Flipkart To Use Polygon's Blockchain for Brand Engagement Experience for Millions of Indian Users

• FireDrops, which is accessible via Flipkart, is a web3 brand engagement program built on Polygon’s Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to offer users a more transparent, secure, and personalized engagement experience
• Powered by GuardianLink, FireDrops utilizes Fireblocks’ wallet-as-a-service offering and embeds web3 wallets, providing a more user-friendly and integrated experience
• To date, Fireblocks has created 3.6 million web3 wallets for Flipkart users

Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has announced its partnership with Fireblocks, an enterprise platform to manage digital asset operations and build innovative businesses on blockchain. The strategic collaboration aims to revolutionize the way consumers safely and easily interact with the Web 3.0 ecosystem. This collaboration will also provide avenues for brands to innovate and enhance customer experiences, as being explored via the FireDrops platform.

FireDrops is an endeavor to create a safe and scalable brand engagement program on the blockchain, where wallets seamlessly spun by Fireblocks allow users to easily interact with web3. Fireblocks has set up 3.6 million wallets for Flipkart users, with a majority of them created in the past few months. Flipkart’s collaboration with Fireblocks is a testament to its commitment in enabling innovation in the Indian e-commerce industry. Flipkart has over 500 million users with more than 150 million products across 80 categories.

“India is fast emerging as the global hub for innovation in web3,” said Ravi Krishnan, Head of Flipkart Labs. “As we look ahead at how the new generation engages with brands, they seek a more personalized and interactive experience, and brands realize they can no longer apply broad strategies across audience segments. In this context, digital assets and web3 have become essential tools to engage with customers effectively. Fireblocks' role is crucial in safeguarding these assets, enabling us to develop and scale. FireDrops, one of the web3 offerings, is among many that we are excited about. In the next decade, web3 will be transformative for the e-commerce space, and India and Flipkart are the perfect sandbox for how digital assets may blur the lines between gamification and retail experiences.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Flipkart to provide them with a resilient, enterprise-grade platform upon which they are building their technology solutions, so they can enhance the shopping experience for users and redefine e-commerce,” said Stephen Richardson, Head of APAC & Managing Director, Financial Markets at Fireblocks. “Through FireDrops, a familiar user experience has been created for millions of Indians interested in collecting their first NFT, making digital ownership more accessible and lowering the barrier to entry into the world of web3.”

Fireblocks' Wallets-as-a-Service allows Flipkart to embed privacy preserving blockchain wallets directly into their mobile application, providing users with seamless onboarding into their first time web3 experience. With Fireblocks, Flipkart can automate and scale wallets and enable NFT creation to support millions of new users on FireDrops.

FireDrops is aiming to revolutionize how users connect with brands while shopping online. By providing engaging experiences with brands that enable customers to earn NFT-based rewards, FireDrops aims to foster greater community engagement and an enhanced user experience. Brands in the FireDrops ecosystem are also anticipating the benefit from deeper, more meaningful, and more tailored interactions with their customers, resulting in higher reward redemption rates and a reduction in customer acquisition costs.

About the Flipkart Group

The Flipkart Group is one of India’s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+, and Cleartrip.

Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of sellers, merchants, and small businesses to participate in India's digital commerce revolution. With a registered user base of more than 500 million, Flipkart's marketplace offers over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Today, there are over 14 lakh sellers on the platform, including Shopsy sellers. With a focus on empowering and delighting every Indian by delivering value through technology and innovation, Flipkart has created lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem while empowering generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI, and easy returns, which are customer-centric innovations that have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians.

Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform that delivers a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves thousands of financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $4 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage and transit. Some of the biggest trading desks have switched to Fireblocks because it's the only solution that CISOs and Ops Teams both love. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.

Meet The Top-6 Winners of PolygonLEAP - Web3 Accelerator Program

The final 6 will win from a pool of $250K by Polygon along with ecosystem support 

PolygonLEAP, a global Web3 accelerator program launched by Polygon, leading Web3 unicorn and Lumos Labs, Web3 innovation enabler, announced its top 6 finalist projects, Airchains (Previously Vayupankh.io), respct.club , Deefy, Spheron, Zoksh (Previously MooPay), and Zippy Fitness, that stand to gain from a grant pool of $250,000, today. The winners will also receive ecosystem and marketing support in addition to the expert mentorship provided to them during the course of this accelerator.

Despite the ongoing market conditions, the Web3 ecosystem has been bullish towards the innovations driven by this disruptive technology. According to CB Insights, the first quarter of 2022 saw blockchain funding hitting a record $9.2 billion in its seventh consecutive quarter, which is a testament to the buoyant sentiments of expert investors who recognize this sector’s potential to keep churning out ingenious real-world solutions.

Meet the innovative top 6 Web3 solutions of PolygonLEAP -

1.  Airchains (Previously Vayupankh.io)- A toolset to “build, deploy, and grow dApps”
2. Respct.club -Social Gaming experience for web3
3. Deefy - Renting, lending, and BNPL infrastructure for NFTs
4. Spheron - A next-generation solution to host apps permanently
5. Zoksh (Previously MooPay)- A no-code, non-custodial, multi-chain payment gateway
6. Zippy Fitness - A borderless metaverse for runners to run, train, and communicate

Launched in December of 2021, the accelerator is supported by incubation partner Buidlers Tribe and investment partners from leading global web3 venture capital firms including, CoinDCX, Digital Finance Group, Elevation Capital, Hashed, Jsquare, Jump Capital, Lightspeed, Picus Capital, Sino Global Capital, and Woodstock Fund. It received over 270 global applicants and released its first shortlist of 31 startups for the Bootcamp phase in March of this year. 

The Bootcamp phase consisted of the selected startups building their visionary solutions across several tracks, with the entertainment sector leading the race along with others, namely - gaming, payments, Metaverse, NFTs, etc. Further, leading industry experts held frequent mentor sessions along with several meetups and workshops over the 3 months that helped these solutions scale up.

"Opportunities in Web3 are fueling innovation! I believe that projects that emerge through programs like PolygonLEAP have a true potential to solve difficult real world problems and become successful businesses of tomorrow. The top projects of this accelerator have promise and a vision that can expand greatly. Polygon is determined to support builders on their journey to creating key Web3 innovations." Dalip Tyagi, our Senior VP of Developer Relations, Polygon.

“The Web3 ecosystem has been hailed for the solutions that have disrupted multiple sectors and is still showing growth with new cutting-edge technologies still being discovered. We are glad to have supported a few of them through the PolygonLEAP accelerator. The startups showcased inventive solutions and we congratulate the top 3 winners and hope to support them in their future endeavors with the right guidance and mentorship. ” Kaavya Prasad, Founder, Lumos Labs

Polygon Launches Web3 ID That Keeps Personal Details Private

The Polygon network, a decentralized app (Dapp) layer for Ethereum today announced that “Polygon ID”, one of the first identity platforms powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography — privacy, and blockchain scaling technology, will be ready before the year ends.

The blockchain-based ID for decentralized and self-sovereign models has Zero-knowledge native protocols for ultimate user privacy, is scalable and private on-chain verification to boost decentralized apps and decentralized finance, and is open to existing standards and ecosystem development.

Polygon ID leverages the Iden3 protocol and Circom ZK toolkit. Moving forward, both of the projects will be sponsored by Polygon while keeping the original spirit of community initiatives to provide open-source protocols and tools to the broader ecosystem of developers.

"Polygon ID is private by default, offers on-chain verification and permissionless attestation. There is nothing in the digital identity space now that ticks all these boxes,” said Mihailo Bjelic, Polygon’s co-founder. “It is also a great showcase for how zero-knowledge proofs can help us create a better world.”
Polygon ID is expected to be used by organizations and businesses, for identity and trust management purposes, such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and digital wallets, where users can authenticate  themselves to blockchain-based applications, without providing passwords or data to every such application individually.

Polygon ID will also allow for the construction of new forms of reputations like a decentralized credit score for financial primitives and social payments in DeFi; decentralized Sybil score, voting power/delegation, and domain-expertise reputation for DAOs to enable new decision-making and governance models; player reputation profile for Web3 games; private and censorship-resistant P2P communication and interactions for social applications.

Polygon ID leverages the Iden3 protocol and Circom ZK toolkit. Moving forward, both of the projects will be sponsored by Polygon while keeping the original spirit of community initiatives to provide open source protocols and tools to the broader ecosystem of developers.

According to the company’s stated timeline, the proof-of-concept (PoC) has been developed and the complete Polygon ID platform is scheduled to be ready in the third quarter of 2022.

31 Web3 Startups Selected for the 1st Cohort of Polygonleap 2021

The PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator, launched by Polygon and Lumos Labs late last year, announced its first cohort of 31 startups today. Aimed at driving innovation and supporting Indian startups’ in their Web3 journey, this accelerator will now move to support the 31 shortlisted solutions, selected from over 270 applicants globally, in building their innovative decentralised ideas while getting access to expert mentorship, ecosystem support, and marketing support in the Bootcamp phase.

The Accelerator launched on the 8th of December, 2021 is organized by Lumos Labs, a technology innovation management firm, in partnership with Polygon, one of the largest blockchain ecosystems in the world. It is further supported by Incubation partner Buidlers Tribe and investment partners from leading web3 venture capital firms including, CoinDCX, Digital Finance Group, Elevation Capital, Hashed, Jsquare, Jump Capital, Lightspeed, Picus Capital, Sino Global Capital, and Woodstock Fund. The winning startups stand a chance to win a grant amount of $250,000 set aside by Polygon apart from an additional prize pool of a whopping $12 million+ from the investment partners, subject to due diligence and investment thesis fit.

 

The accelerator saw over 270 applications, of which 160 were Web3 startups from all across the globe. The Bootcamp phase will consist of selected startups building their visionary solutions across several tracks, with the entertainment sector leading the race along with sectors such as gaming, payments, Metaverse, NFTs, etc. Furthermore, leading industry experts will equip them with the right guidance through mentor sessions along with several meetups and workshops that will be organized to help these solutions scale up.

"At Polygon, we envision an open and borderless world and strive to empower budding developers to build this new world. We look forward to working with the selected startups and continue this journey of building a brighter future for Web3." -Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder, Polygon.

"We feel delighted to work with Polygon on this Accelerator programme as it will strengthen the startups in multiple ways. India ranks third in the global list of countries with the largest startup ecosystems, right after the U.S. and U.K., and it seems like there is no stopping this growth. With this, it becomes important for the new startups to enter the ecosystem with all the prerequisites in order to survive. This initiative is focussed on overcoming this barrier and we are excited to be a part of this.” - Kaavya Prasad, Co-founder, Lumos Labs

The Blockchain industry has been expanding rapidly with the NFT market surpassing $40 billion in value in 2021, the addressable market of the metaverse being estimated at $8 trillion, and blockchain adoption in capital markets projected to reach $27 trillion as early as 2027. Furthermore, the Asia region has been at the forefront of this emerging technology consistently. The industry has been the hub of accelerated innovations and has encouraged the startup sector immensely with new ideas, visions, and solutions constantly emerging and generating significant interest across a wide range of industries in India. As the field of applications for Blockchain grows, such startups are continuously contributing to customizing and tailoring the technology to fit multiple use cases.

Polygon to Support SportzChain in Strengthening Its Blockchain-based Fan-Engagement Platform

After collaborating with several top-tier Pro Kabaddi teams, Sportzchain plans to onboard high-end Football, Cricket, and other sports teams

Through this grant, the brand aims to reinforce its tech framework further and exceed expectations of futuristic fan-engagement methods

In a bid to strengthen the tech infrastructure, Sportzchain, India’s only fan-centric and a blockchain-powered fan-engagement platform, has recently received a grant from Polygon Studios, a gaming and NFT arm of Polygon focused on growing the global blockchain gaming and NFT industry through investment, marketing and developer support. . 

Through this grant, Sportzchain, will get support from Polygon to deploy its WebDapp on Polygon protocol strengthening the tech infrastructure and create a sui generis fan-engagement ecosystem that surpasses the expectations of all its predecessors. The collaboration will further strengthen the vision of Sportzchain to be deeply rooted within the India ecosystem and focus on technologies that are energy efficient, faster and scalable offering a seamless experience to their sports fans and crypto users. The grant amount remains undisclosed as of now.

Speaking on this recent development Siddharth Jaiswal, Founder & CEO, said, “We are thrilled to have Polygon Studios, a renowned name in the NFT and gaming ecosystem, as partners in this blooming journey. We will leverage this grant to ensure our tech infrastructure perfectly aligns with our future strategies. For now, we are actively working to ensure sports fans across genres can seamlessly connect with their favorite teams through our platform and have an advanced fan-engagement experience."

"We already have several leading Pro Kabaddi teams like Gujarat Giants, Bengal Warriors, Dabang Delhi, and Tamil Thalaivas onboard, and we are in discussions with several top-drawer Football and Cricket teams and individuals.”, He added.

It is pertinent to note that Sportzchain is currently gearing up to release the list of high-end super rare physical NFT collectibles. In the first stage, the brand will be focusing on three primary sports areas: Kabaddi, Football, and Cricket. Simultaneously, it is laying the foundation to broaden its partner portfolio.

About SportZchain

SportZchain, India's blockchain-based fan engagement platform connects sports teams and fans through a single thread, which will not only result in radical fan engagement but also lay the foundation of creating a massive invested fan base. The platform aims to revamp fan engagement through a belief that sports fan deserves a basic right to be heard by their favourite sporting teams and also be able to guide and influence some key decisions of their favourite team

NFT Derivative Startup Bliv.club Raises Undisclosed Funding by Polygon Co-founder Sandeep Nailwal

Abhishek Kumar Gupta, Mohammed Sirajuddin and Vikas Singh

The funds will be used to build best-in-class products, as well as marketing and team building.

Non-fungible Token (NFT) derivative startup Bliv.Club on Monday announced that it has raised undisclosed Pre-seed funding by Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder of Blockchain Scalability Platform Polygon. Serial entrepreneurs Vikas Singh, Abhishek Kumar Gupta, and Mohammed Sirajuddin founded the startup in 2021. They became friends because of their shared interest in Web3 and have been discussing the NFT ecosystem for a time. Bliv.Club is the result of combining their various capabilities in technology, strategy, and outreach.

NFTs are unique virtual tokens on Blockchain infrastructure that represent ownership, proof-of-existence, and allow traceability of any digital or non-digital item. In fact, the market size of NFTs reached $22 billion in 2021. This is an exponential rise when compared to the global market size of $100m in 2020. Moreover, the base market cap of the top 100 NFTs ever issued – a measure of their joint value – is $16.7 billion.

However, the NFT marketplace is complex to navigate for people with limited technical knowledge. Bliv.Club is a platform that aims to diminish this barrier of entry via various new-age instruments as well as facilitate liquidity into the NFT ecosystem via derivatives. The platform will draw a significant user base once it is launched. Bliv will offer a derivatives market, allowing the average person to participate in the NFT market with a small ticket size.

“Bliv is extending the ambit of the NFT ecosystem. It is allowing a common person to get the exposure of a complex market in a much more easy and meaningful way,” said Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder, Ploygon.

"Our core objective at Bliv is to increase participation of masses in NFT Ecosystem via seamless, high tech, easy to use new-age instruments and we could not have had a more relevant person than Sandeep as our first investor, who is one of the most respected persons globally in the Web 3 ecosystem. We will benefit highly from his insights, experience, and network" mentioned Vikas Singh, Co-Founder Bliv.Club.

Bliv.Club is already in talks with a number of investors in order to raise a larger round in the near future. They plan to build an ecosystem around NFT that will allow retail investments in the field to be more fluid, so addressing and solving the bigger liquidity issue.

About Bliv.Club:

Vikas Singh, Abhishek Kumar Gupta, and Mohammed Sirajuddin, all of whom have had previous entrepreneurial success, founded the company in 2021. Abhishek, Siraj, and Vikas, the founders, have known each other for over 5 years and became friends because of their mutual interest in Web3. Bliv.Club is the product of their unique technical, strategic, and outreach strengths coming together. Soon after, the founders decided to work together to solve the liquidity issue in this market. Bliv is confident that the NFT Ecosystem may play a significant role in shaping the future.

Polygon and Lumos Labs Set Up Polygonleap 2021 Accelerator to Drive Web3 Innovation in India

Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, Woodstock Fund, Jump Capital, Sino Global Capital, and BuidlersTribe join as investor partners and mentors

Winning startups stand to get $250K from Polygon and upto $9M+ from investment partners contingent to their due diligence process and investment thesis fit

Polygon, one of the largest blockchain ecosystems in the world, has partnered with technology innovation management firm Lumos Labs to launch the PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator today to drive their initiative to support Indian startups that want to start their Web3 journey, build innovative token economies and get access to mentorship, ecosystem and marketing support. Elevation Capital, Lightspeed, Jump Capital, Woodstock Fund, Sino Global Capital, and Buidlers Tribe join as investment partners and mentors. A total grant amount of $250,000 has been set aside from Polygon for Indian startups that build interesting projects on Polygon. The startups also stand a chance to raise a pre-seed/seed investment of over $9 million+ from Elevation Capital, Lightspeed, Jump Capital, Woodstock Fund and Sino Global Capital. These investments are contingent on the due diligence process and investment thesis fit with refusal rights afforded to both the funds and the founders.

The blockchain ecosystem has expanded rapidly in the last few years and has revolutionized multiple sectors including finance, technology, investments, banking, entertainment. The industry is expected to expand from $3 billion in 2020 to $39.7 billion in 2025 with the Asia region being at the forefront of this emerging technology. The blockchain industry has been the hub of accelerated innovations due to the pandemic and has encouraged the startup sector immensely with new ideas, visions, and solutions constantly emerging.

Despite regulatory ambiguities, India too has witnessed a major boom in the technology adoption that is transforming the country into a hub for Web 3.0 development. The emergence of Polygon, a company born out of India, as the go-to scaling solution for Ethereum is one of the reasons to be bullish about India's potential. Polygon is focussed on giving back to the community and building Web3 unicorns in India.

"Polygon seeks to empower Web3 developers by providing an accessible and scalable infrastructure. We look forward to working with Lumos Labs and inviting passionate innovators in India to build on Polygon", Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder, Polygon.

“We are excited to onboard web 3.0 startups and enhance these solutions further with expert guidance and support in partnership with the PolygonLEAP 2021 Accelerator. Blockchain technology has been transformative for the global and Indian tech ecosystem and through this accelerator, Polygon and Lumos Labs are working towards empowering the startups even further. We hope to see a lot of web 2.0 startups looking to come into web 3.0 with numerous innovative and robust solutions and hope to support them till the end.” Kaavya Prasad, Co-founder, Lumos Labs

The registrations are open as of today until February 4, 2022. This accelerator will focus on startups in the Indian Web 3.0 space. Over a four-month period, participants will build unique blockchain-based solutions along several tracks, including entertainment, decentralized finance, decentralized applications, and open innovation.

The process will also include a series of meetups designed to engage and interact with the developer community. The program will conclude with a month-long bootcamp phase where selected startups will turn their vision into reality under mentorship from the industry's leaders.

If you want to be a part of this revolution and work with the best names in the industry to make your dream into a reality, register here: https://www.bridge2web3.com/

Polygon Invests in Colexion to Boost NFT Adoption in India

The investment will offer users a theft and forge free trade experience along with a secured infrastructure.

Polygon, one of the leading platforms for Ethereum scaling and digital infrastructure development has announced an investment in Colexion - Asia’s biggest NFTs marketplace. As a result of this investment, Polygon, which has a vast presence in the cryptographic ecosystem, will deploy many of its digital tools to boost NFT adoption in India, leading to a seamless purchasing and minting experience for its users.

Speaking about the investment, Abhay Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Colexion said, “This is a historical event in the Colexion’s growth journey, and we are proud to be the chosen partner for investment by Polygon. This move will enable our users in India to benefit from the NFT ecosystem.”

“Polygon’s investment in Colexion is all set to revolutionize the NFT space in India by enabling Indian users to now buy/sell NFTs faster than ever, with surprisingly lower transaction fees, and with an over-the-top user experience.” Bibin Babu, Co-founder & COO, Colexion, added.

The investment will offer benefits such as theft and forge free trade experience, highly advanced dashboards and tools for NFT exchanges, a trustworthy platform that allows artists and talents to interact with their fans and NFT traders, and most importantly a secured infrastructure. It will cater to the diverse needs of developers by providing tools to create scalable decentralized applications, focus on the performance of the platform and user experience while solving any security concerns that may arise.

“The main purpose of this investment is to bring transformation in the NFT marketplace,” Sandeep Nailwal, Co-founder & Chief Operations Officer, Polygon, he further added, “The rapidly growing adoption of Polygon can alone answer its vast popularity in this ecosystem. While Polygon ensures the security and ownership transparency of non-fungible digital tokens, Colexion aims to give NFTs the value that it deserves, thereby also allowing artists and fans to interact and trade on this trustworthy platform.”

Presently, Colexion is already making a buzz by launching a premium NFT marketplace in the sports, entertainment, art, and lifestyle category. The platform has onboarded international celebrities from the entertainment and sports industries, where each one of them will be launching their NFTs exclusively.

About Colexion:

Colexion is a leading marketplace for digital collectibles which aims to bring NFTs into mainstream trading options. Thus, it works relentlessly to help artists and communities to come together on its platform with the primary aim of NFTs trade. The platform has successfully managed to attract many budding investors. It is all set to launch its exclusive collection of NFTs having now been officially integrated with Polygon Blockchain infrastructure. It focuses on building a relationship between artists and fans by creating a value-added platform and digital infrastructure for digital token’s trade. Many renowned celebrities and sports personalities have already signed up for this portal to launch their exclusive NFTs. Morne Morkel, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Mika Singh, Krissann Barretto, Salim-Sulaiman, and many others are included in the list.
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About Polygon:

Polygon is one of the leading platforms for Ethereum scaling and digital infrastructure development. This Indian company is growing with its wide range of deliverables and easy-to-handle products that are offered to the developers. Its infrastructure solutions include sidechains, hybrid solutions, stand-alone, enterprise chains, data availability solutions, security assets, and many more. Polygon primarily aims to solve pain points associated with blockchain technology.

Notable collaborations of Polygon include Infosys Ltd for M-Setu, Google Cloud's BigQuery also included Polygon into its ITB offerings. There are also several other significant collaborations by Polygon which made it establish its brand value in this ecosystem. Polygon’s network frame improves the transaction speeds, which is another reason why Colexion users will be extremely satisfied.