General Discovery

About the event

Project: Hyype
Guests: Roy Supriyo, founder and CEO of hyype
Topic: Socializing NFTs, engaging web3 communities.
NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE

About our guest speaker

Roy Supriyo, Co-Founder (Discord: @Supriyo | Hyy.pe)
Write a short bio about the guest(s) including their role at the project they are speaking about.
- Worked at top tier web2 firms like Amazon, Flipkart, Faasos, Microsoft
- While working on the product team at Alexa Smart Home, got interested in NFTs (specifically CryptoKitties) in early 2019 in the beginning of the last bear market
- When covid hit last year, the space catapulted into where it is today with more and more people spending time online and realizing the fallacies of web2. Decided to jump in more actively and think about building something.
- Noticed that no one had created a storytelling platform to showcase your gallery as identity, so set about to create Hyype
- Fun fact: Although known for being a design and product guy, was originally a software engineer who decided to change his trade after seeing how much fun problem solving and psychology was. I still think web3 is nowhere ready for an average internet user and the space needs a lot more product and UX maturity for it to capture the prime time.

About the project

General position: NFT social network enabling collectors and curators to connect stories to NFTs in their collections and gain greater control on how to display them
What is the value proposition of the project? How does it clearly differentiate itself from others in the web3 space?
- NFT rather than owner-centric social platform - the NFT lore, history, backstory forming part of the owner's online identity
- Showtime.io ⇒ Creator centric, allow creators to mint and showcase their NFT work to an audience and attract potential buyers. Part SuperRare (without selling function), part Facebook. NFT description solely decided by creator
- Lazy.com ⇒ Creates a "gallery" wrapper for NFT owners to showcase their collection on existing social media platforms. Already multi-chain on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon
How does it benefit it community members and general web3 communities at large?
- Allow users to express their individuality and curate the impression they want to convey
- Reinforce a sense of membership in each tribe, allow each person to express allegiance to their tribe more fully (even if they belong to >1 tribe)
Is it bridging blockchains, protocols, tools, communities, etc.?
- Create new ways for NFT owners to connect with one another
Does it bring a unique vision or approach to solve challenges in web3?
- Making Lore permanent and non-editable
- Providing a community space tailored to the uniqueness of NFT communities
- Creating the culture, history and lore of the NFT universe
How does it improve the web3 ecosystem?
- Creating a native platform for NFT communities to craft their identity
Generally, how does the product work?
- Basic Functions (as a user)
  - Write Lore aka Backstory for your NFTs, which will stay permanently attached and non-editable, even when sold to another buyer (Lore is stored on IPFS). Includes pictures, vide
  Lore Writing page for the NFT, Source: Hyype website
  - Follow NFT community members (both within and across communities)
  - Comment and react to other's Lore
  - "Feed"/homepage to see the latest activity on all communities
  Example of personal "feed"/home page, Source: Hyype website
  - Non-NFT owners can browse all content, but cannot interact
  - Members from communities that have not won the Alpha Race cannot be viewed by full members
- Details of product stemming off high level overview
  - Express why an NFT appeals to or represents you
  - Create a community culture around the shared lore that everyone is creating
  - Allows for permanence in recording the information (analogy of ancient cave carvings)
- Outline a few mid to high-level topics about the product
  - One stop shop for everything related to NFTs and the communities. Hyype wants to be the place to establish your own collection as your identity and provide context to your NFTs. We also want to be the place eventually where communities interact with each other, see blockchain activities, governance and much more (source: Discord DM)
- Results so far
  - Guarded launch on Oct 27 by holding an "Alpha Race" for 13 NFT communities. Community with the highest score after 72 hours granted full access (eventually all communities will be fully onboarded)
  Alpha Race Leaderboard on 12 December 21, Source: Hyype website
  - Now on the 3rd Alpha Race, with 42 communities having full platform access
  - Thousands of unique members
  - Hundreds of Lore written
Practical applications of product.
- Detail current functionality of project, where it is deployed, TVL
  - Compatible with Ethereum NFTs
  - A social network for NFTs - cross between Twitter and Facebook
  - Integration with Discord
- Current and potential use cases
  - Increases value of NFTs by allowing owners to imbue their personal interaction with the NFT. Could lead to increased resale value if future owners appreciate the significance of a piece (e.g. the laptop a famous writer used to write their first bestseller)
  - [Future] A way for NFTs and their owners to interact and exchange meaning (bridging onchain with offchain interactions)
- Steps for a beginner
  - Must own an NFT (PFP) that is already on the platform, or in an Alpha Race to be fully onboarded
  - Click "Sign In" on the nav bar, connect the wallet with your NFT
    - metamask, wallet connect, and now coinbase wallet are compatible
  - Verify your email address and set up your profile (name, bio)
  - Start writing, following, commenting, reacting and connecting with your community!
- Token economy
  - No token yet
- Any recent, meaningful updates to the project.