pReferrals on the blockchainWhite PaperJanuary 25th, 2018Refereum provides referrals on the blockchain, built for the game industry.Refereum is the first referral marketplace for games. The RFR token rewards gamers for their engagement and purchases with full transparency. nbsp;Over 150,000 gamers have joined the plat in the two months since launch, and the number of gamers continues to grow exponentially.The Refereum solution can be extended easily into other verticals. Our team is made up of veteran game industry experts and world-renowned blockchain specialists.2White Paper The ProblemReferral marketing is the most effective conversion tool to acquire new customers, but untrustworthy actors and expensive micro-payments have blocked its ability to scale. This is nowhere more apparent than in the gaming industry.The video games industry is 109B and growing at 6 annually.In recent years, the number of gamers has exploded -- today, 2.2B people play games, making it the single most popular digital entertainment content on any device. 1 2 nbsp; Inevitably, social plats like YouTube and Twitch have created strong gaming communities, and influencers and streamers now command promotional power and unprecedented reach. The top 10 influencers have an audience of 242m, double that of the recent Superbowl audience.Gaming is now a booming professional sport i.e. “eSports” with the highest growth in the industry. nbsp;International “supergamer” competitions can fill stadiums that rival those that host traditional premier sporting events. nbsp;The 2016 International Dota 2 Championship, the richest eSports tournament had a prize of 21m, double that of The Masters. nbsp;Professional gamers are fundamentally changing the market dynamics by bridging the private gaming world and the public sporting arena.cutive Summary3Marketing is critical to drive customer acquisition and usage, but costs are skyrocketing.The gaming industry spends approximately 20B in advertising and marketing 4 nbsp;and these costs are increasing fast. nbsp;Competition among game developers is intense. Blockbuster game developers now spend 2-3x the development cost for marketing and advertising through traditional channels to create “buzz” for their games. 5 nbsp;At the same time, online customer acquisition costs are also rising. nbsp;A few dominant plats capture the majority of advertising dollars and broadly, an average of 30 of developer revenues in distribution fees. nbsp;Referral marketing, a way to promote products through word-of-mouth, is a powerful channel and the most effective conversion tool. Compared to other marketing channels, referred consumers have the best conversion to purchase, longer retention, and a higher lifetime value. nbsp;Referral through friends is the single most trusted of advertising, 6 nbsp;people are 4x more likely to buy when referred by a friend, 7 nbsp;and the Lifetime Value of new customers via referrals is 16 higher than those that are not referred. 8 nbsp;Gamers, more than in any other entertainment medium, place an even higher trust on referrals, as the community is especially tight-knit and highly opinionated. nbsp; Despite proven effectiveness, referral programs are difficult to track and compensate.These campaigns suffer from fraud e.g. fake influencer accounts, clickbots, reporting disparities between developers and plats, leading to a loss of revenue for influencers, and many expensive intermediaries.While industry giants can amplify a brand’s message through sharing, even they lack a mechanism to track the conversion funnel fully, from initial awareness all the way to a purchase. nbsp;Influencers are powerful agents of referral marketing. But again, no technical mechanism exists to track and pay an individual conversion for each view, like, share, or recommendation into a direct sale. nbsp;The current approach requires developers to identify influencers manually, cold-contact them one by one, and negotiate unique deal terms, generally in the of sponsorships.The process is time-consuming, costly, nebulous, and lacks measurable goals. nbsp;Moreover, it is nearly impossible to reward players with fiat currency because of cross-border banking complexities and geopolitical restrictions. nbsp;As a result, influencers and engaged fans are not compensated accordingly.4 Refereum SolutionRefereum resolves these problems around referral marketing in the video game industry. nbsp;Smart contracts established directly between developers and gamers create a decentralized, secure, and transparent marketplace with a record of purchases and referrals written into the Blockchain.Our solution eliminates fraud, layers of middlemen, various onerous fees, and redistributes marketing budgets to gamers and influencers instead. Our solution transfers value from ad agencies and other intermediaries to influencers and gamers directly.Game developers can purchase RFR tokens to reward influencers and players for specific actions; in turn, gamers can buy or earn tokens for their actions e.g. streaming a new game, which can then be used to purchase more games or converted to cash. nbsp;This active engagement between developers and gamers enables a continuous feedback loop, driving network effects and exponential growth.Refereum allows anyone to participate without requiring a bank account. nbsp;We are also an official partner of the Connext API, which allows average consumers to purchase RFR tokens securely with conventional payment s like credit cards. nbsp;Refereum benefits all participants in the ecosystem nbsp; Developers can improve their marketing campaigns. nbsp;They no longer have to pay huge upfront fees for campaigns that do not provide strong ROIs. nbsp;They can reward individuals directly, after a successful purchase. nbsp;The blockchain solution removes fraud and legal paperwork to reward not only for the purchase, but also a variety of call-to-actions. nbsp;It enables microtransactions of 0.0001 for completing a tutorial to 1m for winning an eSports tournament. nbsp; Influencers can monetize their following. Any streamer or influencer, regardless of the size of their following, no longer has to wait to be approached by ad agencies for campaigns, and instead, can choose relevant and monetizable content for their followers. nbsp;Influencers with niche yet active audiences who may not have been sponsorship material previously, can now potentially earn a living. nbsp; Even the average gamer can share in the token economy just for doing what they love. nbsp;Simply by sharing links or moving up a gaming level, anyone can earn RFR tokens. nbsp;The blockchain referral ecosystem will now allow the 99 of gamers that actually make up the vibrant community to participate economically as well.56Company MomentumTeamWe launched our service in November 2017 and have grown to over 150,000 gaming enthusiasts; we expect to see continued exponential growth. nbsp;We are integrated into the Twitch API, the leading video game streaming service, and offer tools by Unity, the most prominent game development plat. nbsp;Both are excited by and support Refereum’s vision and project. Beyond gaming, the global marketing and ecommerce industry is ripe for disruption by smarter decentralized technology. nbsp;A portion of the 558B nbsp;typically spent on advertising can instead be redistributed to individual consumers. nbsp;We plan to move into other verticals where influencers command a powerful voice, such as entertainment, retail, fitness, beauty, travel, and more.Our team is comprised of games industry veterans from Unity, EA, IGN, Zynga, Ubisoft, Google and world-renowned white hat cryptographers Chronobank, Polybius. nbsp;Our advisors are leaders of Facebook’s user acquisition teams.72018 01 06 Refereum Whitepaper v6White Papercutive SummaryRefereum SolutionCompany MomentumTeamIndustry DynamicsArchitecture and ImplementationRFR TokenUse Cases / Utility TodayOpen InitiativesCompany ResultsIndustry SupportGrowth ProspectsRoadmap CompletedTeam BiosAdvisorsToken DetailsDistributionCitationsDisclaimer2356681314161718192021222526262729Table of Contentsum8Industry DynamicsGame DeveloperVideo games is a busy industry with many developers but few distributors.With lower barriers to entry, the number of game creators has increased significantly. A few key players dominate digital distribution and capture the majority of the games advertising revenues. nbsp;In addition, all top plats charge 30 of revenue to simply distribute digital products, further increasing their grip with game developers. Developers have to spend more and more on conventional advertisingAdvertising algorithms and policies are opaqueWhile ad networks have improved immensely on their ability to target, there are still problems with transparency. nbsp;Dominant channels impose rules that can easily change at any moment without consultation from game developers or the wider community. That means that developers are left rather powerless when it comes to marketing their games.There have also been several instances where ad plats have indicated flaws in the metrics they have reported to advertisers, such as overstating app referrals, and inflating the amount of time consumers had watched video ads. nbsp;At other times, ad plats have changed policies that demonetized content, leaving content creators demotivated and sometimes terrified at the sudden loss of revenues. nbsp;This reflects an opaque system in which the key players define the metrics, rcise full rights over how their ad algorithms can be managed, and have minimal external oversight or audit controls.A scalable solution to directly involve or engage players does not existchannels to reach gamers. Targeting specific players can be exasperating developers often have no choice but to pay major digital distributors for in-stream advertising or sponsored content in social media. nbsp;A scalable marketing solution to directly involve or engage players does not exist.9Referral MarketingSince the start of society, decision-making and purchasing behavior have revolved around social influence. nbsp;Referral marketing is considered the key factor in countless success stories, such as nbsp;Amazon, Dropbox, Uber, Airbnb, and Tesla. Social relevance provides a stronger backbone, particularly in game-playing communities where multiplayer engagement is driven by groups and trends online. nbsp;Attracting the right influencers is crucial to a successful referral marketing strategy.Agencies e.g Speakr, Instabrand have emerged to try to match brands to influencers. nbsp;But the process is just time-consuming, costly, often nebulous, with disputable tracking, and lacking measurable goals, e.g. converting and paying each view, like, share, comment, thumbs up into a direct sale is complex and unaffordable.Offers with recommendation by referral are accessible, relatable, targeted and trustworthy.While referral marketing could be a powerful tool, current technologies do not allow to capture its full potentialRecommendations of friends amp; relativesGood reviewsSequel of games playesDemo of free version availableCommercials amp; advertisementsOnline video channelsKnown publisherOther38322423141211670Influencers can be powerful partners to work with... What drives a consumer to start playing a mobile game Source Newzoo Referral success is well documented as the most effective strategy. nbsp;Offers with recommendation by referral are accessible, relatable, targeted, and trustworthy. nbsp;Developers who design referrals on social media plats like Facebook have created some of the highest grossing games ever. nbsp;In just one year, game companies that used referrals saw growth from 3 million to 40 million average daily users. As an example, in 2016, companies spent 570m on sponsored posts on Instagram. nbsp;Many such posts fail to reach their audience as algorithms filter out much of the content, reaching only 8-18 of the intended audience. 12 13 nbsp;In addition, most brands still emphasize reach i.e. number of followers over true engagement. nbsp;Influencers therefore can feel pressure to ‘buy’ likes and followers as a way to increase their own prominence.This further adds to the charts above indicates that 70 of an individual’s motivation to play a mobile game is based on recommendations by friends; at the same time, marketers say that the biggest challenges in working with influencers is identifying them 73, measuring ROI 65 and engaging with the influencer 59.So, while referral marketing can be a very powerful tool for developers, current technologies are not able to capture its full potential.InfluencerInfluencers are a growing phenomenon in gamingThey have an impassioned and loyal fanbase that was previously only possible for high-profile entertainers and political figures. nbsp;Gaming effectively has the largest reach of any vertical in social media, where the top 10 influencers gather an audience of 242 million. 14 These gamers leave reviews, recommend games to each other, share their gameplay and interact with fans in real time e.g. via chats on key gaming plats. nbsp;Games like Dota 2 surpass 32m viewers compared to just 20m for Sunday Night Football.Identify the right influencerMeasure ROIEngage with influencerMonitor activityDefine what influencer wantGet in touch with influncer736559373631... But it’s hard to identify amp; work with the right ones What is the biggest challenge in working with influencers Source eConsultancy, “The Rise of Influencers.” Feb 16 10By sharing their gameplay and interacting with fans in real time, Twitch and YouTube influencers draw massive attention to the games they play. nbsp;Gamers making videos and streaming games have become a billion-dollar industry in themselves.Influencers are not properly compensated relative to their effortsIn the current ecosystem, most gamers and influencers are rarely rewarded with the monetary potential of their fanbase. nbsp;A few elite influencers e.g. PewDiePie with 59m subs or Markiplier with 8m subs have created their own mini-media empires EntertainmentGamingBeautyFitnessKidsPetsTech amp; Business230m0 50 100 150 200 250Reach of Top 10 Influencers in million followersSource Forbes, MediaKix YoutubeFacebookTwitterInstagram152m0 50 100 150 200Top Social Media Plats for Gaming in million followersSource Forbes, MediaKix followers of top10 streamers12 Million11that are more professionally run, earning money via YouTube ads, sponsorships, and licensing deals. nbsp;But the vast majority of influencers are limited in how they can generate income. nbsp;While a new generation dreams of becoming full-time streamers, barriers to entry are high and they face the constant challenge of sustaining an income.While streamers waiting for donations is the normalized status quo, it’s not capitalizing on their potential in the industry. In the current ecosystem, most gamers and influencers are rarely rewarded with the monetary potential of their fanbase.12Current comp/p