One of the most hyped projects with a listing around the corner is Splyt, a project that combines NFTs with E-Commerce. We dive deep into the project to see what the product is, who’s behind it, and what to expect when the project hits the market.
What is Splyt?
Spl.yt is an NFT infrastructure to power decentralized financial & e-commerce markets. Its greatest strength is its focus on e-commerce platforms. The project takes the current NFT hype and turns it into a real use case. While many projects only use NFTs as collectibles, Spl.yt gives each NFT a function within a supply chain.
How, you may ask? The core of the project is quite simple. Each item in an online store inventory is marked with its own NFT, or eNFT as Splyt likes to call it. In doing so, the protocol creates a better and more efficient e-commerce system that helps buyers, sellers, and marketplaces save time and money by automating key intermediary functions.
By uploading the entire inventory to the Splyt ecosystem, any seller can encourage others to sell their products and automatically pay them a commission for doing so. Anyone can create a Shopify – Powered by Splyt online store and start selling products available in the Splyt system. Connecting to Splyt not only has supply chain management benefits but vastly expands the reach of sellers. And that is ultimately the most important aspect of e-commerce, reaching the customer.
Every item can be easily traced back to its origin and at every step of the supply chain, showing the customer an open and transparent process. The blockchain technology behind it all verifies every step of the process, creating an unalterable chain of events. This allows each customer to know when, where, and how the product was created and ultimately brought to their home. This bit of transparency is something that is not widely available at the moment.
On the side of the companies, which use the eNFT inventory database system, there are several advantages;
- Constant insight into inventory both in warehouses and on the road
- Open and transparent attitude to customers
- Streamlining affiliate sales by verifying every step in the supply chain
- Dropshipping is no longer a pain, but a real pleasure for companies
The only problem for brands that allow third parties to redistribute their product is the fact that prices have skyrocketed and dropshipping stores generally have poor customer service. The brands will look flawed when the dropshipping store encounters problems, which will be eliminated by using the Splyt protocol. The actual brand can prove their part of the supply chain, confirming that the dropshipping store is responsible for the last bit of delivering the product.
For a brief introduction to Splyt’s product, we invite you to watch the product demo in the video below.
What are the functions of the Splyt protocol?
Because Splyt is built on top of Polkadot can enjoy fast transactions, near-zero transaction fees, and instant processing of the Polkadot ecosystem. The underlying technology that Splyt uses is quite complex and is described in detail in their technical paper. However, we would like to briefly discuss each feature of the Splyt protocol to gain a broader understanding of the company’s mission and ambitions;
- Global Inventory Management: With the creation of a unique NFT per item, sellers will know their true inventory at all times. By pushing the whole thing to the blockchain, the inventory is constantly verified and made timeless.
- Instant Affiliate Payouts: After successful sales from worldwide inventory, affiliate sales will receive instant payouts. In the traditional way of affiliate sales, these payouts take long transaction periods due to verification issues. Through blockchain technology, sales can be instantly verified and payments made instantly.
- Universal Reputation System: Everything that happens on a blockchain stays there forever. So, any online store that uses the Splyt protocol will acquire a certain reputation over time. This raises the question of whether they handle orders correctly, avoid disputes, and generally take good care of the customers.
- Dispute Resolution: Any disputes that arise between customer and seller, or between seller and affiliate can be streamlined using the Splyt protocol. Since every step is verifiable, confusion is eliminated and disputes can be resolved before they arise.
- Real World DeFi Assets: The tokenized inventory can be used as collateral for off-chain decentralized financing. The exact mechanics behind this feature will be shared by the Splyt team at a later date.
- Marketplace Analytics: Everything that happens to a merchant’s online stores is verified on the blockchain, so on-chain analytics can help merchants maximize sales with smart insights.
Let’s take a quick look at the Real World DeFi Assets feature, as it can be one of the key components in making Splyt the powerhouse it deserves to be. Liquidity is very important for emerging brands and they often do not have the access to the capital they need. Splyt offers collateralized loans, which can be a very important service for these emerging brands. These brands can take out loans from the Splyt ecosystem and pledge their inventory, which is stored in centralized storage facilities.
The products are still available to sell online and the borrower pays back the loan amount. If the borrower defaults, Splyt can liquidate the inventory through a Flashsale and close the loan agreement. The increased collateral inventory minimizes the risk associated with this, the white paper cites an example of a loan for $10,000 on $40,000 in inventory. This varies from case to case and is determined on the basis of data collected in the market.
The above features demonstrate the uniqueness and complexity of the Splyt protocol. While their protocol is diverse, the project took a clear direction by choosing a select market rather than trying to be a jack-of-all-trades like many other projects. The illustration below provides a visual representation of how the Splyt protocol works.
The $SHOP token
At the heart of the protocol is the SHOP token. The token has been brought to life to create incentives for merchants, customers, and outsiders alike to continuously sustain and grow the Splyt ecosystem. Everyone who owns SHOP tokens can earn rewards and get voting rights to decide on the further development of the ecosystem.
There are four primary functions of the Shopx token:
- Giving users access to Splyt Core and thereby enabling individuals to buy and sell inventory on the global inventory blockchain.
- Discouraging malicious behavior such as spamming the network, defrauding other members of the ecosystem, or not participating in real-world behavior that reflects the agreements on the chain.
- Encouraging participating retailers to pool inventory that runs redundantly in legacy e-commerce systems, reducing barriers that allow oligopolistic businesses to thrive in the current e-commerce regime.
- Compensating individuals, such as arbitrators and listing validators, who help ensure the integrity of the Splyt Core ecosystem in a grassroots environment.
In addition, the SHOP token holders will be able to stake their tokens in different ways, both short and long, locked and flexible. The exact details will be shared as it becomes available further in the future.
Tokenomics:
- Ticker: SHOPX
- Token standard: ERC20
- Network: Ethereum, (Splyt will migrate to Polkadot)
- Total supply: 500,000,000
- Initial market cap: $835,000
Capital raised:
- Splyt raised $500,000 in the Seed round.
- Splyt raised $750,000 in the Private A round.
- Splyt raised $700,000 in the Private B round.
- Splyt raised $249,000 in the Public sale.
Token Allocation:
- Advisors – 5%
- Reserves – 8%
- Staking Reward Pools – 10%
- Private Sale – 18%
- Team – 15%
- Research Foundation – 20%
- Ecosystem and Referrals – 22%
- DEX Liquidity and MM Liquidity Provider – 2%
Team
You may be wondering, who is behind this project? Who are the people trying to disrupt a multi-billion dollar industry that is rapidly evolving like no other, the E-Commerce market? Splyt’s team is talented and experienced and most importantly they have a very impressive board of advisors who will help scale their project to ensure they deliver on their ambitions.
Cyrus Taghehchian – Founder and CEO
Founder of Pollenly (a community-driven social commerce platform) and MaisonDu (an E-Commerce system that aggregates luxury fashion inventory into a global catalog through NFTs on the blockchain. Maison Du does this so that stylists and boutiques can easily sell on their online stores).
Cyrus worked as a digital marketing consultant for major companies such as Intel Corporation and Deloitte. He previously worked as an Executive Agile Product Coach for PayPal. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.
Dipen ‘Josh’ Joshi – Founder and CTO
Dipen ‘Josh’ Joshi worked for JD Power as a full-stack developer. He also worked for Ethnews where he created blockchain-based projects such as a KYC platform, a competition app, and a hosted ether bank. Dipen has a degree in Computer Science from California State University Northridge.
Joseph Eui-Yeol – COO
Joseph holds a Ph.D. in law from Syracuse University. Joseph is responsible for global strategy and business development at Bithumb.
Lindsey Mallon – CPO
Lindsey is one of the founders of MaisonDu and Nadjarina (a Conscious Luxury clothing brand with a focus on fair-trade, quality materials, and old-fashioned craftsmanship). She has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Consultants
Joel, better known in the industry as CoachK, is a very well-connected individual who operates in multiple capacities. As an influencer on Youtube and Twitter, as CMO of Anrkeyx, and as Strategic Advisor on multiple projects, besides Splyt Core he is Strategic Advisor at FinXflo, Paid Network, Ferrum network, et cetera.
Kyle founded World Super Lotto (WSL), the world’s first global lottery based on Bitcoin. Also, Kyle is the CEO of Paid Network (the First Borderless Civil court system) which uses DeFi tools to make sure you get paid).
In addition to advising Splyt’s core foundation, he is also a strategic advisor on projects such as Litentry, Hathor Network, PlasmaPay, and, AnRKey X.
is a consultant at Splyt. He founded RxVantage (they connect healthcare providers with the precise life science experts and resources they need, when they need them, to improve patient care). Greg was a law professor and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Law at Pepperdine University School of Law.
Greg advised many venture backers such as DocStoc, Music180, Tsayo, and FunBits Interactive. Greg holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Southern California Law School.
David is a consultant at Splyt. He is also currently a senior manager at Deloitte Digital. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.
Rob is a consultant at Splyt. He previously worked as Director of Engineering at MuleSoft Inc. He received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California Saint Barbara.
is a consultant at Splyt. He worked for 5 years as a director at SEPHORA. He currently works as an engineering director at PepsiCo. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York.
Partnerships
Nowadays, the only thing that counts for the success of a project is the technology, the team, and the partnerships. Splyt is nowhere without people actually using their product. Unlike years ago when a project like Splyt announced its project without any partnerships, Splyt has now addressed that in a major way. We would like to mention four partnerships in particular.
Maison Du
Maison Du is the partnership that adds the most value to Splyt’s proposition. Through Maison Du, an E-Commerce platform for the luxury market, Splyt will be the first use case to actually use its product. Maison Du is not just another dropshipping store, rather it is a major player in the online retailing world. With 700+ brands, over 1,100 affiliates, and over 1,000 testnet transactions, Maison Du is ready to start using Splyt’s product at full scale right away.
Master Ventures
In early February, Master Ventures officially announced its partnership with Splyt. The biggest part of the collaboration is hatching Splyt and taking it to the masses. In recent months it can safely be said that Master Ventures has succeeded well in realizing this. With a private sale more than 100 times oversubscribed, there is a lot of demand and hype surrounding the project. In addition, it was Master Ventures who established the connection with the next partner.
Paid Network
What’s launching a project without a decent launchpad? Splyt has partnered with Paid Network to host their public sale on the Ignition platform. Lately, Paid has been all over the industry with dozens of partnerships and a lot of love for their community. With a community of thousands of members, Splyt is now in the spotlight.
Bridge Mutual
In their most recent partnership with Bridge Mutual, a decentralized discretionary hedging platform, Splyt will integrate Bridge Mutual’s hedging application into their interface. As stated in their announcement article, “This is done by merging their widget onto the Splyt platform to provide a seamless experience to our users, guaranteeing the ability to purchase coverage for their exchanges without worry.”
Roadmap
Splyt started its journey back in 2016 when two founders met and aligned their visions. In 2017, the two started creating the first smart contracts, and then years of development followed. Right now there is a functioning testnet ready to start moving and accepting users. Their mainnet isn’t live at the moment but will be out in the first quarter of 2021.
Looking further down the road, Splyt’s current roadmap isn’t very detailed and big, but it sets the stage for the year ahead. Plus, the points on the roadmap are major milestones that are not negligible such as Polkadot integration, integration with both Shopify and WooCommerce, and much more to come. The future looks bright, but it all comes down to finding the right partners to use the product.
Conclusion
Splyt is a new project with the ambition to reshape E-Commerce by introducing NFTs, using blockchain technology, and smoothing the entire process. The vision is ambitious, but it will all come down to the right execution to see if they can deliver on their ambitions. E-Commerce has been a growing trend for years that is open to adopting new technologies, but blockchain technology has yet to merge with this industry.
If Splyt manages to partner with the right companies, gain enough traction and normalize the use of NFTs, we could potentially see Splyt complete millions of trades and hit a large market cap . An important step in this process is their migration to the Polkadot Blockchain. This will improve transaction speed and reduce transaction costs as Ethereum is currently much slower than Polkadot.
We’re keeping a close eye on Splyt, and can’t wait to see what else they have in store, pun intended. When Maison Du starts using their product and more and more people will interact with their technology, we will soon see if their solution is right for the product market, or if competitors will find their way to take over their position!
Links Splyt
- Website: https://www.Splyt/
- Telegram: https://t.me/splytcore
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/splytcore
- Whitepaper: https://docsend.com/view/59tpae79tynb2ut9
- Onepager: https://docsend.com/view/eap4yhisax2mitdn
