Centralized platforms cheat creators and fans with unfair cuts and hidden talent. YouBallin, on Solana, is a mobile-first platform where Talent participates in competitive events earning from NFTs and brand deals. Fans vote with $YBL tokens and Brands gain authentic engagement with target audiences. Native web2 onboarding and web3 account abstraction ensures mass appeal, targeting the creator economy’s growth. Chris Arakelian is the CEO of YouBallin. She recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the platform. In this episode, Chris Arakelian introduced YouBallin as a decentralized, event-driven creator economy built on Solana, aiming to revolutionize the current centralized creator economy. She highlighted the problems with the existing model, including unfair monetization where creators receive very little revenue, algorithmic gatekeeping that prioritizes engagement over genuine talent, and an incentive structure that leaves fans as passive consumers. YouBallin's solution involves a philosophical shift, transforming fans into active owners and stakeholders through a transparent token economy. Arakelian detailed YouBallin's two-phase competitive event model for talent discovery and ownership. In phase one, emerging talents compete to be noticed by established creators ("legends") who vote for free, while fans use YBL tokens to advance wildcard talents. Phase two involves finalists receiving fractionalized NFTs, allowing fans to invest directly in a creator's journey and benefit from her popularity. She emphasized that YouBallin is a multi-sided marketplace targeting emerging talents, engaged fans, mentoring legends, and brands looking for authentic communities, creating a circular rather than extractive economy. She further explained that YouBallin differentiates itself in the Web3 landscape through its core utility, interactive event model, and domain-agnostic approach, supporting various categories beyond just music. Arakelian also introduced "TalentFi," a term for talent finance, which places ownership, instead of algorithms, at the center of discovery, aligning with the crypto ethos of empowering individuals through open and permissionless systems. The YBL token powers all transactions within the platform, fueling scarcity and strengthening participation in this closed-loop economy. About Our Guest Chris brings 30 years of agency leadership and marketing communications excellence to YouBallin. Educated as a designer and trained as a client advocate, she’s a Growth Engine dedicated to building brands and driving business outcomes. Prior to her appointment as CEO of YouBallin, Chris led Growth for Omnicom’s most creative Brand Design Consultancy, Wolff Olins, where she ushered in net new client relationships for both established and emerging brands across a vast Web2 and Web3 landscape including ConcenSys/Metamask, Uber, Instacart, Arbitrum, Robinhood, Bloomberg, Kenvue, BMG, and more. Prior to Omnicom. Chris held senior positions at Consumer centric consultancies where she launched new as well as legacy brands into the world including Wild Turkey, Acuvue, Gillette Venus, and U By Kotex. Building futureproof brands that connect to audiences in an ever changing market is what fuels her passion and drives brand success across categories and geographies. To learn more about the project visit YouBallin.com, and follow the team on X.
