Why We Started a Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform
At Pledgecamp, we are hard-at-work developing the world’s first decentralized crowdfunding platform. Our team believes that this platform will bring significant societal benefits, including increasing the number of entrepreneurs around the world. In this post, we are going to explain why we started a decentralized crowdfunding platform.
Current Problems with Crowdfunding
Before digging deeper into Pledgecamp, let’s take a step back to understand the current crowdfunding ecosystem — and, more specifically, the problems with today’s offerings.
Crowdfunding represents a massive industry: 150,000 projects have been successfully funded on Kickstarter alone (source). Each year, billions of dollars flows hands between creators (those who create crowdfunding campaigns) and backers (those who pledge to these campaigns).
For many, particularly in regions without developed venture capital, the capital and market validation that comes with a successful crowdfunding campaign is the difference between an idea and starting a business.
But it’s not all rosy. Projects on popular sites go through little to no vetting, resulting in fraud and scams. And even if we put aside those who are malicious, many projects fail because the creators cannot reach their milestones. For example, when analyzed, more than 80% projects ship late — and some never ship at all.
The current crowdfunding model also favors Americans and other Westerners. For instance, the assumption that people have regular access to debit cards and credit cards is not a problem in the West, but poses a problem for future growth.
When looking at the trends, the World Bank estimates that China will contribute $50 billion to the global crowdfunding industry by 2025 — which represents 52% of the total global market! Clearly, paying close attention to the growth of the Asia Pacific region will be important in the coming years.
How We Plan to Improve Crowdfunding
With this in mind, we started Pledgecamp and looked to combine the best aspects of modern crowdfunding, online communities, and blockchain technology. Why blockchain technology?
Well, the blockchain enables us to add features and create an experience that is not possible today. A healthy crowdfunding ecosystem has three constituents: the creators, the backers, and the community. Currently, there is a single exchange: a backer pledges funds to a campaign. All other interactions are low engagement, like email updates.
But, as anyone who has started a campaign or funded a project can tell you, there is much more that goes on. Leveraging the blockchain, we can incentivize backers to share regular updates with backers or provide monetary rewards for shipping products on time. For backers, we can build a reputation system or incentivize them for asking questions or helping other backers.
And our team is also developing ways for general community members to get involved. At its core, crowdfunding relies on trust and we believe that we can leverage innovative technical solutions to both align interests and increase the level of truth.
Introducing Pledgecamp, the Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform
Pledgecamp is a decentralized crowdfunding platform, which is important for at least five key reasons. Let’s explore each of these benefits in detail below.
Online Payments: Current crowdfunding platforms rely on the conventional financial system. While this works well in certain parts of the world, it also leaves much to be desired for those in other regions. Utilizing blockchain tech, Pledgecamp accepts payments in both multiple fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies. As a result, we open crowdfunding to millions more around the world, including those who want to use crypto to avoid payment processing fees.
Novel Features: Our platform also boasts a number of novel features, including features to help creators launch successful campaigns, detailed analytics, automated language translations, and more. One feature we’re particularly excited about is our Market Network, a group of approved vendors who can provide services for your campaign. Each vendor’s reputation and work history is written to an immutable blockchain ledger.
Smart Contracts: Another Pledgecamp innovative is Backer Insurance. Leveraging Ethereum’s Smart Contract technology, we have created a way to hold campaign funds in escrow until certain predetermined milestones have been met. With Backer Insurance, we hope to better align the interests of creators (building trust and seamlessly raising money) with those of backers (receiving frequent updates and timely product deliveries).
Decentralized Platform: The Pledgecamp platform is decentralized, meaning that it’s owned by individual community members, not a private company. Our community members will be able to vote on governance issues, help decide the product direction, and receive benefits for their participation. We understand that a successful crowdfunding platform can only be built on top of a vibrate, engaged community.
Tokenization: We look forward to sharing more about the Pledgecamp tokens soon. Stay tuned!
Conclusion
What does this all mean? Well, with each feature and decision, our team had the overall crowdfunding experience in mind. Our background includes [half a sentence on team’s background or experience], so we know what it takes to launch a successful campaign.
The Pledgecamp team is creating a shift in the crowdfunding market that opens this funding option for millions more around the world. We look forward to having you join us!
To learn more, please visit the Pledgecamp website or check out our official Telegram group:
