A young firm is working to find a solution for Web3’s app store issue. Magic Square, which was founded about a year ago, is creating an app store where developers may list projects that have been approved by the community. Additionally, in its early success; 250,000 people signed up to try out the upcoming beta version which has helped it draw the interest of investors.
After recently raising an extra $1 million, Magic Square’s valuation jumped from the $30 million price tag of its $3 million seed round led by Binance and Republic that was completed in July to $75 million.
The company aims to lower the cost of marketing for cryptocurrency firms, which presently spend tens of thousands of dollars on influencer endorsements without knowing for sure whether such endorsements will result in new users, or airdrops that draw more speculators than actual users.
As a result, Magic Square created a marketplace for affiliate marketing, a notion that has been around since the internet’s outset. In this marketplace, developers can specify the price they are willing to pay for each new user that they recruit. Marketers then claim the duties and attempt to encourage consumers to download these apps. Additionally, that is how the startup makes money.
Instead of taxing in-app sales, it subtracts 10% from the developers’ campaign budget. With more money, Magic Square wants to increase its 40-person team and focus on creating new products for its affiliate marketing program.
User Safety
Building a user-friendly decentralized product seems paradoxical, given that accessibility and speed sometimes depend on centralized data centers. However, as some web3 specialists are starting to assert more and more, what counts is the type and degree of decentralization.
The decision-making process for publishing apps is kept decentralized in Magic Square’s situation. Its app store relies on a team of validators to review applications; this is done through a DAO, or decentralized autonomous organization, which has an incentive system to keep members accountable and engaged. The shift from Solana to Binance Chain is currently taking place in the app store.
Validators, who act in a similar manner to traditional app store inspectors, are the ones who ultimately select what gets to be on Magic Square. They accomplish this by validating projects according to three criteria: content, security, and user experience. Each program is evaluated by 250 randomly selected independent validators, comprising 50 “qualified” (technically proficient) validators and 200 “standard” (anyone in the community) validators.
The motivation of the validators is financial gain. Regardless of whether their software passes the test, developers must pay validators in Magic Square tokens to audit their apps. Co-Founder and CEO, Andrey Nayman links the store’s play-to-earn business strategy, used in GameFi, to the store’s incentive program for app users to post reviews: rewarding them with points that can be exchanged for tokens.
