Why?
Werra is a Kenya-first creator marketplace that helps SMEs hire verified content creators, structure content deals, and pay safely through escrow.
In Kenya today, many SMEs already hire creators for TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, UGC videos, product reviews, and creator visits. However, most of this activity happens informally through Instagram DMs, WhatsApp groups, referrals, and agency relationships.
This creates problems for both sides:
- SMEs struggle to discover and verify reliable creators.
- Creator pricing is unclear.
- Deliverables are often vague.
- Creators risk late or failed payments.
- SMEs risk paying before agreed work is delivered.
- Disputes are hard to resolve because agreements are informal.
- High-attention creators are often under-monetized.
Werra solves this by giving SMEs and creators a structured transaction workflow:
- SME posts a content brief.
- Verified creators submit bids.
- SME reviews creator profiles, samples, pricing, and ratings.
- SME awards the gig.
- Agreement terms are generated.
- SME funds escrow.
- Creator delivers content.
- SME approves, requests revision, or opens dispute.
- Payout or refund is processed based on the outcome.
CKB fits where the product needs trust and settlement. Werra will use CKB infrastructure and USDI for escrow-protected creator payments, agreement hash anchoring, payout/refund transaction records, and future settlement automation.
Werra is not a blockchain-first product looking for a use case. It is a creator commerce product solving a real market problem, using CKB where transparent escrow and settlement matter most.
Market Research
We have completed initial market research into Kenya’s creator economy.
As supporting evidence, we reference the Odipo Dev report:
Decoding Kenya’s Creator Economy, March 2026
The report estimates that Kenyan influencer brand-partnership earnings exceeded KES 1 billion in 2025, with the top 10 creators earning an estimated KES 296 million.
The research also highlights several points that support Werra’s thesis:
- SMEs account for a large share of creator-brand partnership activity.
- Beauty, personal care, food, fashion, and consumer categories are active creator-marketing categories.
- TikTok has strong attention but weaker monetization.
- Many high-attention creators remain under-commercialized.
- Views do not automatically translate into earnings; creators need better commercial infrastructure.
This supports our view that the creator market already exists, but the transaction infrastructure is weak.
Kenya-First, Global South-Relevant
Werra is Kenya-first, but not Kenya-only.
We are starting in Kenya because it has a highly active creator economy, strong SME demand, widespread social media usage, and a fragmented creator hiring process that still depends heavily on WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, referrals, and informal agency relationships.
This makes Kenya a strong launch market for validating the product, escrow model, creator verification process, and SME workflow.
However, the problem Werra addresses is not unique to Kenya. Across many African and Global South markets, creators generate significant cultural and commercial attention but are not consistently compensated through reliable infrastructure. SMEs also struggle to access trusted creators, structure deliverables, and pay safely.
Many of these markets share similar conditions:
- creators are under-monetized despite strong audience attention
- platform payouts are limited or unavailable
- brand deals are informal and relationship-driven
- payment trust is weak
- creator discovery is fragmented
- SMEs need affordable marketing channels
- dispute handling is mostly informal
- cross-border creator payments are difficult
Werra’s long-term vision is to become creator commerce infrastructure for Africa and other Global South markets where creators and SMEs face similar trust, payment, and market-access problems.
Why CKB?
Werra needs a reliable escrow and settlement layer.
CKB is useful to Werra because it can support:
- USDI escrow for creator gigs
- agreement hashes anchored on-chain
- transparent payout and refund transaction records
- reduced dependency on purely custodial platform balances
- future support for more automated settlement logic
In the product, CKB is used where it matters most: trust, escrow, settlement, and payment auditability.
The user experience will remain simple. SMEs and creators should not need to understand CKB internals. They should only understand that funds are protected until the agreed work is delivered or a dispute is resolved.
Why Us?
We have already started building Werra.
Current progress includes:
- Market research completed
- Product description completed
- Product architecture completed
- Technical architecture drafted
- Working proof of concept developed
- SME, creator, and admin user flows implemented in the POC
- Managed-wallet user experience explored for simple email-based onboarding
- Creator brief posting, bidding, awarding, delivery, review, dispute, refund, and payout flows implemented at POC level
- USDW test stablecoin flow introduced for Werra’s test payment experience
- CKB testnet escrow direction already reflected in the technical implementation path
- Browser-level tests verifying the core POC flows
- Public GitHub repository created to show ongoing progress
Current Build Status
Werra is already under active development. We have created a public GitHub repository to show ongoing progress and make the work visible to the CKB community:
https://github.com/DWSQUIRES/Werra
We have also deployed the Werra POC for community testing:
The POC allows testers to sign in as either an SME or a creator using an
email-based managed wallet flow. SMEs can post briefs, review creator
applications, award gigs, fund escrow, review submitted work, approve payout,
or open a dispute. Creators can browse available briefs, apply, track awarded
work, and submit completed delivery links.
The current POC uses managed CKB testnet wallets, USDW test stablecoin flows,
escrow funding, payout handling, and role-separated SME/creator workspaces.
This allows the community to test the transaction flow and provide feedback
before we move into full development.
The repository currently includes:
- product description
- technical description
- product architecture
- working proof of concept
- SME, creator, and admin workflows
- managed-wallet onboarding direction
- content brief posting flow
- creator bidding flow
- gig awarding and escrow funding flow
- creator delivery submission flow
- SME approval and dispute flow
- admin dispute settlement flow
- USDW test payment flow
- state-managed marketplace logic
- browser-level tests for core flows
- one-command local preview setup for community testing
The grant will allow us to expand from a lean early build into a more specialized execution team. This is important because Werra combines multiple disciplines: product design, marketplace UX, frontend engineering, backend engineering, escrow integration, DevOps, business development, creator onboarding, and customer support.
With grant support, we will bring these specialties together to improve product quality, reduce execution risk, and move faster toward a reliable V1 beta.
Why Now?
The timing is strong because:
- SMEs are already spending on creators.
- Creators are gaining attention faster than they are monetizing it.
- Platform payouts are inconsistent or unavailable in many markets.
- The market lacks structured trust, payment, and dispute infrastructure.
- Stablecoin escrow can solve a real payment problem.
- CKB can support a practical, non-speculative use case in creator commerce.
Werra can introduce CKB to real users through a workflow they already understand: hiring, delivery, escrow, and payout.
Budget
We are requesting:
USD 27,700, paid in CKB equivalent at disbursement
This proposal requests a fixed USD-denominated budget, with payment made in CKB equivalent at the time of each disbursement, based on the exchange rate on the day of disbursement.
This is included explicitly as an additional disbursement rule in the proposal
text, so the community can evaluate and vote on the proposal with this payment
structure clearly stated.
The grant will fund approximately three months of work, divided into two major phases:
- Development Phase: first 1.5 months
- Distribution and Beta Seeding Phase: following 1.5 months
Development Budget
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Designer | $20/hr × 80 hrs | $1,600 |
| Frontend Developer | $25/hr × 160 hrs | $4,000 |
| Backend and Blockchain Developer | $25/hr × 160 hrs | $4,000 |
| Product Manager | $10/hr × 400 hrs | $4,000 |
| System Engineer / DevOps | $20/hr × 200 hrs | $4,000 |
| Infrastructure: domain, server, database, and software subscriptions | Fixed | $500 |
| Development Subtotal | $18,100 |
Distribution and Beta Seeding Budget
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Business Development | $20/hr × 160 hrs | $3,200 |
| Initial Seeding: onboard 5 businesses and 20 creators | 5 businesses × $300 creator-payout budget | $1,500 |
| Social Media Personnel | $15/hr × 160 hrs | $2,400 |
| Customer Support | $10/hr × 200 hrs | $2,000 |
| Distribution Subtotal | $9,100 |
Contingency
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Contingency fund for unforeseen operational, infrastructure, or beta support costs | $500 |
Total Budget
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Development | $18,100 |
| Distribution and Beta Seeding | $9,100 |
| Contingency | $500 |
| Total Requested | $27,700 |
How?
We propose two main phases over approximately three months.
Phase 1: Development Phase
Timeline: First 1.5 months
The goal of this phase is to move Werra from prototype to a functional V1 beta product.
Deliverables:
- Finalized product architecture
- Finalized user flows
- V1 UX designs
- SME account flow
- Creator account flow
- Creator profiles
- Business profiles
- Brief posting
- Creator bidding
- Gig awarding
- Agreement generation
- Delivery submission
- SME review flow
- Revision workflow
- Dispute workflow
- Admin dashboard
- CKB/USDI escrow integration
- Agreement hash generation
- Wallet connection flow
- USDI escrow funding flow
- Payout release flow
- Refund flow
- Escrow transaction tracking
- Infrastructure setup and deployment
Phase 2: Distribution and Beta Seeding Phase
Timeline: Following 1.5 months
The goal of this phase is to validate Werra with real users and generate early marketplace activity.
Deliverables:
- Onboard 5 pilot businesses
- Onboard 20 pilot creators
- Support initial creator gigs through seeded business budgets
- Run social media awareness and creator acquisition
- Provide customer support for beta users
- Collect feedback from SMEs and creators
- Monitor escrow and payout experience
- Produce beta feedback report
- Produce CKB/USDI usage report
- Refine product based on beta usage
The initial seeding budget will allocate $300 to each of 5 pilot businesses for creator payouts. This helps create early real marketplace activity and allows us to test the full creator hiring, escrow, delivery, and payout workflow.
Post-Grant Sustainability and Path Forward
The grant will fund Werra through V1 development and initial beta distribution. After this grant-funded phase, our goal is to move Werra toward a sustainable operating model based on real marketplace usage, follow-on funding, and ecosystem partnerships.
During the distribution and beta seeding phase, we will actively engage with:
- potential investors
- creator economy partners
- SME networks
- African startup ecosystem partners
- CKB/Nervos ecosystem partners
- stablecoin and payment partners
- business associations
- creator communities
- marketing agencies and brand partners
The objective is to use beta traction to evaluate the best path forward.
Possible post-grant paths include:
-
Organic marketplace growth
If early SME and creator adoption is strong, Werra will focus on growing through transaction activity, creator referrals, SME referrals, and platform fees. -
Follow-on investment
If the beta shows strong demand but requires more capital to scale, we will approach angels, venture funds, ecosystem funds, and strategic partners using the beta results as evidence. -
Strategic ecosystem partnerships
We will explore partnerships with creator communities, SME associations, payment providers, marketing agencies, and CKB/Nervos ecosystem projects to expand distribution and strengthen infrastructure. -
Revenue-based sustainability
Werra’s long-term business model is based on commission from completed gigs, featured creator/business placements, verification services, and eventually subscription or campaign-management tools. -
Expansion beyond Kenya
If the Kenya pilot validates the model, Werra will prepare expansion into other African and Global South markets with similar creator monetization and SME trust problems.
The grant will help us reach the point where these paths can be pursued with real product usage, pilot data, user feedback, and CKB/USDI transaction evidence rather than only a concept.
Expected Outcome
At the end of the grant, Werra will deliver:
- A working V1 beta product
- Real marketplace workflows for SMEs and creators
- CKB/USDI escrow integration
- Agreement and payout tracking
- Admin dispute tooling
- 5 onboarded pilot businesses
- 20 onboarded pilot creators
- Initial seeded creator transactions
- Public demo
- Beta feedback report
- CKB/USDI usage report
- Clear expansion path into other African and Global South markets
Impact on the CKB Ecosystem
Werra gives CKB a practical real-world use case in creator commerce.
The project can help demonstrate:
- CKB as an escrow and settlement layer
- USDI usage in real commercial transactions
- creator and SME payments on CKB
- agreement anchoring and payout/refund auditability
- adoption in an under-served Global South market
Instead of positioning blockchain as the product, Werra uses CKB as infrastructure for a real user problem: trust and payment settlement between SMEs and creators.
A Note from the Founder
I’d like to end this proposal on a more personal note.
Werra is not a project I’m building to secure a grant. It’s the company I’m choosing to build.
If this proposal is funded, I’m not thinking about what happens over the next three months—I’m thinking about where Werra can be three years from now, and what it can represent for the Nervos ecosystem.
I want Werra to become one of the products people point to when they ask, “What can you actually build on Nervos?”
More importantly, I hope it helps create a culture where founders build companies that last. I want people to see that this ecosystem can produce real businesses solving real problems, with founders who continue building long after a grant has ended.
That’s the example I want to set.
You’ll see it in how we build, how we communicate, how we share progress publicly, and how we keep improving with community feedback. I want the first milestone to demonstrate not just product progress, but the energy, consistency, and commitment of a founder building for the long term.
Whether Werra becomes a success will ultimately be decided by users and the market. But one thing I can promise is this: I’m fully committed to giving it everything I have.
Thank you for considering our proposal and for believing in builders who want to create lasting value for the Nervos ecosystem.
Summary
Werra is a Kenya-first creator marketplace that helps SMEs hire verified content creators and pay safely through escrow.
We are starting in Kenya because the market is active, fragmented, and suitable for early validation. The broader vision is to expand across Africa and other Global South markets where creators are under-monetized, SMEs lack trusted creator-hiring infrastructure, and existing platforms do not provide reliable compensation or settlement rails.
CKB fits into Werra as the trust and settlement layer: powering USDI escrow, agreement anchoring, payout tracking, and refund transparency.