Case Study

Puma is a fast and private mobile Web3 browser that makes it easy to support creators, game & app developers and charities of your choice.

A Browser That Serves You, Not Big Advertising

Founded by Yuriy Dybskiy in 2019, Puma is a mobile Web3 browser that rethinks how we discover and pay for online content, games and services. Today's web is mostly monetized with ads, rewarding big tech companies over individual creators. With this advertising emphasis, companies have strong incentives to track and manipulate users, stripping people of their information while failing to serve the needs of individual creators. It has also become clear that the future of finance is decentralized and going to change drastically thanks to crypto and blockchain innovation, yet it’s very hard to use that technology today.

Puma was created to fix this. It differs from other browsers by enabling direct value transfer between content and game creators and their fans, creating a great alternative to ads.

As a photographer, Dybskiy had long been interested in how creators and artists could earn a living by monetizing the work they put online. He took issue with the fact that most browsers are monetized by search ads and targeting and are focused on collecting data about content consumers while failing to reward the creators. In late 2018, Dybskiy connected with the creators of Interledger, an open protocol suite for sending payments across different ledgers. Interledger’s design caught his eye as a key building block to begin changing the way the internet is monetized – and how creators can get paid. The idea became obvious: let’s build a browser that has Interledger Protocol support built in to allow tiny amounts of currency to flow from a webpage viewer to the creator of the page. This approach enables creators to get paid when someone views their content but keeps viewers’ data private, a significant departure from the traditional internet model.

Inside It All: the Interledger Protocol

To make the web monetized model possible, the company partnered with Coil, a multifaceted platform designed to facilitate the monetization of blogs and other creative works by enabling micropayments while web browsing. Users can sign up for a $5 monthly subscription that allows them to stream micropayments to web monetized sites. Coil is built on the Interledger Protocol, which is integral to Web Monetization because it facilitates the seamless transfer of funds. Interledger makes it possible for different ledgers to communicate; without the Interledger Protocol providing interoperable and scalable payment rails, Web Monetization would not be possible.

With Interledger and Coil, Puma can automatically send micropayments to monetized sites, across financial platforms and geographical boundaries. Interledger is not tied to a single company, blockchain or currency, which allows for the seamless transfer of funds anywhere around the world.

“The idea behind Puma was simple,” said Dybskiy. “We wanted to create a way to compensate creators for their work and provide a viewing experience that wasn’t degraded by invasive ads, which required rethinking how the internet operates. Interledger makes that possible. We’ve already positively impacted the lives of thousands of creators around the world by helping them get paid for their work and earn a living. And as adoption grows, we’re looking forward to a bright future where more artists can share their work in a safe and profitable way.”

The Road Ahead

Since April 2020, Puma’s user base has grown more than 35x. Though it's early days for the company, Puma has received strong vocal support from initial users and hosted a conference, “The Future of Micropayments.” Early adopters include people who care deeply about privacy, curious developers and creators looking for an alternative to advertising or paywalls for monetizing their content online. The future of Puma is bright, and the team is really excited about what the coming years have in store.