Introducing Fuul, the affiliate marketing protocol

TL;DR: We are very excited to introduce Fuul, an affiliate marketing protocol that lets Web3 projects pay out commissions or share revenue onchain with affiliates. Anyone with an audience or simply put “affiliates” (creators, publishers, dApps) can partner with the projects they love and earn. Fuul is now LIVE in private beta and supports all major EVM chains - request access here  

Why crypto needs Fuul

Many builders in the crypto space have quickly experienced the challenges of web3 marketing.  And the truth is that it’s hard to imagine crypto really taking off until there are scalable user acquisition channels that generate real economic value beyond mere speculation.

The lack of self-serve user acquisition channels, the challenges around ROI measurement, and the strong focus on airdrops or vanity metrics raise the question: what will it take for crypto to become mainstream? Why not rather than airdropping or paying upfront for sponsored content, propose commissions to publishers or influencers that refer converting users? Why not simply reward these affiliates on the go as they bring valuable transactions? 

Affiliate marketing

This is not a new concept. Some claim that it became a thing in 1996 when Amazon introduced Amazon Associates, but the truth is that today almost all web2 advertisers leverage affiliate marketing in some other way. However, still to date, trust remains one of the main hurdles for affiliate marketing traction. Let me explain this: in web2, advertisers transact on top of their own private databases, and hence they are the only ones that can really validate how many referred transactions took place - leaving affiliates with no other choice than just trust.

Alternatively, blockchains can really become affiliate marketing’s superpower. In web3, projects transact on top of public decentralized databases, which allow for full transparency and verification at the transactional level - making the case for affiliate marketing in web3 even more powerful. There’s no need to trust if you can verify.

Enter Fuul

Fuul is the protocol for trustless and efficient affiliate programs. Fuul affiliate programs are non-upgradeable smart contracts, deployed and administered by projects. 

Conversion events: These could be one or a combination of triggers (events or functions on a smart contract or offchain event). Ideally, these should be revenue generating events that allow crypto projects to share part of those revenues with affiliates.

Payout Rules Alongside, projects need to define how much they are willing to pay out to anyone that brings users that convert into such events. Payouts can be defined as fixed or variable (%), and paid out in allowed tokens. Some extra features include splitting commissions across affiliates and end users, allowlisting eligible affiliates, and more.

Budgets

Projects define an initial budget to escrow into their affiliate program. The escrowing of this budget is important for two reasons: a) It gives 100% security to affiliates that as long as the affiliate program is live, there will be funds available for them to claim as they refer users successfully; b) It automates the payouts process for projects. 

Building an open decentralized ecosystem

Decentralization

Attribution serves as a foundational pillar within the Fuul ecosystem, guiding smart contracts on who is able to claim commissions and for how much. Utilizing a sophisticated SDK combined with adept data processing, the core team currently oversees attribution in these nascent phases of the protocol. True to its philosophy and design, this attribution layer along other pillars will be fully decentralized over time.

Connecting projects and affiliates

Fuul enables an open market for projects to table commission proposals and, simultaneously, for anyone boasting a significant audience to direct traffic and earn. The Fuul web app serves as a two-sided marketplace for both ends to find and partner with each other. Affiliates can discover new projects, generate affiliate links or codes, and manage their earnings in one place.

Composability

The Fuul protocol is uniquely composable, and fellow developers and builders are invited and encouraged to enable their clients to launch and manage affiliate programs.

Get started today

Fuul is now LIVE in private beta. Here is how you can get started in the ecosystem today:

Projects - head over to the Fuul app, set up your profile by adding some basic information about your project. Make sure you add your contact information so the team can get back to you.

Affiliates - head over to the Fuul app and complete your profile. The team will be making its best to review affiliate profiles as fast as possible.

Developers - feel free to go through the protocol’s documentation and github repository.  

There are so many other features that will be covered over the following weeks, so please make sure you follow @fuul_xyz on X and share your experience by tagging us.

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