Gifto, a blockchain platform for virtual gifts, has signed a partnership with TRON. The deal was announced in Hong Kong in early December 2017. Under it, Gifto will use TRON’s core technology to handle large volumes of virtual gift transactions.
TRON is a decentralized protocol. It aims to build a free content and entertainment system for the whole world, using blockchain and distributed storage.
Gifto was created by Asia Innovations Group, which is led by Andy Tian. Before he became the group’s CEO, Tian ran Zynga China. He said the partnership offers an alternative to the usual model of who owns and earns from content. Very soon, he added, content creators will start to see the benefits of blockchain.
The group also built Uplive, a live streaming app with more than 20 million users. Each month, millions of people watch content there from more than 60,000 creators. Fans reward those creators with virtual gifts, and the company said this model would bring in more than $100 million in projected revenue for 2017.
Gifto wants to take that model onto the blockchain. As a result, virtual gifts could be created, curated, tracked, bought, sent and exchanged across platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
Justin Sun, TRON’s founder, said his team was excited to work with Gifto and Asia Innovations Group, since both sides already run successful consumer entertainment apps that use blockchain. Sun was formerly Ripple’s chief representative for Greater China. He appeared on the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2015 and 2017, and he was in the first class at Hupan University, which Jack Ma founded.
TRON described itself as one of the first Ethereum-compatible protocols built for fast micro-transactions at scale, with that feature planned for the first quarter of 2018. It will then use the technology to support Gifto’s rollout to millions of users. At the time of the announcement, TRON’s total market value was above $140 million, according to CoinMarketCap.