How can brands and creators monetize their work without competing in the “Attention Economy?”
This week, our guest on Web 2.5 is Julien Genestoux, the Founder and CEO of Unlock, a web3 protocol for memberships and loyalty.
Julien was motivated to find a way to avoid the “Attention Economy,” the rat race in which brands and creators are forced to compete for attention by publishing a never-ending stream of divisive content. Instead, he sees an opportunity to empower these brands and creators with tools to monetize their work through memberships.
As a result, Julien and his team are building Unlock, an open-source protocol that enables anyone to create, manage, and distribute membership contracts by leveraging the blockchain in the background. With a simple interface to create an NFT-based membership using self-set parameters, Unlock gives developers, brands, creators, and platforms the ability to offer unique benefits and experiences to their fans and followers by “membershipifying” anything.
In this episode, we will discuss what a protocol even is, how Unlock works and makes membership creation super seamless, and some broader themes and trends that Julien sees for memberships and loyalty in web3.
Show Notes:
0:00 Episode announcement
0:33 Show intro
1:19 Julien’s intro and career prior to web3
5:55 Julien explains how the “Attention Economy” is unhealthy
7:15 Julien’s take on how the “Attention Economy” can be remedied with the “Membership Economy”
10:13 Julien explains what is Unlock and what is a protocol
16:51 Julien shares use cases for Unlock
18:17 How to customize a membership on Unlock
19:59 Sponsored message from Hang
23:11 Why Unlock was created
24:32 Julien explains what it means for a protocol to be community-owned and governed
26:08 How DAOs are used as incentives for Unlock
27:30 How Unlock generates revenue while being community-owned and governed
29:12 Julien shares his ideas on the future of social media and how Unlock can be leveraged in those spaces
31:54 Julien details why a decentralized platform is better
33:07 Julien’s opinion on the most misunderstood part of web3 and decentralization
34:53 Julien shares his vision of success
35:43 Shill
36:43 Wrap-up
36:53 Closing
Show Resources:
Unlock’s Website: https://unlock-protocol.com/
Unlock on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnlockProtocol
Flocker’s Website: https://www.flocker.app/
Julien’s Website: https://ouvre-boite.com/
Julien on Twitter: https://twitter.com/julien51
Julien on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliengenestoux/
Show Sponsor:
Hang.xyz: https://www.hang.xyz/

Show Website:
https://www.web2point5.io
Subscribe to Show Newsletter:
https://newsletter.web2point5.io/subscribe
Show Credits:
Dana Hork (Founder, Host, Producer)
Ron Passaro (Co-Producer/Editor)
Seton Rossini (Brand Design/Cover Art)
DISCLAIMER: This show is strictly educational. None of this is financial, tax, or investment advice — and not a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please always do your own research. For important disclosures, see web2point5.io/disclosures.