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Coil Technology Testing
Conde Nast is a giant in the global media industry, founded in 1909 with over 84 million print readers. At the same time, the general audience of the holding’s online products reaches 366 million, and more than 384 million content consumers come through social networks. Collaboration with the crypto start-up Coil is a sign that even such a giant with a diversified approach to advertising is looking for new ways to monetize content.
The idea of ??a Coil startup first appeared in 2018, however, it was only possible to implement it by August 2019. Then the cryptocurrency company Ripple allocated grants in the amount of $ 4 million and 1 billion XRP tokens (about $ 265 million) to develop the Coil solution. And in January this year, Ripple's senior developer, Evan Schwartz, joined the startup , leaving the company after six years of work in it.
On June 14, analyst Matt Hamilton announced that Coil’s content monetization technology was being tested, finding a program line in the page code for the online version of Wired magazine indicating a payment decision from Coil.
https://twitter.com/HammerToe/status/1272131465443246081/photo/1
On the same day, information appeared that the solution from Coil was integrated on the main page of the website of The New Yorker.
https://twitter.com/ErikvanDijk/status/1272160289358782466/photo/1
How the solution from Coil works
At this stage, Coil's solution is in test mode and is only available with a monthly subscription, which costs $ 5. Payment is made by credit card and is automatically prolonged if there is no application to refuse it. Further, the Coil client can use the media resources that are already included in the project’s affiliate program. So, he has access to texts, podcasts, photos and video content - all this was created by the authors of various platforms. The more time Coil users spend consuming content, the higher the remuneration of authors.
At the same time, content creators can use a special Coil plugin for their site, if it is made on Wordpress. This allows them to receive remuneration for their work through the Uphold crypto wallet, which supports 36 crypto assets, including six stablecoins, 25 fiat currencies and even precious metal certificates. The content consumer can determine in what form he wants to organize transfers to the creators of the content, and the specific set of payment options depends on agreements with a particular platform where the content is hosted.
For venues such as Conde Nast, Coil's solution allows you to:
Classic ads may disappear
As for the Coil startup, this service is focused on the implementation of micropayments through the blockchain infrastructure. It is the ability to make cross-border micropayments that makes blockchain an extremely popular technology in traditional finance. Among the projects that understand this trend, we can mention Fold, which pays bonuses in the form of Satoshi (the smallest share of bitcoin) for purchases paid with a Visa card.
The essence of Coil's strategy is to transform the content market, where classic advertising and other traditional schemes for its monetization become irrelevant. Instead, all content will be supported by users who are willing to pay for access to content from their favorite authors. It is no coincidence that the Coil terms of use say that the platform will promote only informative and analytical content without advertising and marketing campaigns. Thus, the startup intends to nullify all the advertising, the consumption of which we have already become accustomed to. At the same time, as notedat Coil, subscriptions to content platforms also have no future. So, for example, why would a Netflix user pay a monthly subscription for all content if he wants to watch a particular series or devote an evening to watching just one movie?
Nevertheless, while Coil is forced to promote himself using classical methods, including promotional codes and referral programs. Indeed, to make content platforms interesting to work with Coil, a startup needs to offer a solid base of active users in return.
Coil as a venture capital fund
Among those already working with Coil, there is an Imgur image and meme service. Each second of viewing images on Imgur generates revenue either in US dollars or in XRP tokens. At the same time, for Coil users, the Imgur service provides access to premium content.
As a result, on May 5, Coil participants were presented with an alpha version of Imgur Emerald, completely devoid of classic advertising. It is worth noting that last year Coil invested $ 20 million in Imgur. This decision was made by the investment division of Ripple, xSpring, which promotes XRP tokens. Coil CEO Stefan Thomas (who worked for many years as Ripple's CTO and is one of the creators of the Interledger Payment Pointer technology) joined the board of Imgur. At the same time, Jonathan Greenglass, who became director of development of the blockchain platform, left Imgur from the position of financial director at Coil.
Coil in a deal with Imgur proved to be a venture capital fund looking for potentially promising startups. And this is no coincidence. The same approach was applied to the Hackernoon website, which also included Coil, with an 8% stake. On June 10, it became known that Coil invested $ 1 million with a total capitalization of Hackernoon of $ 11.5 million (excluding highly liquid assets). Then it became known that Greenglass left Coil and is now a member of the board of Hackernoon.
Twitch streamers receive micropayments in proportion to how long Coil service users watch them. Exactly the same principle, only when listening to podcasts, works in the case of PlayerFM. Coil users also have access to the Cinnamon video streaming platform, which, like Imgur, offers exclusive content.
Partnership Coil
Startup Coil also develops investment activities aimed at supporting promising online projects. For this, in September last year, the company, together with the creators of the Mozilla browser and the non-profit organization Creative Commons, launched a support fund of $ 100 million.
In May, Coil, along with Google, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, acted as an investor in the Mojaloop Foundation. This fund is developing software that focuses on the launch of international open source financial products. They will help provide access to financial services to those who previously did not have such opportunities. According to tradition, one of the top project managers - the head of the services department Adrian Hope-Biley - became a member of the board of the sponsored organization.
XRP tokens are not the main thing for Ripple
Interestingly, in the case of Coil, Ripple's desire to distance itself from the XRP token project can be noted again. This is evidenced by the launch of projects such as xCurrent, xView and xRapid, which are designed to increase the efficiency of payment solutions using the blockchain. At the same time, the introduction of tokens, including XRP, has long been not a prerequisite for launching such solutions.
Ripple’s position to promote its own image separately from XRP tokens is understandable: the task is to integrate into the world of classical finance without necessarily binding and mentioning XRP. However, a considerable number of investors in these tokens see the success of Ripple, including their Coil project, as a hope for a significant increase in the price of XRP.
In fact, the current situation suggests that it is important for the cryptosphere that it reduces the share of speculative investors who purchase tokens for one purpose - to receive income from the sale of assets at a higher price. In this case, the Coil project, which invests in other companies, has the potential to become a “unicorn”. After all, investments in Coil - in equity or in the form of debt instruments - are likely to be no less promising than the purchase of XRP tokens. Yes, and the project itself, although it involves the inclusion of partners in the “XRP ecosystem,” is aimed at creating new models of content monetization that are yet to be developed.
