Preface
Recently, Huma Finance distributed a large number of airdrops to Kaito Yappers and $KAITO pledgers, once again arousing a wave of InfoFi craze. Taking advantage of this momentum, Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard were launched one after another within a week, officially participating in the competition of the InfoFi platform, and forming a three-legged situation with Kaito.
But compared with Kaito, what are the characteristics and advantages of Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard? And what opportunities are there to participate? This article will integrate the detailed information of the two, introduce the activities that can be participated in currently, and compare them with Kaito.
The past and present of Cookie.fun
Cookie.fun is a real-time data panel launched by the AI-driven modular data layer Cookie DAO, which was originally only used to track AI Agent-related token information, market sentiment and social tweets. However, following the recent InfoFi wave, Cookie.fun expanded its data set and established a new 'Social' panel, integrating information on more than 10,000 tokens and projects, not just AI Agents.
Figure 1, homepage information of Cooke.fun, source: Cooke.fun
Different from Kaito, in addition to listing the mindshare of each project, the Cookie.fun homepage also integrates the current market's optimistic or pessimistic attitudes towards which projects, and comprehensively analyzes popular projects in the market through Cookie Deep Research.
Figure 2, project information of $COOKIE, source: Cooke.fun
When we enter the panel of a certain token, its page can be divided into three parts from left to right:
Basic information of the token: including the project's X, official account, community sentiment and price changes.
Graphical data: Cooki.fun integrates the three indicators of 'price', 'community discussion' and 'community sentiment' into one chart, allowing users to see the changes of these three at a glance. In addition, the Voice page allows you to see which KOLs are actively discussing $COOKIE in the community, and you can also find information on tokens similar to $COOKIE in 'Smilar Token'.
Community posts: On the far right of the panel, Cookie.fun automatically sorts out the most valuable X posts for users to refer to. Users can also choose to view tweets with optimistic and pessimistic views on $COOKIE to get a more comprehensive understanding of the community's thoughts on the token.
However, Cookie.fun has not yet established a complete points system, and cannot evaluate users' community contribution and influence through Yap like Kaito.
To this end, Cookie.fun and Spark Protocol, a lending protocol under Sky (formerly MakerDAO), have partnered to launch the first wave of Snap activities. The gameplay is the same as Kaito, and Snap points are obtained based on users' activity on X and Spark.
Figure 3, Spark's Snap activity page, source: Cookie.fun
Since Spark has not yet issued a currency, there is no information on the token. Users can see how many people are participating in the activity, the contribution rankings of each account, and how many Snap points have been distributed in total.
Figure 4, Spark's Snap activity leaderboard, source: Cookie.fun
Based on my recent experience using it for a few days, Cookie.fun has several advantages compared to Kaito:
Information richness: It provides multiple reference indicators such as mindshare, price, sentiment and tweets, and tracks more tokens and projects than Kaito. You can make good use of the search function to actively find project information of interest.
Advanced functions and information can be obtained for free: The advanced information on Cookie.fun is basically free. Only the Cookie Deep Research that will be launched in the future requires holding 100,000 $COOKIE to unlock, which is much more user-friendly compared to Kaito.
Algorithm differences: Although the gameplay is similar, Cookie.fun is not the same as Kaito in the determination of Smart Follower and community contribution. In addition to avoiding the InfoFi market becoming a one-man show, it also gives users who missed Kaito another new opportunity to participate.
Galxe Starboard: Brand upgrade of the task platform
If readers happen to be airdrop farmers, they must be very familiar with task platforms like Galxe. For a long time in the past, many project parties liked to launch various tasks on Galxe for users to participate in, and PUA users would have airdrop rewards. Because the participation method is simple, and some projects have very generous airdrops, it once became one of the main means for retail investors to get free benefits.
But the good times didn't last long. As airdrop hunting became more scientific, coupled with the project parties' delays in airdrops and the inconsistency of the promised airdrop ratios, Galxe-like task platforms gradually lost the confidence of users, and projects also reduced the frequency of promotion through Galxe tasks.
However, in essence, Galxe is actually one of the first platforms to tokenize users' community contributions (likes, comments, and reposts), but because the barrier to entry is too low, it is impossible to identify the degree of participation of different users and distinguish robots, thus diluting its point value.
InfoFi combines AI and blockchain technology to successfully financialize complex information content, which happens to solve Galxe's pain points. Galxe also took this opportunity to launch the InfoFi platform Starboard, which integrates points tasks, on-chain data and social contributions, in conjunction with 14 blue-chip projects led by Sui, Plume and 0G.
Figure 5, Galxe Starboard homepage, source: Galxe
Users can output content related to the project on X to accumulate Aura points. Compared with Kaito and Cookie.fun, the interface of Galxe Starboard is relatively simple, and only the rankings of these 14 projects, X posts and the overall ranking can be viewed. There are no other additional functions.
Figure 6, Plume Network's Aura points ranking, source: Galxe
In terms of information integration, users cannot dig out the current hot spots in the market from Galxe Starboard. Instead, the project party can manage tasks, view loyalty points and community contributions on one page through Starboard, helping them decide the distribution of token rewards. The design direction is more like making it easy for the project party to manage, and it lacks user-oriented playability.
However, the advantage of Gaxle Starboard is that the project party's reward distribution may not only simply refer to the level of community contribution. Loyalty points accumulated through Galxe tasks will also account for a certain weight. Although the actual distribution and calculation method still depends on different projects, it has the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive and objective way to measure user participation.
Comparison of Kaito, Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard
From a practical perspective, Galxe Starboard is relatively new and has a short development time, so its functions are significantly inferior to the other two; Cookie.fun has the most comprehensive information integration and most of its functions are free. Builders who focus on small projects can also check their community contributions through the search function, which can meet the needs of most general users.
However, because Cookie.fun also tracks mainstream currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and SOL, Cookie.fun will mix in too much noise for users who track early Alpha or ambush unissued currency projects. In this case, Kaito's Pre-TGE Arena can well help degen players to discover high-quality early projects in the community.
In addition, Kaito has triggered a huge wealth effect. Yappers have not only received airdrops from multiple projects, but users who pledge $KAITO can also get token dividends repurchased by the project party. Recently, a part of the airdrop from Huma Finance and the meme coin project $LOUD created based on Kaito also promised to allocate 18% of the transaction fee income to $KAITO pledgers, which greatly increased the holding value of $KAITO.
Kaito's monetization ability has been verified by the market, building a deep moat for it, and it is also where Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard still need to prove themselves. If it fails to trigger a corresponding wealth effect, it will be difficult to compete with KAITO even if the functions are complete.
Extended thinking and summary
Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard are different from derivative platforms such as LOUD and Ethos. In terms of function and gameplay, they directly compete with Kaito, but there are slight differences in the algorithm. For users, InfoFi platforms are naturally the more the better, which means that writing a post can accumulate points on three platforms at the same time, and the potential income is greatly increased, and different algorithms also increase the chances of their posts being seen by other platforms, avoiding the situation where the market is controlled by a single algorithm.
Interestingly, if you observe carefully, you can find that the cooperation projects of Kaito, Cookie.fun and Galxe Starboard do not overlap with each other. This means that from the perspective of the project party, although Kaito has a first-mover advantage, it is far from monopolizing the InfoFi market. The project party is still willing to try to cooperate with different platforms, which also shows from the side that the competition in the InfoFi platform is becoming increasingly fierce.
If you are a heavy user of X, you may have become numb to a whole row of highly homogeneous posts and are tired of the InfoFi gameplay. However, for every emerging market, it is bound to go through a period of exploration and sedimentation before it can mature. This journey is always full of ups and downs. Spend more time to calm down and study, so as not to miss the next wave.
This report is for information sharing only and does not constitute any form of investment advice or decision-making basis. The data, analysis and opinions quoted in this article are based on the author's research and public sources, and there may be uncertainties or changes at any time. Readers should make prudent investment judgments based on their own circumstances and risk tolerance. For further guidance, it is recommended to seek professional advice.