Metasuyo
Open-source platform for phygital products, bridging cultural heritage with tokenized rewards
About
Why are you participating for Based LatAm? At Metasuyo, our mission is rooted in empowering creators, local and indigenous communities, and entrepreneurs across Latin America, particularly in the Andean region, by preserving cultural heritage and amplifying it through modern technology. We believe that the unique traditions and craftsmanship of our region deserve not only to be celebrated, but to thrive in the global market. Base offers the ideal foundation to help us realize this vision. As a blockchain ecosystem built for consumer crypto, it provides the accessibility needed to bring blockchain to those who need it most—artisans, creators, and small business owners who have historically been excluded from global digital markets. Base’s low fees and user-friendly environment are key to creating opportunities for creators to directly connect with global audiences without intermediaries. While Metasuyo started with our own product lines, we see a much broader potential to use blockchain and accessible technology to open doors for other creators and entrepreneurs across the region. Participating in Based LatAm allows us to not only showcase Latin America’s cultural wealth, but also demonstrate how accessible technology can empower local communities to become active participants in the global marketplace. And the hackathon has also inspired us to think of our tech as an open-source platform! Similar to how Zora has built a hyperstructure for creators, while still creating their own Zora.co as the flagship example of using their tech. Additional Features Before the hackathon, thirdweb was used for login along with vanilla ethers for session management and handling requests to the contracts. After the hackathon, these features were changed to use wagmi and smartwallets. Additionally, before the hackathon, the project created user profiles using a traditional method, but thanks to basenames, we now obtain onchain user profiles. Also, thanks to the use of paymaster, we managed to change the previous zero-commission method for users, which was based on a direct connection to an Infura RPC, where we would sign and execute transactions using the private keys of a wallet from the backend. All of this was changed to ChainTools (paymaster), where we achieved a much smoother onboarding process for the client.
How it's made
What challenges are you focusing on? Latin American artisans and small entrepreneurs face challenges that limit their ability to thrive in the global economy, including: Limited Market Access: Creators struggle to reach international customers due to high export costs and reliance on intermediaries, limiting visibility and profits. Lack of Digital Infrastructure: Many artisans, particularly in indigenous and rural communities, lack access to user-friendly digital tools that allow them to showcase products. Current platforms are expensive, complex, and often not suited for creators with limited tech skills. Low Profit Margins: Traditional marketplaces and intermediaries take a significant cut of artisans’ earnings, making it difficult for them to sustain or grow their businesses. Cultural Capital Erosion: Peru and Latin America hold immense cultural knowledge spanning millennia. However, this wealth often remains untapped economically, viewed as static and only for academic study. In reality, many of these traditions are alive, but cultural stewards lack the tools and platforms to preserve and grow their contributions. Mechanisms that turn cultural preservation into active cultural production are missing, and there is a growing disconnect as younger generations struggle to engage with their heritage. Limited Innovation in Cultural Production: Cultural capital is often treated like a museum artifact, frozen in time. Without tools to innovate and produce new interpretations, communities fall into patterns of homogenous production, losing the richness of varied iconography. This dilutes the value of cultural products, leaving artisans unable to capture the full economic potential of their work. Conclusion: These challenges affect not only artisans but small entrepreneurs across Latin America. To unlock the potential of these communities, we need an ecosystem that empowers them to innovate, scale, and participate in the global market. How does your submission address this challenge? Our solution is twofold: Metasuyo acts as our flagship store, while our broader initiative focuses on building an open-source platform to empower artisans, creators, and small entrepreneurs across Latin America. Metasuyo as a Flagship Store: Metasuyo is a media franchise that creates worlds of ancestral fiction. By collaborating with communities, artisans, and entrepreneurs, we co-create products tied to the intellectual property (IP) of these fictional worlds. These products merge cultural production and commercialization. Metasuyo serves as a direct-to-consumer brand and a proof of concept, showcasing how local creators can engage in product development rooted in heritage, backed by a global, unified brand. Open-Source Platform: In the backend, we're building an open-source e-commerce platform enabling creators & entrepreneurs to access global markets with crypto. They can set up digital storefronts, create phygital (physical + digital) products, and sell directly to consumers, all without technical expertise or high fees. Our goal is for the platform to evolve into a hyperstructure—an open, decentralized system that runs perpetually without intermediaries, similar to Zora's model. Metasuyo acts as the flagship example of what's possible with this infrastructure. The platform let users issue NFTs, use special codes to claim for free, unlock discounts or exclusive products, and leverage token-based loyalty rewards systems. Potential Impact: Metasuyo shows the power of merging storytelling, community-driven design, and blockchain technology. This open-source platform will empower creators across Latin America to scale their businesses, access global markets, and innovate culturally. We aim to reverse cultural erosion, create sustainable revenue streams, and integrate Latin American culture into the global economy. Challenges we ran into One of the biggest technical hurdles we faced was mastering the intricacies of Onechainkit’s Paymaster documentation. The complexity arose from the use of proxies, making it difficult to understand and implement gasless transactions effectively. Additionally, we encountered challenges in distinguishing which features were available across regular wallets versus those exclusive to SmartWallets. Finally, we had to carefully evaluate different wallet solutions to ensure that we provided the most seamless and accessible experience for users. In the end, the integration of SmartWallet proved to be the best solution for our use case, ensuring both security and ease of use for phygital collectables.