UNLOCKING THE CREATOR ECONOMY

For this cover story, BLOCK magazine meets up with Daniel Santos, CEO and Founder at Woonkly for an in-depth look at their NFT-based decentralised social network and how they’re empowering content creators, influencers, and artists to create, manage, and monetize their creations through a one-stop-shop.

How did you get into this space? Did your own background as an influencer inspire you to create a decentralised social network?

I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 15, continuously trying to learn and discover where the opportunities would be in the future, always thinking big. I have always envisioned changing the world. You need to believe in it and in yourself. I wanted to change people's lives for the better.

I realised that Youtube could be a very powerful way to build a community that could support my goals, my projects, and I worked hard to become one of the most influential youtubers in Spanish, with 300.000+ subscribers, and it definitely paid off. My fans helped me fund my startups and it was the first step to start building something big. I wouldn’t be where I am now without all my supporters.

Years ago, I realised that the world needed a decentralized social network, that there was a need to be met, so I started working on building it. There has always been this discussion about the ownership of your data, and I wanted to give the people the ownership of their data back. We know that tech companies make huge profits out of their users’ data, their users’ hard work and we believe that this is unfair. We need a social network that shares the advertising revenue with the users. We need a new model that is fair for the content creators.

When I discovered the blockchain/crypto world, I realised not only that it was the place to be as an entrepreneur, in the same way the internet was in the late 90’s, but also that it was perfect to build the “new” social network that I had envisioned. I started working on it, we launched an ICO to get the first funding and then our token, the WOOP, was created. Our early backers had a huge return, and as the price of the WOOP and our reserves grew significantly, we had enough funding to turn our ideas into actual products.

Today, the WOOP is listed in various exchanges and there are several big ones lined up for the near future. As Woonkly.com grows, so does the WOOP and the thousands of holders that believe in us.

You launched the Metasocial Network in Abu Dhabi during the Formula 1 Grand Prix - what does this emirate have to offer the blockchain sector?

A lot of things are going on in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They are open, they want to attract innovation, and they know the crypto/blockchain world can bring talent to build an entire ecosystem. The UAE is a great place today for crypto startups. At the UAE we have a great regulatory environment, a very supportive administration, and we’ve been very fortunate to have great partners and investors that believe in Woonkly and that are helping us achieve our ambitious goals.

The network is based on NFTs and IPFS. It’s the first of its type - tell us about your plans for this.

NFTs are booming, and we wanted to take the advantage of jumping into this exciting market, so we decided to push hard on bringing NFTs to our decentralized social network, even making NFTs a key feature at Woonkly.com.

On the other hand, the content our users create and share is not stored on a centralized server (i.e. AWS, Google Cloud) as in most social networks, but on thousands of users’ computers through an IPFS (Interplanetary File System).

When we were designing the decentralized social network we knew that in order for it to be completely decentralized, IPFS should be a must. We want to take advantage of blockchain–based services that can help us build the best product, the more decentralized and the most userfriendly. We are working hard on it, adopting all the innovative technologies that are around.

What are the benefits of having a decentralized global directory of influencers, artists, content creators, and metaverses?

There are a lot of NFT marketplaces, and we believe the ecosystem needs a one-stop-shop and a directory for all the participants. There are new products and services popping up every day, and the information is spread out on tons of sites, everything is very fragmented. We aim to become the leader in the industry, the reference for everyone interested in this world.

What will the Woonkly Metasocial Network bring to the NFT ecosystem?

Creating NFTs is not easy - yet. At Woonkly we are meeting an actual need: users want to create NFTs easily, in one click. Upload a photo, turn it into an NFT and sell it. All in one place. We want to attract not only the early adopters, but the millions of people that are looking for a decentralized social network and also want to easily create and manage their NFTs.

How has the emergence of NFTs contributed to blockchain adoption?

NFTs are bringing millions of new users to the crypto/blockchain world, people that didn’t even know about crypto, that were not holders. The strong interest in NFTs is bringing the masses closer to the industry. NFTs and crypto gaming are attracting millions of new users that are learning how to use a wallet and how to interact with these crypto-based services. It’s unbelievable the exponential growth in adoption that we are seeing these days. This is totally unstoppable. The market can go down, crypto prices can drop, but the adoption is there, and we are in the right place to take advantage of this trend.

Navigating the NFT minting process isn’t always straightforward. How easy is it for influencers and artists with limited blockchain knowledge to use the network?

Using a crypto wallet is still not very user friendly, but we are working to make the entire process of minting an NFT super easy. We really believe that now anyone can create an NFT at Woonkly.com

When it comes to security, what policies do you have to ensure the intellectual property of creators is protected?

This is one of the biggest issues for NFT marketplaces. Our users are required to pass a KYC (know-your-customer) process that prevents them from infringing copyrights, and we also have a big team that works hard to protect creators. At the end of the day, we believe that regulation brings safety and trust, and we want to become the most trustful place to work with your NFTs.

Tell us about the content creation process, how has this platform empowered users?

Woonkly is giving the users the power to own their content. Their posts are theirs, they can turn their content into NFTs, and they also can benefit from monetizing their content as Woonkly shares advertising revenue with the holders of the WOOP token. Now users can actually participate in the success of the platform they are in.

Looking forward, what do the next few years hold for Woonkly?

We’ve been building an impressive platform and we’ll keep improving it, listening to our users and having a clear goal of offering the best experience out there. On the other hand, we’ve been working hard on bringing amazing content from top celebrities to our platform. Big news is coming!

We have a great team, awesome partners and the ambition to become the top player in the world.

Tell me all about Soundbite art?

It’s something that I created a couple of years ago, it’s a new art genre and style that's unique to myself. It's my voice. In fact, I used to call it Voice Note Art. I've now moved it to Soundbite and it's all based on sound, art, technology, and storytelling.

So what I do is I take a word or phrase, or even a name and capture the structure of the sound wave my voice makes when saying it. I draw each of the lines of the sound to match the meaning of the word. It's about being able to capture the essence of the story - whether it's a person, a city, or even a concept like blockchain or NFTs. In fact, I created a soundbite called What the NFT . So it's about being able to use technology in a way that art has never seen before.

What is an NFT for you? There's so much FOMO going on from the investors, speculators and NFT artists. Can you create separate compartments for all of that? Or do you think it should be merged into one space?

I do think that it's important to understand the journey as this is constantly evolving. Where it started to where it is now is a whole different place. The NFT market began as a place where, for the first time, digital artists were able to make their art rare and scarce - by mining it into the blockchain. That was just revolutionary in itself.

It started off in the fine art market phase - with people like Beeple, Fewocious, and Pak and other very big NFT artists that came about as a result of it and were selling at very high prices.

FOR THE FIRST TIME, DIGITAL ARTISTS WERE ABLE TO MAKE THEIR ART RARE AND SCARCE - BY MINING IT INTO THE BLOCKCHAIN. THAT WAS JUST REVOLUTIONARY IN ITSELF.

WHAT I HOPE WILL DEVELOP AFTER ALL THE HYPE IS OVER, IS THAT THERE WILL BE A DEEPER APPRECIATION FOR ARTISTS AND FOR THE ART THAT THEY CREATE.

Now with the emergence of Bored Ape Yacht Club and all these other PFPs, this is where art trading and trading and investment start to come into the picture. So it is evolving and yes, art was probably at the core of it then. Art is now part of it, but it's definitely not central to it.

It's moved closer towards having a community. So having something like a Bored Ape Yacht Club means that you're part of an elite club. It represents that you were somebody who caught the wave early, so it almost becomes similar to real world billionaire clubs.

That's why a lot of celebrities are buying into that project because it's got cache, it's like driving a Ferrari. So communities are now being organised by things like millionaire clubs, or even by nationalities anymore.. While before we would have a flag or a passport, we now have a virtual representation to show where you belong.

It's almost like creating a new community for all the business entrepreneurs, because once you have the community it means you’re moving into the concept of utility. People are now buying into communities that promise added value. Not everyone is interested in the art.

PFP projects are run like proper businesses. It's run like a proper machine and almost like a mini project, which I would say not all artists have access to. So it starts to beg the question - what is NFT art now? Is it fine art or is it a PFP project?

As you rightly said, while art is not your forte, you’ve come to appreciate the artworks when you see them. What I hope will develop after all the hype is over, is that there will be a deeper appreciation for artists and for the art that they create.

The one thing I want everybody to remember is that we can't kill creativity just for the sake of profits. We still need to harness this. I think the great thing about NFTs or even gaming and the metaverse is that they’re going to unlock such an amazing amount of creativity that we’ve never seen before.

A lot of my artwork is taking someone from the physical world into the digital - while still remaining physically present. Going into the metaverse is the perfect way for this hybrid reality to come through. So do I think that this has got legs and is here to stay? One hundred percent.