We’re always grateful for questions we receive from the community as they help us understand where our message needs to be clearer. One of the most common questions we get is. “If you don’t charge any fees, how do you make money?” It’s a great question, with a simple answer!

The truth is, we’re not trying to make money or build a traditional company! We’re building a protocol. The Zeex Protocol aims to create a fully decentralized economy for the exchange of virtual gift cards and cryptocurrencies. Anyone can use the platform without paying a fee, whether they’re buying or selling. The business model for a protocol company is “abnormal” because once the protocol is built and gains momentum, it grows well beyond the company.

“something is missing in the picture: where does the protocol builder fit? The most common answer is nowhere and that’s the part of the magic (Satoshi Nakamoto has “disappeared” and Bitcoin is still functioning and growing).” — Yann Ranchere goo.gl/V4xNrV

In a similar, centralized economy, the company would have to continuously perform transactions and act as a trusted entity, for which they would need to be paid. A bank is a great example of this, since they have a centralized system within which they charge fees for completing actions. With a decentralized economy, we can create the market and allow it to grow on its own without a trusted entity.

To jump-start this economy, Zeex created an asset-backed Working Capital Fund with fixed returns, open to institutions and accredited investors. The fund will serve to provide capital to gift card suppliers like Zeek and Giftery.Ru. By lending capital to suppliers, we can incentivize participation in the Zeex protocol and drive organic growth. With so many parties interested in using the platform, it’s a necessity because otherwise there won’t be enough volume or inventory for the demand.

“protocol builders are most of the time not extracting any revenue from the micro economy they have built, their main driver for supporting the protocol is an increase in value of its underlying tokens vis à vis the reference currency for their cost base.” — Yann Ranchere goo.gl/V4xNrV

To summarize, when people ask how we make money, it simply means they haven’t understood our goal completely. Our goal is not to make money from the protocol we build, our goal is to build a scalable and robust economy and help it grow beyond us.