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By Tipper
Tipper is evolving from a tipping platform into a full solution for Latin American content creators, increasing monetization opportunities by adding an invoice solution, and an automated content creation engine to allow brands to hire Tipper’s affiliated content creators, and seamlessly pay them with USDC on Stellar.
With this submission we will improve Tipper by building two extra products:
THE TIPPER PAYMENT REQUEST SYSTEM works as an invoice that is created by the content creator, and sent to her client directly, as we’ve had over 60% of our total volume driven by freelancers who want to get paid more easily. We work with our anchors to enable cash in at a popular client origin (US, Mexico and Colombia), and the content creator gets paid on USDC.
THE USER GENERATED CONTENT ENGINE (UGC) is a system that leverages the content creators “catalog” we now have, and creates a system to allow Brands to sort and hire our influencers by their audience and reach, and asks them to create content for brand’s goals in social media (like reviews, unboxing, etc). We allow clients to cash-in fiat in our target markets and convert that fiat to USDC, which is then paid to content creators in USDC
On-Chain Impact & stellar specific impacted metrics
Grow Transaction Volume 20X: We project to achieve +20,000 USDC payouts in our first year.
Network Growth: Onboard 1,000 creators with active Stellar wallets and USDC payouts, with at least 30% of them being active recipients of USDC.
Efficiency: Reduce payment collection time from weeks to hours, and reduce cost from double digits to single digits for freelancers.
Increased word of mouth and real World Utility: Proving Stellar’s efficacy for both peer-to-peer invoicing (via AlfredPay) and B2C mass payouts.
$79.1K
We publicly launched Tipper one week before Stellar Meridian, and since September we have surpassed every internal milestone we set, validating both creator demand and fan-driven monetization behavior.
Creator Adoption & Reach
118 active content creators fully onboarded, with a combined reach of 200,000+ followers. (See proof at https://tipper.lat/hub)
Launched with focus on the cosplayer niche in Venezuela, allowing us to better understand creator onboarding, fan engagement, and monetization dynamics in an underserved market
91% of creators joined via word of mouth, with $0 spent on paid acquisition, signaling strong organic pull
503 total users (creators + fans/donors)
307 transactions processed in the first three months live
~30% of creators received tips, validating real monetization (not vanity signups)
Clear pareto-law observed: ~10% of creators concentrate the majority of funds, matching patterns seen in mature platforms like Ko-fi and Patreon
1,000+ USDC paid out directly to creators via Stellar rails
Real-World Activation
Creators successfully monetized across 4 offline and hybrid events (conferences, creator hubs, merch sales), demonstrating that Tipper works beyond purely digital contexts
We helped content creators sell an end of the year calendar, which resulted in massive success; not only achieving sold out in a few days, but increasing our reach tenfold, and opening doors to work again with massive brands like Chocolisto, and Caracas Comic con. (See this IG post and this other post for more details)
Distribution & Community Growth
Instagram is our primary growth engine and communication channel
238,569+ views reached in December alone
512% month-over-month community growth, driven entirely by creator-led content and organic sharing
All growth achieved while focusing exclusively on one niche and one country, reinforcing depth before breadth
Expansion alpha
While focused on cosplayers, we’ve already seen inbound demand from freelancers, photographers, and digital artists, which will be our next vertical expansions in 2026.
But the biggest opportunity lies in enabling our registered influencers, to create content and get paid from brands automatically, through USDC on Stellar
Component 1
Payment link Generation: Creators generate a custom URL (e.g., tipper.lat/pay/user/job123) to send to clients for freelance work, shoutouts, or services.
AlfredPay Integration usage: We utilize AlfredPay (Stellar Anchor) as our settlement provider. The payer sees a localized payment interface (Fiat/Crypto), and AlfredPay handles the conversion. (We already use Alfredpay, we will modify the integration to serve this usecase)
Instant Settlement: The funds settle directly into the creator's Tipper wallet as USDC on Stellar, bypassing traditional banking delays.
Budget: 160 hrs; or $20,000
**Tranche 1: How to measure completion:**Creators can register, generate a payment link, send it to a client, and receive USDC in their Stellar wallet via our preset anchor on the backend (AlfredPay)
Component 2: Brand Campaign & Analytics Dashboard
The command center for enterprise UGC clients. Brands can:
Define campaign conditions and creator requirements.
Deposit rewards into a campaign escrow.
Analytics: Track live metrics (views, engagement) pulled via API.
Financial Reporting: Transparent logs of all disbursements.
Component 2.1: Creator Identity & Wallet Management
KYC & Profile: Collection of social media handles and niche data.
Stellar Integration: Non-custodial or hybrid wallet setup where creators manage their public address.
Trustline Automation: Auto-setup of USDC trustlines to ensure successful reception of funds from both PayLink and UGC campaigns.
Budget: 220 hrs; or $27,500
**Tranche 2: How to measure completion:**Tipper has a Brand Dashboard (UI/UX), and brands can search creators
Component 3: UGC Activity & Automated Analysis
Opt-in System: Creators apply for campaigns.
API Verification: Integration with social media Graph APIs (IG/TikTok) to crawl content links and verify compliance with the brief automatically.
Component 3.1: Stellar Revenue Dispatcher
Mass Payouts: Once UGC content is verified, this module triggers batch transactions on Stellar.
Unified Balance: Creators see earnings from both Tipper PayLink (Freelance) and Tipper UGC (Campaigns) in a single USDC balance.
Component 3.2: Testing and go live
**Tranche 3: How to measure completion:**Tipper allows brands to post a campaign brief, preselect from the database, filtering based on relevant metrics and pay creators
The team is led by Ernesto Contreras; and includes people with experience in social media influencer management, payment applications, and fintech development.
Team members include:
Ezio Rojas: For Growth and community engagement. Ezio is a crypto OG with past experience as the LatAm growth lead of Polkadot, and Chief editor of Cointelegraph in Spanish. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezio-rojas/
Ernesto Contreras: Strategy and Business development. Ernesto is a builder, experienced in real world crypto-Fiat integrations, launched Unalivio with the Stellar community. https://www.linkedin.com/in/contrerasernesto/
Ruben Padilla: Backend and development. Senior developer with over 5 years experience in Fullstack, focused on ReactJS, NextJS for Desktop and Mobile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rubenp0492/ Fabian Fariñas: Cash-in integrations and backend support. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ffarinas/
In the past we have integrated into three different stellar anchors and have processed over 100,000 USD in payments for our merchant partners; and as a result of this success we received dozens of inquiries from friends and followers, requesting we develop a system that works for the 18 million influencers in LatAm, who have limited options for receiving tips, payment for content sold, and overall support from their loyal fans around the world.
After launching Tipper focused on the cosplayer niche, our already onboarded content creators exceed 1M combined followers (https://tipper.lat/hub) and 91% joined via word of mouth, with zero paid ads. So we know we're onto something massive!
Ezio Rojas
Ernesto Contreras
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