Virtual reality became prominent in the past few years thanks to the impressive developments in the industry as well as social media which helped a lot in making VR as popular as it is today.
Although people are more familiar VR, augmented reality (AR) is making waves on its own although there is not as much hype around it as VR.
Arguably the most popular example of AR is Pokemon GO, a game that—for a brief moment—got the whole world united to enjoy a game that cleverly combined both virtual reality and real-life mechanics in it.
Although the Pokemon GO hype train has toned down, the game showed the world that AR is exciting and in many ways, captivating to the public as a means of entertainment.
As more and more AR games and applications are developed, we can surely expect an increase in the number of people who engage in these projects—but there is one issue.
Although AR involves the individual in the game or whatever application it is, there are zero to little incentives for individuals to engage in content other than the fun factor itself.
For instance, Pokemon GO used the gimmick of allowing players to catch virtual monsters by walking around but it’s clear that the idea could not maintain the huge player base the game had when it first launched as proven by the game’s massive drop in players a month after its release.
Clearly, fun is not the only factor needed to keep users engaged. There need to be other incentives to pull users in and keep them consistently engaged and of course, it should also be beneficial to companies too as offering more incentives often means spending more money.
Thankfully, the invention of the blockchain has opened up many avenues for incentives to be offered in verticals like AR. Not only are costs lower compared to previous systems, the blockchain’s transparent and decentralized nature makes it fair to both users and companies in terms of benefits.
One startup that aims to use the blockchain to improve AR is FluffAR, a company that is set to disrupt the AR industry with its unique solution.
FluffAR is a reward token protocol built on the blockchain that aims to improve engagement in AR applications by offering incentives to all parties involved in the AR ecosystem.
Simply put, FluffAR was developed to help AR projects to build, engage, and promote their experiences to users more efficiently by rewarding tokens to users who actively engage with these projects.
The team uses Pokemon GO as a way to explain how the platform works but instead of catching virtual monsters, users are rewarded with cryptocurrency tokens by simply doing things like playing an AR game or any other engagement with AR experiences.
The platform will use a variety of technologies like geo-mapping, the blockchain, and machine learning to help build an ecosystem where all parties involved are rewarded equally and fairly.
FluffAR’s team involves several renowned names including Da Phakousonh, a serial entrepreneur whose companies were early adopters of projects developed by Google and Yahoo, Dennis Lee who is an operations expert with experience in managing a portfolio of $750m with 300+ employees, as well as Dave Lee, a successful long-time investor in a variety of industries including the blockchain industry.
As mentioned in the previous section, FluffAR rewards users (influencers, players, companies, etc.) with tokens for actions that engage with AR experiences—but what tokens do they reward them with?
There are two main tokens used in the FluffAR ecosystem: Fluffs and Carats.
Carats are tokens that are used to promote the growth and development of projects and experiences in the AR industry. Developers and designers can build AR apps to claim bounties in Carats while influencers earn Carats through promoting AR projects to their followers or fans.
Fluffs, on the other hand, are the tokens rewarded to users for engaging in AR content in the FluffAR ecosystem. Both users and companies don’t have to worry about missing out on tokens as the blockchain will be used to verify transactions whenever an AR experience is triggered in the platform’s ecosystem.
These tokens can then be exchanged for rewards and prizes on the FluffAR marketplace which is great as users are rewarded fairly for interacting with content. Before this, users would only have fun but there are no other incentives to keep them engaged for a long period of time—all of this will change thanks to FluffAR’s unique rewards-based approach to the user-content dynamics.
The core feature that ties all of these features together are FluffAR events which are places or events where users can engage in AR experiences and be rewarded in tokens for their contribution.
Tokens are rewarded to users whenever they complete missions or goals in FluffAR-based events although they can also be earned just by attending the events.
As a user interacts more with an AR experience, he or she will earn more tokens along the way and at at the same time, brands and companies increase user engagement effectively without spending too much money.
Brands and companies also benefit a lot from the platform thanks to FluffAR’s augmented reality engine.
With FluffAR, companies have the access to a real-time content delivery management system that allows companies to create mobile-based AR content at their venue of choice.
These AR experiences are accessed by the company’s target audience through mobile devices; valuable data on user behavior can then be collected by the company to make informed decisions.
These experiences allow users to interact with a company or brand’s campaign by enabling them to create events that trigger at specific locations. For instance, Company A can use FluffAR to trigger an AR experience at an area in their office whenever guests enter.
These experiences can be customized by companies and they are specifically designed by the FluffAR team to maximize user engagement.
All of these features available to companies are accessed through the ARFuse portal which enables the management of events and other related features available in FluffAR.
All of this makes FluffAR one of the brightest projects to look out for in the future, with the platform set for launches in several major cities around the world including Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, and Sydney.
FluffAR will be holding a token sale for the Carats (FLC) token. Fluffs are rewarded to users but they are not sold publicly as they can only be attained through engaging in AR content.
Here are the details of the token sale:
Token name: FLC
Token base: NEM
Token supply: 20,000,000
Token sale duration: TBA
Token sale target: TBA
Token exchange rate: 1 ETH = 56 FLC
