GPS drops for everyone with Relica's Maps 2.0

GPS drops for everyone with Relica’s Maps 2.0

Relica users are now able to airdrop BSV value and collectibles anywhere in the world with the launch of Maps 2.0. This means that anyone can now create their own treasure hunts, leave gifts for friends, or create giveaways based on location. 

This increases Relica’s commercial appeal and social/fun factor. In its release announcement, the company suggested companies and brands could use the drops for promotions like limited edition token giveaways, discount tokens, or building hype for a separate NFT sale. Since there are likely hundreds of other potential uses as well, Relica invited users to get creative.

The location-based features in Maps 2.0 would also allow businesses to target customers within a specific area only (wide or small). Though the dropped items (called “relics” on the app) can be placed anywhere, only users who physically visit the location can collect them.

At present, the ability to create and place relics is only available to those using Relica with a Money Button wallet. However, it will also add HandCash users once the functionality becomes available. 

Speaking to CoinGeek, co-founder Daniel Street said that combining the world of GPS with social media has always been the grand vision for Relica.

“The most recent release of Maps 2.0 is only the beginning,” he said, adding that the next installment will introduce NFT drops and map-based sales for users.

“Imagine creating a franchise similar to Pokemon-Go with NFTs which can be collected from the map and then traded and sold within Relica’s marketplace. The possibilities start to become magical when you provide users a location based NFT tool,” he added.

Maps 2.0 uses a simple and straightforward interface for creating and dropping items. Users can select their country/city/location and create the “relic.” They then have the option to add Bitcoin (BSV) values or conditions to the relic. The app itself has a wallet listing all the relics you’ve found and picked up, along with their monetary value.

Other users locate the relics using built-in maps and a GPS-enabled device and can claim them by visiting the location they were dropped. At this time, relics can’t be traded between users or sent to external wallets, though Relica hinted at plans to tokenize these items in a future release.

How Relica has evolved

Relica began life with a feature set somewhat similar to Instagram, as a social network aimed at image-sharers. Like several other BSV apps, though, it made the most of Bitcoin SV’s ability to process fast microtransactions in large volumes to pay users a few cents when others interacted with their profile and content.

Since then, it has also added the ability to hide content behind a paywall, enabling subscription-based accounts that incentivize creators to post more compelling content and earn from it. “Influencers” on Instagram with high follower counts but little success at monetizing them externally suddenly had a way to gain income directly from the platform.

In mid-2021, Relica added GPS features, with a more basic form of drops and treasure hunts (only Relica devs could place items and users had to “unlock” cities). This gained the app a lot of attention and new users, and it had the implicit promise that Relica would soon enable these features for everyone. 

The Maps 2.0 release is another sign the Relica development team is hard at work and has plenty of ideas up their sleeves.

Watch: CoinGeek New York presentation, Relica: Be On the Map with the BSV Blockchain

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