Beer with Kyle Friday: Challenges Just Launched Inside Kre8or (And Why They Matter)

Hey Everyone,
Today I want to dig into challenges. The idea of challenges, how they evolved here at Wealthy Affiliate, and what just rolled out today inside Kre8or.

I also want to address something before I dive in. These discussions have been heavily AI focused and heavily Kre8or focused over the last few weeks. As we get closer to the July 1st Kre8or launch, that is going to continue for a bit. But I want to be very clear that Wealthy Affiliate is absolutely not the lost project. There is a significant rebuild happening every single day on the WA side, and once we are through the Kre8or launch, we are pivoting back into a lot more WA focused discussions. Your wants, your needs, and how we truly advance the platform to the next level.

If you are in the Kre8or beta right now, you are already getting a glimpse of what we can do with our new technical capabilities. We have integrated some of our most complex projects into Kre8or, things that would not have been possible in the old world. That same capability is what is being brought into the WA rebuild. We have to bring the technology up to speed at Wealthy Affiliate, with a proper foundation that is not just twenty years of code bolted together. We want to start fresh with something we can build on rapidly, suited for the new world.

Alright, let's get into it.

This Week's Beer.

Today's beer is a really good one. Mexican Lime Lager by Category 12, a local brewery here in Victoria. About 4.5% ABV, and it has a built in lime flavor. If you like a Corona with a lime, you are going to like this one because the lime is baked right in. Great summer beer, not too heavy.

I am pouring this carefully because I already wrecked one keyboard this year by spilling a beer on it. Lost the whole computer that day. Not doing that again. Cheers.

Where the Challenge Idea Came From.

Let me rewind a bit and walk you through how challenges actually came to be.

When generative AI for imagery first came out, it was honestly not great. People had seven fingers. Text just did not work at all. Carson and I had a conversation back then about what it would mean if this technology ever got to the point where you could create anything and incorporate any text reliably. We both felt the same way... being able to take an idea in your head and translate it into a visual in seconds is genuinely incredible.

We wanted to run with that. That belief led to us building Image Studio at Wealthy Affiliate. From there came the weekly challenges. And from using those challenges ourselves, remixing other people's work, remixing our own work, we ended up creating Kre8or. A bit more than a pet project at this point, but built entirely on the idea of people's imaginations and being able to bring them to life.

The business use cases for this are everywhere. Interior designers, logo creation, marketing and ad campaigns, Pinterest, websites, blogs. I have barely scratched the surface. There are probably millions of practical applications for visual creation in business.

But beyond all of that is the artist in all of us. That is one of the biggest pulls of the platform. Watching creativity build off creativity is something special.

The Current WA Challenge.

Right now there is an active challenge running here at Wealthy Affiliate. Build your own dream office or workspace. It is two days old and already has 913 comments. Pretty fun concept. I have personally built somewhere around 10 to 15 different offices and workspaces since this challenge started, and you will see some of them in the post as well as inside Kre8or.

That activity, that level of engagement, is exactly what we wanted to build on. The problem is that running challenges through blog comments means I am manually going through votes. It works, but it does not scale.

So as of today, we have built a more streamlined challenge system directly into Kre8or. No more relying on comments. No more manual vote tracking. It uses pairwise voting so the community decides the winner in a way that is genuinely fair.

Challenges Are Live Inside Kre8or!

Let me walk you through it. If you are in the Kre8or beta, you already have access to this. If you are not yet in the beta, July 1st is when we are rolling it out to the wider community, and you will have access to take part in challenges with a fun little offer to get you started.

When I jump into Kre8or, you can see the activity. Lots of remixing happening. The Kre8or logo is everywhere right now because people are riffing off it. I also see my own bobble head showing up on a Raptors jersey and a Blue Jays jersey, and then somebody remixed me into what looks like a summer suit. Not sure what is going on there but I have officially been remixed.

This is the creative element I keep talking about. You are going to love this part of the platform.

How the New Challenges System Works.

Inside the Challenges menu, I have a sample challenge set up with an initial seed of $68. Here is how it works.

If you click into the challenge, you can see a few design issues that are getting cleaned up within the next 30 minutes. The text is not quite readable yet, but the system is functional.

A few things to note about this particular challenge. I cannot enter it because I created it. That is intentional. It would not be fair for me to host a challenge AND submit to it, because I would have time to plan and prepare entries in advance. Down the road, we are going to let certain trusted members host their own challenges based on their status inside Kre8or and inside the community.

Entries cost 500 credits each, and every entry adds to the prize pool. This particular challenge runs for seven days, followed by a five day voting period. Once the entries are closed, you start to see and vote on the submissions. There is going to be a live scoreboard as the votes come in.

The Voting System Is Where This Gets Interesting.

Here is one of the coolest parts of the challenges environment. Voters are going to get a percentage of the prize pot.

The breakdown looks like this. A percentage goes to the voters. A percentage goes to the host. The biggest percentage is split among the winners. And everyone who takes part in the challenge gets some kind of kickback. Top three are most heavily rewarded, but participation is rewarded across the board.

The voting itself uses pairwise voting. Think of it as this versus that. You keep choosing between two images at a time and the system builds a ranking from all those head to head matchups.

And here is the part I think you are really going to like. As a voter, you are rewarded based on the ACCURACY of your votes. If your voting profile aligns with the actual outcomes at a high rate, you earn more from the platform. If your votes consistently match what the broader community chooses, your voter ranking goes up and your ability to earn through voting goes up with it. Picking winners at 80% accuracy will earn you significantly more than picking at 50%.

It will make a lot more sense once you are in there voting and submitting entries yourself.

Hosting Challenges Is Coming.

Within the month of July, we are likely rolling out the ability for others to host challenges. Brands hosting challenges. Independent creators hosting challenges. A lot of times there is going to be a practical purpose to hosting one... you get all the creative minds inside Kre8or building content around your topic.

Imagine being able to seed a challenge for your business and having potentially hundreds of people creating visuals you can then download and use in your campaigns. That is a powerful unlock for any creator or business owner.

Why We Built the Economy This Way.

Here is why challenges and the broader Kre8or economy matter so much to us.

We are in a world where there is real fear around AI taking jobs, doing work faster and better than humans. We wanted to build something that creates an economy and ADDS value rather than taking things away. That has been one of the foundational goals of Kre8or from day one. Build something where you can earn revenue by being creative. Rise to the top by being a top creator. Get rewarded for participation, not just for being first in line.

Between the affiliate program with its seamless free entry point, the remix economy, and now the challenge system, there are real, tangible ways to be rewarded for creativity inside Kre8or.

Now I Want to Hear From You.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. Do you love challenges? What have you liked about the existing WA challenges, what could be better, what would you love to see inside Kre8or as we evolve this system?

All feedback is good feedback. This is how we build.

If you are in the beta right now, jump into the new Kre8or challenge and submit your entries. This particular challenge is likely going to still be live when the July 1st invite launch happens, so there will be plenty to come participate in.