Web3 credential data network Project Galaxy's governance Token GAL was list last night at 8pm on Binance, Coinbase, FTX, and almost every other big major exchange. The launch price was $1.50 (i.e. the public offering price), which shot up to $200 and is now back down to $15-20, a 10x increase compared to the public offering price. As a semi-finished product that is not yet fully functional, the fact that it has attracted major VCs and exploded after its launch is a reflection of the crypto world's desire for a traffic collection&trading platform.

The key to running an internet company is to grasp the channel of traffic. Take Alibaba as an example, on the surface, Taobao is an e-commerce company selling goods, but in reality, Taobao is an advertising company, selling traffic for profit. This is why Taobao had to block Baidu's crawlers in the early days, launched Tmall when Jingdong rose to position high-end brand users, and took a stake in TikTok when short video was on the rise. Ali has acquired a bunch of businesses, all essentially channeling traffic to the Ali system.

However, how traffic is priced in Web2 is always a problem. Users provide traffic while consuming, and Internet companies sell it to companies that need it, which then provide corresponding products based on user preferences shown by the data, so users continue to consume. In the process, the user provides the traffic but does not profit from it.

Project Galaxy's approach to colleting traffic

The idea of mastering the traffic channel doesn't just apply to Web2 companies, it applies to Web3 companies as well. Unfortunately, as of now, the crypto world does not have an established platform that can play a similar role. From this perspective, Project Galaxy is the Web3 equivalent of an e-commerce platform.

As a first step, Project Galaxy partners with quality projects and lists the steps for users to follow. Users can simply follow the steps one by one and get a lot of airdrops of high quality projects. For users, instead of looking for projects in an aimless way, they can choose from a one-click interaction platform.

In the second step, Project Galaxy decides which unknown projects can list on the platform by voting on the governance token GAL and charging them a fee. GAL holders, in turn, are entitled to a percentage of the platform's revenue.

In the third step, developers pay GAL to query our credential data through Galaxy Oracle Engine and Galaxy Credential API. Currently all query fees are waived during beta testing.

As the self-proclaimed largest (1.46 million users) Web3 credential data platform in the crypto world today, Project Galaxy has the traffic channel at its disposal. However, like Web2, Project Galaxy also faces the problem of how to monetize its traffic. In other words, Project Galaxy is still in the stage of "paying money to attract traffic" and is still a long way from achieving profitability and even ecology.

Tokenomics

GAL has a total supply of 200,000,000 and an outstanding supply of 35,161,333 at launch (approximately 17.58% of the total supply) with a current market capitalization of approximately $490 million. There are three main application scenarios as follows.

1. GAL token holders have the ability to control the amount of the platform fee collected by the protocol, and control funds held by the Project Galaxy Community Treasury.

2. Payment of application fees: Developers who aim to utilize or query Galaxy’s credential data through Application Modules will be subject to a Platform Fee which is charged in GAL. Most of the fee will go to the curators, and Galaxy Community Treasury will collect the rest. Currently all fees are waived during beta testing.

3. Bonding curve: GALs will be tied to credential data set to form a bonding curve. Credential data set can be purchased through the GAL, and by holding credential data set, you will receive a commission on the platform fees, while the paid GALs will be locked into the bonding curve. Therefore, the more credential data in the network, the more GAL will be locked in bonding curves for data signaling. Currently the curation system is still under development.

From the model design, GAL has good value capture capability, but only the first of the above features is currently implemented. It can be said that Project Galaxy is only a semi-finished product at this stage.

Competitive Products

Rabbithole

Rabbithole is more like a simple Learn-to-earn platform than Project Galaxy.

Users learn from the projects offered on the platform by completing tasks to earn NFT rewards, and subsequently have the opportunity to earn airdrop rewards. However, the task update rate is quite slow, with an average of one new project coming online in a month or so, leaving users with very little choice. And, while the platform can also help new projects attract the right users, its governance tokens do not reflect the application scenario of value capture.

POAP

POAP is more display-focused, recording user interactions and creating an "on-chain resume" that is displayed on SocialFi.

The project is an old project from 2019 and is currently migrating to the xDAI network, so its audience is not as large as the other chains' projects. However, its Twitter following has risen fivefold in the second half of last year. In terms of the product itself, users can collect POA P badges after completing interactions with other projects, but the badges are only viewable in their wallets and therefore only serve as a showcase in Social.

Summary

Most of the projects in the crypto world are not really profitable (or profitable in a Ponzi way), and there are very few projects like ENS that have a constant stream of revenue. From the experience of the traditional Internet, if there is a Web3 version of traffic collection and trading platform, then it will not only have a stable income, but also may form a winner-take-all monopoly situation.

For now, Project Galaxy hopes to become such a platform. While it is still a long way from monetizing their website traffic, once successful it could give rise to a new paradigm: Traffic to earn. Imagine if we could own the traffic after purchasing goods on Taobao and decide who to sell it to or how much to sell it for and profit from it in the form of DAO, that would undoubtedly have an impact on the traditional Internet industry.

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