Decentralized finance (DeFi) seeks to transform the financial world by reinventing all the functions historically offered only by national states and banking institutions. It is truly revolutionary because it will bring features like borrowing money, trading assets, or earning interest on capital. DeFi enables all of these without having to trust a third party–be it a state or a bank. DeFi is open to everyone, it’s peer-to-peer, transparent, and without any controlling authorities.

Believe it or not, there is a need for active marketing for decentralized protocols in the Web3 space. And you know why? There could be an amazing technology, a blockchain with superb use cases — but if only a few people know about it and nobody even uses it, it’s worth nothing. Sad but true.

Of course, the opposite could be that a crappy protocol or centralized project which lacks decentralization, scalability, and security utilizes enormous amounts of money for marketing and PR and gains a significant user base.

But what about the dozens of L1s and L2s that are on the battlefield, fighting for users and their assets? How will the user find out which one to use or invest in? The answer is proper marketing, honest and available sources of information.

WagMedia — The Create-to-Earn Solution for Dotsama

Polkadot and Kusama have the on-chain governance system, where anyone can call for a reward for their marketing activity. But if you have ever tried to submit a treasury proposal, you know that it’s not a one-click event. But how to achieve simplicity in incentivizing some marketing activity? There is a solution called WagMedia.

WagMedia was founded by Chrawnna Corp. in December 2021. It focuses on dealing with the distribution of information from the Dotsama ecosystem by providing efficient financial incentives for creators and finders of quality content.

WagMedia is built around Discord, where anyone can join, register their Substrate address, and contribute content. Funding for WagMedia is through Kusama bounties and rewards from particular parachains in various marketing campaigns.

Fast-moving ecosystems like Polkadot and Kusama are challenging for newcomers to understand. In addition to finding quality content and creating their own, WagMedia also focuses on translations and dubs.

Because not all Polkadot enthusiasts or casual readers of internet forums are fluent in English, WagMedia also concentrates on 16 world languages.

But why is the marketing awareness, which WagMedia focuses on, that important for decentralized blockchains like Polkadot, Kusama, and parachains such as Moonbeam, Acala, Bifrost, or Astar?

3 pillars of a successful DeFi protocol

Let’s point out each aspect of marketing necessary for any decentralized protocol. While DeFi is not the only use case, it is playing a major role in Web3. The core developer teams can utilize tokens to attract users who can be compensated for their contributions when network effects weren’t yet acquired, as opposed to paying money for conventional marketing to persuade and acquire new customers.

TVL = Total Value Locked

Total value locked serves as the primary metric of success for DeFi apps.

It stands for all the resources held in a protocol or network, usually for lending, staking, and liquidity provision.

Higher TVL means higher liquidity, which results in better trading experiences and, of course, better trading efficiency. Better efficiency means lower slippage and improved prices for traders. Better efficiency also means larger profits from trading fees for an individual protocol, which results in increased possibilities in the incentivization of usage. In other words, higher APY for users.

Take it with a grain of salt, but there is a huge battle for users’ TVL between protocols.

User base

Since TVL is the most straightforward and quantitative metric, tracked by applications such as DeFiLlama, two additional aspects are relevant for DeFi protocols: user base and information awareness.

User experience was one of the most neglected elements of Polkadot’s evolution. Difficult interaction with the Polkadot JS wallet was a known challenge of Polkadot.

Easy-to-use products, confidence in tech, and trust in the team are key to the positive impact on the adoption curve. And its simple interface that makes navigation easy even for newbies, which means that even the unskilled user can master their assets, is an absolute necessity even for decentralized protocols. There is no way to have mass adoption with tech made just for geeks. Simplicity and UX are very important and maybe even the key to success.

Marketing awareness

For all projects, be they the most popular ones or those hidden in the shadows, there is a need for good marketing.

Creating awareness for a blockchain platform is a challenging task in the cutthroat crypto marketing sector. Thus, promoting projects with a cryptocurrency is a constant process.

As soon as your project is released, you’ll want to spread the word and keep people believing in it. If you want your endeavor to be successful, Web3 marketing strategies should be applied right away.

The popular marketing strategies for Web3 are content publishing, usage of social media, influencer marketing, and media mentions. But for advanced users of DeFi who love using decentralized protocols, costly and aggressive marketing can also serve as a deterrent. A much better way is content publishing via various channels and social media, together with influencer marketing.

FTX, crypto.com, or Binance were paying for the names of stadiums and Superbowl commercials. This is an expensive, but reliable way to attract newbies, but not advanced users. Decentralized protocols, on the other hand, use more efficient ways of attracting more experienced users who already have some experience in crypto.

Investing funds into marketing and proper targeting is much more relevant for decentralized protocols and, probably, for all Web3 players.

Final word

The concept of WagMedia is quite innovative, and in its brief existence, it has managed to gather a lot of relevant information about Polkadot, Kusama, and related parachains. Whether it was news, tutorials, technology exploration, DeFi, NFT, metaverse, or governance.

WagMedia is a powerful marketing tool for the whole Dotsama ecosystem, not just in terms of number but also — and more importantly — in terms of quality. It serves as a mechanism to deliver treasury funds to the people who bring marketing awareness for Polkadot, Kusama, and related parachains. Content creators, translators, finders, curators, all of these who create extra value for the ecosystem are part of WagMedia — the create-to-earn solution for Dotsama.