Bankless Times talked to Stijn Paumen, Co-Founder and CEO at Helio, a platform that provides a suite of payment tools for e-commerce merchants and internet entrepreneurs. Empowering over 4,000 sellers and 175,000+ active wallets, Helio supports major blockchains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon.
Partnerships with Solana, Magic Eden, Shopify, and WooCommerce underscore Helio’s expanding role in reshaping digital payments.
Can you explain the inspiration behind the Raffles feature and how it aligns with Helio and Magic Eden's mission in the web3 space?
Collecting NFTs is a multi-billion a year industry with millions of crypto users purchasing BoredApes, digital Nike sneakers, gaming avatars & thousands of other digital collections produced by individual creators and large corporations alike.
Getting access to collections early is crucial for buyers to make the highest possible returns. And that’s why NFT Pre-Sales is such a crucial part of the ecosystem. Helio & Magic Eden have built the best Pre-Sales platform for creators and hosted a large number of highly anticipated Pre-Sales.
Over time we noticed significant frustrations around the difficulties of securing a spot, even if buyers were part of a chosen community. Whilst Pre-Sales are scarce in nature, we did see an opportunity to make the process more transparent and impartial, which is why we built the Raffles feature. Helio’s mission is to make crypto payments seamless and enjoyable across chains and building features that make the buying experience as fair as possible is part of that when it comes to Pre-Sales.
How does the Raffles feature address common challenges faced by creators and collectors in the NFT pre-sale process?
The Raffles feature tackles challenges such as time zone limitations and early participant advantages. It allows participants to join Pre-Sales at any time, irrespective of their location, promoting inclusivity. The random selection process eliminates any advantage for early participants, ensuring a more level playing field for collectors. This addresses the challenges of fair access and distribution often faced in the more hyped NFT Pre-Sales.
In what ways do you believe the Raffles feature will influence the broader NFT and digital collectibles market?
The raffle concept has been around for some time, especially in the crypto space for things like allowlist spots or individual NFTs, and many of those are run as paid-for illegal lotteries. However, raffles for Pre-Sales are completely unique. Users enter with a wallet & Discord ID, winners are automatically picked and allowlisted for the main Pre-Sales event. And crucially, entries on Helio Raffles are always free.
This feature is not intended to make more money for creators, it’s about democratizing access across communities to NFT spots that are in very high demand, promising very high returns. We’re making the NFT space fairer and more equitable. As builders in the space we have the responsibility to create features and products that make the market better, seamless and more transparent.
How does the introduction of the Raffles feature reflect on the current state of inclusivity and accessibility in the NFT ecosystem?
Raffles aren’t suitable for every creator and are supposed to compliment the first come first serve option. This feature is ideal for Pre-Sales that are more hyped, because buyers are more likely to miss out on a spot due to time differences or other buyers purchasing a lot of the Pre-Sales spots quickly. The NFT community is inherently global, so this feature helps to promote equal opportunities for collectors worldwide.
Can you delve into how the Raffles feature ensures fairness and transparency in the allocation of pre-sale spots?
The Raffles feature ensures fairness by employing a random selection process, eliminating advantages for early participants. This randomness guarantees a transparent allocation of Pre-Sale spots, preventing any bias or favoritism ensuring equitable distribution amongst community members.
What technological advancements have enabled the cross-chain compatibility of the Raffles feature, and why is this important for the industry?
It’s enabled cross pollination of community activities across blockchains. Traditionally the Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana communities are isolated. A holder of a BoredApe would typically only buy new collectibles on Ethereum, but not Solana or Bitcoin because it required a different wallet, different tokens, potentially a new onramp. With multi-chain Raffles it’s now possible for any creator to reach communities across blockchains in a single page and accept any token on chain as a method of payment, dramatically increasing the addressable market for projects.
This is especially attractive for Ordinals, NFTs inscribed on the Bitcoin blockchain, which has the smallest pool of unique active wallets (100k per month) with the highest barriers to entry (high fees and slow transaction). Ordinals creators can now reach 500k additional wallets on Solana & Ethereum that are collecting NFTs.
With the Raffles feature now part of Helio and Magic Eden's offerings, what future enhancements or related features can users anticipate?
Raffles will soon come to Private Listings as well, making it easy for communities to use this feature for giveaways or offering a single NFT up for sale that’s in very high demand.
How do Helio and Magic Eden plan to address the evolving needs of creators and collectors in the web3 space moving forward?
At Helio we’re always listening to feedback from creators and partners to create new features, big and small, to address new challenges in the space. One of our main priorities is user experience, so we’re constantly looking for ways to make the web3 payments experience more seamless for both web3 and web2 users. As the needs of creators and collectors evolve, we will continue to create solutions that make their lives easier.
Can you share insights into how the partnership between Helio and Magic Eden came about and its significance for both platforms?
Born in the Solana ecosystem, Magic Eden is the leading NFT launchpad & marketplace across multiple blockchains. Helio also originated in Solana as the leading payments application and later expanded support for Ethereum and Bitcoin. It made sense to build the best Pre-Sales platform for NFT creators together being part of the same communities and having complementary technical capabilities.
What metrics or feedback from users have Helio and Magic Eden received that indicate the impact of the Raffles feature on the NFT pre-sale experience?
Helio has supported 100s of Pre-Sales for top projects in the NFT space including leading Solana, Ethereum and Ordinals creators such as BTC Ordinals, MixMobOrigin and ZTX, generating more than $10 million in Pre-Sale revenue for projects. Based on our early data indicators we see 30% of projects will use Raffle Pre-Sales as part of their go to market strategy.
What were the biggest challenges faced during the development and implementation of the Raffles feature, and how were they overcome?
Security is always the highest priority for us and making sure the platform can’t be misused was an interesting challenge. We use Discord as the authentication layer to make sure it’s one entry per real human and we have some other clever detection methodologies to keep the bots at bay. Also enabling token support across multiple blockchains meant updating three smart contacts and implementing multiple RPCs. Our CTO and the engineering team have delivered a tremendous product.
How has the community responded to the introduction of the Raffles feature, and what steps are being taken to foster community engagement and feedback?
Responses since we announced the feature have been overwhelmingly positive! We are constantly communicating with the creators and partners that use Helio, so we will be gathering feedback from users and using their insights to tweak and evolve the feature in the future.
In what ways does the Raffles feature empower both new and existing communities within the NFT space?
The Raffles feature empowers communities by providing a fair and accessible option for participation in Pre-Sales. This inclusivity allows both new and existing communities to engage in the NFT space without geographical or temporal restrictions. By democratizing access, the Raffles feature creates opportunities for diverse communities to explore and participate in the digital collectibles market.
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