Understand Zebec Protocol in Three Minutes: A Programmable Streaming Payment and Multi-Signature Management Protocol

Written by: Yang Shu, Foresight News

Imagine if we could implement an automatic "daily wage system" or even pay by the hour for work done, or pay by the minute or second while watching videos or listening to music. What kind of scene would that be?

These high-frequency, small-amount streaming payment scenarios are precisely the payment innovations that "smart contracts + cryptocurrencies" can achieve, replacing traditional financial settlement systems. However, previous attempts at streaming payments have been limited due to Ethereum's high gas fees and performance bottlenecks.

As a streaming payment protocol based on the Solana ecosystem, Zebec Protocol, which completed a $15 million private fundraising round in February, seems to be worth a serious reevaluation of the "streaming payment" track, thanks to Solana's liberation from performance and fee constraints.

Zebec Protocol: A Programmable Streaming Payment Protocol

Zebec, as a programmable multi-signature asset management and streaming payment protocol on Solana, supports sending funds in real-time and continuous payment modes, applicable to payroll, investments, and other scenarios. It aims to help people receive compensation, purchase products, and services in a streaming payment format without relying on intermediaries that profit from delayed transactions.

Throughout the streaming payment process, the payer (employer) connects with Zebec using a Solana ecosystem wallet, inputs the recipient's (employee's) wallet address, sets the time interval, token type (any SPL token), and amount, and then can start the streaming payment transfer.

The recipient can instantly receive funds in their wallet and withdraw them at any time, with the entire process handled entirely on-chain.

In addition, Zebec also supports developers in building diverse streaming payment applications on the protocol, exploring the potential of Zebec's programmable payments.

Previously, at the SHIP 2021 hackathon sponsored by the Solana Foundation, Zebec set up a prize pool to encourage developers to innovate and try various streaming payment application scenarios.

In summary, in addition to enabling payroll streaming payment scenarios that can be paid daily or even hourly, streaming payment scenarios can handle anything that occurs within a specific time frame rather than at a specific point in time—allowing money to flow continuously from one account to another like water.

Zebec Protocol Products

Zebec Protocol's current product offerings include the streaming payment tool Zebec Pay and the multi-signature asset management vault Zebec Safe.

Streaming Payment Tool Zebec Pay

As Zebec's first application, Zebec Pay allows employees to receive USDC or other stablecoins as salary in real-time, while employees can convert part of their salary into mainstream cryptocurrencies or allocate funds to compliant crypto IRA and 401k accounts.

Through Zebec Pay, employees can also access additional crypto-native financial services, including:

• Automatic investment in mainstream cryptocurrencies. Users can automatically convert a certain percentage of their salary into mainstream cryptocurrencies;
• Investment and liquidity mining—automatically invest in other cryptocurrencies or DeFi applications to earn returns through easily programmable smart contracts;
• Crypto IRA and 401k accounts. Employees can allocate part of their salary to compliant crypto IRA and 401k accounts for tax purposes;
• Free exchange between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. Users can convert their cryptocurrencies into dollars and transfer them to their regular bank accounts without incurring fees;

Multi-signature Asset Management Vault Zebec Safe

Additionally, on the basis of streaming payments, users can meet diverse fund management needs by creating multi-signature vaults.

Users only need to create a new vault, add wallet addresses participating in multi-signature management, and confirm to complete the creation of the multi-signature vault.

After that, they can perform fund management operations such as deposits, sending transactions, and managing approvals in a multi-signature manner, including custom workflows and custom multi-signatures, and can transfer funds in streaming payments measured in seconds, with the ability to pause, resume, and cancel at any time, supporting all SPL tokens.

Team and Financing

According to publicly available information on the official website, Zebec founder Sam Thapaliya is an expert in artificial intelligence and video analysis, with other core team members distributed across the United States, Australia, Africa, India, and other regions.

In terms of financing, in November 2021, Zebec completed a $6 million funding round led by Republic Capital, Shima Capital, and Breyer Capital, with participation from Launchpad Capital, Meltem Demirors, Resolute Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, and Joe McCann. Half of the raised funds will be used for Zebec's developer ecosystem, while the rest will be used to launch products with more features.

In February of this year, Zebec Protocol completed another $15 million private fundraising round, led by Distributed Global and Solana Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed, Circle, Greenoaks, Alameda Research, Foresight Ventures, DST Global Partners, Goldentree, Coinbase, 500 Global, Road Ventures, and others. The funds raised will be used to expand its products to support the rapidly growing adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, on March 15, Zebec also conducted an IDO on Raydium's AcceleRaytor.

Economic Model and Roadmap

The Zebec token is ZBC (SPL token), which serves as the protocol's governance token, with a fixed supply of 1 billion tokens, which has not yet been launched.

The ZBC token has burning and voting functions, providing governance and utility for holders and Zebec protocol users. Once the token is launched, Zebec will allow ZBC holders to stake for benefits, such as listing tokens in Zebec's Debit Card (a customizable physical debit card that can instantly convert cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies) by staking ZBC.

Furthermore, the roadmap disclosed on the official website shows:

• Q4 2021: Official launch on the Solana blockchain, introduction of Zebec Pay product, and participation in hackathons;
• Q1 2022: SaaS/def partnerships adopted by Web3 products or organizations;
• Q2 2022: Development of additional protocols, hackathon activities;
• Q3 2022: Staking pools, community, DAO;

Conclusion

In addition to the existing scene innovations in payroll distribution and streaming payments for video and music in the traditional world, the on-chain native streaming payment scenarios in the Web3 world should not be overlooked.

In the Web3 world, an address represents a person; it is the carrier of all economic activities and the production of value data. Just like the OASIS in the movie "Ready Player One," with the development of Web3 and the metaverse, if we consider real life as everyone's "first world," then the metaverse is equivalent to everyone's "second world."

In this "second world," each person is mapped on-chain in the form of an address, and all economic activities in our daily work, life, study, and entertainment can be recorded on-chain in the form of on-chain interactions, which digitizes and values all our economic behaviors, including eating, drinking, and entertainment.

In this process, leveraging the programmable advantages of smart contracts, we can accurately quantify each person's economic behavior in the form of streaming payments using cryptocurrencies, achieving instant automated payments, settlements, and other unique financial payment paradigms of Web3.

This also represents a greater imaginative space for streaming payment protocols in the future, and Zebec has clearly mentioned in its roadmap that it aims to accelerate "adoption by Web3 products and organizations" this year. As for what vision can be realized, it is worth continuous attention.