Anyone who’s been an avid reader of online news and culture writing in the last decade knows there’s a problem: Traditional web publishing is broken. The ad-based revenue model at the core of online content for the last 20 years has fallen apart, and as ad revenue declined, ads themselves became more intrusive. 

Hydro disrupts this publishing model by rewarding quality over clicks. It gives publishers a new way to monetize their digital content, generating income based on the amount of time users spend on their content, rather than the number of clicks their pages get. 

“We're committed to transforming the internet by aligning the interests of content creators, consumers, and publishers,” said Raghav Reggie Jerath, founder and CEO of Hydro. “We’re creating a new economic engine for the Internet.”

Hydro was originally born as the Gather Network. It moved to the Sui blockchain and launched with a more streamlined vision in March, 2024. When Hydro began operations early this year, it paid publishers in the USDT stablecoin. But it plans to mint its own coin, with a token generation event coming soon.

It’s using Sui technology—including Move contracts, zkLogin, and multisig—to create a more seamless experience for both publishers and consumers engaging with digital content in the future.

A new paradigm for publishing

Hydro provides publishers with an alternative revenue stream using a reward system that monetizes time spent on content. The more time a user spends on a piece of content, the more that publisher makes. Hydro's model means they don’t have to plaster their site with intrusive ads or put all their content behind a subscription-based paywall.

“Publishers earn more as their audience enjoys a richer, uncluttered online experience,” said Jerath.

More compelling content and a massively improved user experience are the primary benefits to consumers. However, publishers that want to build up customer loyalty have the ability to opt into Hydro’s community loyalty programs, which enable publishers to give part of the rewards they earn back to their audience.

“We have seen a surge of publishers that have signed up through our dashboard, with a very wide array of web properties, from education platforms to video streaming platforms and a variety of blogs,” said Jerath. “We are seeing publishers coming in from many different countries and regions as well, ranging from Southeast Asia to the United States and Europe.”

This new model not only has the potential to completely shift the focus of online publishers from quantity to quality in general, it also opens up valuable revenue streams for publishers that have historically struggled to compete in the ad space. For example, this could include publishers that serve audiences with low purchasing power (e.g., students or people in developing countries), those whose audience use ad blockers at a disproportionately high rate, or publishers serving NSFW content that mainstream advertisers might be shy about aligning their brands with.

How Hydro works

When publishers sign up with Hydro, they can choose between three tiers: Hydro Online, Hydro Plus, and Hydro Pro. The Hydro Online tier is free and easy for Web2 users to sign up and begin earning rewards. To advance to the Plus and Pro tiers, publishers become more active contributors, purchasing nodes and increasing their ownership stake and potential earnings.

After signing up, publishers can access a unique code, which they then integrate within their platform to activate proof-of-time tracking. This process is similar to using a standard remarketing pixel implementation but without all the personal data collection.

From there, whenever a user visits the publisher’s website or app, they become part of the Hydro ecosystem. And the more time they spend on the site or app, the more that publisher earns.

Hydro plans to drive value using a circular token economy. As publishers join at higher tier levels, they purchase nodes, validating transactions on Sui. Then, over time, as supply of circulating tokens decreases and more publishers join the network at these higher tiers, token demand and scarcity increase, not only increasing the value of Hydro tokens but boosting potential revenue for publishers as well.

The Sui digital content revolution

Hydro is leveraging several Sui technologies to bring its vision to life.

“We chose to work with Sui because its technical capabilities and features make it possible for us to translate our vision for the Hydro platform into a viable product,” said Jerath.

Hydro tokens will act as the core utility and reward token used in the Hydro ecosystem. The company is using Sui Move contracts to create and manage Hydro tokens, setting rules that support its ecosystem. In addition, all reward distribution in the platform happens through smart contracts. 

The platform uses zkLogin to create a seamless process for Web2 users getting onboarded to Hydro. zkLogin is especially important for publishers, who are frequently non-technical, making the jump from traditional platforms to Web3. Rather than going through all the steps involved in creating a wallet and acquiring tokens, they can merely create an account on Hydro, emulating their Web2 experience.

Hydro also makes use of Sui's support for multi-signature (multi-sig) technology. This technology allows governance of Hydro-owned smart contracts. 

Using Sui technology, Hydro will continue to grow its network of publishers, creating a better, ad-free experience for consumers and offering a lifeline to content creators that have struggled to keep themselves afloat.