When I founded Paperchain, the vision was clear and bold: to change how digital media payments work through real-time, instant payments. This idea resonated and Paperchain became a remarkable journey.
Paperchain successfully paid out over $1 million in royalties for earnings from more than 4,000 artists. We still had thousands of artists on the waitlist. We had an elegant and novel approach to accessing capital, leveraging DeFi protocols like MakerDAO and Centrifuge, proved that on-demand, low-cost capital was a viable alternative to traditional finance. The core technology worked.
Where Paperchain hit its wall was in product distribution. It's very difficult to scale when building products around music distribution if you are not the license holder. Paperchain ceased operations as a result.
The Mission Continues
The innovative spirit and the core mission of Paperchain live on. I've been working at UnitedMasters leading payments and distribution product. I've been able to launch Real-Time Royalties with UnitedMasters. The early response has been phenomenal:
It's incredibly gratifying to see the product vision being realized at scale and many of our hypothesis prove out, even if it's under a different banner.
Thank you to everyone who was part of the Paperchain story, believed in the vision, and supported our efforts. Your early belief was instrumental in bringing this innovation to life, and it's a testament to that shared vision that the core idea continues to make an impact in the music industry.
Daniel