Just as we predicted the convergence of blockchain tech with IoT, AI, VR & AR back in 2016 we are now seeing the convergence of Web 3 technologies with gaming, social media and virtual worlds as described in our latest Open Metaverse OS thesis earlier this year in Jan 2021 forming the building blocks for an Open Metaverse.
By proactively working with an incredible ecosystem of partners, we have now collectively helped birth, finance and launch nearly 100 protocols and startups built on the principles of Web3. And over the next 12 months, we will double that number and accelerate a further 100 startups from all over the world (through our existing protocol agnostic) Base Camp Program as well as a growing number of dedicated ecosystem accelerators with the likes of Polkadot, Filecoin, and Polygon. This is a testament to the exponential growth we are experiencing as a sector along with the confidence in us from the wider ecosystem as a trusted partner. When this is combined with the powerful network effects we experience as an accelerator you see successful founders transitioning into investors and partners to fuel the next generation of growth and program expansion.
We believe that with expanding volume and increasing success at launching token economies, evidenced by several billion dollar networks launching this year alone, this establishes Base Camp as the Y Combinator of Open Metaverse over the next decade. One that is native to it and deeply understands its principles, technologies and business models.
Through our accelerator, we have condensed several years of applied learning into a 3 (+2 month aftercare) program that helps early-stage startups entering the space navigate its complexities and nuances, explore new business models, find product-market-fit, stimulate community growth, and effectively capitalise their project through equity, tokens, and NFTs. This effectively makes them evergreen and their success becomes independent of short-term crypto market cycles.
Polkadot Base Camp is one of three cohorts starting in Fall 2021 and has been handpicked from over 200 applicants. We’re excited to welcome teams who represent the Open Metaverse OS thesis and are highly additive to its stack, directly contributing to the development of Web3.
In the past, we have already invested in great teams building within the Polkadot ecosystem, such as Unique Network, Polkadex and Fragcolor. We believe that our mission for Polkadot Base Camp extends beyond helping great teams succeed, to actually contributing to the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, we have put special focus on working with teams that actively contribute to Polkadot’s vision of scalability and cross-chain interoperability, and are building the primitives that will enable the ecosystem to flourish in the near future. Use cases and themes include infrastructure and middleware, decentralized networks, marketplaces, DeFi and gaming.
We’re looking forward to working closely with these teams over the next few months to fast track their development and help launch them into the Open Metaverse.
Readl – Reshaping the book publishing industry by returning ownership back to book authors and readers through NFTs. 👉 https://readl.co/
Problem:
Writers and publishers are suffering in digital something that did not happen in the real world (or was very difficult and costly), and that is counterfeit copies of digital books. Since the ebook format appeared, it has been relatively easy to copy and distribute the book without the consent of the owners of the intellectual property. Amazon made buying and reading books easier and flattened the piracy curve but with abusive commissions. With no alternatives, users and authors are feeling exploited and are in search of a fair model.
Despite all of this, users don’t even own the content they paid for and are stuck to one platform. A centralized service can never be the solution for freely spreading information and knowledge to everyone on earth.
Solution:
Creating a free market of books and content where everyone is engaged and committed to the network.
Re-empower writers and publishers, and also the user, allowing them to publish, buy and rent unique digital NFT books, and that only they own, with a fair royalty model for the creator of the work, and provide new functionalities to the reader to enrich the experience of reading a book, an act that we have been doing for more than 2000 years… let’s continue the evolution.
Assisting and protecting authors with intellectual property rights based on blockchain solutions.
Rand – Party to Earn: The frictionless way to join DeFi. 👉 https://www.rand.network/
Problem:
There are no financial tools for young people that really suit their needs.
If they don’t have much money, the opportunity cost of locking the money for a long period of time in any stable financial tool is higher than the actual profit they will make, so they end up looking for more risky options like the lottery.
The majority of them don’t know about DeFi or they find it too complicated to invest their money.
Solution:
Our approach is to build a prize-linked savings mobile app powered by a cross-chain yield aggregator able to bridge DeFi and the mainstream users in a very simple and enjoyable way.
Users will be able to create private or public prize pools with FIAT currencies that will produce yield on autopilot.
Public prize pools will have free access to everybody, so users will be able to lock up money for a chance of winning a big prize.
Private prize pools will be customizable so the user will be able to decide the length, the number of participants and how the yield will be distributed.
GameDAO – The community-owned fundraising, coordination and ownership protocol for video games. 👉 https://gamedao.co/
Problem:
Gamers spend significant amounts of time and money in ecosystems they are locked into. This effectively blocks free markets and sustainable business design.
Game creators are confronted with technical ramp up, regulatory uncertainty, and complex market dynamics which result in slow adoption of blockchain technology and Web3 innovation.
Game publishers and payment networks increasingly feel pressure from the gamer community which demands more freedom and better value propositions.
Most blockchains are not capable of delivering heavy, complex and fast state transitions needed for immersive multiplayer experiences. The UX is bulky. Software development is too complex.
Solution:
Create a video games network that incentivises the operation of validator and computation nodes, contributing to robust decentralisation and trusted computation at scale.
Create unified protocols to reduce regulatory compliance and economic risk which also contribute to transparent value chains, fair gameplay and simplified integration.
Enable gamers and creators to benefit from these standards to foster radical cooperative innovation to create hyper scalable economies for billions of players.
Reduce technical barriers by providing education and best in class UX, DX and bleeding edge software and hardware.
PopEx – Official NFTs from real artists. Where music and art is valued. 👉 https://popex.net/
Problem:
The NFT space has presented artists with a number of challenges which has tempered their initial enthusiasm to enter the space. Chief among their concerns are the expensive and convoluted offerings currently available, both from the artists’ perspective and their fans. This can include high GAS fees or the reliance on setting up multiple dependencies such as Metamask wallets.
Furthermore, a number of high-profile music NFT drops thus far have been ‘one and done’ with no long tail for the artist, nor with any compelling reason fans to purchase, outside of the prestige of owning the NFT.
Solution:
PopEx makes it easy for artists and their fans to engage in a new way around NFTs. An artist can sign up and begin selling NFTs on their own-branded profile to fans with as few as 6 clicks. Their fans can enjoy the same simplicity of sign up and purchasing with credit cards to make the buying experience akin to how they buy from their favourite acts at the moment.
Along with exclusive items only available through PopEx, and an enviable list of acts onboarded, we believe that PopEx will become as vital in an artist’s online presence as Spotify, Twitter and Facebook.
UpLink – The Decentralized Telco: Universal network by everyone. 👉 https://uplink.foundation/
Problem:
The present connectivity infrastructure is fragmented and not scalable to meet the ever-increasing billions of devices and the need for them to connect to the internet directly.
The monopolized telecom sector needs continuous investment in limited spectrum management and connectivity infrastructure deployments to provide sustainable coverage.
However, the cost of connectivity per device still needs to be more economical. To achieve low-cost connectivity, we need to rethink connectivity at the last mile.
Solution:
We re-think connectivity by creating an interoperable and secure unified network by first connecting devices locally in a mesh network with decentralized internet exit points which are community-led & owned to provide resilient and economical internet access.
Our vision is to create a Plug’n’Play framework that can enable anyone to be a Service Provider in the network. The SDK framework is also a cable to run on multiple enterprise devices that allows devices to communicate with each other over our proprietary mesh networking protocol. The protocol is capable to form and sustainably maintain secure autonomous ad-hoc networks without any additional hardware cost or user intervention.
Please follow and support our cohort on social media channels and keep in mind that if you are building in Web 3 and might be interested in joining our next cohort you can pre-register your startup here for the next time when applications open.
