There are five memes for a fundamental position of creative sovereignty in the onchain era:
Creative Block is really Creative Bottom
Provenance and the plethora of L1 & L2 blockchains afford creatives the opportunity to fully seize their curiosity.
Rather than being pigeon-holed into one style to serve the IRL niche market, the onchain era allows creatives to decentralize their collector bases through various channels. This turns what used to be frowned upon (diverse tastes) into what will be rewarded most likely in the coming decades.
If it’s not onchain it probably won’t last
How often have IRL art collectors been scameed due to fraud and replicas? How often have creators lost digital files due to storage disorganization?
The blockchain is a public ledger - it may be easier to think of it as a library, or a mmmo marketplace. Storing your work onchain is the easiest way to ensure it surives... and remains in perfect condition.
The chain never lies
We are moving into an era where lying will become increasingly difficult as far as commerce and consumerism is concerned.
Creators will have data and D2C funnels like never before. It will become second nature to know who, when, and how people have interacted with others and the individual through their tenure together. The chain will bring a level of transparency to an anonymous web.
My brother in Christ, use a hardware wallet
The math is incredibly simple here.
A hot wallet's physical security point is your private key. A hot wallet's digital security point is code you probably won't know how to read. This means that a developer with bad intentions can take your wallet for themself.
A cold wallet's (hardware - look at Ledger or GridPlus) physical security point is your private key AND the device on your person. A cold wallet's digital security point is code AND your physical action signature (you have to approve manually). It is orders of magnitude more secure.
Not your contract, not your cause
This is the least urgent foundation, but it is the one that will make or break many creators when it matters significantly for them.
Research OpenSea take downs. Research ROBNESS expulsion from SuperRare. Research recording artist 360 deals in the music industry. The evidence is insurmountable here.
The benefits of shared contracts are that creators can bypass the leg work of creating attention networks for their work. This means they can start to sell and get recognized quicker. But, you should be aware of the costs.
They include but are not limited to:
Dependence on the good will of the boss
Restrained to the rules and code of the boss
Forfeiting of full creative freedom
It is a trade that not many creators seem to consider until too late. There is no correct answer, but there is most certainly a budgeting of personal values to be had here.
