The Open Web Collective Batch 2 Demo Day is Coming! Here Are The Projects To Look Out For
Protocol development is a process that takes time. Metrics for success surround the number of active developers as well as the number of new applications launching on top of the protocol. To jumpstart development and build a foundation for years of robust activity, NEAR Protocol has developed its own project development funnel via the Open Web Collective. In short, the Open Web Collective incubates projects, ideas, and founders that can then thrive on top of NEAR for the long-term future.
This structure is not only important for developing the NEAR Ecosystem and building value behind the NEAR Token, but it also plays a fundamental role in the creation of the Open Web. As the Open Web Collective goes on to describe about itâs second batch of projects, it is incubating âMission critical infrastructure of the Open Webâ including Privacy, Accessibility, Data Management, and Identity. These projects are thus not only building out a new more transparent layer of the internet – but they are also bringing innovative and high value solutions to NEAR.
From April 13th to the 14th, the Open Web Collective will host a Demo Day featuring presentations from the different projects in the batch. To prepare for that, below is a brief outline of what kinds of emerging projects will be featured from around the globe! Sign Up Here!
Next Generation Decentralized Applications
To kick off the outline of new Open Web Collective projects, itâs important to note that some of these projects have already garnered serious traction and development. The first one of particular interest is Wifi Coin:
Wifi Coin
The young San Francisco startup has itâs value proposition pinned to the front page of its twitter account:
In short, Wifi Coin intends to build out one of the first decentralized applications for what is described as being a community-owned global internet provider. While Wifi Coin remains extremely young in its development, it currently has grown into the Airline industry:
Through the Open Web Collective Wifi Coin is positioned to move beyond the Airline industry into an ever larger number of hotspots around the world. With eSim cards and a future that revolves around data this is one project that is exceptionally well positioned to thrive.
Mintgate
Mintgate is a project at the intersection of social tokens and NFTâs. As it describes its vision on itâs website:
âOur collective vision is to create a new way to interact between creators and their audiences by giving the community a way to have a stake in the creator’s success.â
In short, Mintgate is a way for content creators to turn online content into monetizable rewards for community-backers. Only backers are able to access the content, and those backers can then choose to use, sell, or hold onto that access as the value of the content changes over time. In many ways Mintgate can be thought of as the âMintbaseâ for Social Tokens. Content from articles, to product blueprints, to tweets, can be locked within Mintbase, and only accessed via the link generated from possessing the token.
Paras
Paras has been featured before on NEAR Without the Noise, and is growing into an NFT giant on NEAR in its own right. As a platform for digital collectables that is equally adding launchpad infrastructure and more tools for artists, Paras provides an exceptionally user-friendly means for minting and selling NFTs.
Hash Rush
Hash Rush is a NEAR based survival exploration game. As a first foray into the world of blockchain-based gaming, RUSH is already tradeable on Uniswap.
The unique value proposition of Hash Rush, and one that will continue to develop as the game evolves over time, is that players can compete in a virtual world, for digital currencies that have real-world value. In this sense, building, fighting, and trading with other players can become a real income stream for some!
Vetz
Vetz is a music rights marketplace. Already available as an application in both the Android and iOS store, Vetz can be downloaded and used as a marketplace by artists and songwriters for sharing royalties in their creations. As Vetz describes itself on its website:
âVezt is the first mobile app where music fans can share royalty rights for songs and recordings by artists they love. We exist to improve the music industry by providing artists, songwriters, and producers with funding sourced directly from their fans on a global basis. In exchange, fans get the right to receive royalties earned by their favorite songs and recordings.â
Based out of Los Angeles, California, Vetz sees the current value of NFTâs in Art playing an even more important role in upending the music industry!
Open Finance Teams
Open Finance has been touted as the future of finance, and especially relevant for the global south. Two projects from the second batch of the Open Web Collective have focused on expediting the future of open-finance in two very different ways.
Kamix
Kamix is a platform for transferring money, specifically targeted for Africa and the global African Diaspora. While it currently is live in Cameroon, it plans to launch soon in Nigeria as well.
As a product, Kamix puts affordability and usability first, by making it quick and easy to set up and account, with 0% commission charged on transfers. In 2019, Kamix won the Africa Startup Summit Africâ Up in Tunis.
HEO Finance
HEO Finance is a stable coin crowdfunding platform that intends to build in crypto-economic incentives for early crowdfunders helping to get campaigns off the ground. While crowdfunding has traditionally been plagued with gatekeepers and oversight as to what is allowed to be funded or not, HEO is the first step in revolutionizing the free flow of capital between angel investors and projects, individuals, and movements!
Privacy for Web3
NEAR Protocol has established itself as a haven for privacy and privacy advocates, especially after the launch and funding of the Cypherpunk Guild. On NEAR, Privacy is taken seriously as an essential requirement for a prosperous and healthy community.
Nym
Nym describes itself as âdeveloping the infrastructure to prevent data leakage by protecting every packetâs metadata at the network layer.â In short, Nym is a privacy juggernaut looking to not only protect existing users from surveillance capitalist companies and agencies, but to integrate such infrastructure with the rapidly emerging Web3 space.
Well funded and with a highly qualified team, Nym convincingly compares their solution to VPNâs, TOR, I2P, and Facebook, before discussing scalability on their FAQ questions page. The full NYM whitepaper can be read here.
For more information check out the Nym Website. Littered with references to Surveillance Capitalism, Five Eyes, the importance of privacy and anonymity, as well as a host of papers and videos, Nym putting their ideas to work in building out the next generation of privacy infrastructure.
âNym is partnering with the stealth startup Kryptik to release a mixnet which has superior privacy properties to Tor against global passive adversaries. This mixnet is the culmination of years of academic research into surveillance proof networking by the PANORAMIX project.â
Sarcophagus
Sarcophagus is an Ecosystem built as a âdead-manâs switch platformâ. In short, Sarcophagus provides a means for accessing the digital identity, keys, and digital materials of a person based on a pre-coded inaction that they fail to do. From political activism, to emergency communication, to will and trust management, Sarcophagus is looking to enable a future where machines will be able to act where users cannot.
By playing to a system of incentives amongst different stakeholders Sarcophagus creates a host of new services for crypto-users, right at a time when privacy and digitization have made digital ownership a precious commodity:
With Sarcophagus we witness the activation of code in service of human behavior. Tokenized and managed by a group of distributed stakeholders, a new future awaits with Sarcophagus embedded in our digital systems.
Verida
Verida is a project that believes that data should be owned and managed by users first. In line with the mission of the Open Web to create a world where user owned data becomes the standard, Verida is building decentralized data management technologies for businesses, governments, and individuals to all handle the commodity of the 21st century in a better way.
From Data Store Servers, to connecting APIs, to trusted transactions and frameworks, to schemas and single-sign on, Verida is building out the base layer infrastructure for a data management system that puts privacy and ownership first.
Conclusion: The Open Web Collective is Bringing A New Generation of Dapps to Market
With this second batch of projects scheduled to showcase their products and technology at the Open Web Collective Demo Day, the Open Web Collective continues its march to creating a digital future that is decentralized, open, permissionless, and user-focused. The numerous different solutions from the second batch foreshadow a future of machines, instant payments, tokenized value, and better privacy and data ownership.
To learn more about the Open Web Collective follow them on Twitter, check out their website or listen to the podcast!
