3 months ago
Blackbird, the edifice loyalty level founded by Resy and Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal, shared Thursday that its Flynet mainnet is live, bringing edifice payments on-chain.
Flynet is simply a layer-3 blockchain based connected apical of Coinbase's Base chain. Base, a layer-2 network, allows users to transact connected apical of Ethereum for faster and cheaper.
The squad claims that having a layer-3 benefits the edifice industry, due to the fact that “by handling payments and loyalty programs wholly connected Flynet, Blackbird eliminates accepted middlemen, reduces transaction costs, and introduces a caller exemplary for rewarding some diners and partners.”
Blackbird had previously released a payments platform, letting users wage for their meals with $FLY, the platform’s autochthonal token, which users could gain done the programs loyalty programme by eating astatine participating restaurants, oregon by purchasing it successful the Blackbird app utilizing the USDC stablecoin.
With Flynet live, $FLY volition beryllium utilized successful the aforesaid way, but present restaurants tin usage the token to wage level fees arsenic well. In addition, the squad is releasing a caller token, $F2, to beryllium utilized for state fees connected the network.
The squad said that they volition airdrop 13% of the $F2 token proviso to aboriginal users and restaurants, with organisation depending connected definite enactment metrics. The remaining 87% of $F2 volition spell to “insiders, the treasury, and we person different six seasons aft this that we volition allocate tokens to the participants,” Leventhal told CoinDesk successful an interview.
According to the team, Blackbird has $85 cardinal successful backing with backers from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase, Spark Capital, and American Express. In 2023, a16z raised much than $24 million for the level successful a Series A round.
Blackbird presently is disposable successful New York, San Francisco and Charleston, and lets diners gain rewards astatine immoderate of their favourite restaurants. Leventhal told CoinDesk determination are astir 500 restaurants arsenic portion of their loyalty program.
“What we deliberation we tin bash is physique thing wherever transactions go overmuch much outgo effective, and the levers that restaurants person to pull and clasp customers volition go vast,” Leventhal told CoinDesk connected however helium sees the edifice manufacture and blockchain intersecting. “And those 2 things, much than thing else, is the crushed wherefore we're gathering on-chain.”
Read more: Blackbird, Web3 Startup From Resy Co-Founder, Wants Diners to Pay for Meals successful Crypto
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