Web3 SocialFi startup RepubliK says users can now buy official Creator STOX on its innovative STOX Market, a platform that enables social media users to monetize their influence and share the value they create with their fans. 

RepubliK’s STOX Market is somewhat akin to a traditional stock market, but rather than buy stocks and shares of traditional companies, users can instead buy a stake in their favorite influencers and content creators on the RepubliK platform. Creator STOX can be bought and sold using RepubliK’s native cryptocurrency token RPK on the Arbitrum Layer-2 scaling platform. 

The ability to buy and sell influencer’s STOX is a key part of RepubliK’s mission to democratize social media participation and enable everyone to generate value by forging a direct economic link between creators and their fans. 

The RepubliK platform is one of the hottest names in the SocialFi industry, which is Web3’s name for social media that integrates with blockchain and crypto technologies. RepubliK’s platform is ostensibly somewhat similar to Instagram or TikTok, with users able to create profiles and share content and build up a loyal following. The difference is that, whereas Instagram and TikTok keep all of the revenue generated by influencers for themselves (or, at least, most of it), RepubliK doesn’t do this. It’s a decentralized social media platform with a tokenomics model that ensures everyone gets to benefit. 

Key to this is RepubliK’s RPK token, which is awarded to users who engage with the platform on a daily basis. For instance, users can earn rewards for posting comments and photos or videos, clicking like on other’s content, sharing things and so on. The tokens have utility, as they enable users to access private content and chat rooms on RepubliK, so they can pay to talk with their favorite content creators, for example. RPK can also be used to tip creators. Another interesting feature of RepubliK is its AI-powered talent discovery tool, which enables users to search for new influencers to follow by specifying the things they’re interested in. 

With the launch of Creator STOX, RepubliK is boosting the utility of RPK, giving users an opportunity to effectively invest in their favorite influencers. Creators can mint STOX tokens that entitle holders to a share of the revenue they generate on its platform, and sell them via the STOX Market. Then, when those creators earn money from the app, from things like fan subscriptions, token-gated chats and tips, those earnings will be pooled and distributed to STOX holders via the STOX Market dApp. It’s a clever approach that enables creators to obtain funding, build better and more engaging relationships with their fans, and share the value they generate. 

To ensure fairness, the price of CREATOR STOX is not based on fans’ demand. Instead, prices are determined algorithmically, based on the creator’s overall influence on the platform. The algorithm takes into account real-time engagement metrics from the RepubliK platform and the revenue they generate in RPK tokens from tips, gated chats and elsewhere. This helps to promote greater transparency and eliminate the risk of STOX prices being manipulated. 

For creators, STOX also provides something of a recurring income. Each time someone sells a STOX to another RepubliK user, the transaction will incur a small fee that’s split between RepubliK itself and the creator.

The concept has had an encouraging start. ReplubliK launched its STOX Market in beta earlier this year, and already there have been more than 200 STOX tokens minted, with a total value locked of more than 2.33 million RPK in the platform’s smart contract. Maybe not a whole lot of cash compared to some DeFi protocols, but the idea clearly has potential.. 

It’s notable too that some of RepubliK’s most popular users have already minted STOX, including the legendary female esports gamer Cherzinga, two-time beatbox world champion Dharni, the cosplayer gamer Yuuno, crypto influencer ibcig, and actress Mari Koda of the Step Up franchise. 

RepubliK co-founder Richmond Teo said Creator STOX represents a paradigm shift in how people perceive and participate in social media. “It empowers fans to support and simultaneously benefit from the success of their favorite creators, strengthening the bond between creators and their communities through a mutually beneficial ecosystem,” he said.