WTF Is Loop??? - By Loop Team

Disclaimer - This is part of our outside perspective series. Curious Cosmonaut Research is not the author we are simply highlighting some good threads and perspectives on the Cosmos ecosystem with their permission. We also, therefore, do not guarantee their accuracy.

Author:  Loop Finance Team

Source: Blog

Date: October 10, 2022

Last week, given the number of attendees at Cosmoverse who were confused about what it is that we do, we figured now is as appropriate of a time as ever to set the record straight. In this article, we will go over the million-dollar question: WTF is Loop???

What is Loop?

Here, we will discuss everything about Loop. From where we came from, to how we’ve progressed, to our future goals. We’ll break down our team and what each person does as well as where we use our resources.

Loop’s Mission

Let’s start from the top: our mission. From the very beginning, we’ve been focussed on one thing – Bringing Crypto to the Real World. Later, we will get into what that means.

Loop’s Structure

Loop is built in a very strategic way. Think of us as a Hub and Spoke model, as you can see in the diagram below 👇

Loop Finance is the central hub, and includes our DEX and NFT launchpad and marketplace. Similar to how Cosmos Hub is the center of Cosmos’ interchain system. Spanning from the hub are 8 spokes (and there are always more spokes being added).

1. Loop Ventures
2. Eclipse Launchpad
3. Loop Learn
4. Loop Community
5. Loop Mobile Wallet
6. Loop Save
7. Loop Fans
8. Loop Events

Each spoke helps to grow and improve our ecosystem in one way or another. Some bring in new projects, some drive more transactions on our NFT marketplace or DEX, some help bring in new users.

Notice in the diagram above that there are empty spokes, still. This represents Loop’s future which, apart from building out our own products, will also work in similar fashion as the Virgin model. Partnerships with entities to use the Loop name, who will help grow the ecosystem and drive value back to all the other parts, and who will also provide us with licensing fees to use our brand.

In the future, we hope to build a DAO that allows the community to govern which entities get accepted as Loop partners.

Below, we will quickly overview what each product (spoke) is and the individual mission of each:

Loop Finance

The core of our ecosystem provides a DEX, DEX aggregator, and NFT marketplace, the main revenue streams for the LOOP token.

Loop Ventures

Loop Ventures incubates early stage crypto projects, helping them with business models, tokenomics, funding, and launch. Loop Ventures helps onboard new projects into the Loop ecosystem.

Eclipse Launchpad

Eclipse Launchpad is designed for projects to do IDOs, or public token sales. Each project launched becomes part of our ecosystem, listing its token on our DEX and potentially NFTs on our NFT marketplace.

Loop Learn

Loop Learn is designed to help new users understand crypto. It acts as a customer acquisition strategy, onboarding new users into our ecosystem.

Loop Community

Loop Community is another part of our customer acquisition strategy, helping users learn about crypto and stay up to date with everything that’s happening. It also attracts a lot of organic traffic through Google SEO.

Loop Mobile Wallet

One of our latest products, and your passport to the whole Loop ecosystem on mobile.

Loop Events

Loop Events runs events at crypto conferences around the world, helping onboard investors, projects, and new users to our ecosystem.

Loop Save

Loop Save is a basic savings product for the Latin American community, using crypto USD to generate real yield and protect their assets from local fiat devaluation.

Loop Fans

Loop Fans is a yet to be announced partnership with a large Latin American entertainment group. We will be bringing NFT ticketing, gated communities, and NFT collections to local sports and entertainment stars with followings in the tens of millions.

Loop’s Background

Loop Finance has a rather long history (at least, for crypto’s sake) which we’ll briefly explain.

We started back in 2017 on the EOS network. Things looked a bit different back then. For starters, we weren’t known as Loop Finance. We called ourselves Trybe.

We were purely a content community. Tens of thousands of blockchain articles were written and published on our platform. We had a thriving community of creators by our side. But EOS didn’t fit the bill. When EOS user numbers dwindled, we had to pivot.

We landed on what we thought was a good blockchain at the time – Terra. By this time, we rebranded to who we are today, Loop. We launched as a decentralized exchange on the then up-and-coming blockchain. We also brought over a dedicated bunch of writers from our Trybe community to form the new Loop content platform.

Most of us within crypto are familiar with the fate of Terra, which forced yet another re-birth on our current home: Juno Network. It was here where we pivoted our suite of products and started developing our central piece – the state-of-the-art DeFi NFT Marketplace.

We’re so satisfied with how we’ve been welcomed into the Juno Network and expanded our user base throughout the Cosmos over the last five months. We’re looking forward to what’s next within this growing ecosystem and – as you can tell – we’re not a team who shies away from adversity.

Loop’s Future

In any startup, early failures are to be expected. We are not shying away from some of our early failures just like we’re proud to boast some of our early successes. As our brand builds, we’re confident the kinks will be worked out, the mission will become more refined, and our community will continue to grow.

Our long-term goal is to build our own chain in the Cosmos ecosystem, connected with thousands of other chains through IBC.

We aim to eventually release both on-chain social features (such as following other users etc) as well as on-chain commerce features (a referral program).

We see a future where our mission to build Web3 communities blends seamlessly with onboarding new users to blockchain technology. We see a future where our products engage lesser economic countries as much as countries with much of the wealth in the world. We see a future where Loopers lead the way in NFT innovation and can share in the company’s success.

Thank you for being along for the early ride. We are grateful for your support and can’t wait to continue building for you!

Loop’s Team

Our team has been formed from all across the globe; from Australia to the US; Indonesia to Greece. Recently, the entire Loop team met for the first time in Colombia during the Cosmoverse convention.

After a week of collaboration and networking, we’re surer than ever that we’ve assembled a rockstar team who are enthusiastic about building the best products on the market!

Below are the names behind Loop and the individual teams they are a part of:

• Tom Norwood – Co Founder of Loop Finance
• Marcela Rodriguez – Co Founder of Loop Finance/Chief Operating Officer of Loop Ventures
• Simon Rahme – Chief Technology Officer of Loop Finance/Loop Ventures
• Maz Zaman – CEO of Loop Ventures/Chief Strategy Officer of Loop Finance
• Mo Zaman – Chief Project Officer of Loop Ventures
• Laurenth Alba (Nena) – Chief Marketing Officer of Loop Ventures/Chief Growth Officer of Loop Finance
• Vasilis Inglezis – Video Specialist
• Alex Hernandez – Designer for Loop
• Jey Basinski – Head of Loop NFT Marketplace
• Adam Cheshier – Head of Content Writing
• Martin Aspiroz – Marketing Manager
• Sarawut – Head of NFT Dev Team
• Sunny – Head of DEX Dev Team
• Daniel – Head of Launchpad Dev Team
• Bram – Front-End Launchpad Dev
• Andrew Bogan (SilverMoon) – Lead Moderator
• Keith (Superterra) – NFT Marketplace
• Eric East – Head of Marketplace Dev/Communal Front End
• Simon Chadwick – Head of Loop Learn/ CEO of EclipsePad
• Mark El Chami – Chief Investments Officer of Loop Ventures
• Neil Sisson – Lead Marketer
• Arian Askarizad – Project Manager of NFT Marketplace
• Fagner Lordello – Product Manager of NFT Marketplace
• HooliganTWTS – NFT Marketplace
• Dylan – NFT Marketplace
• Ty Grupel – Project Manager