Web 3.0 is in its infancy, but one of the most attractive components of this emerging iteration of the internet is the idea of equal ownership.
While platforms like Facebook & Instagram have made it possible for creators to build a fanbase and interact with different communities, creators also give up a ton of data and are at the mercy of the social platforms; Should they lock you out of your account, shadow-ban you, or deprioritize your content you suddenly lose the momentum that you’ve worked so hard to build.
Web 3.0 changes everything by putting the community back In the hands of creators.
And what’re the mechanisms fueling that change you ask? Well… it’s tokens.
I first learned about tokens a few months ago when I stumbled across a social token platform named Fyooz – they partnered with rapper Lil Yachty to offer Yachty coins. At the time each coin was $16 and fans were encouraged to collect them to unlock special perks from the Lil boat himself. Genius, no?
Huh, that sounds interesting… But exactly what is a token?
Tokens or “coins” are essentially NFTs, meaning they live on the blockchain. You can create 100 of them if you want, or even 1,000,000. It’s totally up to the creator, and they aren’t that hard to make or distribute. A coin’s initial value is left up to the creator to decide, but much like stocks, they can fluctuate depending on demand. And like NFTs, they’re used for everything from collectibles to redeemable items and even for crowdfunding.
So how do you use them?
Meet Alex Masmej
An interesting use case that I and some friends from work were discussing centered around the example of Alex Masmej, who created his own social token $Alex when he ran into some financial challenges and was hoping to raise money. By purchasing the token owner’s could redeem an hour of Alex’s time as a freelancer or even vote to control his morning routine (which is a little Black Mirror-ish)
Overall, Alex raised over $20,000 and his tokens are still available via his website — But guys, if you’re going to control his morning routine, let’s keep it classy. Don’t do anything your parents wouldn’t do or something like that.
Friends With Benefits
In another post, I talked about the DAO Friends With Benefits and the super dope community they are building over there. Their DAO is a great example of how tokens can work to build an economy for the creators. For those unaware, to gain membership access to the DAO, you have to fill out an application and purchase 75 $FWB tokens. Afterward, you have to buy tokens to participate, but you are rewarded for your participation, as well. It’s pretty dope, and it allows for the group to operate in transparency and fairness.
Why it Matters
A shift in power dynamics
Tokens are exciting because they represent a leveling of the playing field for creatives. A musician can bypass the label structure and gain support directly from their community, a freelancer looking to travel the world can tokenize her skillset to reap the true value of it, and without using a 3rd party platform. A DAO can reward its day ones (and twos, and threes) for their work in spreading the mission of the community, and much more.
Decentralization
With huge corporate structures, anytime services haven’t been rendered or an issue with customer satisfaction arises you have to jump through hoops; Often the customer has to become Johnnie “on the spot’“ Cochran to even get just a little cooperation hearing phrases like:
“Did you save the receipt?”
“Our policy clearly states that we hate our customers”
“We don’t have a record of that”
The decentralized nature of blockchain means that every transaction is transparent and readily viewable on a ledger. Take $Alex tokens example for instance. If you buy $Alex we check the ledger to see when that transaction took place. If you sent those tokens back to Alex but never got the promised work we can now see where the communication breakdown happened because everything isn’t cloak and dagger. In essence, we all have receipts.
How Can Brands Get Involved?
The easy way for any brand to get involved is to create its own token. Give it a try, at worst no one buys the tokens, and that’s okay. BUT, what if they do? It could represent a shift in your business model and maybe even start a trend in your industry. There are tons of videos out there about how to create a token (we’ll drop one below), and once you get the coding sh*t out of the way you can focus on story-building (the why, how, and all that stuff)
Lastly, think of tokens as a way to build a community. What do you want people to know about your brand? Do you have an offering for super fans or insiders? Maybe tokens can be the way to reward them;
Seems low risk, high reward if you ask me but I’m just a dude from Zone 6. All we had was Marta tokens.
If you do decide to dive into the world of tokens, hit me up – I may wanna buy a few.
Peace!