Play-to-earn models have dominated Web3 user acquisition, but their reliance on financial incentives often leads to mass exits and project failures.
Raiinmaker took a different path. Since 2018, we've built a thriving community of more than 400,000 users by prioritizing intrinsic motivation and meaningful engagement over short-term rewards.
This approach has enabled sustainable growth, where many token-driven projects have failed. Here’s how we did it.
Web3 is littered with failed projects that rely solely on financial incentives to drive user acquisition. These play-to-earn models typically follow a predictable pattern:
The data proves how ineffective this approach is, as over 70% of app users abandon an application within 90 days of installation, regardless of initial incentives.
In Web3, this problem is even more pronounced, with many projects experiencing high abandonment rates once token rewards are reduced.
The fundamental issue isn't the presence of rewards but the over-reliance on external motivation at the expense of creating something inherently valuable.
At Raiinmaker, we recognized early that sustainable growth requires understanding how human motivation actually works.
When we designed the app, we initially thought incentive mechanisms were the most important thing. They are important, but we've learned there's a profound difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
“Extrinsic motivation is basically saying you're motivated only because there's an external reward like money or redeemable points. Intrinsic motivation is when you do something because you actually love doing it. You play the game because you love playing the game.”
- J.D. Seraphine (Founder & CEO)
This insight has shaped our entire approach to product development and community building.
While many platforms create dependencies on external rewards, we've focused on building experiences that people genuinely enjoy, with rewards serving as an enhancement rather than the core value proposition.
Our journey to hundreds of thousands of users didn't happen overnight. Since our founding in 2018, we've evolved through several iterations, each building upon lessons from the previous version:
We began by exploring the intersection of loyalty rewards and influencer marketing, aiming to empower content creators through their social capital. This early focus on creator empowerment—not just monetary rewards—established our foundation.
In 2023, we introduced AI-generated art features and launched our network testnet, onboarding over 150,000 validators. Users could contribute meaningfully to the ecosystem while also creating something valuable for themselves.
With our mainnet launch in Q1 2024, we expanded to full AI-powered smart contracts and introduced partnerships with major sports teams and entertainment brands. These integrations provided users with authentic connections to brands they already cared about.
Our approach to user acquisition and retention is built on five core principles that prioritize intrinsic motivation:
Unlike platforms where users are merely participants, Raiinmaker community members (aka Citiizens) have a genuine stake in the ecosystem. Our validator system allows anyone with a smartphone to become part of our decentralized infrastructure.
We believe everyone deserves access to the global digital economy, especially as it evolves toward cryptocurrency and digital assets. Our roots lie in the democratization and decentralization of financial systems, empowering individuals worldwide."
We built tools that allow users to create, not just consume. From AI-generated art to data labeling that helps train AI models, users contribute meaningfully to something larger than themselves. This sense of creation provides intrinsic satisfaction that pure consumption cannot match.
We designed our platform to introduce more complex tasks as users gradually became more experienced. This progression creates an optimal engagement path where challenges match growing abilities, keeping users motivated through a sense of achievement and competence rather than just external rewards.
When users train AI models or validate transactions on Raiinmaker, they're providing genuine value to the ecosystem. The rewards they receive aren't arbitrary but proportional to their contributions, creating an authentic value exchange rather than an artificial incentive system.
Our user base spans the globe, with particularly strong representation in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. By making our platform accessible to anyone with a smartphone, we've tapped into global talent pools that traditional tech platforms often ignore.
Beyond our core principles, we've implemented specific strategies to foster long-term engagement:
We ensure tasks are neither too easy nor too difficult, maintaining user interest through appropriately calibrated challenges. Our AI training activities, for example, start simple but gradually increase in complexity as users develop expertise.
Users can track their contributions and growth through our AI Reputation Score, which functions like a credit score for AI contributions. This visible progression helps users see their development over time.
Top contributors gain recognition within the community, fulfilling the basic psychological need for relatedness. Our leaderboards and badges create social proof that reinforces participation.
As users engage more deeply with the platform, their experiences become increasingly personalized, with AI models adapting to their interests and preferences.
Looking ahead, we're expanding our ecosystem with:
Each of these developments continues our philosophy of creating inherent value first, with rewards as a complementary—not primary—motivator.
Raiinmaker's journey to the nearly half a million users demonstrates that sustainable growth in Web3 doesn't require unsustainable Play-to-earn models. By focusing on intrinsic motivation, community ownership, and authentic value creation, we've built an ecosystem that continues to thrive even as many token-incentive projects have faded away.
If you're a founder, product leader, or organization interested in learning how our platform could support your community-building efforts, book a platform demo to explore how our approach could work for you.
The future of Web3 belongs to platforms that create genuine value—not just temporary incentives. We'd love to show you how.