1/ Value-adding consumer apps in crypto are necessary to adopt users. @blackbird_xyz is redefining restaurant loyalty by making the process fun for users all the while using the blockchain to advertise, track usage, and launch targeted incentive campaigns.
veradiverdict.com/p/fly
🏒 2/ When a diner visits a partnered restaurant, they tap their phone on a Blackbird-labeled puck, which gives them FLY loyalty points for checking in. Through the app, users can receive targeted advertising and discounts from the restaurant, like a free drink on a second visit, a dessert on the fifth, or an extra omakase course on the 10th.
🍔 3/ Blackbird also has subscription plans for users: Blackbird’s Breakfast Club ($85) gives passholders free coffee every morning at 15 spots in New York for a whole year. The Bar Blackbird Summer Pass ($50) offers a free drink every day during happy hours at more than a dozen bars across the city. The Blackbird Burger League Pass ($250), offers free burgers at 9 different burger restaurants, and allows holders to vote on New York’s “Burger League Champion.”
4/ Restaurant owners pay a monthly subscription fee of $89 to get access to Blackbird’s platform to collect and track customer data. The platform collects the following from each user:
• Personal Identifiable Information (PII), stored on Blackbird Labs databases for privacy
• History of Restaurant Check-ins, based on on-chain transaction data
• Guest Value Score, calculated by Blackbird
• FLY points balance
This data gives restaurants better insights on their customers, which can inform tailored customer rewards or incentives. Blackbird taps into restaurants’ existing tech stacks, allowing the Blackbird app to offer SMS concierge, make bookings, and customize reservations.
🪙 5/ Blackbird envisions a future where consumers can pay for entire meals using their FLY balances, with 1 FLY pegged to one cent, allowing its crypto rails to shine. In July 2024, Blackbird released the ability to purchase FLY via USDC, meaning that for any restaurant that accepts Blackbird Pay, users can now pay using their crypto balances by loading USDC onto the Blackbird app
💸 6/ Blackbird charges a processing fee of 2% compared to its traditional payment processor counterparts, who can charge up to 4%. This lower processing fee attracts more restaurants to the network, while also giving more options for users. As the Blackbird ecosystem matures, this flywheel has the potential to become a mature crypto payments network, servicing millions of mainstream consumers on a day-to-day basis.
💪 7/ Moreover, though @benleventhal is perhaps the perfect founder to apply this loyalty blueprint to the restaurant industry; he sold Resy to American Express in 2019, and worked there for a few years before founding Blackbird in 2023
END/ Blackbird’s loyalty framework, which uses an intuitive “tap-to-check-in” functionality, is a blueprint that can be applied to use blockchains in other verticals. A public, open-source, community-driven approach to customer loyalty may be the solution to bring the mainstream into crypto.
🎩 @0xfishylosopher @masonnystrom @Ryan__Barney