Inside Look: How Friendzone is Redefining Value Creation in Social Networks

In the rapidly evolving realm of Web3, where innovation meets practicality, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Kevin Lu, the dynamic Co-Founder of Scalene and its flagship product, Friendzone (FZE).

With a background rich in blockchain development and strategic growth, Kevin has spearheaded initiatives that have reshaped the landscape of Web3 and Social-Fi. Today, we delve into the intricate layers of Friendzone, exploring the vision, mechanics, and future prospects of this groundbreaking platform.

Revolutionizing Social-Fi: A Deep Dive with Kevin Lu, Co-founder of Scalene & Pioneer Behind Friendz

1. Ishan Pandey: Kevin, it's an absolute honor to have you with us. To kick things off, can you share with our Hackernoon readers the story behind Scalene and its transition to a Web3 Venture Builder?

Kevin Lu: Ishan, thank you for this opportunity to share more about Scalene and Friendzone. Our vision to onboard the next wave of Web3 builders and consumers was co-founded with a self-funded investment of $750K USD.

Our journey began by fostering the talents of Web3 enthusiasts; we launched two core products, an Academy Platform and Talent Engine, that offered placement programs for top-tier talent into exceptional teams or a showcase opportunity at an industry-leading event. To debut our products, we co-hosted Glitch Hackathon, the first multi-chain developer festival in South Korea, where we supported over 300 builders and 1200 conference attendees. This initiative alongside Trinity Venture Studios, has evolved into a joint venture, reinforcing our commitment to developing emerging talent but also paved the way for our strategic growth. We also had the honor of contributing to GM VN, the largest Web3 Conference in Vietnam, as the exclusive hackathon and builder partner. Scalene alumni have joined some of the fastest-growing Web3 teams in 2023, including Infinex and Entangle Protocol.

Our shift at Scalene to consumer-focused and mass-market products is a strategic answer to the changing landscape of Web3. Our goal is to draw a new wave of users and transform the digital world with impactful, user-centric experiences.

Our debut and flagship product, Friendzone (FZE), marks a significant milestone in Scalene's journey. It embodies and is the first stepping stone on our mission to empower the entire consumer frontier of Web3, capitalizing on the now matured infrastructure landscape, leveraging advancements made available recently like ERC4337 and Privy.

With Friendzone, we're championing a whole new ecosystem of social applications similar to DeFi Legos, which we refer to as SoFi Legos. In this ecosystem, every interaction transcends mere connectivity; it becomes a source for value creation, unlocking possibilities previously unimagined through composability, open-source, and decentralized collaboration. This evolution towards consumer-friendly and widely appealing products reflects our strategic foresight in adapting to the evolving dynamics of Web3, intending to attract an entirely new demographic of users and reshape the digital realm with engaging user-driven experiences.

2. Ishan Pandey: Friendzone is poised to be a notable player in the Social-Fi space. Based on the information available about its planned launch, could you shed light on the expected influence of Friendzone’s adaptive bonding curve and staking mechanism in this domain? How do you envision these features distinguishing Friendzone in the Social-Fi landscape?

Kevin Lu: Drawing on our teams' experience in major DeFi, infrastructure, and middleware - we're proud to pioneer unique approaches within the Social-Fi domain. Our innovation of an adaptive bonding curve in our protocol design sets us apart as the first Web3 team to integrate a responsive pricing mechanism based on supply, demand, and reputation. Tying this with one of the core values behind Web3, ownership, we are excited to also be the first Web3 social project to implement native reward distribution through staking.

Our core Unique Selling Points (USPs) revolve around these innovations. The essence of building a truly social Web3 product lies in embracing mechanisms that are inclusive and engaging for all users, regardless of their financial status or the timing of their platform engagement. We believe that limiting mechanisms, which could be perceived as 'anti-social,' have no place in the creation of a genuinely social Web3 environment - incentives are misaligned with speculation.

The success of a Web3 project isn't solely dependent on intuitive UI/UX or an extensive feature set. The foundation of a project's longevity and impact lies in its protocol design and incentive loops. If these aspects are rudimentary or flawed, the project risks fizzling out after a speculative frenzy or worse, burning early users of the platform. At the heart of an exceptional Web3 project is a deep understanding of protocol, incentive design, and the unique financialization opportunities that crypto offers to leverage the resultant network effects.

This understanding is the driving force behind building Friendzone from the ground up. We've observed numerous pitfalls in the current designs of SoFi platforms, and we speak with users daily to understand their needs and challenges. This user-centric approach informs our development process, ensuring that we're not just another Social-Fi platform but paving the way for the next steps of evolution in this sector.

The features of Friendzone – particularly our adaptive bonding curve and staking mechanism – don't just differentiate us from other Social-Fi platforms; they set a new industry benchmark. These features are designed to foster a more inclusive, dynamic, and engaging Social-Fi environment. As we continue to iterate and refine Friendzone, our goal is to establish the industry standards for how Social-Fi projects should be conceptualized and executed, always with the protocol and incentive design at the forefront.

3. Ishan Pandey: You've had a remarkable journey with Band Protocol, marked by significant achievements. How have these experiences influenced your approach and vision for Scalene and Friendzone?

Kevin Lu: My time at Band Protocol, complemented by my involvement in venture investments and advisory roles, was crucial in shaping my vision for Scalene and Friendzone. In Web3, the impact is often born from hands-on experience rather than just theory. The Web3 environment is ever-shifting, and practical experience is key. At Band Protocol, we reached significant milestones like securing $25B in total value and working with a wide spectrum of teams, from startups to mid-stage companies and enterprises like Google Cloud. These experiences have provided me with a deepened understanding of protocol and incentive design in Web3.

Drawing from these rich experiences, coupled with the expansive network accrued over the last six years, provides Friendzone the competitive edge to create a Social-Fi platform that stands out and is here to stay in the rapidly evolving Web3 space.

The key learning here is the importance of adaptive and user-centric product design, which is central to our vision. By integrating advanced incentive mechanisms and fostering a community-driven environment, we're addressing the gaps in current Social-Fi offerings. Our focus is not just on creating a platform but on cultivating an ecosystem where every interaction adds value, both socially and economically.

4. Ishan Pandey: The concept of monetizing social graphs is fascinating. Can you explain how Friendzone enables creators and users to transform their social engagement into tangible, monetizable assets?

Kevin Lu: Our platform's core creator feature is the Custom Creator Controls, which provide end-to-end flexibility for content creators regardless of size. They can offer a variety of content, bounties, and experiences, setting their own terms and pricing for access directly within the app. This could range from Pay-Per-View (PPV) content to unique experiences or even exploring new concepts in social engagement. Our goal is to empower creators, brands, companies, and communities to tap into their audience base that is eager to support them more actively and intimately.

During our version 1 incentivized beta launch, we're committed to engaging closely with our users. We believe in a hands-on approach to understanding their needs and preferences. This ongoing dialogue is crucial for refining our monetization streams. We're focusing on solving critical issues faced by creators and users in the monetization space and are excited to delve into creative markets that have yet to be defined.

As we identify these highly demanded problems and feature requests, we plan to continuously roll out and expand our custom creator access controls. This iterative process ensures that we are not only responding to current market needs but are also ahead of the curve in anticipating and creating new opportunities. Our vision with Friendzone is to make social engagement not just interactive but also rewarding, transforming the way value is created and shared in the social graph.

5. Ishan Pandey: In terms of technology and user experience, what sets Friendzone apart from other Social-Fi platforms like Friendtech and Stars Arena?

Kevin Lu: What fundamentally differentiates Friendzone from other Social-Fi platforms is our commitment to pioneering the capabilities of Web3 and industry growth. We consciously chose not to take the shortcut of forking existing projects. Unlike many SoFi projects, there isn’t a single line of code or element of protocol design in Friendzone that has been borrowed from existing models. This distinction is critical in the context of Web3 Social-Fi, which is still extremely early; forking often leads to mere value extraction from followers rather than creating meaningful engagement and value for both creators and users.

Our approach is not just about avoiding reputational risks for creators, who, in an ideal scenario, should avoid having multiple profiles across various SoFi platforms of the same nature. It’s about aligning incentives with the true spirit of Web3 — moving away from mere speculation and towards creating genuine, sustainable value that is equitable and accessible. This ethos is why we are preparing for cross-chain capabilities by 2024, already having connections with various blockchain networks to enhance our platform’s reach and utility.

At Friendzone, every aspect – from protocol level and incentive design to our product feature set, native reward distribution through staking, and, for the first time in Web3, an adaptive bonding curve – is a result of grass-roots efforts from our team. Our focus isn’t on capitalizing on short-term speculative frenzies. Instead, we’re strategically playing the long game, aiming for broader user distribution and establishing Friendzone as a truly social platform.

Our commitment is to build a platform that not only stands the test of time but also reshapes the way social interactions and value creation are perceived in the digital realm.

Ishan Pandey: Looking at the future, what exciting developments can we anticipate from Friendzone, particularly in terms of features like 'Anti-Chips' and the decentralized reputation system?

Kevin Lu: The future of Friendzone is positioned to bring a fresh take in the realm of on-chain reputation, a challenge that still remains mostly unsolved in the blockchain space. Our perspective is that solving on-chain reputation requires a multifaceted approach, integrating factors like on-chain transactions, credibility, and social graphs. Friendzone's contribution in this space is our focus on leveraging social standing and social graphs as a building block to a comprehensive on-chain reputation system.

An interesting concept we’re researching is ‘Anti-Chips,’ a feature designed to foster what we call 'fair market reputation.' This concept is based on allowing users to interact with reputations in a manner similar to market dynamics – users can 'bet' for (long) or against (short) someone's reputation. This is based on publicly available information, social graphs, and digital interactions, offering a transparent and open-market perspective on reputation.

By integrating these considerations, we aim to create a decentralized reputation system that is both robust and reflective of real-world social dynamics - one that is permissionless, and resistant to Sybil attacks and exploits.

We're excited about the potential of Anti-Chips to rethink the way reputation is built and perceived in the social world. Our conversations with CL207 have been instrumental in refining these early ideas, and we look forward to rolling out this feature, as it represents a significant step forward in our mission to enhance the utility and experience of social interactions on Friendzone.

Ishan Pandey: Scalene's collaboration with giants like Google Cloud and Immutable is impressive. How do these partnerships enhance the capabilities and reach of your projects?

Kevin Lu: Our collaboration with key team members from Google Cloud and Immutable has been a significant milestone for Scalene. These relationships are a testament to our credibility and the strength of our team as Web3 native builders. Both Andy, our CTO and Co-Founder, and I have been immersed in the Web3 space for nearly six years, and our conviction in this industry is unwavering. We've found our passion and purpose in Web3, and these relationships reinforce our dedication and the trust we've earned in the industry.

We are incredibly humbled and grateful for the support of all our partners and advisors, especially during the formative stages of Scalene when we were launching our Academy Programs. Their backing played a crucial role in our early successes and in building our continued reputation in the Web3 community.

Moreover, these relationships have opened significant doors for us, which is particularly powerful as we develop Friendzone. Social interaction is a fundamental aspect of human nature, and having the support of industry leaders boosts our ability to not only establish Friendzone as a leading consumer platform but also to extend its reach to support brands, companies, enterprises, and DAOs.

Ishan Pandey: Finally, for our aspiring Web3 builders and enthusiasts, what advice would you offer, drawing from your extensive experience in this rapidly evolving field?

Kevin Lu: Dive deep into the Web3 industry, not just as an observer, but as an active participant. Working in the field exposes you to its nuances and challenges, cultivating you into a Web3 native. It's about gaining hands-on experience and understanding the ecosystem from the inside out.

Innovate: Build something. Web3 is a space of endless possibilities, and hackathons are a great way to start. They often highlight gaps in the sector, offering opportunities to fill these with your ideas. Plus, there are prizes and recognition if you place well, which is merit to your skills and innovative thinking.

Interact: Engage on platforms like X/Twitter and Discord. Web3 is unique in that it offers visibility and direct access to a wide range of professionals, from founders to executives to thought leaders. It's a space where your voice can be heard and where you can learn directly from the experiences and insights of others.

Last but not least, never ever hesitate to ask for help.

Stay tuned for an enlightening journey through the digital landscape with Kevin Lu.

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