Rally CEO explains why he wants millions of people to have their own 'creator coins'
Imagine a world with not just a few thousand cryptocurrencies, but billions of them.
That's Rally CEO Kevin Chou’s vision. The founder of mobile gaming heavyweight Kabam joined The Scoop's Frank Chaparro to talk about the development of creator coins, which are blockchain-based tokens that are tied to the social capital of a person.
“We thought about… if you have instead of just thousands of tokens in the world, but you have millions of tokens, tens of millions of tokens, a billion tokens at some future point in time, how do you create a world where people can easily exchange that value?”
To be sure, it’s early days for Rally. The firm has onboarded approximately 160 creators, and that number is growing, with a community that spans athletics, art, and music.
Rally is currently working with musicians like Portugal. The Man, as well as streamers, gamers, celebrities, athletes, and others to create their own fungible tokens via their network.
According to Rally, the decentralized $RLY Community has raised $108 million to date for its community treasury. The project is offering a platform for creators to issue their own 'creator coins' that allow them to engage directly with fans and offer bespoke incentives — thereby giving them the power to “own their economic destiny," as Chou puts it.
But the vision is much broader, according to Chou, who said in the interview:
“How do we eventually think about a world where more and more people choose to create their online identity, reputation and financial wherewithal all on a blockchain. And that's kind of the world that we're trying to solve here on Rally.”
Chou also discusses:
Rally's plan to create network rewards for creators
How creators are earning significant income already with Rally
How Rally aims to work with regulatory commissions across the globe
Episode 40 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Kevin Chou, CEO of Rally.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
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New Business Models for Gaming, Collaboration, Creativity
The combination of cloud, social, and mobile took gaming beyond a small base of just console- and PC-gamers to a massive player base. But the underlying business model -- the concept of "free-to-play", built on top of games-as-a-service -- may have been the real innovation that led us to the global gaming phenomenons we have today.
Unfortunately, observes gaming veteran Kevin Chou -- who's seen it all when it comes to tech platform shifts and gaming as a longtime gamer, founding CEO of Kabam, and now founder and CEO of Forte -- there is "a dark side" to free-to-play: Game developers have to balance the gamers who aren't paying with those who are, and especially those who are paying a helluva lot more (the whales) in order to make money and keep the game going. This balance becomes incredibly challenging over time; it is, quite frankly, a lopsided economy. The players will leave: The incentives between game publishers and players are simply not aligned.
Yet what if we could re-align those incentives -- really, the economic relationships -- between game publishers/developers; players and guilds and clans; those who create on top of games (like on Roblox and Minecraft); those who trade and otherwise transact both inside and outside games (it's already happening in secondary markets and gold farms). We could do this in a more balanced way, thanks to blockchain technology and cryptoeconomic business models -- leading to thriving gaming economies with better monetization and deeper engagement, as well as new forms of collaboration, community, and creativity.
But smart contracts, cryptoeconomies, security, etc. is hard for gamers who just want to focus on designing the best game, so how do we get here? Chou shares his thoughts in this episode of the a16z Podcast with Sonal Chokshi and general partner Chris Dixon. In gaming (and in fact, with other tech trends too), innovation happens when there's a combination of new devices, new technology platforms, and new delivery mechanisms... but it's the business-model innovations, argues Dixon, that tend to create the most startup opportunities.
image: battle scene from Eve Online, a game with an economy (via Forte.io)
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20VC: Why Success in Gaming is Like Success in VC, The Key To Building An Enduring Game & Why Few Metrics Matter in Gaming with Kevin Chou, Founder & CEO @ Kabam
Kevin Chou is co-founder and CEO of Kabam, a world leader in mobile free-to-play games. At Kabam, Kevin catapulted revenue to $400 million and a valuation of more than $1 billion in 2014. Under Kevin's leadership, Kabam has raised more than $240 million from venture and strategic investors, including some of the world's largest entertainment and internet companies such as Alibaba, Google, Intel and Warner Brothers. Before Kabam, Kevin worked at Canaan Partners, Kabam's initial investor and where he invested in 14 consumer technology and online media companies. In 2014 Kevin was named one Fortune magazine's prestigious "40 Under 40" and, in 2012, was identified by Fortune as one of the "Smartest People in Tech."
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Kevin came to found the wildly successful Kabam from a life in VC with Canaan Partners?
2.) How does Kevin respond to investors that say games is so challenging as it is so hits driven? What are the requirements to build an enduring and successful games company?
3.) What are the metrics that define success in gaming? Why does Kevin believe that gaming is unlike any other in terms of metrics?
4.) To what extent does Kevin believe it is right to monetise games from the beginning vs the free to play market? What are the features and challenges required for success in the premium end of the market?
5.) How does gaming alter both in terms of design and monetisation when comparing the East to the West? What feature sets are preferrable in both? Why doe the East want to pay for as much up front as possible?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Kevin's Fave Book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Kevin's Fave Blog or Newsletter: Dean Takahashi: VentureBeat
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Kevin on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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