Business Issue: Delivering Web3-Enhanced Fan Engagement to a Web2 Audience
Karate Combat is a thriving professional martial arts league that promotes full-contact karate fighting. It features pioneering new rules designed to ensure greater safety and more exciting fights. Matches are fought inside the Karate Combat Arena, an 18-foot-tall hexagonal structure, and are streamed live via the Karate Combat app.
Fighters are experts in various karate disciplines, such as Shito Ryu, Wado Ryu, Goju Ryu, and Shotokan. This groundbreaking new league is rapidly gaining attention in the martial arts world and is available to watch in over 100 countries worldwide, most recently achieving over 10 million streams in its last season (39).
Recognizing the immense potential of Web3 technology in terms of influencing fan engagement, the company had its sights set on launching a cutting-edge app that could leverage its capabilities.
However, Karate Combat was faced with a significant hurdle – the fact that a large proportion of its rapidly expanding fan base was not familiar with Web3 technology. To tackle this issue, the company set out to create an app that was user-friendly, devoid of complexity, and ensured a seamless experience for all users.
In order to overcome the potential barrier to mass adoption, the integration of Web3 functionality within the app for both iPhone and Android users was of paramount importance. Ultimately, Karate Combat’s goal was to create an immersive experience that would not require users to exit the app for any reason.
Solution: Blade White Label Wallet Solutions
Blade Labs recognized the importance of providing a seamless and easy-to-use Web3 experience for Web2 users when Karate Combat approached them. They had previously collaborated with NADA, a Korean gaming company, to enhance the User Experience of their “Play to Earn” game, Slime World.
NADA had noticed that only a small percentage of Slime World gamers, around 3%, were setting up Web3 wallet accounts to earn tokens while playing the game. To increase this conversion rate, Blade Labs was engaged to reduce onboarding friction for their Web2 audience.
Thanks to Blade’s efforts, Slime World’s Web3 conversion rates saw a significant boost, reaching almost 80% within a mere three months by integrating seamlessly with the Blade Wallet app. However, connecting Blade Wallet, Blade Lab’s flagship consumer product to the Karate Combat app wouldn’t give the intended frictionless user experience the Karate team required.
Blade Labs, therefore, put forward a proposal to address the requirements of the Karate Combat team that entailed the integration of Blade Wallet technology within the Karate Combat native app, which culminated in the development of the Blade White Label Software Development Kit (SDK).
This innovative technology approach aimed to provide a customized and tailored system that would cater specifically to Karate Combat’s needs, thereby enhancing their overall performance and productivity.
The Blade White Label suite is an excellent choice for enterprises looking to accelerate their adoption of Web3. This suite provides infrastructure products for wallets, making it unnecessary for users to download a separate wallet app like Blade to engage in Web3 activities.
The suite comes equipped with integration software development kits (SDKs) for Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android), and C++ (Unreal gaming engine), with Web App and Unity SDKs to be launched soon.
Developers of apps and dApps can use Blade White Label to interact with Web3 networks and personalize the user experience with their own branding and user interface. With Blade White Label, enterprises can efficiently engage in Web3 activities and provide a seamless experience to their users.
Blade Wallet was successfully integrated within the Karate Combat app using Blade’s Swift SDK for iOS by Blade Labs. This integration allowed users to easily send and receive tokens through the app, making it a convenient and smooth experience.
The tokens could then be used to vote for their favorite fighters, boosting fan engagement without requiring any extra downloads or complex setups. This integration enabled Karate Combat fans to readily support their preferred fighters and participate in the league through the familiar interface of the app.
Blade Labs and Karate Combat collaborated for a year to create a groundbreaking solution that entailed crafting the first-ever White Label SDK on Hedera. Additionally, they adeptly navigated the various gambling regulations in differing regions, resulting in a positive outcome.
Blade Wallet also offers a remarkable advantage with its capacity to support two networks simultaneously. This feature allowed Karate Combat to simultaneously launch their tokens on two networks, with 50% on Ethereum and the other 50% on Hedera.
We decided to incorporate both Ethereum and Hedera into our app to ensure our users have the best possible Web3 experience. With its groundbreaking technology, Hedera Hashgraph is an ideal platform for innovative solutions, while the extensive community of Ethereum can greatly boost adoption rates. Our dedicated team at Blade Labs has successfully developed the first and only wallet on Hedera that operates on both networks, providing our users with unparalleled functionality.
Results and Next Steps
On May 12th, the Karate Combat app made its debut on iOS devices, just in time for the upcoming Karate Combat Season 39. The app’s seamless integration with Blade Wallet resulted in some remarkable results.
Over 400,000 Hedera accounts were created via Blade within a week, with over 100,000 Karate app downloads. This was well beyond initial expectations and resulted in Blade being responsible for over 90% of all accounts created on the entire Hedera network during Karate Combat’s app launch weekend.
The team expects even higher engagement in Season 40. The Joe Rogan interview, along with additional marketing efforts and the successful launch, is expected to contribute to the heightened engagement. An Android version of the Karate Combat app, currently only available on iOS, will launch in season 41, further accelerating the downloading and interaction within the app.
To handle the high demand from users and make the onboarding process more efficient, Blade Labs originally had to pre-create over 120,000 accounts a week before the Karate app launch due to the limit of 2 account openings per second on Hedera. All these accounts were quickly used up within the first few hours.
To prevent this from happening again, the Karate Combat team has requested that Blade Labs reserve 200,000 pre-created accounts before the next launch. This successful partnership has tackled the challenge of integrating Web3 technology into the app and produced positive results for users.
The ongoing partnership between the two groups assures exciting new prospects and improved interaction with fans while reinforcing Karate Combat’s pioneering role in utilizing blockchain technology in the sports media sector.
