Exploring the Operation Logic and Driving Factors behind CARV's Remarkable Achievements
Author: Deep Tide TechFlow
In this somewhat special bull market cycle, what kind of market are users facing?
It's quite obvious: there is too much infrastructure and too little application.
Infrastructure is like building a shopping mall. Even if the hardware is complete, if the investment (application) does not capture the interest of users, it will still be deserted.
The popularity of TON's ecosystem mini-games this summer seems to be a counterattack by users against the "grand narrative": regardless of the cycle changes, better participation and more intuitive returns are still the core demands of users.
However, in the current fragmented attention environment, being seen by more people is itself a rare ability: the simplicity of TON mini-games does not mean that the operational logic behind it is simple. With the total user count of TON's ecosystem leisure game BANANA exceeding 10 million and the DAU (daily active users) exceeding 1.1 million, we have also noticed the unsung hero behind its popularity: CARV.
It is understood that BANANA has successfully attracted a large number of seed users through precise advertising placement and KOL promotion on the CARV platform, and has achieved natural growth through the recommendation mechanism and UGC/sharing activities. Currently, over 90% of users come from natural growth channels, and the total number of accounts associated with CARV ID exceeds 1.3 million.
Such conversion growth is undoubtedly very attractive and is enough to prompt more people to further understand CARV:
As a modular identity data layer specifically designed for games and AI services, CARV, on the one hand, mobilizes user participation by promoting data sovereignty, data privacy protection, data tokenization, and value release, and on the other hand, it acts as a bridge for efficient matching between users and games, and AI products, bringing data benefits to users while promoting the development and innovation of games and AI.
In fact, by distributing real profits to users, CARV has sparked widespread participation through innovative data value distribution, and successful cases like BANANA are being continuously staged: currently, the CARV ecosystem has over 900+ cooperative projects, and over a million users have won substantial rewards through data sharing, participation in social activities, game live streaming, AMA meetings, beta testing, and other means, while the projects have obtained high-quality data and traffic for healthy development.
How is this specific growth achieved? Is this model sustainable? With the TGE approaching, is now a good time to participate in CARV? How exactly should one participate?
This article aims to explore the operational logic and driving factors behind CARV's remarkable achievements.
Impressive Background: $50 million in Financing, 900+ Ecosystem Collaborations, Nearly Ten Million Users
Let's first look at the fundamentals of CARV.
First, let's look at its financing performance. We can see that, whether in terms of scale or lineup, CARV's financing performance is very impressive.
According to the current disclosed information, CARV has completed multiple rounds of financing, attracting a total of over $50 million in financing, a substantial amount in any Web3 sector.
In addition to the scale, CARV's financing lineup is also very strong: it has not only attracted support from a multitude of crypto VCs including Tribe Capital, IOSG, ConsenSys (Metamask), and HashKey Capital, but also gained favor from Web2 giants such as Alibaba. Furthermore, among the various participating parties, we can also see the presence of many gaming giants, such as doublejump.tokyo (developer of Japan's largest chain Oasys), Animoca Brands, MarbleX (NetMable), IntellaX, and The Sandbox, further demonstrating CARV's recognition in the gaming industry.
It is worth mentioning that CARV has also attracted the lead investment from Vertex Ventures, a venture capital firm under Temasek, a Singaporean investment company wholly owned by the Singaporean government, which to a certain extent demonstrates the government's attention to the project.
Overall, CARV's narrative logic and future development have not only gained recognition from various institutions, but also the stronger financial/resources support has provided a more solid foundation for CARV's continued positive development.
Beyond institutions, a more important evaluation dimension comes from the ecosystem. In this regard, we have also seen CARV's remarkable coverage in the Web3 gaming and AI sectors.
According to official statistics, the number of games and AI projects collaborating with the CARV ecosystem has exceeded 900+, surpassing many popular new public chains in terms of richness (according to SolanaProject data, the Solana ecosystem currently has 405 projects), and also covering a multitude of well-known enterprises in both Web2 and Web3 in terms of project quality.
In the gaming sector, CARV has deep collaborations with hundreds of top global game studios, including but not limited to MarbleX, a blockchain subsidiary of Netmarble, IntellaX, and blockchain games such as Illuvium, Apeiron, Splinterlands, Genopets, Delysium, Drawshop Kingdom, Big Time, and Ultiverse.
In the AI sector, in addition to CARV's own AI assistant Cara, the AI projects collaborating with the CARV ecosystem are also shining, including collaborations with Google AI and native crypto projects such as Aethir, Inferium AI, UneMeta, and Coinbase Crypto AI SDK. As a data identity intermediary layer, CARV will jointly explore the new era of constructing data value with AI projects within the ecosystem.
In the current dilemma of Web3 on how to attract incremental users, games and AI as two major tracks that are closer to users are already attractive enough, and the diverse ecosystem choices make CARV exhibit a strong competitive edge comparable to traditional Web2 internet products.
On one hand, CARV has a large user base:
According to official data, CARV serves 10 million registered players, with over 3.1 million CARV ID castings on opBNB, a total of 3.3 million users of the CARV protocol, 2.5 million users of the flagship product CARV Play built on the CARV protocol, and 1.3 million app downloads.
On the other hand, the CARV ecosystem users have shown extraordinary activity:
According to statistics, CARV has a total on-chain transaction volume of 240 million on opBNB, Ronin, Linea, and over 40 other chains, driving CARV Play to firmly hold the position of "the largest Web3 game distribution and social platform" with impressive data.
From the beginning of the year to the present, CARV's revenue has reached $6 million, coming from CARV ID casting, .play name services on opBNB, and revenue from integrated games and mini-games such as CARV Play, Infinite Play, and BANANA.
In the public sale of nodes conducted in June this year, CARV sold 38,000 nodes in a very short time, ultimately closing with a total value of over $36 million.
In addition, in a recent airdrop event jointly held by CARV and Binance Web3 Wallet, over 500,000 users participated within 48 hours, ultimately attracting over 1.4 million users to actively participate.
It can be seen that CARV has achieved remarkable results from the institutional, application, and user perspectives.
To understand the reasons behind these achievements, let's explore the driving forces behind CARV's impressive performance through dimensions such as the project's position in the industry, project narrative logic, and specific implementation paths.
Harvard Elite Entrepreneurship: Focusing on Games and AI, Innovating Data Value Distribution
Web3 often says: "The essence of investment is investing in people."
This also applies to CARV. Behind its impressive financing, CARV's strong team configuration also plays an important role.
CARV's co-founder and COO, Victor Y., is a Harvard Business School alumnus who previously worked at McKinsey and is also a serial entrepreneur. He has rich experience in venture capital, AI, consumer, and hard technology, and has also worked in the crypto field.
CARV's CTO has rich experience in the crypto field, having worked on the blockchain video streaming product LINO in 2017 (later acquired by TRON), and also worked on the Cosmos project and at Coinbase, deeply involved in the research and implementation of L2 Base.
CARV's CGO is mainly responsible for growth and operations, with rich operational experience and resource accumulation in the gaming industry, having worked at well-known gaming companies such as Tencent Games, Garena Games, and Electronic Arts, with a total game download volume of over 1 billion.
The birth of CARV is inseparable from the era of data explosion, the lack of data ownership, and the value of data.
According to the Internet Data Center, global data volume is expected to reach 175 ZB by 2025. With the deep penetration of the internet into more aspects of life, nearly 90% of the world's data is generated by individuals.
In the flood of information, users generate data, and users should be the owners and beneficiaries of the data. However, with the deep penetration of the internet into more aspects of life, centralized companies have access to massive user data and profit from it, while the true creators of the data not only suffer from privacy breaches but also cannot benefit from their own data.
In 2021, Victor, then studying at Harvard Business School, keenly captured this pain point and began to build a solution to promote the return of data sovereignty to users and help users say "no" to a world of surveillance and infringement, enabling them to share data and benefit from the value generated by their data under the premise of privacy protection.
This idea quickly received a response from several early core members, and the embryonic form of CARV began to emerge.
In the process of exploring the value of data, CARV once again discovered the huge demand for data in games and AI.
On one hand, data is like the lifeline for the rapid development of games and AI. In the gaming industry, data analysis of player behavior can greatly improve the quality and user experience of games. In the AI field, data is the foundation for training and optimizing AI models.
On the other hand, the high demand for data in games and AI also gives data greater value. As games and AI mature, the demand for data in these two fields continues to grow. This data-driven model further makes data a highly valuable asset.
After understanding the mutual demand and achievement between data and games, AI, CARV's solution to return data sovereignty and innovate data value distribution becomes clearer:
CARV, as an innovative data layer solution, is committed to building an efficient matching platform between games, AI applications, and users:
For users: CARV gives users complete control over their personal data, allowing them to decide how their data is used and shared under the premise of privacy protection, and to obtain economic benefits through data sharing and transactions. User data is no longer a passive resource but an actively managed asset, from which users can gain tangible returns.
For games and AI applications: CARV provides a way to access high-quality data, allowing developers to access real data authorized by users, not only helping applications better understand user needs but also achieving precise market positioning and user reach, thereby promoting the healthy and sustainable development of applications.
From here, a secure, transparent, and efficient data ecosystem has gradually unfolded.
With the beautiful blueprint in place, how exactly will CARV turn its ideals into reality?
CARV: Focused on a Universal Modular Identity Data Layer for Games and AI
Specifically, CARV is building a universal modular identity and data layer for games, AI, and many other fields. To achieve data self-sovereignty for a large number of users and to empower game projects and AI development through data intelligence, CARV has three main pillars to drive a virtuous cycle of users and data.
CARV Protocol: Modular identity and data layer
CARV Applications: Ecosystem flagship products built on the CARV protocol
CARV Labs: Achieving ecological prosperity through incentive measures, further promoting a virtuous cycle of user and data growth
As a modular identity and data layer (IDL), the CARV Protocol adopts a modular design, completing processes such as data verification, identity authentication, storage, processing, model training, and value distribution through five modules: identity layer, storage layer, computing and training layer, execution layer, and verification layer, providing underlying support for the entire CARV ecosystem.
The identity layer is the starting point of the CARV Protocol, responsible for user identity verification and authentication.
By supporting Web2 social logins and automatically creating AA wallets, CARV further reduces user barriers and creates a smoother and seamless ecological entry experience for users.
After joining the CARV ecosystem, users will be guided to create an on-chain identity, CARV ID, which is worth mentioning. CARV ID adopts the ERC-7231 design, a standard proposed by the CARV team and approved by the Ethereum Foundation, highlighting its advantages in verifiability, multi-aggregation, and composability. It supports over 40 networks of both Web2 platforms and Web3. Ownership, role behavior, social relationships, and past experiences of users can be authorized, verified, and generated into digital identities and credentials. This design achieves the aggregation of Web2 multi-platforms and Web3 multi-chain data, allowing users to seamlessly switch between different platforms and further enhance the liquidity and efficiency of data usage.
The storage layer is responsible for aggregating and storing user data. After data verification in the identity layer, the data is aggregated and visible only to the user. CARV supports various data storage solutions to ensure cost-controlled data storage, data security, and accessibility.
The computing and training layer ensures the secure processing of user data in privacy-enhancing technologies. In CARV, data processing is handled by a decentralized TEE node cluster, and the results are then published to the blockchain, accompanied by TEE proofs, timestamps, and random numbers to prevent double attacks.
The verification layer is responsible for verifying results, including over 40,000 on-chain decentralized community nodes, ensuring that user data operates in a decentralized, user-expected, and privacy-preserving manner.
The execution layer ensures that all data transactions are securely recorded on the blockchain and verifiable, allowing participants to share rewards in a decentralized and transparent manner.
The CARV Protocol aims to facilitate data exchange and value distribution in the gaming and AI fields. After the CARV token TGE, it will continue to build the Identity and Data Layer (IDL), including building a new consensus layer and data storage layer, and using on-chain decentralized nodes as decentralized sorters and storage validators to facilitate cross-chain information verification and ensure secure data processing.
Based on the CARV Protocol, CARV will build multiple flagship products to efficiently match data with demand in specific scenarios, demonstrate how data empowers product development, generates real profits, and transparently distributes them to users.
CARV Play, as the first flagship application launched, is a vivid example. It is a gaming player profile and game distribution platform. Currently, CARV Play has listed over 900 products and has 2.5 million players. Users explore a variety of game combinations and exclusive activities on the platform, while game developers can understand player needs based on user participation and efficiently showcase and distribute games, thereby building a gaming community.
In addition, the success of the popular TON ecosystem mini-game BANANA is also attributed to CARV's support. Leveraging the advantages of CARV Play, CARV Protocol, and the CARV mobile app with over 3 million registered users, BANANA achieved precise targeting of its target audience in a short time and achieved viral expansion through referral mechanisms and UGC/sharing activities, reaching 10 million monthly active users within 4 weeks of launch.
Beyond gaming, CARV has also launched corresponding products in the AI sector. Cara is a generative AI assistant built on the CARV Protocol, where user data can be used for AI training under comprehensive privacy protection. Users can receive rewards for sharing data and participating in AI training, while also customizing AI service experiences based on their unique needs and preferences.
Furthermore, effective ecological incentives for developers are crucial for promoting ecological innovation and prosperity. CARV Labs recently launched an ecosystem accelerator program with a budget of up to $50 million, supported by top blockchain venture capital funds such as HashKey Capital and Consensys, to provide abundant resources and funding support for high-quality projects in the ecosystem, further driving user and data growth.
CARV Labs' recent investment in leading game studio Telgather is a testament to CARV's empowerment of game development as a modular identity data layer. Telgather is dedicated to innovating game participation experiences and bringing more profits through innovative methods such as Pay&Play to Earn and Social to Earn, aligning perfectly with CARV's vision of a decentralized, player-centric gaming future. By integrating CARV ID and personalized advertising SDK, Telgather will further enable players to truly own their game achievements, seamlessly experience cross-game experiences, and monetize game data to earn profits.
The combination of the two not only exemplifies CARV's empowerment of game development as a modular identity data layer but also aims to pioneer a new era of Telegram gaming and build a strong and vibrant ecosystem.
Additionally, CARV Labs will guide developers to explore more innovative business models, with the highly anticipated TG Advertising Network being one of them. This product aims to connect advertisers and publishers, and users sharing on-chain and off-chain data (under comprehensive privacy protection) will receive cash incentives, enabling the CARV advertising network to provide precise user acquisition and targeting services for advertisers.
In the foreseeable future, CARV will attract a large number of developers to participate and freely explore various possibilities based on the CARV Protocol, injecting more driving force into the growth of the CARV ecosystem.
Several milestones achieved, token TGE on the horizon
Of course, compared to reviewing past achievements, community members are more concerned about future expectations.
What is the potential for CARV's continued positive development in the future?
We can glean some insights from its updated roadmap on the official website.
In terms of technology, in the third quarter of 2024, the CARV Protocol Beta version will be released, including open SDK/API access, support for multi-chain interoperability, integration of ZKP, and more. By the fourth quarter of 2024, the team will focus on building dedicated modular blockchain layers to support the storage layer and execution layer.
In the ecosystem, in addition to actively seeking cooperation to expand the ecosystem's gaming and AI landscape, another important milestone for CARV is the upcoming token TGE in the second half of 2024.
For any project, the token TGE is a crucial event that determines the long-term development of the project, and how to better reward the community is a major part of the token TGE.
So, should one actively participate in the upcoming token TGE?
The enthusiastic response from the community has already provided the answer.
The reasons can be divided into three parts:
First, the CARV token has a real application scenario as a value support.
As the native token of the CARV ecosystem, the total supply of CARV tokens is 1 billion, serving as a medium of exchange within the platform. It is an important carrier for incentivizing users, who can also use it for multi-chain gas fee payments and game asset purchases within the ecosystem. Additionally, users can convert it to veCARV through staking and participate in community decision-making and ecosystem activities using veCARV.
Secondly, based on past performance, CARV has shown full respect for the community and has been quite generous.
On one hand, 50% of the total supply of CARV tokens is evenly distributed to the community and nodes. On the other hand, in the previous node sale, CARV introduced a 6-month treasury 100% buyback plan for the purchasers of its first node sale. Active node operators who meet the criteria can choose to apply for an 80% ETH or 100% CARV token buyback within 7 days at the end of the 6th month, once again demonstrating the project's consideration and maintenance of community interests.
More importantly, in this transparent airdrop campaign, CARV encourages users to bind accounts to achieve data aggregation while ensuring that rewards are distributed to real users. Binding more accounts will earn higher scores, which also means more substantial airdrop rewards.
In addition, CARV has introduced various measures to promote fair distribution. On one hand, CARV has introduced a "witch self-reporting mechanism" to encourage multi-account witch users to voluntarily report their behavior and receive the originally allocated 15% of the tokens. Those who fail to report within the specified period will lose all token distribution qualifications. On the other hand, CARV has partnered with Gitcoin to analyze on-chain witch behavior and further promote token airdrop distribution to those who truly contribute to the network's development and sustainability.
With the expectation of good returns and low participation barriers, actively participating to accumulate airdrop chips has become the current choice for many community members.
So, how can users better participate?
Currently, on the CARV airdrop page, users can switch between four chains (Ronin, opbnb, zksync era, Linea) and earn SOUL rewards through check-ins, forging CARV IDs, binding accounts, inviting friends, completing game tasks, and more. SOUL can be exchanged for CARV tokens in the future, meaning that accumulating a substantial amount of SOUL now can lead to higher future earnings.
However, with the snapshot approaching, there is not much time left for users to accumulate SOUL through tasks, and the community's focus on earning CARV token rewards is more on the node side.
Anyone can become an independent node operator by participating in the node sale. The verification node is an important part of the CARV ecosystem, responsible for verifying TEE proofs to prevent system manipulation and ensure fair distribution of data value, providing a secure decentralized data environment for high-quality games and applications.
At the same time, up to 25% of CARV token supply will be allocated to node rewards, with 50% released in the first year (12.5% of the total supply). The token redemption period is 150 days, the investor unlock period is 6 months, and the team unlock period is 9 months. Node tokens are unlocked earlier than investor and team tokens, demonstrating CARV's maximum sincerity through the node sale model and shared benefits for users.
Apart from the token TGE, the CARV ecosystem offers a variety of reward activities to encourage active participation, with Infinite Play being the culmination. Users can participate in staking to earn rewards, with longer staking periods leading to higher returns. They can also earn rewards through governance voting and by completing different game tasks to accumulate experience points and earn rewards, truly experiencing the charm of data sovereignty and decentralized autonomous communities while enjoying the fun of gaming.
It is worth mentioning that CARV has previously conducted an additional airdrop activity called Ecodrop pt 1 in collaboration with several high-quality projects within the ecosystem, such as Revolving Games, InfiniGods & Valhalla Foundation, XPLA, OVERTAKE, and Aethir, distributing rewards worth $2 million to actively participating users.
According to the official website blog post, the CARV Ecodrop pt 2 activity is coming soon. This time, CARV has also partnered with six high-quality gaming projects, including Space Mavericks, Lazy Games, Super Champs, Goat Gaming, Terminal, and BeraSig. Participants can earn a share of an additional $500,000 in rewards by actively participating in game interactions and completing related tasks. Participating in CARV Ecodrop pt 2 is also a good way to deeply explore the ecosystem and win more rewards outside of the token TGE.
In conclusion, in today's global wave of digitization, data is an eternal business. In the context of increasing privacy breaches and the sharp contradictions of giant monopolies in Web2, Web3 solutions aimed at returning data ownership to users, safeguarding user privacy, and promoting fair distribution of data value are bound to stand out.
From the project's perspective, CARV has a very solid foundation. Not only does it have a strong team configuration and financing lineup, but the gaming and AI tracks it targets are also well aligned with the development needs and user preferences of its modular identity and data layer. Additionally, the project's narrative appeal is not to be underestimated. By innovating the way data value is distributed and providing real profits, it undoubtedly attracts more attention and participation from users.
Currently, the project has accumulated a considerable amount of influence in the community, laying a solid foundation for its future development. Especially with the successful promotion of the BANANA project, the CARV Protocol has attracted more attention. With the arrival of the token TGE and the gradual realization of various milestones, CARV may usher in its own flywheel effect, driving rapid development in products, ecosystems, and user participation.
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