$FLY: Designed to Make Restaurants Soar

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

It is the best of times: restaurants are awesome. Big cities have raised the bar in all respects, and small towns now have elite pizzerias and actual range. I’ve eaten at Diner, Funke, Fini, Mokonuts, Leon’s, Koriente, Mister Jiu’s, Matsuhisa, Barbuto, I Sodi, Gymkhana, Parcelle, Parcelles, Cowy Burger, Dante, Lowland, Alpino Vino, Le Veau d’Or and many more and they are all fantastic. Chefs are pushing the limits of quality, consistency, and creativity, and restaurateurs are at the height of their powers up front. It really is an amazing time to be an eater.

It is the worst of times: getting a seat anywhere is an impossible game of Resy said, the bots said, the house says. Walk-in culture is all but dead and the onslaught of truly useless technology really does overwhelm us. There are six QR code scans at every restaurant. The promise of new models post-pandemic are all but dead. Alas, profitability is still way off, and there are many restaurants for whom 2024 and 2025 will be dark and grinding.

Blackbird Labs — admittedly, a technology company — has said we have ways to fix some of this unpleasantness, and for our partners we have started to demonstrate that we have real answers.

One such answer is $FLY, a loyalty and rewards currency for the restaurant industry. At cruising altitude, $FLY will allow every restaurant to control their own destiny, flexing incentives up and down to effectuate desired outcomes, like filling seats on slow nights. We do not take this opportunity lightly, nor are we under the impression that we are anywhere but, basically, at the starting line. But, this month, we published an expanded version of the Flypaper, providing an update to the Blackbird community—you—on what we have done so far. In short:

• Pay with $FLY is live Not only can you now pay with Blackbird simply by checking in and opening a check from the app (using the card you have on file), but you can put your $FLY balance toward meals at an ever-growing number of participating Blackbird restaurants.
• You can load $FLY with USDC As you know, you earn $FLY with every check-in and payment you make, but you can now also purchase $FLY with USDC. Soon, you’ll also be able to purchase $FLY directly in-app with the card you have on file in your Blackbird wallet.
• We’ve reduced processing fees for restaurants Each time a user pays with Blackbird, they save restaurants money as we offer our partners reduced processing fees designed to defray operating costs and make them more profitable over time. Furthermore, restaurants can accept $FLY as payment and use $FLY to incentivize guests with bespoke promotions or however else they see fit.
• Launching soon: Flynet Flynet is the network where all Blackbird transactions will live. Flynet is powered by F2, the gas token to execute transactions on the network and for third parties to deploy their own applications.

We’ve put almost 130M worth of $FLY in circulation and made it liquid for spending at Blackbird restaurants. We have run many experiments to test our understanding of how it works. If you’d like to explore the paper in full, here it is.