Project Spotlight: UNITT
Kadena
September 5, 2023
Welcome to the Kadena Project Spotlight Series, where we highlight the groundbreaking work of organizations currently building and innovating on the Kadena blockchain!
Today, we’re shining the spotlight on UNITT.
UNITT, The Universal Transaction Token Project, is a project focused on building a tokenized payment infrastructure for chat-based interaction and content discovery. The aim is to have a fairer and more efficient ecosystem for people to buy and sell any type of digital content.
The first feature of the project is the “UNITT Instant Messaging and Content Discovery App” which enables creators to sell their content directly to their audiences and to monetize chat-based interactions such as follower engagement, AI chatbots, and paid searches.
The project was launched in the Spring of 2022, and currently, the UNITT app, is in the alpha testing phase, with plans for a beta launch later this year.
How does UNITT work for content creators? How does UNITT work for users?
The UNITT app functions as an easy payment gateway, enabling creators to earn tokens through their content on a pay-per-view model. New viewers can access content without credit cards or external payment services. Instead, the content creators set their own prices for their content (ie. newsletters, blog posts, or Google Docs), and users are granted access to their chosen content only after making a payment, with payments made in the form of UNITT tokens.
In terms of content distribution, users can access our content discovery system, which is built with a suite of Pact smart contracts. It is designed to enable users to search and retrieve content easily. Alternatively, creators may opt to directly share the content exclusively with their contacts or followers allowing users to pay for content.
How does UNITT generate its revenue? Does it take a percentage of what the content creators make?
As all interactions are tokenized in the UNITT ecosystem, we receive a minimal percentage fee when content is shared or sold inside the app. Our objective is to keep the fees as low as possible. Our fees are definitely lower than the revenue-sharing models of other existing publishing or social media platforms.
Looking into the future, we envision that third parties will create additional features and services, such as NFT-based profile avatars and other personalized add-ons, on our platform.
Does UNITT have any subscription services?
We do not plan to have any in-built subscription services. We want to offer every individual a gateway to earn money and access premium content without the need to set up subscriptions.
Numerous platforms cater to content creators, offering paid subscription options for their followers. However, a significant challenge arises as only a small fraction, typically 1–10%, of followers become paying subscribers. UNITT aims to bridge this gap by providing a solution that benefits both creators and their followers. It facilitates creators in monetizing the majority of their audience while granting followers access to content without any contractual commitment.
In terms of intellectual property, do the creators maintain 100% of their intellectual property rights?
Absolutely! Creators not only maintain all of their intellectual property rights but also, we do not even have access to the original content.
The UNITT system solely stores the metadata related to the content, so that it is discoverable on-chain. The actual content remains secured behind a URL encrypted within a smart contract that only the creator can manage.
It’s important to note that when we mention “buying” and “selling” content, we are not transferring ownership of the content from the creator to the consumer.
What can we expect from UNITT in 6 months? In 1 year?
A top priority over the next 6 months is to release the beta version of the UNITT app on the mainnet to both Android and iOS software. Additionally, we will also be introducing the UNITT token, allowing users to exchange their UNITT tokens for other currencies like KDA or fiat.
In the coming year, our roadmap and features will be extensive. We plan to launch a desktop app for UNITT. Most notably, we aim to integrate UNITT accounts with a self-sovereign identity system, where users have full control of their identities and can choose what information they reveal and to whom. This groundbreaking step empowers users to profit from their data without compromising their privacy. Advertisers will also benefit by directing more ad revenue into the UNITT ecosystem.
What inspired the creation and development of UNITT? What has it been like building on Pact and Kadena?
Our primary motivation is fairness. Currently, billions of social media users generate hundreds of billions of dollars of ad revenue, with the majority going to the platforms, leaving only a small percentage paid to the creators.
We wanted to create an ecosystem where consumers pay directly to the content creators, and advertisers pay directly to the consumers.
We decided to build the system on Kadena because:
Scalability: The Kadena blockchain is able to handle millions of very small transactions at minimal cost. Other Layer-1 blockchains struggle with small monetary transactions due to high gas fees.
The Simplicity of Programming on Pact: Most of our team members come from a Web2 development background, making human-readable smart contracts incredibly valuable for us.
In conclusion, choosing to develop UNITT on Kadena was unequivocally the correct decision. We successfully built our platform in accordance with our original plan, and the unwavering support from the Kadena team community has made us feel fully embraced and a part of the Kadena family.
Many thanks to UNITT for taking the time to share with our community details about its visionary project and their experience building with Pact! We’ll be featuring more Project Spotlights in the coming weeks, so stay tuned as we continue to profile innovative projects that are currently building on Kadena.
To keep updated on UNITT progress, make sure to follow them on their social channels: