What is Skeb? An In-Depth Guide to Skeb Coin and Its Ecosystem

Introduction

In the Web 2.0 era, tech giants like Facebook and YouTube offered platforms that enabled creators to display their works and draw vast audiences for engagement and interaction. However, these companies also monopolized the monetization avenues for social media and networking sites, posing the challenge of creating a fair economic environment for creators—a dilemma that the creator community has been keen to address.

Skeb, a Japanese creator economy platform, emerged in response. It was designed to connect supply with demand straightforwardly, providing creators with a more direct route to monetize their work. Beginning in 2022, Skeb started exploring cryptocurrency integration through Skeb Coin ($SKEB), which aimed to expand the platform’s creator economy model beyond individual commissions, fostering a broader ecosystem.

Exploring Skeb

Skeb is Japan’s leading creator economy commissioning platform, officially launched in November 2018. The platform streamlines the commissioning process, enabling fans to access creators’ portfolios easily and directly commission works such as illustrations, comics, and novels from their favorite artists. This model eliminates the need for creators to engage in time-consuming tasks like submitting proposals, negotiating prices, attending meetings, or making extensive revisions. Additionally, creators can negotiate to retain the copyrights of their works upon their completion.

Designed with a creator-centric user experience, Skeb distinctly sets itself apart from other freelancing platforms like Freelancers, Upwork, and Fiverr, quickly becoming a favorite among creators and users alike. With over 113,000 creators and over 2.3 million users, Skeb’s commissioning workflow has become the standard for creators in Japan, underscoring its substantial impact on the market.

Launch and Operation of Skeb Coin ($SKEB)

Japan’s content economy boasts a valuation of $25 billion and is experiencing steady annual growth. This growth is mirrored on the Skeb platform, where demand continues to rise alongside the expanding market. Since its launch in 2018, Skeb’s monthly transaction volume has consistently increased by 10-20%. By 2022, with the introduction of Skeb Coin ($SKEB), transaction volumes had skyrocketed by more than 1,000 times.

Despite these successes, Skeb encounters a significant challenge: the platform’s transactions predominantly rely on credit card payments. This reliance on traditional financial services results in a unidirectional flow of funds rather than a cyclical, sustainable model.

This limitation affects several creative possibilities on the platform. For example, if creators wish to subcontract work to peers, they must coordinate and manage payments offline due to the platform’s financial constraints. Additionally, if a project requires collaboration among several creators, distributing payments equitably under the existing financial system becomes cumbersome, especially when factoring in exchange rates and regional banking restrictions, which severely restrict cross-border collaborations. Likewise, if multiple clients want to fund a project for one or more creators collectively, the platform’s current systems fall short, requiring clients to arrange funding offline independently.

Objective 1: Facilitate Value Diversification with $SKEB

A primary motivation behind Skeb’s introduction of Skeb Coin ($SKEB) is to foster “value diversification.”

Moving beyond the traditional financial systems to establish a universal value metric on the platform could enhance payment flexibility and expand the range of services offered. This setup would enable artists to collaborate seamlessly and allow users to fund projects collectively. This approach improves the creative potential by combining different artistic works and ensures a fair distribution of revenues and costs. Additionally, leveraging blockchain technology for payments ensures that transactions are transparent and secure, facilitating the verification and shared ownership of creative outputs.

Objective Two: Implement the “Buyback and Burn Mechanism” to Foster the “Skeb Ecosystem”

Skeb aims to transform the traditionally linear interactions among the platform, its customers, and users by employing a “buyback and burn mechanism” typical in the cryptocurrency market, thus nurturing the growth of the “Skeb Ecosystem.”

Initially, Skeb charged a service fee of 5-10% on transactions. With adopting Skeb Coin ($SKEB) as a transaction medium, Skeb now dedicates as much as 50% of its earnings to repurchase $SKEB from the market and subsequently ‘burn’ it by sending it to a designated address. This process also applies when transactions are made in fiat currency, with the equivalent amount of $SKEB purchased at the current market rate and then burned.

The total supply of Skeb Coin ($SKEB) is capped at 10 billion. The buyback and burn strategy, which adjusts the burn rate based on token usage, effectively makes $SKEB a deflationary currency. This approach is designed to increase the token’s value over time. As usage increases, so does the value, benefiting token holders—creators and customers—by reflecting the platform’s robust performance. This, in turn, contributes to community growth and fosters a virtuous cycle within the ecosystem.

In addition to introducing $SKEB, Skeb plans to incorporate smart contracts to broaden its service offerings, including an escrow feature that ensures funds are only released once a creator’s delivery is confirmed problem-free. These smart contracts are anticipated to cut operational costs significantly, boosting the overall value of the Skeb platform.

Visual representation of ecosystem development post-$SKEB introduction on the Skeb platform (Source: Skeb Lightpaper)

Tokenomics of Skeb Coin ($SKEB)

Skeb Token Distribution Overview (Source: Skeb Lightpaper)

Skeb Coin ($SKEB) is an ERC20 token created to facilitate the development and operation of the Skeb platform and its diverse applications.

The total issuance of $SKEB tokens is 10 billion. The distribution is as follows: 19% are earmarked for the ecosystem’s reserve, another 19% are set aside for liquidity pools and staking rewards, and 19% are held in the foundation’s reserve. Additionally, 15.5% of the tokens are allocated to the development team and founders, 8.8% to seed investors, 7.6% to advisors and strategic partners, 6% to private equity investors, 3.2% to strategic fundraising efforts, and 1.9% to public fundraising.

$SKEB Tokenomics

The $SKEB token economy features several strategic mechanisms:

1. Buy-back mechanism

The higher the usage of services and the greater the number of transactions on Skeb, the more $SKEB tokens Skeb will repurchase. Typically, Skeb collects a platform fee of 5-10% on transactions. Each month, up to 50% of these fees are allocated to the Skeb DAO, which uses the funds to repurchase tokens from the market.

2. Burn mechanism

The Skeb DAO votes monthly to decide the ratio of repurchased $SKEB tokens that will be burned or allocated for staking rewards. For instance, in the initial month, 50% of the repurchased $SKEB tokens were permanently removed from circulation, with the other 50% distributed as staking rewards.

3. Staking Program

Holders who stake $SKEB tokens are empowered to participate in the governance of Skeb DAO. They vote on deploying repurchased and burned tokens and make other critical community governance decisions. Stakers participate in governance and receive monthly rewards, which increase proportionally to the square of the staked tokens. Moreover, staking higher amounts of tokens also grants additional service rewards, including access to Skeb’s offline events and reductions in platform fees.

Is $SKEB a Good Investment?

As Japan’s content economy expands, Skeb plays an increasingly pivotal role.

Skeb stands apart from other tokens because it is already an established transactional platform with a substantial user base of over 2 million. This positions $SKEB with a solid foundational market presence.

Skeb is also laying the groundwork for its transition into the Web 3.0 era. Its product development strategy includes creating an app synchronizing with Web3 wallets to transition its 2 million users into the burgeoning cryptocurrency market. Moreover, Skeb is heavily investing in metaverse technology. The forthcoming Skebverse, set to launch this year, will leverage VR and AR technologies to enable creators to transform their works into VR and AR assets within a virtual environment accessible to anyone with compatible devices.

As the realms of Web 3.0 and the metaverse evolve, Skeb is positioning itself as a crucial entity in pioneering new pathways for creator engagement and monetization.

How to Obtain $SKEB?

You can acquire $SKEB tokens from the well-regarded Gate.io exchange. First, you must set up an account on Gate.io, go through the identity verification process, and deposit funds. After these steps, you can easily follow the on-screen instructions to purchase and receive your $SKEB tokens.