Engaging with potential customers online is a core part of nearly every successful startup. However, in the world of blockchain, fostering a dedicated and excited community is quite possibly the single most important thing a startup can do to make their outlook skyrocket in the short term and ensure their long-term success. While having a large group of followers that you can call on seems like the most beneficial path for companies to take, studies have shown that a slightly smaller community of engaged participants who all believe in a project is most conducive to success. The findings of the report titled “Top Cryptocurrency Movers in 2020” was released in August of 2020.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is one of the most exciting areas of exploration at the moment. Blockchain technology will undoubtedly find its way into every part of our lives and every business sector. However, only a few select industries have used it in a meaningful way thus far. Finance is an obvious one, as its centralized, slow, and non-transparent nature makes it a prime candidate for meaningful disruption in the near future. Oh, and it handles money… lots of it.
A report was recently released by BlockchainDriven that highlights how the community of DeFi projects define their long term success. For example, the report indicates that a higher percentage of active members in Telegram groups directly correlates to a higher market capitalization for the project, using VeChainThor as a prime example. This shows that active members are extremely valuable for the project. Yet, many projects don’t know how to activate and target proper active members. To read the entire 248 page report, request it here.
A main conclusion the report draws is that the larger the active community, the more likely the project is to have a higher market capitalization and raise funds more easily. This is crucial to blockchain projects, since they frequently need to leverage their existing support to raise capital and expand.
Active users directly correlate with more beneficial outcomes, and the separate Architectures proposed by the report conclude that a minimum $88,504,286 are being left on the table by DeFi companies that do not use these architectures. A simple, low conversion rate of between 0.06% and 0.20% yielding 1,071 new members is all that this takes.
Telegram channels are arguably the most common way that a DeFi project grows their community.
“While the most straight-forward conclusion would imply that Telegram Channels is a ‘No Strategy’ for the cryptocurrency projects, such a conclusion may not be most accurate. Telegram Channels must have higher outreach; thus, the only reason Telegram Channels are not being utilized by projects is due to absolutely unprofessional marketing staffs. It means that with a proper marketing approach, cryptocurrency projects will most likely raise more funds and obtain a higher level of awareness.” –BlockchainDriven Report
Decentralized Finance projects, especially up-and-comers, are increasingly looking to grow their community, as community trust is frequently seen as the number one ally of a successful decentralized project. There are a lot of ways that a DeFi company can go about doing this. The elbow grease strategy is one, but it generally involves either hiring a significant number of people to the community team and trusting them, as inexperienced as they may be in the world of Decentralized Finance. The other is taking away focus from other parts of the project. Neither of these are really terribly appealing options, so many companies have turned to a third option: Decentralized Expertise
What is Decentralized Expertise?
Decentralized Expertise can come in a lot of forms. But in a simplified sense, it’s consulting on blockchain, Decentralized Finance, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), and more from experts external to your company.
For some companies, they use Decentralized Expertise to theorize and build the architecture of their decentralized project, whether that be a cryptocurrency, a DeFi project, or otherwise. Other companies pick and choose how they use Decentralized Expertise. One popular use of this is in building the communities that blockchain projects need desperately to grow and thrive.
Community building sounds far easier than it actually is. It combines many non-technical parts of blockchain projects, including but not limited to, marketing, branding, public relations, and sales. Blockchain project communities act more similarly to a group of investors than they do fans. Sure, some might be customers as well, but the primary purpose of having these communities is to build trust in the product in the wider blockchain community and ensuring that funding and the value of the project stays constant both pre-launch and post-launch.
Companies like BlockchainDriven are experienced in this type of consulting work. Across all of their previous successful projects, they noticed that fostering communities that were all interested in the project’s long term success led to significantly more successful end results. After noticing this, they then put more resources into that part of blockchain consultancy, and you’re not going to get through a consulting period with them without deeply considering your blockchain project’s community and strategies for growing your following.
One notable strategy being employed by BlockchainDriven and others is specifically targeting accounts who are more likely to be potential community members. This includes community members who are likely to be active, supportive, and leaders within the community. Think of a community member as a Series A investor in your project. Having a Series A investor who adds to the success of the company beyond supporting the venture financially is incredibly beneficial. For example, if Chris Sacca or Peter Thiel invested in your Series A round, you are getting more than just their money. They are much more beneficial to the short term and long term future of your company than someone with a less meaningful name or presence. A good community member for a blockchain project has the same exact impact. You can mess up once or twice, you can underdeliver on your product, you can even change your vision for your product. A community that believes in the project, the vision, and the team behind it will allow you to succeed no matter what.
According to BlockchainDriven’s Peter Borovykh, “We’ve brought our expertise to a number of blockchain projects that needed a lot of help. Our most successful strategy time and again has been specifically targeting potential community members and building a community that is strong and sticks together for the long run. We write frequent reports about community engagement and its impact on the success of blockchain projects. That’s how important we believe it to be.”
The report features analysis of all of the biggest DeFi players in the space. If you are involved in a DeFi company on the rise, this report includes tons of in-depth data that is very relevant to your company, as well as actionable insights that have been compiled by the Analysis team at BlockchainDriven. All of your competitors are featured in the report or use this information to get a massive leg up, and it is one of the core pillars of what BlockchainDriven uses when consulting DeFi projects.
To read the entire 248 page report, you can request it at BlockchainDriven.
If you are running a DeFi project and looking to grow your membership or community, you need Decentralized Expertise to lead the charge. A good mix of blockchain technical knowledge, project management experience, and marketing and branding expertise are all needed to increase DeFi membership or build a stronger, more united and resilient blockchain community. If you feel that your company is missing at least one of those skill sets, you need Decentralized Expertise. BlockchainDriven and Peter Borovykh have a lot of experience doing exactly that, so I recommend them strongly.
