How Soho launched spam detection 90% faster with SimpleHash

Based out of New York City, Soho is a Web3 mobile platform designed to help collectors and creators see what’s happening with NFTs. Founded in 2022 by a team from Instagram, Soho is backed by notable VCs and angels, including Khosla Ventures, Collab+Currency, 6529 Capital, Cozomo de' Medici, and more.

"For Soho, it was much faster and more efficient to use an off-the-shelf solution like SimpleHash for detecting spam collections than to spend time and capital building it ourselves." - Omid Aziz, Co-Founder and CEO of Soho

Challenge

Soho needed to eliminate spam NFT collections fast — without spending significant capital

In the NFT space, countless collections come and go. Unfortunately, some may be unsolicited airdrops or misrepresent another popular collection. These spams and scams were on the rise during the bull market and affected data quality in Soho's app. So, the team searched for a way to automatically mark collections as spam. 

They tried a variety of services, but none were particularly robust. They even considered building a solution in-house, but they would have to spend a significant amount of time and capital to achieve the standards they wanted. That process in and of itself was getting in the way of focusing on core product experiences and scaling their user base. 

Solution

SimpleHash offers superior data quality and spam-scoring models

Once Soho decided to buy rather than build, SimpleHash's robust data quality and database of collections outshone their market competitors. Even more, SimpleHash absorbed user feedback via their API and scraped data to build the best spam-scoring model possible — a far superior method by Soho’s standards. 

Implementing the API was quick and low-lift, whereas building an in-house model would’ve taken months of engineering work, plus maintenance costs to track new collections. 

Since onboarding, the team at Soho has been impressed by SimpleHash’s sophisticated, accurate scoring. They’ve since leveraged those scores across their app to seamlessly downgrade and warn users about spam collections. 

"Not only was the quality of SimpleHash's spam scores better than their competition’s, they also covered many more collections than other APIs. Some had great data quality, but they didn't cover enough collections to be useful for us." - Kunal Naik, Senior Software Engineer at Soho

Results

SimpleHash dramatically reduces time & labor costs

Since partnering up with SimpleHash, the Soho team has seen impressive results like: 

• Launching spam detection in 1 week instead of 3 months, a 90% savings
• Saving $45,000 in research and engineering work

SimpleHash’s impact even goes beyond the numbers, as Soho has distinctly improved their user experience. The team has received very positive feedback from their community, as people enjoy being warned about potential spam collections and excluding them from portfolio valuations. 

The Future

SimpleHash elevates the Soho user experience for the long haul

To date, SimpleHash has become an inextricable part of the Soho team. Our API automatically updates their spam scores and constantly runs jobs to generate new data, enabling them to deliver a beloved, spam-free user experience. 

Ultimately, Soho looks forward to leveraging many more of SimpleHash’s API capabilities, such as upcoming features for supporting cross-chain listings and releasing portfolio values and metrics.