The internet is filled with online communities—forums, social networks, and specialized apps—each catering to specific interests. Yet, these spaces are often driven by algorithmic feeds dominated by influencer personalities that silo users with one-directional engagement. Many users provide valuable content and interactions without ever influencing their community’s evolution or realizing the benefits from their contributions. Moreover, finding trustworthy information about interests and products has been completely subsumed by SEO optimized blogs. These blogs aim to appease google website crawlers with drivel AI content rather than valuable information for users.
More and more, apps and articles are designed to accelerate empty consumption rather than authentic discovery and connection. There is an opportunity to rethink how we consume and engage with the things we care about, and how the internet can maintain the integrity of our platforms. These two concepts – information engagement and platform infrastructure – form the core architecture for Padelholm and the larger Clubholm vision.
Designed from the ground-up by players, coaches, fans, and new padel enthusiasts, Padelholm champions an organic strategy built by local power users first. Users connect through familiar core features like chat, video content, and articles, in a unified platform that wraps their favorite things together.
People love their passions, and Padelholm is driven by players who can’t get enough of the sport. Example communities that follow a similar approach include FerrariChat, an online forum since the early 2000s specifically for people who own Ferraris, and FishBrain, an app for anglers where users share pictures of fish they have caught in their local waterways.
Fundamental to this user-first approach is a belief that blockchain technology will invert ownership on the internet from company-owned platforms into decentralized communities owned by the individual users. A recent video by Tim Roughgarden discusses the internet as a decentralized piece of technology (you can’t call up the CEO of the internet) and how blockchain technology is creating a shared virtual computer built on top of the internet.
As a platform premised upon shared interests and authentic user interactions, Padelholm is uniquely positioned to build itself on the shared virtual computer of blockchains. This will allow Padelholm to utilize blockchain’s ownership and governance benefits to maintain a healthy and sustainable community platform.
The initial core Padelholm features are developing over-time into an abstracted framework on blockchain ledgers – spreadsheets maintained by the internet – to record community involvement. This will store actions on the blockchain, and form the basis for rewards, recognition, and cross-community interoperability in the future.
Beyond padel, the Clubholm ecosystem will encompass a spectrum of interests—sports, arts, gastronomy, wellness, and more—linked by a shared infrastructure that makes earned value portable. A user’s cumulative activity in Padelholm can unlock opportunities in another Clubholm community, encouraging a fluid, evolving journey through diverse domains.