Introducing WHIRL, crowdfunding on the blockchain
Since the dawn of Ethereum, tech writers and blockchain pundits have hyped the promise of blockchain-based alternatives to crowdfunding platforms, like Kickstarter and GoFundMe. Time has ticked by and, remarkably, that promise has remained unfulfilled, until now. Over the last 12 months, our heads-down team has been on a mission to reinvent crowdfunding, with a blockchain twist. We’re pleased to introduce you to WHIRL.
What is WHIRL?
WHIRL is more than blockchain + crowdfunding + snappy name. It’s a fundamental reimagining of what crowdfunding can be, shaped by blockchain tech and informed by the many limitations of existing platforms. WHIRL is also a revolution in financing, letting people raise money for their dreams, passions, and obligations without having to ship rewards, ask friends or family for donations, or take out crippling loans.
WHIRL’s core innovation is that you can only create a crowdfunding campaign after you’ve contributed to others. And the amount you’ve contributed determines how quickly your campaign goes live and how much it can raise. All of this is managed by an internal points system called “karma,” which creates a pay it forward, giving economy that will inspire a whirlwind of good across the globe.
Intrigued? We haven’t even scratched the surface!
Every Campaign Gets Funded
Crowdfunding platforms have enjoyed hockey-stick growth over the last decade, but one metric has gone in the opposite direction: campaign success rates. For example, Kickstarter reports a 36% success rate, down from 44% a few years earlier, and GoFundMe’s success rate has dropped to an abysmal 10%. There are myriad reasons why: campaign fraud, over-promising, poor incentives, and worn-away novelty, but the #1 reason is that there are too many campaigns for any one person to keep track of them all.
In stark, jaw-dropping contrast to the rest of the industry, campaigns on WHIRL will enjoy a 100% funding success rate. How is that possible? We talked before about WHIRL’s giving economy, which contributes mightily, but there’s another layer of innovation: limited campaign placements and a fair and transparent queue.
WHIRL members don’t need to exhaust themselves sorting through hundreds of campaigns; WHIRL lists only a few at a time. In fact, for our launch, we plan to list only one active, non-charity campaign at once! Eventually, as WHIRL grows, that number will increase, but never so much that our success rates suffer. Now, you might be wondering, if only a limited number of campaigns are displayed at once, who chooses what goes live? The answer is no one…and everyone.
When you create a campaign on WHIRL, it doesn’t go live immediately. It’s first reviewed by a moderator to ensure that the campaign doesn’t run afoul of our terms of service. Then it enters a transparent queue, where it competes with other campaigns on two variables: (1) how long the campaign has been in the queue, and (2) how much karma the creator has earned. Eventually, every campaign in the queue is guaranteed to launch.
Limited placements shine the full community’s attention on your project and the queue ensures that the community knows that you earned your spot.
Blockchain Revolution
Because WHIRL is blockchain-based, you can back campaigns on it using cryptocurrency. Here’s the fun part: WHIRL doesn’t just accept BTC or ETH. No, it supports a whopping twelve different cryptocurrencies: ADA, BCH, BTC, DASH, EOS, ETH, KICK, LTC, USDT, WRL, XML, and XRP, with more in the pipeline. Very, very few platforms can pull this off: a testament to our team’s technical prowess and hard work.
There’s one symbol on that list that you haven’t seen before: WRL, our platform token. By supporting a campaign with WRL, you earn bonus karma. We’ll also be partnering with other tokens to grow WHIRL’s reach, beginning with KICK.
(WHIRL will eventually support fiat payments once regulatory issues are settled. We have to do this in order to fulfill WHIRL’s ambitions.)
Building on the blockchain gives WHIRL another major advantage over legacy crowdfunding platforms: global scope. For the first time, anyone in any country can create or back a campaign without worrying about regional banking restrictions and friction. We believe this to be a societal game-changer, and also good business, since much of the growth in crowdfunding is international.
Socially Driven
Early on, we wrote about how we’ll inspire a whirlwind of good. That wasn’t empty rhetoric: WHIRL has created mechanisms to help vetted nonprofit organizations access a major new source of fundraising capital.
First, partner nonprofits will have their own, special campaign slots and their own queue. This gives them extra attention. Second, anyone who backs a campaign from one of our partner nonprofits earns a karma bonus, incentivizing large contributions. And third, partner nonprofits get waived platform fees and white glove support to get them started.
We understand that sometimes the best way to do good is to support those who are already doing good.
Stay Tuned
WHIRL is an ambitious and complex endeavor that will bring people together from around the world in mutual self-support and change the way people finance their futures. We’ve covered a lot here about what makes the project special, but there’s much, much more to say. Stay tuned as we dive deeper in WHIRL’s many nuances and features!
