BULB Year in Review: 2023

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29 Dec 2023

Introduction

Hello BULBers, Welcome to the Year In Review on BULB!

Time flies! We are already at the end of 2023 🎆

For the benefit of our new users, the BULB project started in December 2021 as just an idea: what if there was a blogging platform that could reward everyone? Whether it be big or small, by simply doing something that they love, like blogging. The BULB team are all avid writers and readers, and we all feel that we have something to share with the world. This formed the foundation for us to create BULB as a Web3 Blogging Platform where anyone can Write-to-Earn and Read-to-Earn.

Fast forward to the end of 2023, we’re very please with how far the project has come. To our mentors, early supporters, and of course, the wonderful BULB Community on platform today. We want to say thank you so much for your ongoing contributions and support to BULB. This platform is what it is today through each and everyone of you sharing your passions, ideas and engagement. The best part? We’re just getting started…

This Year-in-Review will be a slightly longer edition, as we have plenty to recap in 2023.

Let’s get into it!

BULB’s Growth in 2023

The very first thing we want to highlight is just how much the platform has grown from a user perspective this year. On 1 January 2023 there was a modest yet dedicated 1,262 BULBers on the platform. Today, we’ve seen this number shoot up to just under 16,000 registered users, over 12.5x user growth! We are excited by the way the word about BULB has spread within the broader Web3 community.

With the recent revival of Web3, people are once again showing interest in Do-to-Earn platforms, except this time, we are seeing this interest move far beyond just monetary or token value and extend to the quality and integrity of the Do-to-Earn ecosystem as whole. BULB was never built to become a pump and dump project or a get rich quick scheme so it’s exciting for our team to see users investing in the quality and integrity of the content on BULB, this will only bring more value as the community matures.

To share some more detailed statistics, since inception, BULB has reached over 13,000 posts, 80,000 comments, 391,000 reactions and 24,000 subscriptions. These figures grow consistently everyday as BULBers interact more with each other and share valuable content. This creates strong and collaborative communities on BULB, bonded by mutual interests and passions. Empowering anyone to write and read what they are passionate about while simultaneously being rewarded for it. So, keep it up everyone!

A Look Back on 2023

Overall, 2023 was a feature packed year with new developments being released every single month. The 2023 feature list was rather extensive, so we have handpicked the most noteworthy features to recap on.

#1 BULBmoji NFTs

On 29 January 2023, BULBmoji NFTs were launched, marking a major milestone in BULB’s roadmap. BULBmoji NFTs are a special type of utility NFT that replace standard BULBmoji reactions and enable the owner to increase earning capacity, use daily energy more efficiently, trade BULBmoji’s with others in the community and showcase community status.

#2 BULB Official Launch

BULB Official Launch

On 15 April 2023, BULB was officially launched to the public. During this release, we brought to users a range of new platform features including; BULBmoji NFTs 2.0, writer analytics, dark mode, revamped refer-to-earn, share-to-earn, email subscriptions, writing tips and more.

This was a huge release of features that make up BULB today, it was an important milestone as it took the platform past the core Do-to-Earn capabilities of writing and reading, and extended these rewards to referring new users and sharing articles. At the same time, Writers could genuinely leverage BULB as the only blogging tool they need to build their audience with a number of writer-focused features like writer analytics and email subscriptions enabled writers to better build their communities.

#3 BULB’s Solflare Wallet Support

In June 2023, we added support for Solflare wallet after many requests from the community. Compared to other features on this list, it may seem like a relatively small feature at first. However, this one small feature enables new prospective users to login with the wallet that they prefer. This has streamlined the user onboarding process for new BULBers.

We are proud to be part of the Solana ecosystem and always open to enable more SPL wallets on BULB. Let us know below if there are any other Solana wallets you would like to see supported on BULB?

#4 BULB AI

In July 2023, BULB AI was released. BULB AI allows users to paraphrase passages of text, create the perfect attention grabbing headline, and develop SEO optimised article descriptions. Works like magic.

Since then, there has been much debate on the platform on whether AI should be used at all on BULB. To reiterate our position on this matter in BULB’s “Official Position on the Use of AI”, we strongly believe that AI should enhance, but not replace human creativity. At BULB, we promote writers to utilise AI to level up their research and writing, as well as encourage writers to generate original ideas to share with the community. AI is here to stay, and we strive to empower all users to coexist with AI and maximise our own potential.

#5 Article NFTs

Last but not least, Article NFTs, one of the most anticipated feature releases of the year, was moved to production on 14 October 2023. Article NFTs effectively tokenises the points accrued for any article minted as an NFT where the NFT owner becomes the beneficiary of the points generated.

We have taken this one step further by also creating Article Semi Fungible Tokens (SFTs), where a single article can be split into up to 10 individual pieces. This feature was built on the principles of simplifying the proof of provenance for writers, creating a genuine economic use case for NFTs, and driving community engagement between writers and readers.

Article NFTs/SFTs as they stand right now are predominantly the proof of provenance and the tokenisation of economic benefits on BULB, but we believe this can be so much more. From this foundation, we are looking to further expand Article NFTs/SFTs to become powerful tools for writers to level up the engagement with their community. The possibilities are endless and we will work to bring these ideas to life for you.

Looking Ahead to 2024

Heading into 2024, we have another lengthy list of features and roadmap checkpoints to bring to you, many of which have been requested by the community. By now, you know how we do things, we listen.

So here is a brief rundown of the core feature releases and events in 2024:

1H 2024

BULBmoji’s 3.0
BULB Threads
BULB Premium
Public Token Sale

2H 2024

BULB AI 2.0
BULB Staking
Mobile App
Token Listing

One of the key features closest to release is BULB Threads, which is primarily focused on short-form content. We believe this will be a big value add to the platform as anyone with meaningful insights and thoughts can just start a thread and create new conversations. This will bring the entire concept of Write-to-Earn and Read-to-Earn to a whole new level as we expand our platform beyond blogging to microblogging as well.

For the remainder, we will keep you updated in each Month in Review about the progress of upcoming features. Rest assured, 2024 is going to be a big big year for this community!

BULBer Writing Competition #3

Switching gears, one of the most anticipated monthly events is of course the BULBer Writing Competition! It is so amazing to see so many passionate and skilled writers participating in these writing competitions and sharing their valuable insights on the topic. We know the community greatly appreciates this, so we encourage you all to keep writing and hustling!

For those new to the writing competition, the best 3 articles will receive a shoutout on our X profile where the community will be able to vote their winner. To enter, simply post an article on the topic between January 1st and January 14th, adding ‘Writing Competition’ as the first tag on your article.

The lucky winner will receive 500,000 BULB Tokens and 0.1 SOL to mint their article as an Article NFT.

Let’s talk about DeFi and CeFi in January:

Will Traditional Finance be replaced By Decentralised Finance?

Rewarding Amazing Users on BULB

Last ones for 2023! We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the following newly Certified BULB Writer:

Web3 Trends and AmjadAli have been consistently creating high quality, valuable and entertaining content to the BULB Platform, as well as being active community members from supporting other writers to suggesting new ideas and sharing insightful thoughts. The BULB Team is grateful for your contributions!

We would also like to extend our thanks to all the Certified BULB Writers for your contributions. BULB owes it to all of you for what we are today. Keep up the great work!

Final Words for 2023

BULB is just getting started, and it is still a long road ahead. However, every step we take forward, we are one step closer to completing our mission which is to create a platform where passion, ideas and engagement are rewarded. It’s a platform that belongs to the community, one that gives power back to the people and is perfectly poised to become the leading social media platform in Web3.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year, and we BULBers shall reach for the moon… together 💡🚀

-BULB Team

To catch up BULB’s 2023 updates and activities, see our Month-in-Review & Article Collections below: