Blinks Fantasia: Exploring the most potential application scenarios from the bottom-up logic

Author: Nan Zhi, Odaily Star Daily

Last week, Solana teamed up with Dialect to launch the new feature Blinks. Some see it as a groundbreaking new way for Solana to grow, while others believe that the drawbacks outweigh the benefits, and it will only lead to more fraud. The discussion on how to use this new feature, how to integrate it with X platform and more scenarios, and how to truly unleash its utility, is still ongoing. Odaily will explore the true application scenarios of Blinks in this article.

Underlying Logic Discussion

What areas does it work in?

This section only discusses the X platform (Twitter). As a social web platform, the usage scenario is that a small number of users post project information (such as basic project information, data, progress, etc.) and opinions (such as research reports, advocate, etc.), while most users obtain information and opinions.

And in terms of content characteristics, it has

• High immediacy, the information that users see in the information stream is generally the latest information within a recent period, occasionally triggered by the replies of followed users to early information;
• Strong fission, as long as the project party uses the way of inducing forwarding, can achieve a wide range of dissemination, second only to instant messaging applications and short video platforms;
• Moderate personalization, follow the self-selected users, and X platform starts to introduce content recommendation algorithms, but currently the content produced is still mainly based on the self-selected followees.

Crypto users’ actions can be summarized as “collecting information in personal follow-up or instant information flow from fission as the basis for further long-term and short-term investment decisions”. Therefore, the author believes that “immediacy” and “facilitating the purchase of valuable information” are the real battlefields for Blinks.

The term ‘immediacy’ refers to the shortest time for users to access information, and it also becomes the fastest in terms of operation with Blinks. ‘Facilitating the purchase of valuable information’ means using content to make readers feel ‘I need this information’, and using Blinks to shorten their thinking and operation time to prompt them to place an order and make a purchase.

At what stage does it play a role?

If we simplify the sales of a product into three steps: reaching new users, converting new users, and awakening/renewing old users, at which point does Blinks take effect?

• Reaching new users: Whether it’s self-narration, advertising, or fission, none of these are functions of Blinks itself. Although Meteora and Raydium have specifically created commission functions for Blinks to enhance the enthusiasm of publication, due to security and insufficient information, the author believes that this module should still be attributed to the platform Blinks is attached to. Choosing the platform to build Blinks and obtaining a sufficient user base is the first and most critical issue.
• Why can short video platform shopping become popular among new users? Minimizing the purchase process after reaching the user’s mind is a key factor. After reaching the target user and letting them discover a certain function that is exactly what they need, the author believes that Blinks directly triggering wallet payment can effectively improve conversion rates. Potential cases will be discussed in the next section.
• Personalized attention on X platform, combined with long-term engagement possibilities, can effectively reactivate old users, and has a certain effect in low-value spending or non-payment scenarios.

Potential Use Cases Exploration

The operations of Crypto users can be divided into three categories: investment for profit, consumption, and others. The first two involve a wide range of activities, while others such as community governance, decentralization social networking, chain games, etc., are usually completed through their own platforms without involving X platform, which will not be discussed here for the time being.

Investment for Profit

In such scenarios, users need information or require speed, or require sufficient depth, and depth information often involves large investments. It is difficult to trust a direct payment link in the case of insufficient background checks, so it is best to eliminate that option first.

And the high speed requirement for information usually corresponds to early Meme tokens, under what circumstances are users willing or dare to buy? One situation is that the information source has enough credibility, and the other is that the story has great hype potential, allowing users to see the opportunity to take a small risk for a big reward.

The BOME and SLERF that appeared in March correspond to the above two types respectively:

As an artist who has a history of projects endorsing PEPE, Darkfarms can effectively attract user participation when using Blinks to build donation or purchase channels. Other credible individuals or organizations can also use Blinks to promote conversion.

While SLERF corresponds to the transformation of speculative narratives, although not well-known, when bombarded with high-frequency relevant events in the instant information flow on the X platform, a direct and most rapid investment participation pathway is exactly what users need.

However, whether it is a highly credible source of information or a non-conventional narrative, the proportion is quite small, and the higher the investment amount, the lower the conversion rate that can be achieved, so the average performance of Blinks in such scenarios is not high.

Consumption

The author believes that consumption is the scenario where Blinks can be widely applied. Personalized recommendations filter user groups to ensure the potential buyer base, and the combination with content can ‘pierce the user’s mind’ and achieve conversion through the shortest path, from ‘clicking on the small yellow car below the video’ to ‘clicking on Blinks below the article to make a purchase.’ This is especially true in value-added services, inducement purchasing, and small-value consumption, as shown below:

• Value-added service: After Odaily releases the article “Token unlocking inventory next week”, click on Blinks below to purchase advanced analysis to review the 20 historical unlocking data and see whether XX tokens will go short or dump before unlocking.
• Inductive Buying: After using technical analysis such as K-line theory, waves, VIX spiral, Fibonacci, I found a wonderful buy-the-dip point. Click the Blinks below to purchase the winning secret.
• Small transactions: Quick betting on whether Trump or Biden can be elected president, a certain artist releases Blinks Mint link, etc.

When a project provides valuable information to users through this form, due to the repeatable touch capability of X platform, when the next Blinks of the same project appear, it can effectively achieve reactivation and payment from old users.

Community Approach

@ thesendcoin released a series of community visions for Blinks on the X platform, and in this section, the author presents some valuable or negative Blinks ideas that the author believes are more powerful.

Practical

prediction market

Airdrop Checker

Paid chat (Superchats)

Community draw attention and conversion

Pay to access content

NFT Advanced Operations

Negative

Private messaging multi-signature, requiring long verification of identity, and still need to ensure the accuracy of the link, is not significant.

Private sales, there is currently no separate premium demand for NFT in the market.

Destroying (useless) NFTs and tokens, which involves too many tokens, raises doubts about whether valuable coins will be affected.