"SNPIT" is a blockchain game with a new concept called "Snap to Earn" where you earn money by taking photos. In a roundtable discussion, we asked each of the participants about how the game was born, its future developments, and the vision it aims for, which has already attracted attention.
"SNPIT" is a new blockchain game jointly developed by Garcis and Tulingham, both subsidiaries of GigWorks, and released in 2023. The idea of "Snap to Earn", where the person who takes the better photo using the camera function of their smartphone wins, has the potential to become even more popular in the future due to its simplicity.
In this project, we gathered the top executives of Garcis, the developer of SNPIT, its parent company GigWorks, and Tulingham, and asked them to share their honest thoughts with us about the future prospects of the project and the "marketing theory" that will be important in the Web 3.0 field.
Instead of targeting a participation population of 100,000 or 200,000, we aim to attract 10 million or 100 million people from around the world.
First of all, please tell us about the background and circumstances that led to the development of SNPIT and the idea for the Snap to Earn genre. I understand that Otsuka and Mise were the main players in the creation of this. What do you think about that?
Toshiyuki Otsuka (hereinafter, Otsuka): Regarding SNPIT, we were originally making a different camera app called pictier, and initially we were trying to make a completely different Snap to Earn model, where you get paid by taking pictures of advertisements in the world that haven't been digitized yet.
However, when the idea for it started to emerge, STEPN started to become popular, and I got into it and played it quite a bit (laughs). At that time, Murata suggested that we make a camera version of STEPN, and we started from there.
So when we decided to make it a blockchain game, we thought it would be best to consult with Tulingham, who has specialized knowledge in tokenomics, and so we started the project in its current form.
Mise Shuhei (hereinafter, Mise): When I first heard about it, I thought it was a very interesting initiative.
Listening to Otsuka's ideas, I heard that he was aiming to skillfully incorporate advertising into STEPN and make it something that would be used as social infrastructure for a long time, so I thought we might be able to create a system that would sustainably support that, and we agreed to work together, which is how we got to where we are now. I think the process from planning to development went relatively smoothly.
Otsuka: That's certainly true. We first started moving after we consulted with you about it around May of last year, brought it up as a project, and started a closed beta with a small number of people in August, so I think things were going smoothly up to that point.
When developing SNPIT and designing its tokenomics, what were the things you focused on, the difficulties you faced, and how does it differ from other "X to Earn" projects?
Otsuka: Taking into account the issues of past blockchain games, we originally thought about not setting a limit on token issuance, but Mise-san advised us that it would be better to set a limit on the amount of tokens issued, so we changed our minds.
We have been discussing how to make the business sustainable and long-term without being affected by inflation or deflation.
Mise: When STEPN was released, many projects were using the dual token model, but this has significant disadvantages, so we discussed it in particular when we first spoke.
In the end, a single token is easier to preserve value and seems to match Otsuka-san's vision for the future, so we decided on this model.
Mr. Mise mentioned "the future that Mr. Otsuka is aiming for." Could you tell us more about it?
Otsuka: I think it's good that Web 3.0 is a world where you can contribute to a product by owning your own data, and you can receive the benefits. However, it is also true that it will not be sustainable unless the number of users continues to expand.
I think that the gap will eventually occur, so I've been thinking about whether users will be able to receive the benefits of the product when the gap is even greater than the number of users.
If we look at this as a major turning point for the Internet, I think we need to create a world where people can receive the benefits of the change from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. In that case, it would be meaningless to stop at the current blockchain game, which has a maximum scale of 100,000 or 200,000 users.
We need to take this to a scale of 10 million or 100 million people. When I think about it like that, I hope that 10 million or 100 million users will join SNPIT, receive tokens based on their contribution, and help improve their lives.
That's the scale we're aiming for, but on the other hand, I think that unless we reach that scale, there won't be much impact.
Mitsuse: What's great about SNPIT is that it addresses the value of the photo itself.
For example, with social media, it depends on the number of followers and the influencer's power of communication, but SNPIT looks at a single photo and judges whether it has value, so it's a model that can measure how much value there is.
Even if you don't have influence at the moment, if you take a really good photo you can win a battle and become famous, or you can decide on a theme and have various people take similar photos and compete for the most valuable, so I think SNPIT has infinite possibilities.
So-called blockchains and cryptocurrencies guarantee the liquidity of value, so I think the question of where that value lies is important, and I think SNPIT is a project that properly addresses that issue.
