For years, the internet promised a world of free exchange, open platforms and limitless opportunities for users and businesses alike. But as the web2 era unfolded, it became clear that centralization had corrupted that vision.
Large social media companies grew into monopolizing forces, controlling not only the traffic on the internet but also how businesses and consumers interacted with it. In doing so, these corporations turned users into products, selling their attention and personal data to the highest bidder.
But the tides are shifting. As consumers grow wise to the pitfalls of web2’s highly centralized control, web3 is emerging to flip the script, creating a new era where users are empowered through ownership and rewards. GalaChain is building this decentralized future, and our newly released Decentralization White Paper lays out exactly how we plan to return control to the people.
The Corruption of Web2: How Centralization Stole the Internet
In the early days of Web2, platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter became the primary gateways to the internet. They offered free services—social networking, search engines, video sharing—that felt like the ultimate democratization of information. But there was a catch: these platforms were amassing unprecedented amounts of user data.
What began as simple tools to connect people soon evolved into sophisticated surveillance networks. Every click, like and search was tracked, collected and sold to advertisers. These companies turned our attention into the most valuable commodity, and they profited enormously. The internet, which was once open and free, became dominated by a few corporations who could undercut small businesses and charge whatever they wanted for advertising access to targeted audiences.
Even more troubling, users—without realizing it—became the products of the web2 era. Our personal data was collected, packaged and sold. This is why you now see hyper-personalized ads on social media—ads custom-tailored to your interests based on your digital footprint. While the convenience may seem like a benefit, its true costs are difficult to grasp.
Scratching the Surface: The Rise of Rewards and Loyalty Programs
As people became aware of how their attention and data were being monetized, companies began offering token rewards, like loyalty points or cash-back incentives, in an attempt to return a fraction of the value users had generated. These rewards programs, however, barely scratched the surface. While they provided small benefits, they didn’t address the fundamental issue: users were still at the mercy of centralized platforms that controlled the flow of information, access and value.
The monopoly of web2 companies meant that small businesses struggled to compete unless they could afford the rising costs of paid advertising in addition to all the costs of doing business. The internet, once seen as a level playing field, became tilted in favor of a few massive corporations.
Web3: Flipping the Script on Centralization
This is where web3 steps in. Web3 fundamentally reimagines how value is distributed in digital ecosystems by returning ownership and rewards directly to users, rather than filtering it through centralized middlemen. Powered by blockchain technology, Web3 empowers individuals to take control of their data, their interactions, and the value they create.
In the GalaChain ecosystem, we call this empowerment.
Through decentralization, we are building an ecosystem where users are not the product but the owners. In Web3, you can actually own your data, your digital assets and your interactions. Whether it’s through NFTs in gaming, ownership of digital content, or participation in decentralized applications (dApps), users can now become the beneficiaries of the value they generate.
GalaChain’s Vision: Empowering Users Through Decentralization
Our Decentralization White Paper marks a significant step in Gala Games’s mission to empower users by creating a decentralized, developer-first network. With GalaChain, we’re building a blockchain that is not only capable of handling the needs of the entertainment industry but can also scale to support developers from a wide range of sectors. More importantly, this decentralized system returns ownership and value directly to the users and developers who power it.
Here’s how Web3, and by extension GalaChain, flips the Web2 model on its head:
Ownership of Digital Assets: In Web3, users don’t just engage with platforms—they own pieces of them. This means everything from in-game assets in Gala Games to music rights in Gala Music can be fully owned, transferred, and monetized by users.
Rewards for Participation: Rather than collecting user data for profit, decentralized platforms like the GalaChain ecosystem reward users for their participation. Whether it’s node operators collecting $GALA tokens daily or players and creators benefiting from their contributions to the ecosystem, Web3 ensures that some sort of value flows back to the people who make it possible.
Decentralized Governance: In our new decentralized future, users also have a say in how the platforms evolve. GalaChain Improvement Proposals (GIPs) will allow the community to submit and vote on changes to the network, ensuring that no single entity has undue control.
The Future of Web3: Join Us on the Path to Decentralization
The power of Web3 lies in its ability to break free from the centralized control that has defined web2. We are no longer passive products in a corporate system—we are empowered participants in a decentralized network. At GalaChain, we’re excited to be at the forefront of this revolution. Our Decentralization White Paper outlines how we will build a more open, fair, and empowering ecosystem, and we invite you to join us on this journey.
The future is decentralized. It’s time to reclaim control over our digital lives.
Last week’s hackathon brought a wave of new innovation to GalaChain! We saw new tools and platforms come to life before our very eyes. Thank you to everyone who participated and to everyone who followed along with the development frenzy!
We’re already starting to think about future developments on GalaChain based on some of the major innovations from this event! Before we leave the GalaChain Hackathon in the past, however, we wanted to just recap some of the biggest developments from the event!
Big Names, Big Prizes
As you may have noticed over the past few weeks, we had some big names show up to help judge entries from the Hackathon!
Judge’s carousel
While our chain team and the judges are still deliberating over category prizes for the entire hackathon, the Judge’s Choice Awards for in-person participants has already made some GalaChain hackers into big winners!
Caption: (Left to Right): Jason Brink, Team NFTD, Team NoREST, Team Corgi AI3D Forever (+ data dog)
The winners of the in-person Judges’ Choice Awards took home a combined $450,000 prize pool! The awards are far from over though, as more than $500k of prizes will soon be awarded for the rest of the general category winners!
Congratulations to the winners of The Judges’ Choice awards… and a special thanks to all the judges who joined us for this major development event!
Caption: Check out the presentation for the first place Judges’ Choice – NFTD!
Innovation on Chain
Each of the three teams picked by the judges contributed massively to GalaChain, but that only scratches the surface of what came out of this hackathon!
💜 The Fuzzle Prime team participated in the GalaChain hackathon from @GoGalaGames, and we're thrilled to share our journey with you.
Below, you'll find three links to explore the results of our hard work. Dive in and discover the innovation! 🥂
Those in-person represented just a portion of total participants, and there were projects that we haven’t even touched on yet diligently coding away through the 24-hours. We want to give each of those projects a chance to get the attention they deserve. Expect us to be talking more about individual efforts in the near future after our chain team has had time to appreciate the nuance of each project.
Open source development isn’t just a sprint and then done. Everything that is crafted on chain creates more tools and opens the floodgates for better and better innovations.
Those gates are open on GalaChain, and this is just the first trickle of the torrent to come.
Thanks for Joining Us!
Whether you were laboriously swatting bugs and troubleshooting code all night along with us or you were at home just following along on Discord or our livestreams… thank you! The GalaChain Hackathon is about creating a better ecosystem for our community, and not only the techies among us benefit from that. Your comments, suggestions, support and excitement are a vital part of this process. Even if you’re not actively building on GalaChain, GalaChain is building for you!
GalaChain is ready. The stage is set. More than 100 developers in our Hackathon HQ in San Francisco are ready to go… along with hundreds more developers around the world!
Tons of teams are going to be working on an incredibly diverse array of projects during the next 24 hours, and we plan to keep you up to date on everything throughout the evening and into the finish line tomorrow at 11am PT!
We’ll have onsite interviews throughout the hackathon with developers and judges. We’ll be bringing you the biggest updates on Discord, socials and our live blog. There will be tons happening in the next day, so make sure you keep watching to see major innovation developing in front of your eyes!
Developing on GalaChain
Keep in mind everyone in this hackathon is developing directly on GalaChain using the recently released SDK. This means that this hackathon has real potential to bring amazing new tools and resources to our community.
GalaChain has come a long way in a short time, but this is what it’s all been leading up to! Community development on GalaChain is right in line with our decentralized and open source sensibilities, and we’re so thankful to everyone who could join us.
For those that couldn’t make it this time, it’s not too late to build cool things on GalaChain! The SDK and Gala Creators Portal are open, and you could easily make GalaChain the home of your next passion project or innovation. Every development makes GalaChain a more robust ecosystem for our community!
We’ll be back throughout the hackathon, but make sure to check in between 11am and 2pm PT tomorrow for highlights from project presentations.
It may be tough to get a full overview of everything that happens at the event until we all sort through the insane amounts of progress. We can, however, guess that Ahead of the Game tomorrow night may be one of the best ways to get a clear rundown of the hackathon!
To all the developers out there, good luck! We wish you smooth building and easy to eliminate bugs!
We hope you think big and build big. Thank you for being a part of GalaChain!
In the group of judges we’ve assembled for the upcoming GALAthon Hackathon at GDC 2024, Michele Guo stands out for her unique innovation and strategic insight in the web3 gaming realm. Her work in the industry has made major contributions to the blockchain space since 2017. Her journey through this frontier has taken her across multiple major innovations – from co-founding the first U.S. web3 gaming expo focusing on quality B2B gaming industry leaders and game studios, to her advisory roles for early web3 startups. This visionary recognized the early fragmented gaming industry’s need to be united for a more collaborative ecosystem with emphasis on network effects in the space. We’re proud this ecosystem pioneer could join us as a judge!
Michele Guo: A Trailblazer in Crypto and Strategy
Guo co-founded the 3XP Gaming Expo which brought together the largest web3 game developers in the US for an immersive experience of gameplay demos, esports competitions, and panel content, working with industry thought leaders and gaming founders. Michele spearheaded marketing and partnerships, ensuring the conference’s attendance from notable web2 and web3 game studios and content creators for the first web3 gaming conference held in the U.S.
With Alpha Strategy Consulting, Guo’s influence extends through her angel investments and advisory for early-staged web3 startups. She predominantly focuses in the gaming space on go-to-market strategy, marketing, partnerships, growth, and finding product-market fit, whilst facilitating network effects within her web3 gaming ecosystem, especially rooting from 3XP’s funnel.
Prior to starting Alpha Strategy Consulting, Helios Capital further showcased her adeptness in navigating the nuanced landscape of the tech investment world. In her time there, she not only sealed critical deals and partnerships, but also managed high-profile relationships and supported portfolio companies to thrive under the Helios banner.
Starting her crypto career on the operating side at her first startup in 2017, Guo was the first employee and later became Chief Strategy Officer at Axon Trade, where she demonstrated an immediate knack for partnerships, business development, and strategy, proving essential for the startup’s success.
A Judge with an Eye for Strategy and Scalability
Michele Guo’s multifaceted experiences equip her with a unique perspective to evaluate the GalaChain Hackathon entries. Her background suggests she will value projects that exhibit technical innovation and a clear, compelling product-market fit.
Guo understands the crucial interplay between technology, market positioning and strategic partnerships that can boost a project’s success and scalability.
What Might Michele Guo Look for in a Winning Entry?
Given Michele Guo’s experience, her criteria for a winning GalaChain Hackathon project likely include:
Strategic Innovation: Projects that go beyond GalaChain’s technical powers and demonstrate innovative approaches for solving real market needs within the web3 world.
Market Readiness and Scalability: Entries that show a clear path to market adoption, including an actual strategy for implementation and scalability that is potentially attractive to partnerships and funding in the future.
Impact and Viability: Projects that present a sustainable business model with real potential for long-term impact, including how the project plans to maintain relevancy and adapt to evolving web3 space.
Community and Partnership Potential: Initiatives that understand the value of community with a clear path on how to build a strong and sustaining community in the web3 space, whilst being well positioned to leverage strategic partnerships to enhance their reach and go-to-market strategy.
Beyond Technology: Strategy as Key to Success
Michele Guo’s involvement in the GalaChain Hackathon is a testament to the importance of strategic vision in the success of blockchain initiatives. Her perspective will push participants to think beyond the code, considering how their projects fit into the broader web3 landscape. Innovation for the sake of innovation isn’t enough… a project must be practical and have real applications.
As we inch closer to the hackathon, let Michele Guo’s journey through web3 inspire you to blend innovation with strategic acumen. The hackathon presents a unique opportunity to showcase how GalaChain can serve a home for projects that are technologically innovative while also solving practical problems.
Michele Guo’s presence on the judging panel elevates the GalaChain Hackathon, and we’re excited to see what projects stand out to her during judging. Innovative tools need to serve a real purpose if they are going to be adopted. What problem will your project solve?
As the GALAthon Hackathon draws near, we’re excited to reveal another distinguished member of our judging panel – Celynne Layug! As Trade Commissioner of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Silicon Valley, Celynne plays a pivotal role in creating connections between the Philippines and global markets, particularly in the realms of trade, Investments, and technology and finance.
Her inclusion as a judge brings a unique international and economic development perspective to the hackathon. The web3 world truly is the entire world, so her view on innovations from a uniquely global perspective is an incredibly important addition to our judging panel!
A Vision for Global Impact and Connectivity
In the context of the GalaChain Hackathon, Celynne’s focus is likely to be on projects that demonstrate clear potential for decentralized collaboration, economic empowerment and scalable solutions that seriously address global challenges.
She represents a bridge between technology and its real-world applications, especially those that can contribute to economic development, inclusivity, and the creation of opportunities across borders. Any technology has real effects on real people… Celynne will likely be interested in both the innovative power of any development and its real-world effects on human beings across the globe.
What Celynne Layug Might Look for in a Winning Entry
Given her background and responsibilities, Celynne might be particularly drawn to projects that:
Promote Global Connectivity: Entries that leverage GalaChain to create new opportunities for international trade, market participation and communication, making it easier for countries to collaborate and share resources.
Drive Economic Empowerment: Innovations that offer solutions to economic challenges – particularly those that connect underserved communities or further sustainability goals across the world.
Showcase Scalable and Inclusive Innovations: Projects should be scalable across different markets, but also stand out as inclusive – ensuring that the benefits of blockchain technology can be accessed by anyone, including those in developing economies.
Building Bridges with Celynne Layug
Celynne Layug’s inclusion in the Galathon judging panel underscores the event’s commitment to projects that are more than just tech for the sake of tech. Innovations that create global impact that fosters economic growth and development will likely stand out to Celynne, as they are definitively in her wheelhouse.
Her perspective should guide participants toward creating solutions that are not just unique but also capable of making significant contributions to international collaboration and economic empowerment.
As participants prepare to showcase their projects, let Celynne’s role drive you to think beyond the technical aspects of blockchain and reach into the real world for inspiration.
Consider how your innovation can serve as a bridge between different cultures, economies, and industries. Harnessing the power of GalaChain to create a more connected and empowered global community is within our power. How will you change the world?
