Points System Sweeps Web3: A New Trend in Project Community Management

The Layer2 project Blast, born on November 21, 2023, saw its TVL soar to 2.2 billion USD within just a few months, attracting widespread attention in the industry. Behind this success, the use of a points system played a crucial role.

In fact, introducing a points mechanism into Web3 is not a new concept. Last year, a highly anticipated social project incorporated elements of points in its mechanism design, and there were projects in the first half of 2022 that linked points with airdrops. The success of Blast once again proves that this powerful tool of points is reshaping the landscape of Layer 2 and opening new directions for the operation of Web3 projects. More and more projects are beginning to build their own points systems to enhance community user engagement and participation.

For example, after Manta launched its points system, the TVL surpassed several well-known projects in a very short time, currently ranking 10th among all public chains. At the same time, influenced by a certain ecological project, many projects in the Solana ecosystem also launched their own points systems, attracting a large number of participants from the crypto community and individuals to actively participate and accumulate points.

For project parties and users in the cryptocurrency community, 2024 will not only be a year of bull markets and airdrops but also a year of points. Among the many methods to enhance community user retention and engagement, why are more and more projects choosing to introduce a points system? How can we quickly build a points system suitable for our own projects? Let's discuss these issues together.

Reasons for Introducing a Points System in the Project

Optimize Token Economic System

For projects with issued tokens, points can help design a dual-token model. This model was initially used in the GameFi sector, as some well-known gaming projects achieved rapid growth due to their excellent token model design. Over time, other sectors have also begun to adopt the dual-token model.

The dual-token model consists of equity tokens and utility tokens. The tokens issued by the project serve as equity tokens, while points act as utility tokens. Equity tokens are related to the holders' earnings, while points are linked to community engagement and loyalty. The project can establish clear rules for point distribution and connect points with utility tokens through a redemption mechanism, thereby incentivizing loyal community participants and injecting new vitality into the community and ecosystem.

For projects that have not yet issued tokens, points can help design a more reasonable token economic model. By comprehensively considering the total number of points and users' point holdings, projects can cleverly plan token economic models and community airdrop rules. A well-designed token economic model not only aids in the long-term operation of the project but also helps avoid the issues of a sudden drop in the quantity and quality of community interaction that many projects face after airdrops, maintaining competitiveness in a fierce market.

Manage User Expectations

The introduction of a points system provides an effective means for projects to more precisely manage users' expectations regarding airdrop rewards. Past experiences have shown that many users often feel that their contributions do not correspond to the returns they receive after an airdrop, leading them to no longer support the project. By introducing a points system, projects can define the value of each action and design corresponding points to effectively manage users' expectations. Open and transparent rules help establish a fair and sustainable community ecology.

continues to attract user attention

In a bull market, user attention is a scarce resource. Sectors rotate quickly, and users have limited patience for each project. How can we maintain users' continuous attention without a clear token issuance plan? A points system is undoubtedly an effective answer. As time goes on and points accumulate, the higher the user's investment cost, the stronger the stickiness to the project, and the higher the expectations for the project.

Methods to Quickly Build a Points System

After deciding to introduce a points system, how can we design the points to better stimulate community users' enthusiasm and improve retention rates?

In the early stage of point design, especially when setting the value corresponding to each action, it is necessary to clarify which user behaviors the project aims to incentivize. In Web3, user behaviors can be roughly divided into two categories: transactional behaviors and non-transactional behaviors.

• Projects that focus on user trading behavior can consider factors such as the number of trades, trading volume, and the duration of user fund retention for point distribution. This helps to increase the trading scale of the project, enhances platform liquidity, and as users invest more time and resource costs into the project platform, it is conducive to establishing a more stable and lasting user base.

• For projects that are not transaction-based, the design of the points system needs to take into account users' daily activities, such as social interactions, knowledge sharing, and platform promotion. Such projects should enhance the engagement of community users and improve retention rates as much as possible through the bonds between users.

Even though the advantages of a points system have been recognized, most projects in the current market lack operational resources and personnel, making it difficult to establish a points system and set values for each behavior. Considering the fast pace of the market, failure to launch quickly may result in missing the opportunity to capture users. In such cases, projects can leverage third-party platforms to achieve this.

Currently, there are mature community solutions available in the market, and many projects choose to build their own communities on third-party platforms to promote user engagement and retention:

• These platforms provide comprehensive tools to help projects develop a points system. After creating a community on the platform, projects can quickly design the points required for each level and display the upgrade curve.

• Supports task categorization, whether it is trading behavior or non-trading behavior, users can easily understand it upon entering the community. These tasks can be set with a number of repetitions to reduce the repetitive work of the operation staff.

• Compared to a project party designing its own points system, the involvement of a third party is more beneficial in enhancing user trust, allowing users to feel that the points system has third-party assurance.

• Projects with ample resources can embed a points system directly on the product page, while projects with limited resources often stimulate community user engagement by having administrators post tasks on social platforms. The latter requires a lot of work and cannot be updated in real-time. Considering the current utilitarian nature of user behavior, timely incentive feedback and real-time ranking updates are both effective tools for stimulating user actions.

Conclusion

The points system has become an inevitable trend, which is a standard practice in community operations born after the long-term internal competition in the Web2 world. The success stories and impressive data performances of multiple projects prove the advantages of the points system. For projects that have not yet systematically built a points template or lack the resources to establish a points system, they can quickly set it up using third-party tools, which not only accelerates the progress but also makes it easier to gain user trust.