This post will be the first in a new series of deep dives into the Web3 space. MetricsDAO is a collective focused on bringing consistent and innovative analysis into the forefront of Web3, however Web3 is constantly growing. The goal of this series is to help showcase new projects to the MetricsDAO community.
The first project we will be going over is Biconomy. Very simply put, Biconomy is focused on making Web3 more accessible and attractive for mainstream users. We will dig a little more in depth into how exactly they plan to do this in the rest of this post.
Provided here is a quick look at the points that will be discussed in this post:
Now that we have a general idea of where we’re headed, let’s go.
The growth of Web3 is undeniable. This great Messari article from last summer does a great job of summing up how much progress the Web3 and NFT markets had made by Q2 of 2021.
Here’s a few quotes that help paint the picture:
the past quarter (Q2’21’) witnessed over $750 million across the top five collectibles, Axie’s Marketplace generated $7.7 million in fees, and GaryVee has already earned over one million in royalties from his NFT project.
in June, OpenSea facilitated over 211,000 NFT sales across nearly 40,000 active traders
The Axie Treasury is now valued at over $21 million, with 85% of it having been ($18 million) accrued in the past quarter through breeding and marketplace fees.
Helium’s network adds thousands of nodes per week, resulting in 147 billion data credits spent (equivalent to ~3,500 GBs) for total net revenue of just over $1.4 million
As you can see, both the progress and capital are there. These numbers are from nearly a year ago and still do a great job capturing the scale. Looking for more real time data? MetricsDAO is always available.
However (back to Web3), it is still very niche. At this point most people have probably heard of Bitcoin or NFTs, but not much past that. Trading cryptocurrencies is most likely the next most popular medium, with both centralized and decentralized protocols allowing users to trade crypto across the globe.
After that?
Although mainstream society has started to pay closer attention to the space recently (for example, here is a nice piece on Web3 from HBR), there are still some significant barriers that are hindering mass adoption. Companies like Coinbase have put significant emphasis on educating the general public about blockchain technology and different projects in the space, however there are other barriers besides education and awareness. One of the most common being user interface. Requiring new users to create a wallet, on-ramp fiat, convert their fiat to cryptocurrency, and then link their wallet to a dApp or protocol is a relatively long and burdensome customer acquisition process. This process can also be very confusing, even for the crypto native. Web2 products, websites, and apps are all so fine tuned today. The internet is integrated with our daily lives because it truly makes life easier in so many ways. Web3 right now requires effort to engage with. If the dedicated community behind Web3 wants to see true widespread adoption, then both education, and a seamless user interface will be key in this journey.
That said, these issues are certainly being worked on (great article speaking on how web3 can move forward with UX). We mentioned earlier how fast web3 is growing. Solutions are right on the horizon. Which leads to the question...
Biconomy at the core is focused on solving the problems mentioned above. Originally grounded in creating multi layer solutions that simplified decentralized applications (dApps) and helped smooth over their transactional processes, Biconomy has now grown into BiconomyDAO. We will briefly touch on how Biconomy is able to simplify dApps here, then get into the DAO.
Aside from the complicated onboarding process and poor user interface, another issue that challenges Web3 adoption is transaction fees. Once a user has completed their onboarding process and has a functioning wallet, they will still need to pay gas fees for most transactions on chain (users on Ethereum often pay over $60 to complete a single transaction and this price could increase significantly during network congestion). Biconomy attacks this issue by providing an infrastructure layer that allows end users to make transactions irrespective of their wallet balance, by taking on those fees as a third party. Biconomy essentially subsidizes the costs of transactions and in turn provides users with a speedy, polished layer to host their applications on.
A few stats from Biconomy on the success they have already seen to date:
This is a very (very) simplified breakdown of how this works, but you can read more on this here. Improving transactions in web3 is a massive step to mainstream adoption.
Despite providing a strong infrastructure service in the name of increasing Web3 accessibility, the team at Biconomy decided that was not enough. Enter BiconomyDAO. A decentralized community with the same overarching goal - improve the Web3 experience for all and help onboard more users. How? Glad you asked.
The first step in this equation is their user friendly infrastructure which we touched on above. The next step is grants. Biconomy boasts an interesting epoch based model for injecting money into their community. Each epoch is a 6 month period where the DAO will disburse a sum of money into various projects, campaigns, or ideas in their community. Following the conclusion of each epoch the DAO will assess what happened and make changes to their process if necessary. BiconomyDAO is currently in their first epoch (“epoch zero”) which started with $2M in $BICO tokens. This money will be distributed through grants over the length of this epoch. There are essentially two ways for the community to apply for these grants.
BiconomyDAO encourages the community to apply with any and all ideas that they feel encompass their core values. Community members can submit ideas around marketing, app development, research, or any other cool concept. They truly encourage anyone to apply. This inclusive attitude towards their grant process speaks volumes about their overarching goal. BiconomyDAO is looking to make Web3 more mainstream which means “for everyone”, not just a select few. Keeping this in mind, they do put a strong emphasis on education related projects. The team at BiconomyDAO specifically requests content and projects focused on simplifying Web3 in various ways for the general public. Web3 is filled with builders consistently working on the bleeding edge of tech, people need education to catch up and feel comfortable exploring on their own.
Another aspect of BiconomyDAO is their bounty program. Bounties are a great way to increase community participation and find business value at the same time. Their bounty board is a located here. While having the community execute bounties is great for Biconomy, it truly allows anyone to chip in and contribute on their own terms. Users can find a project that interests them or fits their skill level, and give it a try. Bounties provide a low risk way for just about anyone to engage with the community behind Web3, so it should be no surprise here that BiconomyDAO is stepping up to the plate there as well.
Reading through their documentation you get the sense that Biconomy has a vision for the future. The goal being to become a community driven investment fund that identifies projects, people, and ideas that will push the space further into mainstream culture. It is a selfless goal that puts the longterm good of the space in focus instead of short term profit. All of us here at MetricsDAO are so excited to see how Biconomy continues to grow.
MetricsDAO is all about providing top level analytics and insight throughout web3.
Biconomy wants to grow onboard more users into the space.
There is some serious potential for collaboration here.
A few ideas come to mind:
While the opportunities going forward are limitless, there are many great ones taking place right now such as the ones running through some of our ongoing partners OlympusDAO, Harmony, and Messari. The Web3 space has so much to offer and we’re still finding out just how deep the rabbit hole goes. However, this post is all about how intriguing of a project Biconomy really is. They are tackling one of the biggest issues in web3 by digging into the root and finding the true problem areas, all while putting inclusiveness at the forefront. Despite the scale of the problem, Biconomy came prepared with a plan focused on innovation, community, and growth. Who knows where it will lead?
Interested in joining? Get started with Olympus bounties to earn USDC here!