Social platform Stan launches Photon to reward users for their online attention

• Photon was built from Stan’s collaboration with more than 150 digital partners across games, content, and brand ecosystems.
• Nazara Games and World Cricket Championship are the first partners integrating Photon into their ecosystem.
• Photon is built on the Aptos blockchain, supporting high-speed validation and real-time settlement.

India-based social community platform Stan has launched Photon to reward users for the time and engagement they contribute online.

Stan, which has lofty ambitions to become India's Discord, said the platform's universal attention protocol lets users earn rewards by watching videos, scrolling feeds, interacting with creators, joining communities, or playing games.

Built from Stan’s work with more than 150 digital partners across games, content, and brand platforms, Photon aims to close the gap of users not being fairly rewarded for their attention and digital businesses lacking privacy-safe engagement signals.

Stan said Photon solves both problems by letting users earn rewards for their digital activity while giving apps, publishers, and advertisers signals for attribution, retention, and loyalty.

Providing value 

Nazara Games and World Cricket Championship are the first partners integrating Photon, allowing WCC players to earn rewards while giving publishers verifiable engagement and attribution. 

Built on the Aptos blockchain, the company said Photon’s use cases also extend beyond games into social platforms, creator ecosystems, and other digital products.

“As we build the next major evolution of the internet, users must be at the centre of value creation,” said Stan head of engineering Asad Ahmed. “Photon is not just a protocol; it is the foundation for a global attention ecosystem where billions of users finally share in the value they generate. 

“Backed by Aptos Labs and secured through TEEs, Photon delivers a transparent and privacy-safe attention layer that any digital app or publisher can plug into. This is how we shift the ad-tech model and return value to the people responsible for driving the digital world forward.”

Last month Stan secured new investment from the Sony Innovation fund as part of its ongoing Series A round.