What is ReachMe on the CZ platform this morning? Will it trigger a resurgence of encrypted social networking?

Author: CryptoLeo, Odaily Planet Daily

The night is full of joy! In the early hours of today, Binance founder CZ changed his X account bio to: "DM me at https://reachme.io/@cz_binance (fees go to charity)" (DM me on ReachMe, and the fees will go to charity).

Before today, most people had not heard of ReachMe or any related funding news or clues on social media. Feeling puzzled, I followed the clues and checked the project's website and X account, discovering that ReachMe is a paid chat application that uses BNB for payments, with specific features including:

• A paid chat application that connects KOLs with fans, with payment prices categorized as: low (minimum 0.01 BNB), medium (0.1 to 1 BNB), high (above 1 BNB), with the application interface displaying: Discover Key Opinion Leaders;
• After connecting their wallet, users can choose which KOL they want to DM and pay a certain amount of BNB based on the KOL's chat price to send a message. If the KOL does not reply within 5 days, the user will automatically receive a 50% refund;
• The maximum message length is 2000 characters;
• Only text is allowed; no attachments or images can be added (to prevent Trojan viruses).

Of course, users can also connect to X and complete the KOL verification information, setting (as shown in the image below): their username, the price to send messages, KOL category, and their own description, waiting for others to reach out (send money).

Pay to Reach, Originating from CZ's Article on Binance Square

Tracing back, ReachMe originated from an article titled "Pay to Reach" published by CZ on Binance Square on March 8, which highlighted the following points:

1. A chat application optimized for filtering the most useful information and enhancing communication coverage

The emergence of time tokenization inspired CZ's idea of "allowing fans to truly connect effectively with KOLs." Although many platforms like X and LinkedIn offer private messaging features, the coverage is too broad, making it difficult for platforms to filter out truly useful private messages. The flood of information can lead to spam and KOLs' lack of attention, while CZ's goal is not time tokenization but optimizing communication coverage to help those who truly need to connect with KOLs.

2. BNB used for payment and incentives, non-mandatory platform chat ------ after obtaining communication opportunities, users can also move to other free platforms

As mentioned earlier, anyone can pay a certain amount on this platform to send messages to KOLs. If the KOL does not reply within 5 days, 50% of the payment amount will be refunded to the message sender. This mechanism can prevent spam and encourage fans to write genuinely useful content.

For KOLs, the 50% BNB payment amount will incentivize them to respond to fans' content.

For fans, paid chats are different from daily communication (each message sent requires payment in BNB). They can also choose to include their contact information in the messages sent. If the KOL is willing, they can move to other free messaging applications to continue the conversation based on the contact information provided by the user. (This way, users can pay 50% less and gain a real opportunity for communication, all based on the KOL's willingness.)

The platform charges a 10% fee on all transactions, and the remaining 90% will be sent to the wallet address provided by the KOL.

3. No expectation of issuing tokens under sufficient demand; potential investment from Yzi Labs?

CZ explicitly stated in the article that the application does not require tokens and hopes that the platform has sufficient demand to support its sustainable development. He will donate the BNB he receives to charity, and for users who can provide genuinely useful content, CZ may move the conversation off the platform, refund their payment, or even offer a bounty (for example, some tips related to crypto security), while the paid chat prices will adjust based on popularity.

Additionally, CZ mentioned that YZiLabs might invest in a high-quality project developed using BNB/BSC as the main payment method. (Or hinting that ReachMe may receive investment from Yzi Labs.)

Postscript: Internal personnel of ReachMe may also be involved in the construction of another new project

Returning to ReachMe, its X account was created in March this year, and the information published is minimal, all warning users that ReachMe does not have an official token.

Interestingly, in addition to CZ, ReachMe also follows three other individuals: Sanya, Mihaita.eth, and Rand. The three also hold positions in another project called droppod. Sanya, the founder of droppod, is also an employee of the venture capital firm Paper Ventures. RootData shows that Paper Ventures has invested in crypto projects such as DoubleZero, Pell Network, Renzo Protocol, Sophon, and Holonym.

Droppod is also a permissionless and socially verified token distribution platform, dedicated to optimizing the token distribution model (airdrops, presales, etc.) for project parties, enhancing the interaction between project tokens and the platform, and making token distribution a true part of the project ecosystem. Given its founder's employment at Paper Ventures and the staking projects that the venture capital firm has invested in, I personally speculate that droppod will provide a new mechanism (most likely staking-related) to prevent users who obtain tokens through presales and airdrops from immediately selling and crashing the token price.

Conclusion

As of the publication date, ReachMe has already attracted many users, and CZ's paid chat price is 0.1 BNB, having completed two sets of conversations (not visible to the public).

It has been three weeks since ReachMe was launched and CZ endorsed it. In my humble opinion, as a crypto application, ReachMe should consider incorporating charts of total transaction volume, revenue, and daily user communication frequency into its application interface. It could also raise the verification threshold for KOLs; anyone can send messages to KOLs, but not everyone can pass verification to receive messages as a KOL. Additionally, it should prevent the entry of fake accounts. (Of course, a platform developed in just three weeks is already impressive, and a new version may be coming soon.)

Finally, quoting a KOL: "Renaissance? Isn't this kind of paid Q&A platform just a small trend from eight years ago on the internet? A bunch of similar startup platforms have basically disappeared in the end."

For ReachMe to avoid disappearing, it must first achieve Mass Adoption. As CZ envisioned in his article, it must continuously optimize based on user needs for sustainable development. In the future, it may integrate X and LinkedIn as a new communication feature. I look forward to ReachMe making a more perfect optimized version and hope that ReachMe can achieve good transactions and sustainability under the BNB Chain boom. From the perspective of small users: not issuing tokens for now does not mean that a new token economic model won't emerge after the project develops smoothly in the future.