Azarus Founder Alex Casassovici Talks Web3 Streaming and Blockchain
Streaming has leveled-up to grow to be probably the most standard types of leisure on the planet. With the rise of platforms similar to Twitch, individuals can now watch their favourite content material stay and work together with creators in real-time.
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Alex Casassovici with 4 firm exits, together with Azarus being acquired by Animoca Manufacturers, has a wealth of information to share. On this interview, we talk about his journey as an entrepreneur and his insights on the present state of streaming and the way Web3 can improve the gaming trade.
The Intersection of Gaming and Streaming
The dialog started with a quick abstract of how these two industries have advanced and grown collectively in recent times. Alex highlighted that creators have been beginning to earn a living doing what they love, enjoying video video games and people watching have been in a position to work together with them in new methods. This symbiotic relationship between gaming and streaming has created a brand new type of leisure that’s solely gaining extra traction.
Though this neighborhood pushed strategy was unlocking new alternatives for monetization, Alex questioned if creators have been getting their justifiable share from the platforms they have been utilizing. This led to the creation of Azarus, a platform that permits creators to monetize their content material via interactive challenges and rewards powered by blockchain know-how.
“We wished to make sure that everybody that was creating worth for these ecosystems is getting a chunk of it.”
Alex Casassovici, CEO of Azarus
Rewarding The Watchers and Followers
A singular facet of Azarus is the flexibility for viewers to earn rewards whereas watching their favourite streamers. This idea of “Play2Earn” has grow to be more and more standard within the gaming trade, with blockchain know-how permitting for safe and clear distribution of rewards. Nevertheless, passive watchers of streams have historically been on the sidelines as they weren’t actively taking part in gameplay. With Azarus, these viewers can now contribute to the content material and have interaction with their favourite creators via gamified features.
“Anybody who’s watching a stream can inject a pockets, a sport begins, and everybody that watches the stream can play on the similar time.”
Alex Casassovici, CEO of Azarus
Azarus is now working with Twitch, one of many greatest stay streaming platforms within the gaming trade. By pairing Azarus with Twitch, the platform can now attain a broader viewers and provides extra creators the chance to monetize their content material. This partnership additionally permits for seamless integration of rewards and challenges throughout the streaming expertise. Non Web3 natives can now expertise the advantages of blockchain in a fashion extra acquainted to them.
The Enterprise Mannequin of Azarus
With the sport being on-chain, distribution of rewards and prizes is totally clear and safe. Whether or not or not it’s NFTs, tokens, or simply normal digital rewards, gamers may be assured within the validity of their winnings.
The best way this ecosystem works is that a lot of the video games are sponsored, so the sponsor decides how a lot cash they need to allocate for rewards and the kind of rewards they need to give. This not solely advantages the viewers, but additionally gives a brand new and distinctive manner for sponsors to achieve their goal audiences in a format that they’re obsessed with.
Different forms of video games can be utilized to measure the engagement and a focus of the viewers. Alex provides the instance of a first-person shooter sport the place a pop-quiz can come up asking the viewers what number of photographs it took to kill a sure enemy on display screen. This flexibility of use circumstances unlocks limitless potentialities for engagement and gamification of streams.
“The most important worth we noticed after we began this mission was belief and transparency and that is what blockchain brings.”
Alex Casassovici, CEO of Azarus
The AzaCoin and Utility of This Cryptocurrency
Azarus has already distributed over $2 million in rewards and has confirmed to be a profitable enterprise mannequin within the gaming trade. By staking AzaCoin, promoting sponsors can even entry unique promoting house throughout the platform. This enables for an additional stream of income for each Azarus and content material creators, making a win-win state of affairs for all events concerned.
With an AzaCoin pockets on each stream, and types able to drop cash for viewer consideration, streams are coming into a brand new dimension of enjoyable. As a bonus, with the (upcoming) Azarus SDK, it is anticipated to grow to be simpler to construct new interactive experiences on streams powered by the AzaCoin. AzaCoin holders get standing and perks similar to voting on-stream, early entry, whitelisting, and extra.
In the case of spending rewards earned via AzaCoin, the Azarus retailer gives all kinds of things similar to reward playing cards, video games (via Steam), and factors for particular video games. This not solely permits viewers to take pleasure in their rewards, but additionally helps the gaming trade as an entire by selling the acquisition of video games and different associated objects.
Remaining Ideas
The roadmap after being acquired by Animico Manufacturers is an thrilling one. As a model identified for housing Web3 video games, trying to get into the broader gaming market, the way forward for Azarus and its integration with Animico Manufacturers appears promising.
Streamers have been answerable for serving to video games get consideration in a UGC (user-generated content material) world, however now sport builders can instantly incentivize streamers to cowl new video games instantly via mini-games paired with crypto rewards. This not solely creates a brand new solution to market and promote video games, but additionally provides a layer of interactivity and engagement for viewers.
