Charles Wayn is one of the co-founders of Galxe, a decentralized platform for managing digital identities and credentials in Web3. ^[1]

Education

Wayn graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Science in 2017. As a student, he co-founded Jianglin Technologies, an order management SaaS platform connecting over 20 fashion apparel designers and retailers. This company was a start-up selected for the Tencent Innovation Incubator in 2015. In February 2016, he was a founding member of the LABELHOOD Fashion Incubation Community, an independent showcasing platform and incubator for Asian fashion designers in China. He also served as president of the Association of Chinese Entrepreneurs at Berkeley. ^[1]

Career

After graduation, Wayn co-founded DLive, a large live-streaming platform built with blockchain technology, where he served as CEO. After acquiring BitTorrent in December 2019, he was vice president of BitTorrent’s interactive entertainment department until May 2021. In March 2021, he co-founded Bullet Labs, a venture studio focusing on Web3 product development and creators of Galxe. ^[2]

Galxe

On the Web3 Quest Podcast with Diksha, Wayn discussed the main purposes and motivation behind Galxe. He started with his background and how he got into crypto: ^[3]

“My name is Charles Wayn. I'm the co-founder of Galxe. Before Galxe, I graduated from UC Berkeley. My major was economics. After that, I went straight to the crypto space. In 2017, I co-founded with three or four other partners the first company called DLive. It's a live streaming company built on top of the Steam blockchain. It was 2017. Later, we built our own blockchain. It's actually the first Cal-based chain at that time. D, a live streaming app focused on gaming, was built on top of our own channel, which is called Reno. We did pretty well. We had PewDiePie exclusively streaming on D Live in 2018 and 2019. In late 2019, December 2019, or early 2020, the company was acquired by another company called Bor. I stayed at Bor for a year and a half. In March 2021, my co-founder Harry and I started Galxe. That's my personal experience for the past six or seven years.”

He then discussed why Galxe chose to focus on developer outreach in Web3: ^[3]

“We were discovering and playing around on DeFi at that time, like how a lot of other founders started. We were just fascinated by crypto and the web in general and wondering if we could do something, particularly if NFT or DeFi and DeFi could be combined. At that time, the first idea we introduced was called a provation l-NFT as a service infrastructure. To break down this new concept, NFT as a service means we want to build a solution for businesses to create NFTs easily to distribute to their community. Then the other question is why do they want to create NFTs for their community? Why do they distribute NFTs to their community? Artists create NFTs for collectibles for their fans, and games use them for items. But companies, corporates, or businesses, what can they do about it?”

“One idea that came to mind is they can have utilities, they can be membership status, or achievements for their community members. It’s actually a perfect tool for community building. That's why we started the whole thing. By doing it with realness, the edge of building such a platform is not just a tool for making it easy to issue NFTs, but also to provide good composability on data. This allows easy verification of users and what they have done, enabling us to give membership based on their actions. That's the whole idea. So, we introduced a term called credentials. I think that's a very bad term because nobody understands what it is, but it’s cool. In our design, all the behavior data are credentials or tags for users.”

When asked about Galxe’s products, Wayn responded: ^[3]

“The biggest feature for Galxe is that it allows those campaigns. Basically, you can run events, create new events or new campaigns, or new quests, set up some requirements, and set up some abilities or credentials. For example, you swap $100, but I also want you to follow me on my Twitter account. I also want you to join my Twitter space or acquire a certain role in my Discord server. So, if I have all of these requirements and you meet all of them or meet one of these positions, you will be eligible to claim some kind of rewards. We have two ways for distributing NFTs. One is that developers or community managers can use our dashboard to deploy a new smart contract directly. The other way is they can just use Galxe’s old smart contract. It is a general ERC-721 smart contract, but it has the capability for DAOs to subsidize gas fees to enable a gasless experience for their community members.”

“Then Galxe ID, I would say, the name itself is too fancy, but it's not actually a decentralized identity. It's more like an account system. It's just a Galxe account where, when people do quests, verify their credentials, or prove what they have done, they will be required to connect their Twitter account or Discord account. They do all of this within Galxe ID. So, Galxe’s account system allows you to connect your social accounts from different places, and then whatever you have done can be easily verified. Galxe will verify it and tell the brands or the organizer that you have already verified. That's the whole idea, that's the whole concept of Galxe ID.”

Later in the interview, he shared what he learned when starting Galxe: ^[3]

“I always tell my friends or other founders that finding your product-market fit is the most important thing when you start the business. You should make sure to find your product-market fit when you are in the seed round stage. The money you raise from the seed round is for you to find the product-market fit and to build the first version of your product. It proves you have real demands from your clients who really want to use your product. We successfully delivered that in our seed round. We at least proved that there is a demand. Every community needs a tool like this to scale their growth to the next level. Currently, there is no better solution in the market for them to really combine on-chain engagement and off-chain activities or promotions together. We were the first to introduce this.”

“At the very beginning, the market fit was crucial. But also, after the seed round, once we found the product-market fit, what’s also important is how to ensure you have your competitive advantage if other companies are building similar software or features. We want to make sure we utilize our first-mover advantage to acquire good clients. So, when people say, "I'm using this," they mean Galxe. Polygon is using Galxe. All the best web brands are using Galxe daily. Their community team is literally using Galxe every day. This is the messaging we want to deliver to the entire space: that this is the tool that every marketing manager should get started with.”

Panels

Building dApps

In a keynote speech at TOKEN2049 Singapore 2022, Wayn discussed Galxe's journey and the potential of Web3 credentials. Galxe, formerly Project Galaxy, focused on creating impactful experiences through a credential data network that included real-world achievements and on-chain/off-chain activities. The company rebranded and launched components such as Galxe Credentials, Galxe Passport, and Galxe Campaigns, facilitating loyalty programs, user acquisition, and customized governance. Successful campaigns with projects like SushiSwap, Hashflow, and Polygon significantly increased user engagement and activity, underscoring the importance of finding product-market fit and involving the community in the development process. ^[4]

Community Building

Wayn presented the differences between Web3 and Web2 growth strategies at Paris Dot Comm Day, focusing on leveraging on-chain data and tokenomics in Web3 for user attribution and value capture. He discussed general go-to-market strategies applicable in Web2 and Web3 contexts, emphasizing the importance of achieving product-market fit, virality, and sustainable business models. Wayne also highlighted considerations when selecting growth partners for Web3 initiatives, such as pay-for-results models and access to large user bases. ^[5]

Onchain Attribution and Identity

Wayn participated in the Onchain Attribution and Identity panel at EthCC’s Web3 Growth Summit 2023, which focused on the foundational concepts of identity and attribution in the context of Web3 technologies. With Antonio Garcia Martinez (Spindl), Timer Sharaoni (Addressable), and Shayon Sengupta (Multicoin), he discussed the evolving landscape where on-chain data plays a crucial role in defining user interactions and monetization strategies. They explored the complexities of attributing user actions without compromising privacy, highlighting challenges such as data fragmentation and the necessity for more integrated marketing solutions. The conversation underscored a shift towards decentralized methods like airdrops and quests for engaging users within the Web3 framework, aiming to establish clearer metrics and sustainable growth practices in this emerging sector. ^[6]