The Creator Driven Community

it's me

# Welcome to Issue #10!

**I made it to 10!** - #SmallWins!

**3 new people** joined us this week. Howdy!

2 or 3 new people a week doesn't seem like much. But my family gives a little “Woo Hoo!” every time I announce a new subscriber.


---

# Not an Ad

One day I will figure out a way to get some outside funding for this project. Until then, this newsletter is sponsored by me.

If you’d like to show your support, there are a few things you can do:

* **Share this newsletter!** Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, your favorite Discord server…
* Reply to this message with your questions, comments and thoughts. I’d like to open up a little space for this community. But I’m not gonna do that until I know there’s someone at the other end of the line who wants to talk.
* Reply to this message and give me your advice on how I can make the newsletter more valuable. (I appreciate those of you who have been generous enough to do this. I’m doing my best to put your suggestions into action.)

If someone shared this with **you**, thank that person for me, and then [subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)


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## Web3 - ELI5

**Doxed** - This is when the identity of a previously anonymous or pseudonymous person or team is made known to the public.

Web3 makes it pretty easy (for those who want to) to operate anonymously. Many times a person or team is doxed against their will. This can happen because their project is extremely successful. But in most cases, it’s because they’ve done something bad and the general public wants to know where to assemble with their pitchforks and torches.

When a team doxes themselves willingly, it’s seen as a sign of good faith. It’s meant to help build trust between themselves and their potential customers.


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[Last week](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/its-all-tokens-part-5-erc-1155) we explored how ERC-1155 tokens could be used to create a token design for a Web3 racing game. This week I had planned to brainstorm some of the ways our game could drive revenue after launch.

But then I got to thinking about the launch itself.

This is such an important part of any project. It deserves a little more attention. And, of course, I have some ideas about how things could be done differently.

## Pre-Launch Signaling

In addition to marketing, there are two main concerns we should address before launch. First, we want to alleviate any fears of a [rug-pull](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/rug-pull). Second, we don’t want to be accused of being a Ponzi or an unregistered security.

\- Obligatory Disclaimer -

Before we go on, I feel like I should remind you that this is a fictional project. **We hired fictional lawyers**.  If you’re working on a *real* project, you should hire a ***[real](https://twitter.com/mitchjackson)* [lawyer](https://twitter.com/mitchjackson)** who understands Web3, NFTs and Crypto so you can get some *real* advice.

\-End Disclaimer-

Back to the game.

We decide the best way to create trust and stay on the right side of the law is to have a fully functioning game on launch. Our NFTs are the access keys to the ecosystem, not a speculative investment in the company. As soon as our users buy their NFTs, they can start racing. In fact, as part of the marketing campaign, we sent out some “Qualifying Passes” to our biggest pre-mint supporters so they could try out the game (and tell everyone else how great it is).

As far as we’re concerned, $FUEL is a utility token that players can use inside the game to buy, sell, and trade NFTs. If they decide to create secondary markets outside the world of our game, that’s their business and their right.

The product is real. The tokens have utility. Let’s sell some NFTs.

## Launch

This is where most projects bring in the lion’s share of their revenue. The initial sale of their NFTs brings in a lump sum that can repay the founders and developers for all their hard work.

This is the goal of our launch. so how do we reach our goal in a way that leaves everyone happy at the end of the day?

Let's look at some scenarios.

**Scenario 1** - “A La Cart with a Side of Anarchy”

When it comes time to launch, we could release all the NFTs at once. But that would be complete chaos. People who don’t even have a Driver NFT would be minting Cars and Upgrades. And there would be Drivers with no Cars.

People would be pissed. Let’s not do that.

**Scenario 2 -** “Everything A La Cart, but One Course at a Time”

The first course would be the Driver mint. The current formula dictates that this would be a random mint with traits that appear at different levels of rarity. But we’ve built rarity into the system by limiting the availability of different cars and performance upgrades.

So why not let each user create a custom Driver NFT? It’s not to hard to make this happen. The [Song-A-Day DAO](https://songaday-world-6s59be49p-songadao.vercel.app/mint-pfp/) is working on just such a concept. When we mint our PFPs we’ll have a chance to choose between several options for the Background, Face, Head Shape and other embellishments. Once a combination of these traits is claimed, it can’t be minted again.

This allows each of the certified members to create a unique membership card in the form of a PFP. It also leaves the door open to adding users in the future without effecting the rarity of each player’s Driver NFT.

Once each player has a Driver, they’ll move on to the Car course. Then the Upgrades... And at the end of the process we’ve made all the basic assets of the game available to the users.

This strategy has its own problems.

* **It feels extractive.** We’ve just opened the doors and we’re already nickel and dime-ing our customers. That’s two separate purchases just to get basic access to the game.
* **Mint fatigue.** Asking people to return for mint after mint will drain their enthusiasm. And some buyers may get locked out of game-play if they can afford to mint a Driver, but not a Car.

I think we can come up with something better.

**Scenario 3 -** “All Inclusive”

Why not throw in everything you need to play at the beginning?

Once our users mint their custom Driver NFT, they get airdropped a “Garage” randomly filled with cars, upgrades and an equal share of the in-game currency, $FUEL.

Why would this work to our advantage?

* **It Feels Like a Good Deal -** Instead of buying a Driver NFT just to gain the privilege of minting the rest of the assets, you give people access to every feature of the game (even the premium ones) from the start.
* **Kickstart the Game Economy -** By giving each player a car, a collection of upgrades, and a little spending money, you’ve given them all the tools they need to start playing the game. And by playing I don’t mean just racing. The car in their garage may not be the one they were hoping for. Or maybe the cosmetic upgrade doesn’t suit them. An equally exciting aspect of the game will be finding and trading for the perfect setup.
* **Royalties -** ERC-1155 supports royalties. This is the first source of ongoing revenue. On the surface, giving away all the extras might seem like a lost opportunity. After all, buyers who are content with the NFTs they get from the mint will just head to the track and start racing. And we plan to include few tracks that can be used for free. So this will be the path that some players will take.

  But those extra assets will have value to the other players. If a basic game player doesn’t care about a cool paint job, or is content to drive on the included tracks with a stock Car, they can sell their unwanted Cars and Upgrades on the open market. As drivers trade to build the perfect car, we collect a little off the top to help keep things running.

## Loot for Adventurers

If you're skeptical that a strategy like this would work, you should look into the [Loot Project](https://www.lootproject.com) by [Dom Hoffman](https://twitter.com/dhof).

Loot Bags were a free-to-mint project that were intended to be a seed for an on-chain role playing game. Each NFT contained a randomly generated list of eight items you might find in a fantasy game. It was left up to the community to figure out how they could be used.

And the crowd went wild!

The average sale price of a Loot NFT peaked at just over $75K USD within a week of launch and has since leveled off at around $6000. According to this [Dune Analytics Dashboard created by @timshel](https://dune.com/timshel/Loot-Ecosystem), the loot ecosystem has generated 5.6 Million Eth in trades since it was launched.

The Loot community has only recently decided to collect a 5% royalty from these trades. If Dom had done this from launch, he could have collected more than 284K Eth or $454 Million USD as of August 2022.

## What now?

We built the game. We sold the NFTs. Our players are playing. And thanks to our token design, they’re also trading, which is already generating royalties. As long as the game is played, the royalties will come in. But what started as a flash flood will eventually calm to a gentle stream. It’s going to take more than that to keep the game running.

How will we pay for our web servers? Our community moderators and support staff won’t work for free.

Next week, we’ll explore some of the ways we can build a recurring revenue stream. We’ll look for a solution that makes us happy and adds value to the player experience at the same time.


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**Thank you** for reading all the way to the end.

If you are thinking about launching an NFT project and need help with your token strategy, I’m available for consulting.

Just reply to this email and let me know you’re interested in a call.


---

This week’s [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-22-08-06) covers a range of subjects.

* Frictionless NFT credit card sales
* Community dashboards
* Thread on the emerging Community Designer role
* Legal playbook for DAO token design and how Creators should be thinking about the “Dewey Test”
* New Web3 Analytics Platform
* Community engagement in the world of Web3


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## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **68**

Total Alpha Claims: **20** (Someone’s been reading the back issues. I’m impressed!)


---

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

 (Token) Game Theory - Part 1 - Launch

# Welcome to Issue #9!

And welcome to the newcomer who is building the dip with us!

Remember… **Sharing Is Caring**. 

Don’t keep this newsletter a secret.


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## The Semi-Fungible Token Standard

**ERC-1155** expands the utility of NFTs by combining the functionality of ERC-20s and ERC-721s into a single token standard. Let’s review…

**ERC-20** - A single contract is used to create multiples of a token that all share the same TokenID (the contract address). Each coin is exactly the same and is fully fungible.

You can get a little more detail on ERC-20s [here](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/erc-20).

**ERC-721** - A single contract defines a group of tokens. The contract address defines the group, but each token in the group gets a unique TokenID. Each Token is unique and non-fungible and, therefore, a true NFT.

I covered ERC-721’s in more depth [here](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/erc-721) and [here](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/erc-721-variations).

## **Best of Both Standards**

With **ERC-1155**, one contract defines multiple groups of tokens. Each group is described by a unique TokenID.

If the group has only one token in it, it’s treated as an ERC-721. It is unique and non-fungible.

If the group contains multiple tokens, then the tokens in that group are treated like ERC-20s. Each token gets the same TokenID and any token from that group is completely interchangeable with the other tokens in the same group.

## Built For Fun

I should probably provide a point by point rehash of all the capabilities of those other tokens.

Yawn.

This standard has gained the most traction with on-chain games. So let’s build a token model for a car racing game.

## The Tokens

The assets used in the game are all NFTs. Let’s take look at what tokens we might use to describe  the game.

* Drivers
* $FUEL
* Cars
* Cosmetic Upgrades
* Performance Upgrades

Now let’s take a look at how we might use a single ERC-1155 smart contract to create all these tokens.

## Drivers

To play this game, you need to own a Driver NFT. Since each player of the game will have a different style of play, we want to make sure each driver is unique.

Let’s assume we’ve decided to limit play to 10,000 drivers.

To create our Driver NFTs we’ll need to put a single Driver in each one of the first 10,000 groups/TokenIDs. Since each TokenID is connected to a single Driver, each Driver is treated as an NFT.

At this point we’ve used TokenIDs 0-9999. Now let’s create a utility token that can be used as currency inside the game.

## $FUEL

It takes energy to race a car. So were going to run this whole ecosystem on $FUEL.

$FUEL should behave as a fungible token, so we’ll need to assign the entire supply (let’s say 100 million) to the next available TokenID (number 10,000).

## Cars

You gotta have a cars if you want to race. For the purposes of this game, we’re going to allow our drivers to choose between 6 different cars.

I know. This isn’t very realistic. When you build your racing game, you can add as many as you like.

Some cars are more common. Some, not so much. We represent this rarity by minting each type of car in differing quantities.

So we’ll create our Car tokens like this:

* TokenID 10,001 → 10000 Ford Mustangs
* TokenID 10,002 → 1000 Toyota Supras
* TokenID 10,003 → 500 Chevy Corvettes
* TokenID 10,004 → 250 - Porsche 911’s
* TokenID 10,005 → 10 - Acura NSXs
* TokenID 10,006 → 1 - Lamborghini Huracán ([before they blew it up](https://twitter.com/SHL0MS/status/1494446592463720448))

In this example each model of car is distinct from the others.  So inside the game, each model can have its own set of specifications. The Corvettes are going to perform differently than the Acuras.

But, inside each model type, the individual car tokens are completely interchangeable. The game treats every Supra the same way. It can only tell it’s **your** Supra, because it’s in **your** wallet.

So each of the car models gets treated as a fungible token except the Lambo. It’s the only token assigned to that ID, so it’s a true NFT.

## Cosmetic Upgrades

Since each car inside a model type is exactly the same, they create a blank canvas for a driver to express their style. No one wants to drive the same boring car as everyone else. So, much like Fortnite, our game will offer skins for the cars.

These could be as simple a basic paint job, or as ridiculous as turning your car into a galloping unicorn.

If we’re talking about paint, each color or design would get it’s own TokenID. The quantity of each would determine the rarity of the skin. 

## Performance Upgrades

Since all of the cars inside a model group are fungible, all the Mustang NFTs will perform the same way. But, if you add an Engine Upgrade Token to the wallet holding your Mustang, you might be able to outrun a Porsche.

There are thousands of real and imaginary ways to change the performance of a car. Each one will need it’s own TokenID, but inside that TokenID, you could create as many copies of the upgrade as you like.

The combination of upgrades is limitless. So each driver has the ability to build a truly unique car.

## Bottom Line

The ability to mint multiple token types in a single transaction is the feature that sets ERC-1155s apart. But there are a few other features to consider.

* 1155s are cheaper to move because the standard allows for batch transfers of tokens.
* Just like ERC-721 NFTs, the creators of 1155s can code royalties into their tokens.
* Shared TokenIDs can make token gating more difficult. So you’ll need to make each of your token groups distinct enough to sort them the way you like. As an alternative, you could use the combination of different token types to create a more exclusive gating structure.

ERC-1155 has struggled to gain mainstream adoption. But if your project requires a token model that is a little more complicated than a Social Token or a PFP Collection, it’s worth your time to take a look.

## You might be interested…

… in this week’s [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-week-ending-july-23-2022)


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## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **65**

Total Alpha Claims: **17**


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I had a lot of fun writing this week’s issue. Please let me know if you enjoyed it.

Next week I’ll be exploring all the Web3 ways we could turn this game into an actual business.

**Thank you** for reading!


---

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

\


It's ALL Tokens - Part 5 - ERC-1155

# Welcome to Issue #8!

Did you miss me last week? I sure hope so. If not, then I’m doing something wrong.

I went on vacation with my family. It was our first in several years.

I packed my tablet and a very rough draft of this issue. I had every intention of finishing it up and sending it out.

But our vacations have a tendency to be… well… exhausting.

There were mountains to climb, waterfalls to discover, and rivers to paddle. Between all the adventures and the crazy heat, I didn’t have much energy left at the end of each day.

So this issue is a week late. But it covers a topic that many of you have asked about. I hope it was worth the wait.

We picked up two subscribers in the last two weeks. Slow growth is still growth. :)


---

## Paragraph.xyz: Web3-Ready Newsletters and Blogs

**#NotSponsored**

When I first announced that I would be writing this newsletter, many of you asked about the platform I chose.

So, as promised, here’s a closer look at what I was seeking in a Web3 publishing platform and how Paragraph filled the bill.

**Web3 functionality built in** - This is a community focused on learning and using Web3. Whatever I chose should be actively working to incorporate this technology into it’s product.

When I signed up for Paragraph, the only real Web3 functionality was the ability to create an account with a wallet instead of a user name and password.

This might not sound like much, but this is how everything will work in the not-too-distant future.

You won’t store user id’s and passwords on dozens of sites. Instead, your wallet (and the ability to prove you own it) will act as a universal user id and password that travels with you throughout the web. It’ll be the contents of that wallet that determine what you can access from site to site.

And the platform isn’t standing still. In the 8 weeks since I’ve started sending out newsletters Paragraph has added several new Web3 features.

* Token gated content - You can use ERC-20 tokens or NFT’s.
* Newsletter and blog segmentation - This lets your readers self select into niche communities or topics.
* **Free NFT Minting** - This is a big deal. Minting your own tokens can be an intimidating step for creators who are new to Web3. I’m still experimenting with this feature. But it only makes sense that a platform offering token gating should help you create those tokens.

They’ve got some additional features planned in the near future that will be helpful too.

* Snapshot voting - If you want to build a community, they should be involved in your decisions. Snapshots are a transparent, token gated voting method that gives the members of your community a voice.
* Royalties and Airdrops - This will allow you to reward your community for reading and sharing your work. There are plenty of providers for these services, but having them built in to your primary distribution platform will be really helpful.

**FYI**: At the time I made my choice, Paragraph’s only solid competition in Web3 native publishing was Mirror.xyz. There may be some other players now. If you know of, or discover one, please let me know.

**SEO** - I would rather optimize my writing for humans than algorithms. And I have no interest in applying all the “tips, tricks, and hacks” to grow this community. So my content better be easy to find.

This is where Paragraph shows promise over Mirror. Unless I’m sent there by someone else, I can’t find anything on Mirror. Posts on Paragraph are optimized for SEO, so I know people will find me when they search.

**Blog + Newsletters in a single platform** - I want to ship newsletters. But if I cover more than one topic in an issue, I want to break each subject into separate, searchable posts for a blog.

Paragraph gives me the option to send out a newsletter or post only to the blog.

**Audience segmentation through tokens** - If it has to do with the intersection of Web3 and The Creator Economy, it’s fair game for this newsletter. But you may only be interested in Web3 Music. There should be a way for community members to filter the content.

Paragraph allows me to create separate, niche communities under a single content umbrella. I can give away or sell NFT’s that allow access to specific topics within the larger scope of this community.

This would allow me to create and sell (or give away) “Creator-Driven Music” NFT’s. If you hold one, and I write about a new Music NFT project, you get that issue of the newsletter. If the next issue is all about a Web3 video sharing platform, I won’t be cluttering your inbox that week.

**Community publishing** - Right now Creator-Driven is just me. But the Web3 space is exploding with projects and ideas. As this community grows, there will be members who can offer insights into creative niches where I might not have any experience. I hope to offer a space for those members to share their thoughts.

Paragraph is built to easily allow a team of writers to contribute to a single publication.

**Paid subscriptions** - I’m not sure this is the route I want to go, but I want to make sure this is an option. I also wanted people to be able to pay with traditional payments or more Web3 friendly methods.

Paragraph offers subscriptions that can be paid with a credit card or crypto.

You can also manage access with token gating. Paragraph’s token gating works with any NFT or ERC-20 token on Ethereum or Polygon. So I can use their built in token minting capability or mint my own subscriber tokens and manage access through a platform like Unlock Protocol.

**Committed to privacy** - I don’t like being tracked and I don’t want to spy on my readers. This is counter to the current culture of content marketing, but it’s completely aligned with the people who I hope to reach.

The only piece of personal information required to subscribe to a newsletter on Paragraph is an email address. As wallet to wallet messaging comes on line, all you’ll really need is a wallet address.

If you plan to earn revenue from your newsletter through traditional advertising, this may be a deal breaker. Though your posts on Paragraph are Google Analytics friendly, there’s no way to track open rates.

But the future of ad sponsored media in Web3 will rely on much more than email open rates. Advertisers will be looking for value in direct interactions with your community through on-chain attestations or “Proof of Attention”.

If payouts are based on readers proving they saw or interacted with the ad, each click will be much more valuable to your sponsors. The challenge will be providing the right incentives to get your community to respond. This is where tokens can be used to create incentive systems that have previously been unavailable to smaller scale creators.

**Minimally extractive** - I’m willing to pay for a service, but it needs to be reasonable.

If your Newsletter is free, Paragraph is free too. No limited feature set. No subscriber caps. It’s just free.

If you use Paragraph’s subscription payment system, they charge 5% on all subscriptions. This is half the cost of Web2 competitors like Substack.

**Minimal platform risk / Censorship resistant** - As long as you have their permission, you should be able to reach your readers at any time. No one else should decide who accesses your content.

With Paragraph, you own your subscriber list. You can easily download it at any time.

Your content is protected too. Each time you post or send out a newsletter, you have the option to publish directly to Arweave, a decentralized data storage system. Arweave storage is permanent. Your posts can never be deleted.

## What about the editor and advanced publishing features?

You may have noticed that none of my criteria had anything to do with the nuts and bolts of publishing.

I’ve never written and distributed a newsletter.

I had no idea what I needed there.

I knew that signing up and publishing content was the only way I would figure that out. I also knew that I would adapt to any system I chose. There was no right or wrong choice… I had to pick one and **make it** the right choice.

I’ve found Paragraph’s editor to be simple, but getting more robust with each release. This is fine with me. If I signed up for a more mature platform, I would be overwhelmed and unlikely to use all the features. It’s already hard enough to get the words out of my head and onto the screen. I don’t need to add more steps.

I also like the idea of growing alongside the platform. By participating in Paragraph’s Discord community, I have access and insight into a developing product that I’ve never had before.

## **Bottom Line**

Paragraph is a platform with a clean and simple editor that is working to bring Web3 functionality to the creators of newsletters and blogs.


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## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **64**

Total Alpha Claims: **17**


---

No Alpha this week. I was able to do a little bit of reading and listening last week, but there’s still a lot to catch up on.

**Thank you** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

Writing with Paragraph.xyz

Welcome to **Issue #7!**

We brought one more weary traveler in from the cold of the Crypto Winter this week.

Some of you shared last week’s newsletter. Thank you for that. It made a noticeable difference in traffic to the blog.


---

This is Part 4 in a multi-part series on different types of tokens and how they can be used.

You can read the other entries in the series here:

* [Part 1: Intro and Vocabulary](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/its-all-tokens-part-1)
* [Part2: ERC-20s (aka Crypto-Currencies)](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/its-all-tokens-part-2)
* [Part 3: ERC-721 (aka NFTs)](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/its-all-tokens-part-3-erc-721)

This week we’re taking a look at a few popular ERC-721 variations.

## ERC-721 Variations

Even though there are basic standards in place, the code that governs these tokens is constantly evolving. Development teams are always looking for ways to customize the code to meet the unique demands of their project. Anything that increases utility or decreases computational cost draws attention. And the open nature of block-chains means that new ideas are quick to spread. These are some of the more popular, and sometimes controversial adaptations.

**[721(a)](https://www.azuki.com/erc721a)**

* Allows users to mint multiple NFTs in a batch transaction
* Created by the developers of [Azuki](https://www.azuki.com/)
* Creates a HUGE gas savings

**[721(s)](https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/erc721s-lockable-nfts/8800)**

* Creates a mechanism to secure NFTs by locking them into a wallet
* Keep NFTs in hot wallet for easy access, control lock from cold storage
* Opens doors for NFT lending, buying on installments, NFT sharing

**[721(r)](https://erc721r.org/)**

* Returnable NFTs
* Reduces purchase risk
* Makes Rug Pulls more difficult
* Funds are locked until refund period ends
* Critics claim it will not prevent “Pump and Dump” schemes


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## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **62**

Total Alpha Claims: **17**


---

Instead of reading and writing about crypto, I spent most of this week in the woods at Cub Scout Camp. So there’s not much [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-week-ending-july-9-2022) this week. But I did mange to put a few thoughts down on a new token standard.

**Thank you** for reading!

**If this newsletter was shared with you**, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

\


It's ALL Tokens - Part 4 - ERC-721 Variations

Welcome to **Issue #6!**

And welcome to the one curious soul who joined us this week.

You are literally “The Man”, Marc.


---

**Packy McCormick** writes some great stuff for his Substack, [Not Boring](https://www.notboring.co/). But he takes a broad view. And they can get pretty long.

He’s also a venture capitalist. So he writes a lot of long form advertisements disguised as “Deep Dives” for the businesses he’s invested in.

But they’re not all commercials. And in addition to being “Not Boring”, he’s also “Not Stupid”. His pieces are worth reading.

Two recent posts covered [Present](https://www.notboring.co/p/web3-use-cases-today) and [Future](https://www.notboring.co/p/web3-use-cases-the-future) Use Cases for Web3. I recommend you read them if you have the time.

I put down these thoughts as a Creator’s TL;DR for the Alphas. But it turned out to be longer than I expected.

So now it’s a Newsletter…


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## Creator Use Cases for Web3 - Today and Tomorrow

> Today, most popular web3 products are in that early \[looks like a toy\] phase. They’re not perfect, but they’re “good enough” for a certain group of users. More centralized, robust, and secure products exist that do a lot of the things that web3 products do, but that don’t serve the needs of that group well. So web3 products are finding a foothold with that group.

Does your Web3 project need the masses to survive?

Right now you’ll only reach the early adopters. If your minimum viable audience is bigger than that, you might need to hold off, or at least adjust your plans.

## Digital collectables

> NFTs give physical properties to digital items, making them unique, ownable, and tradeable, in addition to digital properties like programmability and composability. Over time, NFTs will represent things that are more useful than the things they represent today, but even today, the collectibles use case is a real one.

Will your project include NFTs? Presenting them as “Collectibles with Utility” might be a good way to bridge the divide between NFT collectors and potential Web2 converts.

> Instagram itself [announced in May](https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/instagram-digital-collectibles) that it was starting to test letting creators and collectors showcase their NFTs.

Instagram NFTs will be just another in a long line of Meta rug pulls.

I’ve been watching for the NFTs to appear on the accounts listed in the article. But I haven’t seen any. Once I get a chance to look at a few of them and the code behind them, I’ll give you my thoughts. If you find one, please let me know.

## Trading, De-Fi, blah, blah, blah…

I avoid the De-Fi (Decentralized Finance) side of crypto as much as I can. I’m not a seasoned investor. A mortgage is enough leverage for me.

But **Stablecoins** will be relevant for most Web3 creators.

As crypto payments become a bigger portion of our revenue streams, these digital currencies will allow us to collect without the added time and expense of banks and credit card processors. And we’ll want to be paid for our work in a currency that doesn't create a taxable event every time we spend it (at least in the US).

You’ll want to ask a few questions before you choose which stablecoins you’ll accept.

**Is it backed?** - Some stablecoins are backed by collateral. Others are (or were?) algorithmic stablecoins (like UST) that rely on mathematics and modeling to keep their price stable. The recent downturn in the crypto market has proven most of these algorithms to be something between unreliable and disastrous. Math may behave rationally; people don't.

Even with backed stablecoins, there are questions to be asked.

**What’s the collateral?** - There are stablecoins like [USDC](https://www.circle.com/en/usdc?utm_term=usd%20coin&utm_campaign=Yield-Search&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=2894751369&hsa_cam=15654191908&hsa_grp=138642727808&hsa_ad=605499173979&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-360340304356&hsa_kw=usd%20coin&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrKbAgvjY-AIVZBh9Ch3bxgdSEAAYASABEgJ4uvD_BwE#transparency) that are backed 100% by cash and short term US Treasuries. This collateral keeps the price of USDC pegged to the US dollar at a reliable 1:1 ratio. Inflation may suck, but having the value of your assets drop to zero in a matter of days is devastating.

Other coins are collateralized by a mixture of cash and other crypto currencies. Sometimes there’s also a little magical crypto math mixed in. The stability of these coins is tied to the stability of the larger crypto market.

It’s your treasury. Choose wisely.

## As Web3 entrepreneurs, we have our work cut out for us.

> Every new app, game, and protocol is simultaneously a mini-experiment in [economic design](https://www.notboring.co/p/designing-token-economies?s=w)…. In the early days, that means that web3 entrepreneurs face even more complexity than a traditional entrepreneur might – they need to build a great product, a thriving economy, and an attack-resistant and productive governance system.

You may not need to worry about governance right away. But if you plan to allow your community to have a say in how your business operates, you should start looking at governance models now.

## The Metaverse may sound silly, but it's already here and will become an even bigger part of our lives

> Whether the Metaverse looks like Twitter and Zoom and video games or is comprised of immersive, multiplayer virtual spaces, like [Cyber](https://oncyber.io/), being able to own items and transact with minimal friction will be important to a smoothly functioning economy.

I have to admit, I have a hard time envisioning my place inside “the metaverse.” But it’s probably because I’m working with the wrong mental model. We might already be there.

## The underlying structures built in Web3 will successfully cut out the middlemen

> …by replacing centralized aggregators with minimally extractive Hyperstructures, more value can accrue to creators and consumers, incentivizing a richer, more liquid economy.

Jacob Horne defines [Hyperstructures](https://jacob.energy/hyperstructures.html) as… “Crypto protocols that can run for free and forever, without maintenance, interruption or intermediaries.” They “are entirely on chain, and are public goods which create a positive-sum ecosystem for any participants.”

Blockchains are already giant, almost free payment systems. What other business services do you use that involve simple, automated transactions? These will be the next problems replaced by blockchain based hyperstructures and smart contracts.

## Web3 Social

This is the killer app of Web3 (Mark speaking here).

> To believe that web3 social will take off doesn’t require you to believe that any one social product would benefit from building in tokens. Instead, it requires you to believe that a well-designed social protocol – potentially a Hyperstructure itself – will give each of the more centralized, performant, and novel apps built on top of it a better shot at building and sustaining network effects by tapping into a shared social graph.

> Some apps will become really popular, others will, like so many social apps created over the past decade, get super hot early and burn out, but all will contribute to the strength and quality of the protocol’s network, making it easier for the next app to come in and tap into more users.

> …by connecting the apps, users would be able to build followings in one app that accrue to all of the other apps they use in the ecosystem.

This is why I’m not so bullish on “Creator Coins”. They have a tendency to drive communities into their own silos. There’s no network effect to be had there. A social protocol that allows communities to hold their own space while being connected to a wider pool of users and content will be much more productive.

> In this space, I’m excited about what [Farcaster](https://www.farcaster.xyz/) and [Lens Protocol](https://lenster.xyz/u/lensprotocol) are building.

I’m already watching Lens Protocol ([read my post about it here](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/lens-protocol-is-breaking-down-the-walled-gardens-of-web2-social)). I’ll have to take a look at Farcaster.

## Gaming

> Over the past year or so, game developers from AAA studios have started to build for web3, and it will take another year or two before they release their titles. These games will tap into web3 models and infrastructure where useful, and use centralized tech where necessary. Great games first, ownership as an added benefit.

> …early breakout web3 games will follow \[this\] model: top-notch gameplay, a free mode for people who just want to have fun, and a crypto-powered economy for people who want to win or earn by playing and building.

> There will need to be a lot of work to convince gamers that web3 isn’t a scam, not mainly in words, but in the way that game developers design their economies.

I enjoy games. I’m not a “gamer.” But it’s worthwhile to watch the space. We’ll all have something to learn if they can manage to overcome the gaming community’s HUGE resistance to Web3.

## Decentralized Storytelling

> …the general idea is that communities and fans of particular stories and characters can participate in creating their favorite story’s universe.

This category is trying to solve for:


1. **1 - How content and IP get funded and developed**.
2. **2 - Community involvement in world building and storytelling.**

I’ve already seen the seeds of these types of projects being planted in several communities. NFTs and smart contracts remove most of the difficulty of proper attribution and profit sharing. Open-minded creators of original work should partner with fan fiction writers. When they do, they’ll see an explosion of tiny revenue streams adding up to rivers of cash.

## Wallet-Aware Sites

When a user connects a wallet to your site, you gain access to the entire on-chain history of that account. This ranges from the current contents, like crypto currencies and NFTs, to every transaction that wallet has ever made with you and anyone else.

**Tokengated Commerce**

> Tokengated commerce connects the very real ecommerce market to web3. Tokens have the potential to add richness to the online shopping experience that makes it feel more like physical shopping.

The customer doesn’t get access to a store or product unless they hold a qualifying token. And that token could have been created by anyone. You could use this to build loyalty among your community, capitalize on the success of other brands, or lure in your competitor’s customers.

**Personalized Recommendations**

This turns the current model of marketers implanting cookies to follow you around the web on it’s head. By connecting a wallet to your site, and granting access to all that historical data, the customer has opened the door to creating an instant personalized customer experience.

**Discounts for a Cause**

What if your business could show support for a cause by offering discounts to anyone with on-chain proof of a personal donation? What if, instead of a discount, you offered to match that donation up to a certain percentage of their purchase? What if you did both?

## Challenges Going Forward

> It’s understandably hard to look at pictures of monkeys and unsustainable yields and volatility and “have fun staying poor” tweets and hundred-million-dollar hacks and think, “Yes! *This* is how we’re going to solve all of the world’s problems!” It’s even harder to imagine that the same system that produces so many frauds, scams, and rug pulls will be net good for society, especially when there are so many other pressing problems to work on.

> Ultimately, this won’t be settled by a debate. It will be settled by usage and usefulness, by whether any of the things I’ve written about here, and a whole host of others I can’t imagine, come to fruition, or if the scams, margin calls, obnoxious maxis, and frauds overwhelm the positive potential… it’s important to call out bad actors and unsustainable models… the bad stuff, by proving skeptics right and inviting overbearing regulation, can prevent the good stuff from ever happening.


---

There you have it. From 14000 words down to about 2000.

I hope I was able to add a little value… and maybe get you thinking too.


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **61**

Total Alpha Claims: **17**


---

This week’s [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-july-2-2022) is nice and short.

**Thank you** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

\


Web3 Use Cases for Creators that are "Not Boring"

## Welcome to Issue #5!

And welcome to the **6 new people** who are building the dip!

You got here early, so be sure to **claim your Alpha Status**.

Reply to this message with your public address. When we get to 100 subscribers, I want to thank y’all for joining early!

If you haven’t taken the time to **set up a wallet** yet, I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on how to do that [here](https://youtu.be/6BlVnT8y8wk).

If you’re wondering “What’s a **public address**?”, you might find this [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPu2or3lu-Y41DYdJT11jgtBcoD1w3wP) helpful.


---

# Not an Ad

This newsletter is sponsored by me.

But here’s what you can do if you’d like to help:

* Share this newsletter! - Self promotion is definitely not my thing. I’m relying on you to spread the word.
* Let me know what you think. - Reply to this message and tell me what you thought of this week’s subject.

If someone shared this with **you**, thank that person for me, and then [subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)


---

On to this week’s

# **Web3 - ELI5**

## PFP Project

PFP stands for ProFile Picture.

Beginning with the CryptoPunks, PFP projects featured pieces of art with attributes that could be interchanged and assigned with different rarities.

In the early days, the combination of low prices and low demand made it easy to pick and choose your favorite NFTs inside a collection.

Many traders would search for the NFT that looked like themselves or the persona they identified with the most. They would then use the art from their NFT as a profile picture on social media and discord channels. Some social accounts are still only known by these digital avatars. 

This was one of the only real utilities that early NFT projects offered.


---

This week we’re going back to building our token cheat sheet.

## ERC-721

This is the original standard for NFTs. Each NFT minted requires a separate transaction on the block chain. Each token is completely unique. Even if every other aspect of the token is exactly the same, each one must have a unique TokenID.

Unique TokenIDs allow for tokens from the same contract to have different attributes, which leads to the concept of rarity within a collection.

For instance, as each token is minted, TokenIDs are assigned starting at zero and increasing by one with each mint. Lower numbered TokenIDs might be more valuable because they were minted first.

Creators can also create rarity by assigning various traits, with different levels of frequency, to each token at the time of mint. This is popular with PFP projects where the art is generated by layering different features over a basic form.

ERC-721s are also useful when you need to create an NFT that represents a real world asset. That means you could mint an NFT to replace the deed to a piece of real estate. You could also use them as provenance and proof of ownership/authenticity for a rare piece of art or luxury good.

Much like minting, each transfer of a 721 must be a separate transaction in the block chain. This can add quite a bit of cost if you ever have to move your NFTs between wallets.

* Non-[Fungible](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/eli5-fungible)
* Cannot be divided (only [Fractionalized](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/eli5-nft-fractionalization))
* Can be more expensive to mint
* More expensive to move multiples between wallets
* Possible Royalties
* Proof of ownership can be useful for token gating

## How can they be used?

Much of the utility of ERC-721 tokens is the same as [ERC-20](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/its-all-tokens-part-2)s. The big exception is gas. I haven't come across a blockchain that accepts NFTs as payment for using their network.

There are infinite ways to use NFTs as part of a creative project. But you need to find the combination of utility that resonates best with your community.

## Store of value

Since they are rare (in some cases one-of-a-kind), many NFTs are treated as pieces of art. Some people use "Blue Chip" NFTs like those from the [Bored Ape Yacht Club](https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/) or [MoonBirds](https://www.moonbirds.xyz/) to store their wealth.

## Trade

Until more recently, the high cost to mint and transfer ERC-721s on Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum has made it hard to treat NFTs like currency. But the lower transaction costs of Layer 2 chains and alternative Layer 1s has made this easier to do.

Gary Vee used this concept when he airdropped 125,000 BookGames NFTs to promote sales of his latest book. Once his fans had their tokens they could redeem them for prizes ranging from sports collectables to other NFTs. The token/game theory of this launch is fascinating. I'm already researching a writeup for you on this one.

## Initial Funding

When ICOs died, NFT drops eventually took their place. An NFT speculation bubble started in 2021 and ran well into the first months of 2022. Hundreds of projects raced to launch NFT collections during this time. Some had well defined roadmaps for the utility their NFTs. Others didn't bother with much more than a Twitter account and a mint page.

Something interesting happens when NFTs are used to bootstrap a project. It reverses the model of a creator building an audience before monetizing their content. The NFT becomes the test of product-market fit. If it’s successful, the creator can move forward with an actual product. Grass-roots marketing campaigns are essential to this model.

Liquidity can be lower with NFTs. It depends on the popularity of the project. But marketplaces like OpenSea, LooksRare and MagicEden simplify the process of buying and selling.

A word of caution… There have been just as many (or more) [rug pulls](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/rug-pull) in the NFT space as there were at the peak of the ICO craze. Be sure to do plenty of research before you buy in.

## Rewards

A reward NFT can be as simple as an on chain recognition of someone's contribution or as valuable as a cash bonus. NFTs are used to reward a wide array of behaviors.

* Promoting projects to other communities
* Being an early user of a product
* Proof Of Attendance/Participation (POAP) at both live and virtual events
* Loyalty programs

## Ownership

Because each ERC-721 is unique, they can be used as proof of ownership for both digital and physical goods. Some NFTs get their value because they prove you are part of a community. Others might be a certificate of authenticity that comes with a luxury good as well as a digital twin that can be worn by your avatar inside a digital world.

The uniqueness of each token makes it easier to market them as membership cards. This helps them avoid being classified as an unregistered security.

## Governance

Many projects decide not to launch a coin (ERC-20 token) at all. Possession of an NFT is what grants voting rights. Just as with ERC-20 tokens, some projects will grant one vote per NFT while others limit each owner to one vote.

## Access

The addition of traits to tokens opens up new ways to gate access to your community and your content. Instead of using the number of tokens to grant access to different tiers, projects can use the rarity of the NFT to determine what level of access you’ll have.

## Belonging

I could have included this in the access category. But I think it warrants it's own header.

The smaller number of available tokens, and the art that is associated with them, is a natural community builder. With the possible exception of official blockchain tokens (think ETH for Ethereum or SOL for Solana) ERC-20 tokens don’t seem to have this effect. This is one of the reasons I recommend NFT’s as a starting point for Creators who want to build their communities with Web3 tools.

## Passive Income

NFT holders who are committed to owning a project can generate income through a mechanism known as **staking**. In exchange for locking their NFT into a smart contract (and removing it from the market), they receive payments from the project. This reduction in supply drives up the price of the remaining NFTs along with the valuation of the project.

## And that’s not all!

This is definitely not an exhaustive list. If you come across a use for NFTs that is interesting, confusing, or downright weird, please let me know.


---

## You might be interested...

**Tues, 6-28 11am CST -** Beyond.so [Campfire Chat](https://discord.gg/ZyY2fEbC?event=989871799850381312). - What are the first steps to starting a community? What are the early issues? An open discussion.

**Thurs, 6-30 10am CST** - Beyond.so [Twitter Space](https://discord.gg/QNK47kPU?event=989871335511576616) - Community Led Companies in Web3 with **Jessica Walker**, CMO Fluid Finance

This week’s [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-week-ending-june-24-2022).


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **63**

Total Alpha Claims: **17**


---

That’s it. See you next week.

**Thank you** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

It's ALL Tokens - Part 3 - ERC-721

# Welcome to Issue #4!

And welcome to the **2 new people** who understand that blockchain technology is about so much more than the price of Bitcoin!

You got here early, so be sure to **claim your Alpha Status**.

Reply to this message with your public address. When we get to 100 subscribers, I want to thank y’all for joining early!

If you haven’t taken the time to **set up a wallet** yet, I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on how to do that [here](https://youtu.be/6BlVnT8y8wk).

If you’re wondering “What’s a **public address**?”, you might find this [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPu2or3lu-Y41DYdJT11jgtBcoD1w3wP) helpful.


---

# Not an Ad

This newsletter is sponsored by me.

But here’s what you can do if you’d like to help:

* Share this newsletter! - Self promotion is definitely not my thing. I’m relying on you to spread the word.
* Let me know what you think. - Reply to this message and tell me what you thought of this week’s subject.

If someone shared this with **you**, thank that person for me, and then [subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)


---

On to this week’s

# **Web3 - ELI5**

## Protocol

If you hear a network acronym with a P in it, it probably stands for Protocol.

A protocol is a set of standards and rules for managing data on a network. Using a protocol can be compared to speaking a common language. I doesn't matter what hardware or software you're using. If all the parts can speak the same language and follow the same rules, they should be able to work together.

Some protocols you may have heard of:

* **IP** - Internet protocol. This protocol governs how data gets broken up onto packets for transmission. And an IP address tells everyone on the network where your data comes from and needs to go. Often preceded by...
* **TCP** - Transfer Control Protocol. This protocol allows two locations on the network to transmit data and makes sure the  packets arrive in the correct order.
* **HTTP** - HyperText Transfer Protocol. Runs on top of TCP/IP. Extends the capability of TCP/IP by standardizing how various types of media are moved across the web.


---

One of the things that drove me to look into Web3 was my growing discomfort with building a content business inside the walled gardens of Meta and YouTube. Here’s a closer look at a protocol that is building a foundation for a Web3-Native social network.

# **Lens Protocol**

[Lens Protocol](https://lens.xyz/) is a framework for building an open social network whose connections live on the blockchain. The network is viewable by anyone. And any developer who wants to use the protocol to build their own application can do so.

But before we get too far into the technical details, let's talk plants.

Lens refers to Lens Culinaris. This plant produces lens shaped pods (the lens part) that people like to eat (the culinaris part). These tasty little pods are more commonly known as lentils. Lentils were one of the first crops to be domesticated as the first human civilizations formed in the Fertile Crescent. They can grow in awful soil. And they actually make the ground more fertile for the crops planted after the lentils are harvested.

They do this through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in the soil. The lentil plant draws nitrogen out of the atmosphere and passes it to the bacteria, along with some food and oxygen. The bacteria then convert the nitrogen to a form of fertilizer and fix it in the soil. If you're the curious type, there's a pretty [cool article about it here](https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/why-is-nitrogen-fixing-bacteria-rhizobium-legume-plants-symbiosis-important.html).

So why am I describing Nitrogen Fixation to you? And why did they name their protocol after the Lentil?

Early human civilizations marked the first time people were required to manage social relationships beyond their own small tribe. Today the number and complexity of those connections have exploded. Lentils were there for the first social transformation. I guess Lens is going to be here for this one.

Lens believes that the Web2 social giants have created a system that is too centralized. Only a few private networks absorb all the content and control access to the audience. It’s become impossible for creators to flourish. We have built our digital identities inside their networks one connection, or piece of content, at a time.

And we don't own any of it.

Lens Protocol creates the framework for a new social media ecosystem. Where anyone can build and everyone owns what they publish. Much like the lentil renews the soil for other crops, Lens wants to renew a "hope for what social media can be."

So how is the Lens protocol symbiotic?

Lens doesn't have an app. It's just a set of standards. Any developer can build an app that uses these standards and plug it into the Lens ecosystem. Every piece of content uploaded through one app on the protocol is available in every other app that follows the same rules. This creates a massive content pool and the opportunity for infinite ways to contribute to and interact with it.

Let's take a look at how that works.

## Profile NFT

At the heart of the protocol lies the Profile NFT. As a new user enters the ecosystem and creates a new profile, an NFT is sent to their wallet.

Here's the first departure from traditional social networks. That profile is yours. You own it. This record of ownership is currently kept on the Polygon blockchain, but Lens has plans to deploy on multiple chains.

## Follow NFT

Each Profile NFT has the ability to mint and send Follow NFTs to followers. You can distribute them freely, or require a fee. As each Follower NFT is issued, it is assigned a unique ID that increments by one with each new follower. And because they're stored as records on a public blockchain, a simple query lets you see who has followed you, in what order, and for how long.

This open record gives you complete ownership of the connections between you and your followers. It allows you to:

* Identify and reward those who have followed the longest.
* Use FollwerNFTs to grant access and roles on any community platform that supports token gating.
* Use tokens that you might have issued somewhere else to control interactions inside a Lens native application.
* Use NFTs as a voter requirement for Governance in a DAO.

You will always be able to find your followers. Wherever you build your community, you can welcome anyone who holds one of your follower NFTs.

## Publications

Your Profile NFT controls all your content as well as your relationships with other profiles. Lens refers to content as "publications". There are three types… Posts, Mirrors, and Comments.

## Posts

A Post is any original content you add to the pool. Text, Audio, Video... whatever type of media your chosen app will allow you to upload.

The record of the Post is a smart contract that is connected to your Profile NFT and contains a reference to the storage location of the media. The type of storage is left up to the app developer. Some apps might choose a more traditional, centralized service like AWS. While others might opt for a decentralized option like IPFS or Arweave.

Since you own everything you publish, you can decide whether you want each publication to be limited to your followers or available to everyone. You also control whether other profiles can Mirror, Comment, and/or Collect each of your Posts.

## Mirrors

When you find a piece of content that you want to share with others you can do it with a Mirror. If you were building your own version of Twitter to run on Lens, this would be a re-tweet. But on Lens, you get to decide who is allowed to Mirror a post. You can leave it open to anyone, limit it only to those who follow you, or turn off Mirroring all together.

On the follower side, Mirrors behave a lot like Posts. If you Mirror someone’s post, it can be Mirrored and Commented on by others. But, as the creator of a Mirror, *you* get to decide who can see, Comment or Mirror it again. Since a Mirror is not an original piece of content, they cannot be Collected.

## Comments

Even though Comments are linked to other publications, they are treated as original pieces of content wholly owned by the person who made the Comment. So every time you Comment, you get to decide whether you want to allow others to Mirror, Comment on or Collect it.

## The Collect Module

This is the built-in functionality that enables creators to monetize their content. You get to decide whether each Post or Comment can be collected freely or for a fee. Right now the fees are paid in MATIC, which is the native Polygon token. In the future you'll  be able to specify which tokens you're willing to accept. The Post or Comment is then minted as an NFT and deposited into the Collector's wallet.

If you want to create scarcity and reward those who are following closely, you can limit Collects to a fixed quantity or period of time. You can also create value for your Collectors by using Collected NFTs to grant additional access or status.

As a Collector, once you Collect a Publication, you own it. If it gains value or you lose interest in the creator, you can sell it.

## Lens Native Apps

The project is new. There are a lot of teams building apps for Lens right now, but few of them are ready to use. Here are a few you can take look at today.

* **Phaver**
  * Wants to be the best media feed on web3
  * <https://phaver.com/>
* **Lenster**
  * Social app
  * Positioned to be the best substitute for Facebook or Instagram
  * <https://lenster.xyz/>
* **Sepana**
  * Purpose built Lens search engine
  * <https://lens.sepana.io/>
* **Iris**
  * Blend of Twitter and Instagram
  * feed is driven by FollowNFTs you hold
  * <https://www.iris.social/>
* **Clipto**
  * Cameo for Web3 on Lens - Request personalized video message from celebs and influencers
  * <https://clipto.io/>

## How do I get in?

Lens is allow-listing profiles in small batches right now. The best way to get on the list is to use the Phaver App. Here’s what you need to do.

1 - Create a Phaver account using this link <https://phaver.app.link/MarkBuildsIt>. Be sure to use an account ID you want to keep.

2 - Post original content from your creative niche. Almost all the content right now is crypto related. Post about something else to set yourself apart from the noise.

3 - Share content from other platforms. Especially your own content. Be sure to share the link and give credit to the original source. Once you install the Phaver App it will be available as one of the default “share” options on your mobile device, so it’s pretty easy to get this done.

For bonus points, add value to the original post by:

* sharing a useful quote
* pointing out a useful segment
* giving your personal take or what you got out of it

4 - Join the discord and request "frens" status. If you let me know by tagging me with your request, I’ll review your request and make a recommendation.

5 - Optional, but recommended - Follow me @MarkBuildsIt and @CreatorDriven so I can follow you back and stake some Phaver Tokens on your posts.

**See you there!**


---

## You might be interested…

Most of my Week in Web3 was spent in bed with a cold. So I didn’t bother to write down anything more than what you see here. I’m beginning to feel better, though. I should have something more for you next week.


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **57**

Total Alpha Claims: **13**


---

I used to hate writing in school. Now it seems I can’t shut up. We can always hope for a shorter newsletter next week.

**Thank you** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

Lens Protocol is Breaking Down the Walled Gardens of Web2 Social

# Welcome to Issue #3!

And welcome to **12 new people** who fell down our little Web3 rabbit hole this week!

You got here early, so be sure to **claim your Alpha Status**.

Reply to this message with your public address. When we get to 100 subscribers, I want to thank y’all for joining early!

If you haven’t taken the time to **set up a wallet** yet, I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on how to do that [here](https://youtu.be/6BlVnT8y8wk).

If you’re wondering “What’s a **public address**?”, you might find this [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPu2or3lu-Y41DYdJT11jgtBcoD1w3wP) helpful.


---

# Not an Ad

I plan to try something new when it comes to sponsorships.

But it’s too early for that.

Until then, this newsletter is sponsored by me.

If you’d like to show your support, there are a few things you can do:

* Share this newsletter! Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, your kid’s PTA meeting…
* Reply to this message and give me your advice on how I can make the newsletter more valuable.

If someone shared this with **you**, thank that person for me, and then [subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)


---

On to this week’s

# **Web3 - ELI5**

## **Bitcoin**

Bitcoin is the OG of cryptocurrencies. It is based on a proof of concept published in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. No one really knows for sure who he or she or they were, but Nakamoto left the project and essentially disappeared in 2010.

BTC was designed to be a peer to peer payment system that eliminated the need for trusted third parties. Nearly instant, secure and irreversible transactions would mean you can say goodbye to holding that house down payment in escrow until the check clears.

Bitcoin introduced three radical concepts with it’s global payment system.

* Decentralized - there are thousands of computers connected to the network and each of these nodes has a complete copy of the ledger. If one copy is lost or corrupted, there are thousands of replacements.
* Open - Every single transaction in the ledger is viewable by anyone. This open ledger eliminates the need to trust centralized institutions as record keepers and arbiters of truth.
* Immutable - Once a transaction is confirmed as correct by the network, it cannot be changed.

With a total supply capped at 21 million, Bitcoin's built-in scarcity has helped change its primary use case from digital cash to digital gold. But the concepts introduced by Nakamoto in 2009 have paved the way for an infinite variety of new tokens and new ways to use them.

You can read the original [Bitcoin whitepaper here](https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf). It’s only 8 pages long if you don't count the footnotes. And it's mostly readable by normal humans.


---

# **ERC-20 Tokens**

Ethereum modeled ERC-20 tokens after Bitcoin. ERC-20s are the most basic tool used by modern blockchains to create value and utility. And from the beginning of Web3, it was assumed that people and projects would create and trade their own ERC-20s. These tokens might function a lot like Bitcoin, but they can be used on a massive network full applications and communities.

ERC-20s are:

* Fully [fungible](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/eli5-fungible)
* Can be divided into (and moved in) almost infinite fractions
* Can be used to represent anything that needs to be counted on-chain
* No Royalties

## How can they be used?

## **Store of value**

Since the creation of Bitcoin, digital currencies have gained popularity as the ultimate self sovereign store of wealth. Some tokens, like Bitcoin, have a total circulation that is capped and an issuance schedule built into their code. Others plan for a small amount of inflation to provide for the security of the network (see below). Either way, the code may be completely  immutable or changeable only by a community vote. This level of stability has attracted many investors fleeing faster inflation or debasement of their national currencies.

Though ERC-20 tokens came several years after Bitcoin, their programmability and fungibility have led crypto investors to treat some of them as a store of value as well.

## **Trade**

Before Bitcoin became a store of value, it was meant to be a currency. And in May 22, 2010 Laszlo Hanyecz made the first peer to peer token transaction when he paid 10,000 for a pair of pizzas. A meal that cost him about 40 bucks at the time would be worth about $285 million today. The purchase is so infamous, May 22nd is now known as Bitcoin Pizza Day.

In Web3, ERC-20 tokens can be used for any number of transactions. They can represent points in a game or measure of your contributions inside a community. Tokens that can be used within a community to purchase goods or services are often referred to as utility tokens.

## **Gas**

Most blockchains have a native ERC-20 token that is used to pay the operators for processing transactions. This token is the fuel that keeps the system running.

These network operators  are in continual competition to receive newly minted tokens and gas payments to add the next block in the chain. As one is awarded a block, the others are paid to check the work and ensure that the data stored on the chain is valid.

Gas prices rise and fall with traffic on the network. This adds to the concept of these tokens being used as a store of value. As a network is more widely adopted and use goes up, the gas token becomes more valuable.

## **Initial Funding**

Some projects choose to raise funds through the sale of tokens. Much like an IPO on the stock market, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are a public sale of tokens to the investors and the general public. ICOs were quite common until they reached their peak in 2017.

There was no regulation in place to protect investors and the market was full of retail investors hoping to get rich quick. Scam projects were everywhere. After several public rug-pulls and increased scrutiny from regulators, ICOs quickly fell out of favor.

As the ICOs slowed down, venture capitol moved into the space. And the VCs were happy to take up the slack.

When an investor is ready sell their position in a successful project, tokens provide a level of liquidity that is hard to match.

## **Rewards**

Many projects use some type of token as a reward for using their product or service. It has become an expectation by early adopters of Web3 projects to receive rewards in the form of air-dropped coins. The term "airdrop" refers to the fact that projects drop coins into the users wallet. Since the project is the one initiating the transaction, they cover the cost. As gas prices have risen, many projects have opted for a claim method that requires the user to pay the gas to receive their tokens. Most users are willing to pay the cost. Especially if they think the coin has or will have value in the future.

Another reward method involves making regular payments to users for holding on to their tokens. This inflates the coin supply. But, by holding the tokens, they are making them more scarce. This drives the cost of the coins and the valuation of the project up.

An interesting side effect happens when you combine the openness of blockchain with people's desire to get something for nothing. Vampire Attacks occur when the competitor of a more successful or established project uses free tokens to draw in new customers. This tactic has been shown to produce mixed results for the projects. But it always seems to benefit the customers. They end up with free tokens and, occasionally, a better product or service to use.

## **Ownership**

In the US, the SEC has made it crystal clear that projects cannot sell tokens as a share of ownership to "unqualified" investors. But project tokens that were either earned or given to users can be purchased on any number of decentralized exchanges. When someone who isn't a pure speculator holds a token from a project, they begin to feel a sense of ownership. And as they begin to feel like an owner, they begin to act like one. The goals of the holder become aligned with the goals of the project in a way that rarely happens with users of web2 products.

## **Governance**

Many of the projects being built in Web3 are owned and operated by the community members who own the tokens. Most of these communities require that you own some amount of tokens in order to vote. The requirements and the voting power of your tokens will vary from project to project.

* You might only own a fraction, but most projects require that you hold at least one whole token to vote.
* Weighted voting gives large investors more voting power. One token = one vote.
* Some projects are more egalitarian. One owner = One vote, regardless of your level of ownership. This protects the community from a hostile takeover.

## **Access**

Many projects require you to hold tokens as a means gain access to their community or exclusive content. This is also known as Token Gating. Some token gating requirements are as simple as holding a single token. Others offer multiple tiers based on how many, or the total value, of their tokens you hold.


---

## You might be interested…

**My Week in Web3 - [June 4-10](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/my-week-in-web3-week-ending-june-10-2022)**

This week’s [Alpha](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-week-ending-june-10-2022).


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **55**

Total Alpha Claims: **13**


---

I really am trying to keep these brief. Maybe after we get through the basics…

**Thank you** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

It's ALL Tokens - Part 2

 ![“Fletch” - Universal Pictures](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9a52f557d2efab55f0c5a4a29be43250)

# Welcome to Issue #2!

And welcome to **11 new people** who have joined us for the ride!

If you’re not new… Have you sent me your **public** wallet address?

## Claim your Alpha Status!

Reply to this message with your public address. When we get to 100 subscribers, I want to thank y’all for joining early!

If you haven’t taken the time to **set up a wallet** yet, I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on how to do that [here](https://youtu.be/6BlVnT8y8wk).

If you’re wondering “What’s a **public address**?”, you might find this [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPu2or3lu-Y41DYdJT11jgtBcoD1w3wP) helpful.


---

# Not an Ad

This is where you’d find an ad in any other newsletter.

I have nothing to sell. Not yet, anyway.

If you’d like to support me, there are a few things you can do:

* Share this newsletter! Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Your Sewing Circle… 
* Reply to this message and give me your advice on how I can make the newsletter more valuable.

And if someone shared this with **you**, thank that person for me, and then [subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)


---

# Let’s talk tokens.

I’ve had some discussions lately about which type of token might be best for a given project.

My answer is always “**Start with NFTs!**”

But the standards can be confusing. So I’m building a cheat sheet you can use when you start to think about how each type of token works. Then maybe you’ll have a better idea which one might be right for your project.


---

# But First, Vocab

Before we get started let’s agree on some vocabulary. Once this post goes live, I’ll break each chunk of this information down into a separate ELI5 post so you can search it later.

## **Token**

It’s all Tokens! Whether you call it a Crypto Coin or an NFT, they’re all just different types of tokens.

## **ERC**

This is an acronym for **E**thereum **R**equest for **C**omment. You’ll see this noted before a number for each type of token.

Every **ERC** standard starts out as an **E**thereum **I**mprovement **P**roposal (**EIP**). Much like a law in the government, before any EIP can be adopted, it has to be discussed and amended until it is the “rough consensus” of the community that this standard will be helpful to the protocol.

If an EIP is adopted and it deals with the “application level”, like a token standard, a wallet format or a name registry, it becomes an ERC.

The number after the ERC is just the order in which its original EIP was introduced. A larger number means that the standard was adopted more recently.

## **Fungible**

Fully interchangeable. When items are fungible, they are completely indistinguishable from each other. In the physical world, local currency is considered fungible. A $1 bill is fully interchangeable with any other $1 bill.

This is true when it comes to the value of the bill. But because it is a physical object, there are still differences. The most obvious being the serial number on the bill. No two bills can legally have the same serial number.

So, in the real world, fungibility is measured on a scale based on what factor you’re comparing. In crypto, when we say something is completely fungible, we mean there is **absolutely no difference** between the item.

## **Royalties**

Though they are not built into the standards, royalties are one of the truly revolutionary concepts of creating and owning NFTs. NFT royalties allow creators, collaborators, curators or anyone else involved with a project to be paid royalties on any downstream sale of the asset.

This means that an artist could continue to benefit from the resale of their earliest work, even if they aren’t discovered much later in their career. This opens up whole new concepts when it comes to releasing work. A creator could give away or sell a collection of NFTs at very low cost. If the creator then builds value or utility that can only be unlocked by owing an NFT, they’ve given that NFT value. Now they can earn revenue any time the NFTs change hands. This would happen naturally as people discover a need for the utility and sellers decide they might want to cash in or move on.

Up to this point, the biggest issue with royalties has been a lack of any standard to collect and remit them to their rightful owner. An NFT Royalty Standard, [EIP-2891](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2981), was recently approved to correct this. But it’s not yet widely adopted. So NFT creators must still rely on marketplaces like [OpenSea](https://opensea.io/) and [LooksRare](https://looksrare.org/) to manage their royalties in the near future.

## **Fractionalization**

As individual NFTs inside certain collections have soared in value, the cost of owning one has put them out of reach for average collectors. To allow more people to participate in a community, some collectors have fractionalized their NFTs.

To accomplish this, they created smart contracts that lock up the original token and divide it’s ownership into a new collection of NFTs. Each NFT in this new collection then represents a small fraction of ownership.

This lets fractional buyers profit from increases in value, or to feel like they’re a part of the project. In some cases, owning a fractionalized NFT even allows access to some of the perks that come with holding the original.


---

## Next Week

In the next issue we’ll cover ERC-20’s. And I’ll give you a brief history of the ERC-20 that’s so old school, it was an ERC-20 before ERC-20s even existed…

**Bitcoin.**

These aren’t NFTs. But they **are** one of the technological Lego bricks that web3 is built on.

**See you next week!**


---

## You might be interested…

**My Week in Web3 - [May30 - June 3, 2022](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/my-week-in-web3-may-30-june-3,-2022)**

What will the Alphas get? [Take a peek!](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/alpha-week-ending-june-4-2022)


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **43**

Churn: **0%** (Thanks for hanging in!)

Alpha Claims: **9**


---

Still here? This one was about 1000 words. Did you like the shorter format?

**Thanks again** for reading!

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

It's All Tokens - Part 1

## Welcome!

For this first issue, I had planned to send out a summary of the development of the web from the perspective of a content creator. You know, something to define the territory before we begin our journey together.

But last week I was part of this incredible AMA with [Amber Atherton](https://twitter.com/AmberAtherton), who is the Head of Strategic Communities at [Discord](https://discord.com/).

That seemed a lot more interesting.

Since you’re my **Alphas**, I decided to set the roadmap aside. Instead, I thought I could share what I took away from this conversation.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics, from marketing to driving engagement. Much of the conversation was focused on growing and maintaining the communities of larger organizations. So I’ve done my best to re-frame the main points to make them more useful to creators like you and me.


---

# Building Community in Web3

## **Web3 X Marketing = Community**

If we’re going to build in Web3, community should to be part of our marketing plan. Traditional marketing skills and tactics will still be needed. But as we make our plans, we should be asking ourselves “Is this the best choice for the community?”

Users, especially those who are new to Web3, will be looking to our communities to provide a feeling of trust and security. They want to be able to ask questions without fear of being treated like a fool. So we’ll need plenty of empathy and a willingness to educate... A lot.

Our community members will come to us to learn the basics of blockchain technology and how to navigate it. We’ll need to be proactive in teaching them how to avoid scams and protect their data.

At the very least we should be sharing the reliable sources we’ve found on these topics. At best, we should be providing this information ourselves. Our experience, our unique point of view is why they’re here, after all.

## **Connection is Key**

We need to let our personalities shine through. Be approachable. It’s the personal conversations with us, the creators behind our communities, that will drive engagement at the beginning.

I can attest to this myself.

Many of you might have been wondering, some of you out loud :wink:, why you had to make an account with [Paragraph](https://paragraph.xyz/) to sign up for this newsletter. I didn’t have this experience. Or, I didn’t notice it. As a publisher, I *wanted* an account when I signed up.

Fortunately, [Paragraph has a community](https://discord.gg/a4QbVm3Gmv). And the founder, Colin, is in there on a daily basis. Within a few hours of asking about this user experience I got a response. Within a day, the requirement was removed from the process. And in the  future newcomers won’t have to do more than submit an email address or connect a wallet to subscribe. With a little less friction, Paragraph’s product is better too.

## **A Community Building Framework**

We should put as much effort into defining the purpose of the community as we do our content. There’s a value exchange happening here. So we need to decide and clearly explain what the user gets out of joining. And we need to be just as clear about what we expect in return.

As we design an experience we can be proud of, we should work with intention. Do we want our members to be helpful? Do we want them to share their knowledge and experience?

Optimizing for raw engagement isn’t waht we’re looking for. If we do that, we’ll end up with a community full of “grinders” posting pages full of mindless comments.

Once we’ve figured out how we want the members of our community to act towards each other, we can think about how we’re going to encourage it. Here are a few options Amber recommended:

* Post a ranking of top members on a regular basis. (You’ll drive more authentic interaction if you DON’T tell anyone how the ranking system works)
* Provide badges(NFTs anyone?) for those that consistently earn a ranking.
* Use the badges to provide exclusive access to you, a private channel, or some special content.

If we decide to build rituals inside our communities, we need to make them personal. Don’t settle for a simple “gm” channel. Encourage members to post a photo of their morning brew along with a greeting. Love pets? Create a space for members to share photos of their furry friends.

And once we’ve got the vibe we want, we need to build a referral flywheel to encourage our members to share the community with others.

## **Selecting and Structuring a Community Platform**

Choose a platform that meets the goals of your community. Each platform is suited to different needs. Based on the purpose of the community do you need a platform that:

* Provides the best customer service and support?
* Allows for a free form exchange of ideas?
* Makes it easy for community members to share their own content?
* Encourages members to collaborate and form their own groups?

Answering these questions first will make it easier to choose.

And be prepared to work across more than one platform. Social networks are a great place to recruit new community members. It’s much easier to follow on Twitter/LinkedIn/Instagram than it is to join a community. So draw them in with testimonials and screen shots of what they’re missing in the community.

## **Welcome Them Aboard!**

Once someone makes the leap from follower to member, be sure there’s a formal on-boarding process to make the most of their arrival.

They’ve come for something more than another content feed. They want to interact. They might even hope to contribute. So we need to make it easy for them to find what it is they’re looking for.

## **Three Key Roles**

In the beginning we’ll wear all the hats. But as our communities grow, we need to think about handing off some aspects of community management by filling three specific roles:

* **Creator/Founder**

This is us. It will probably always be us. We set the vision and lay out the long term goals of the community.

* **Community Manager**

The Manager acts as the host of the party and sets the vibe for the members. They create the structure of the community and set the guidelines.

They own the on-boarding process. They’re the first personal touch point inside the community. They should make sure each new arrival is welcomed and facilitate connections to members who are more established. As the members begin to interact and engage, the Community Manager should identify and recognize Super Users.

The Manager is also responsible for creating and measuring the metrics that define the success of the community.

* **Moderators**

Moderators are charged with keeping the community a safe, productive space for the members. They enforce the guidelines set out by the Manager. And as a direct connection to the team, who is active in the community on a daily basis, they provide support and ensure the success of the members.

## Speaking of Metrics

Some of the things you can measure will come to mind easily. Stats like:

* New joins
* Number of members active every day
* Member churn (It's gonna happen. But how much is the right amount?)
* Ratio of active members to lurkers
* Heat mapping contributions of users in each channel

Because they’re obvious, there are already (in Discord at least) third party bots like [MemberCount](https://membercount.net/) and [Statbot](https://statbot.net/) available to track them. Some of these stats will always be helpful. But as your community matures, you’ll likely start to view these numbers as vanity metrics like follower counts on social networks.

Because the space is so new, the tools to measure more nuanced data are still in development. Until more automated options become available, there are some data points you’ll have to collect manually and evaluate with a gut feeling instead of a dash board. Things like:

* What’s the quality of engagement between users?
* What is the overall sentiment among the group?
* How long does it take new members to find their “place” on the group?
* How long do they stay engaged?

## It’s All About Community

From building in public, to customer support, we’re going to need to build a place for our people to gather so that we can all succeed together.

Many thanks go out to [Amber Atherton](https://twitter.com/AmberAtherton) for sharing her time and insights as well as [Katia Yakovleva](https://twitter.com/katiayakov) at [Beyond.so](https://twitter.com/beyond__so) for arranging and moderating the discussion. If you’d like to sit in on future Beyond AMA’s, they’ve been move into Twitter spaces. I hope to see you there!


---

# Web3 - ELI5

## **This week’s ELI5 is… “ELI5”**

It’s an Acronym for **E**xplain **L**ike **I**’m **5**.

I’m not ashamed to say that I had to google this when I first started learning about Web3. I stumbled upon an educational project called [OdysseyDAO](https://www.odysseydao.com/) and this acronym was everywhere. I’d heard the expression before, but I didn’t make the connection.

Having trouble wrapping your head around a Web3 concept? Send me a note at markbuildsit@creatordriven.xyz and I’ll do my best to distill it in a future issue.


---

## Getting Meta

Subscriber Count: **32** (I’m totally blown away by this. Thank you!)

Churn: **0%** (Can it possibly stay this low?)

Alpha Claims: **0** (???)


---

What’s an **Alpha Claim**? Reply to this message with your public address and you’ll find out soon!

If you haven’t taken the time to **set up a wallet** yet, I’ve got a step-by-step tutorial on how to do that [here](https://youtu.be/6BlVnT8y8wk).

If you’re wondering “What’s a **public address**?”, you might find this [playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJPu2or3lu-Y41DYdJT11jgtBcoD1w3wP) helpful.


---

Still here? This one ran a little longer than I expected. **Thank you** so much for reading to the end!

And thanks for making room for me in your inbox without really knowing what this was all about.

## Was this newsletter shared with you?

If so, you can [Subscribe here.](https://paragraph.xyz/@CreatorDriven/embed)

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