962

✈ 1980s - American Airlines invents modern points and coalition programs

Deregulation of the US airline industry paved the way for the American Airlines AAdvantage program, which rewarded travelers in "miles" (points) that could be redeemed for free flights and soon after - hotels, rental cars, and the modern coalition program. Banks and retail businesses quickly copied the model, and the points-based loyalty programs we know today were born.

1981 original AAdvantage card

📰 Loyalty must-reads

Here's what the Stack team is reading/watching/listening to this week:


🖥 The future of loyalty likes in web3 communities - Customer loyalty experts from Reddit, Salesforce, Media.Monks and Polygon Labs share how web3 communities and technology can help brands overcome loyalty challenges.

⭕ The Las Vegas Sphere - modern immersive experiences are the future of loyalty rewards, as discussed in this podcast with Michael Litman.

🎵 FredAgain is defining the artist-fan relationship - Rob Abelow's thread on the 7 things FredAgain is doing to build fandom and redefine the model for music's future.

👇

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #2 - Stay humble, get roasted by your mom]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-2-stay-humble,-get-roasted-by-your-mom pehazuatvP07pc4Ta3mf Fri, 28 Jun 2024 16:59:28 GMT

In an effort to be more Fergalicious, I've been in at the gym just working on my fitness. This summer, I started doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, waking up at 6AM three times per week to get physically humbled before most people have had their morning coffee. There's nothing quite like getting folded into a pretzel by someone half your size to keep you grounded, literally. This, I can handle.

But getting emotionally body-slammed by your mom in the family group chat is a different kind of pain. Working in tech, doing martial arts, and wearing a t-shirt to a presentation does not mean I'm pulling off the "tech bro chic" archetype.

Thanks, Mom.

- bradorbradley.eth

👋 Welcome!

The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and roundup on all things Stack enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

🤔 Stack.so what?
Stack enables anyone to create and manage a loyalty points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Stack is for creators, communities, applications, and businesses of all types, stages, and budgets.

Loyalty Programs 101

What we'll cover 👇

  • 🛠 Stack updates - 1M unique wallets on Stack, Privy x Stack happy hour rewards, and Archetype SocialFi Day

  • 🤝 Program showcase - the podcasters are blazing the path for onchain audience loyalty

  • 📰 Loyalty must-reads - hackers are coming for your points, the problem with loyalty coalitions, and how Sephora's loyalty program keeps winning

🛠 Stack updates

🏆 Milestone alert! 1.1M unique wallets now hold points on Stack! Over $100K in rewards have been distributed to users in programs on Stack, and 25K users have claimed a reward via claim frames.

🍺 NYC Crypto Builders Happy Hour - We co-hosted with Privy, offering $1K in rewards on our event leaderboard. Attendees checked in via Privy and earned Stack points by attending, following Stack and Privy on Farcaster, and minting onchain media. Top attendees won Kolkata Chai discounts, Kazu Nori gift cards, Bathhouse NYC day passes, and a Doodles G-SHOCK watch.

🎤 Archetype SocialFi day - we presented Stack at Archetype SocialFi day to an audience of NYC-based builders, sharing some case studies and insights from our early users.

🤝 Program showcase

🎙 Podcasters are leading the way for creators on Stack, building loyalty programs to recognize and reward their onchain audiences. Podcasters are among the most multi-platform creators, with audiences scattered across many on-and-off-chain platforms. For the first time, these creators are able to see who all their fans are - and the strength of their fandom - in one place.

Adam Levy, host of the Mint podcast, announced the Mint Leaderboard and shared a letter to his 80K-strong onchain audience, recognizing fans who have collected his pins and episodes on pods.media.

Nick Hollins, the host of UFO.FM, an onchain radio station and podcast, recently announced the UFO Karma points program, unifying UFO's onchain fanbase across Base, Optimism, Zora, Farcaster, Lens, Hypersub, Paragraph and other platforms.

Humpty Calderon, host of the CryptoSapiens podcast, released his leaderboard for collectors of his episodes and Farcaster followers. He is using Stack composably with other platforms like FarHouse and Hypersub to explore and experiment with his onchain audience on Farcaster.

📰 Loyalty must-reads

Here's what the Stack team is reading/watching/listening to this week:

🦹 Hackers are now stealing unused miles 👉 Cybercriminals are using bots to test compromised passwords, helping them clean out accounts that hold millions of dollars worth of rewards.

🛑 Stop calling them "coalitions"👉 Aleksija Vujicic, founder of social commerce TATA Bazaar explains why multi-brand loyalty programs don't work (and never will).

💄 Sephora loyalty can't be beat 👉 The beauty retailer has a history of frequent loyalty updates, but that’s what makes the program so successful, loyalty head Emeline Berlind says.

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman) <![CDATA[Stack Digest #1 - I'm in a committed relationship with Delta Airlines]]> https://paragraph.com/@stack/stack-digest-1 wAJgT6oB3EM3PZj8jckd Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:19:15 GMT I've been in a committed relationship with Delta Airlines since 2018 when I was a young management consultant flying to and from New York to Boston every week for 6 months. I was monogamous with Delta and racked up 100K SkyMiles to prove it.

But things were far from perfect.

The planes were old, the A/C never worked, the seats often didn't recline - so I asked Delta "why stick with you when there are newer, younger planes out there?" They responded in song, "I don't want to lose your love, this fliiiiiight".

Words are cheap, so they gave me an additional 80K "complaint miles", which I proceeded to use for roundtrip flights from New York to Hawaii. Covid hit a week later. Love you, Delta.

- bradorbradley.eth

👋 Welcome to the inaugural Stack digest! The Stack digest is a weekly newsletter about loyalty programs, points, and the roundup on all things Stack.so enjoyed in 5 mins or less.

🤔 Stack.so what?

Stack enables anyone to create and manage a loyalty points program onchain. Our mission is to recognize and reward the relationships that matter. Stack is for creators, communities, applications, and businesses of all types, stages, and budgets.

Loyalty Programs 101

What we'll cover 👇

  • 🛠 Product updates - introducing the explore page and a recap of claim frames

  • 🤝 Program showcase - the scenecoins are building luxury loyalty programs

  • 📰 Loyalty in the news - Bilt Rewards in hot water, the past/present/future of Starbucks, and Malcolm Gladwell on the science of shopping

🛠 Product updates

🚀 Since we launched our points chain 3 months ago, we've spoken to 150+ creators, communities, applications, and businesses about loyalty programs and onchain points. Check out the Stack explore page and browse the leaderboards from some of our programs👇

🥳 We also released claim frames to help teams grow their Farcaster channel followings and distribute token rewards. Claim frames have driven a cumulative 20,000 new followers to channels for /Drakula, /Zerion, /Decent, /Imagine and /Rarible, with 25,000 unique users claiming over $100K worth of token rewards.

🤝 Program Showcase

🪙 The scenecoins are jumping into loyalty programs. Higher and 747 Airlines teams have both created robust loyalty programs with Stack, and stunning program pages to go with them.

↑ Higher's program focuses on incentivizing holding and providing liquidity for the $HIGHER token., Higher aims to increase the token float by providing a 500% point boost to users who supply liquidity on Uniswap.

✈ 747 Airlines created the HighMiles program, a real loyalty program for their fake airline. Users earn HighMiles for creating and collecting onchain media in $CRASH. Members can redeem HighMiles for 747-branded physical products like tote bags, notebooks, and t-shirts in their SkyMall - a collaboration with Warpshop.

📰 Loyalty in the news

Here's what the Stack team is reading/watching/listening to this week

😱 BILT Rewards in hot water 👉 Wells Fargo is losing money on BILT Rewards, revealing the challenges associated with funding loyalty rewards.

☕ The past/present/future of Starbucks 👉 CEO Howard Schultz recaps the history and current state of Starbucks, the king of loyalty programs and inventor of the coffee shop category in this 3-hour podcast interview.

🛍 The science of shopping 👉 In 1996, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a piece about the science of shopping. Nearly 30 years later, this piece is more relevant than ever.

]]> stack@newsletter.paragraph.com (Bradley Freeman)