New Controversy on Binance Launchpad: What Are the Standards? What Is the Reason?
Binance Launchpad has long been a benchmark in the industry, but launching a project that has not even been registered for a month on its official website and Twitter is truly surprising.Author: flowie, ChainCatcher
This afternoon, Binance announced the upcoming launch of the Launchpad project [Open Campus](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Open Campus?k=NzY4Ng==) (EDU), which quickly sparked controversy.
It is known that Binance claims that Launchpad projects undergo a period of strict background checks before going live, and the past 30 Launchpad projects have generally had a good user base and recognition. In contrast, Open Campus seems to have "appeared out of nowhere," registering its official Twitter and project domain in March, and only officially posting its first tweet in April.
1. Who is Open Campus?
According to the introduction in the research report released by Binance, Open Campus is a Web3 education protocol that allows communities to create, own, and promote the content they wish to see in the world, enabling educators to earn income and gain recognition for their contributions. On one hand, communities can utilize blockchain technology to fund, co-own, and learn educational content that suits their needs; on the other hand, creators can gain promotional services through publisher NFTs, publish their content on Open Campus, and co-publishers can earn income based on their contributions (e.g., teachers who create content, marketers, and localizers). Additionally, philanthropists can directly support education and track their donations on-chain through smart donations.
Open Campus is launching a scalable infrastructure to join a diverse ecosystem of adopters (schools, ed-tech companies, and other education providers), serving as a potential gateway to bring billions of educators and learners worldwide into Web3:
Entry: Tokens will be introduced to Open Campus adopters (e.g., TinyTap) users through various means such as wallets, tokens as payment methods, and discounts/incentives to drive adoption.
Publisher NFTs: Educational content can be tagged as NFTs. The revenue generated from the content will be stored in smart contracts, and co-owners will be able to withdraw income based on their contributions (e.g., teachers who create content, marketers, and localizers).
Marketplace: Publisher NFTs issued by Open Campus adopters (e.g., TinyTap) can be bought and sold in EDU.
Smart Donations: Enabling EDU scholarships and grants to be issued based on measurable on-chain events.
In terms of data, the Open Campus project raised $6 million in a round of private token sales in 2022, accounting for 6% of the total supply of EDU tokens, with an FDV of approximately $100 million. As of April 21, 2023, the total supply of EDU is 1,000,000,000 tokens, with a circulating supply of 145,000,000 tokens (14.5% of the total supply).
Whether from the project concept or data, it seems difficult to find the highlights of Open Campus. In response to the doubts, Open Campus's official Twitter also stated, "Although this account is newly registered, this is not a new project."
From Open Campus's response and various revelations from crypto enthusiasts, it appears that the team behind Open Campus is actually TinyTap. Binance's report also mentioned that the first adopter of the Open Campus protocol is TinyTap, dedicating a significant portion to its introduction.
TinyTap recently also announced the adoption of the EDU token as the platform token for TinyTap, seemingly confirming this speculation.
2. Is Binance Launchpad orchestrating something?
In contrast to Open Campus's "sudden emergence," TinyTap has a certain development history, having been established in 2012 as a UGC ed-tech company that provides a no-code platform aimed at enabling educators to create and distribute interactive educational content while earning a share of revenue based on usage.
On its official website, TinyTap claims to have the world's largest library of games created by educators, aimed at children aged 2 to 8, and the operational data disclosed by TinyTap is quite impressive.
More importantly, TinyTap is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands. Last June, Animoca Brands announced the acquisition of 80.45% of TinyTap's issued capital for $38.875 million in cash and stock. Animoca Brands currently holds 84.13% of TinyTap's shares.
Subsequently, Animoca Brands, in collaboration with TinyTap, launched education-related tokens called Publisher NFTs. Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu even tweeted that educators can provide publishing rights for their courses through Publisher NFTs and share revenue from the platform's subscription model, or promote Publisher NFTs on other platforms, earning up to 80% of the revenue generated from marketing and publishing efforts.
Earlier this year, Animoca Brands also helped 12 teachers on the TinyTap platform issue NFTs, which allow holders to enjoy dividends from the profits of the teachers' courses, with NFT prices at that time exceeding 10 ETH.
It is worth mentioning that the day before Binance launched the Launchpad project [Open Campus](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Open Campus?k=NzY4Ng==) (EDU), The Sandbox announced a partnership with Open Campus to provide immersive education in Web3. At the same time, Open Campus will acquire LAND in The Sandbox to establish a new education-themed area where users can unlock game tasks while completing courses.
Among the partners mentioned in Binance's report, Sandbox, Highstreet, H ooked, TinyTap, etc., are all projects under Animoca Brands or Binance Launchpad projects, indicating a close relationship. Because of this, Binance's operation has been viewed by many as "insider" and "orchestrating" behavior, which goes against its fairness as a leading exchange.
In addition to user complaints, the project side seems to have grievances for a long time. After the recent Launchpad controversy, the community of the star public chain Sui, Sui World, published "Why SUI didn't go on Binance (Launchpad)?", complaining about Binance Launchpad's "unfair terms" regarding "Launchpad product rules, exclusivity agreements, and prohibitions on shorting perpetual contracts."
3. Is Binance teaming up with Animoca Brands to create an education boom?
Beyond the controversy, this Binance Launchpad is also seen as a collaboration with Animoca Brands to create an education boom.**
Earlier this year, Zhao Changpeng announced the key directions for Binance's 2023 plan, with education ranking first. Crypto researcher @jason_chen998 analyzed that "the essence of exchanges is actually a traffic business, and exchanges are the most urgent means to bring the next billion people in; the popularization of Web3 education is an important channel for the exchange's business source."
As mentioned earlier, TinyTap, which is behind Open Campus, has been operating since 2012, not only with a complete product but also a solid user base. Why does TinyTap need to wrap itself in a new project called "Open Campus"? @jason_chen998 pointed out that it may be because TinyTap's products target the sensitive age group of 2-8 years.
Binance's efforts in education have already attracted the attention of many crypto investors, and education may become an undeniable trend in Web3 this year.
