As I was looking to try something new for the New Year, I heard from A-mashiro that "Rodeo has been quite active around his friends and collectors lately." This prompted me to start collecting on Rodeo, where I had previously only completed registration.
Foundation Labs, Inc. announced this new on-chain social platform in July 2024. This seems to be their strategic evolution from "Foundation," their original one-of-one digital art platform, responding to the increased transaction activity driven by social features and low-cost minting, similar to Zora and Lens.
＊The chart illustrates Foundation's NFT sales volume and wallet activity metrics since 2021, showing a clear downward trend from its peak in 2021.
What is Rodeo
The Rodeo Platform allows Users to create, discover, and mint non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”), foster communities around NFTs, and connect and interact with others on a peer-to-peer basis. Users can (a) post Original Content (as defined below), (b) view and discover Original Content posted, or NFTs minted, by other Users through the Rodeo Platform’s aggregation features and functionality (the “Rodeo Feed”), and (c) mint NFTs associated with Original Content through the Rodeo Platform.
Reference: https://help.rodeo.club/hc/en-us/articles/27871512952475-Terms-of-Service
Personally, I hadn't been particularly active in buying artworks on Foundation, and with some controversy on social media surrounding the transition from Foundation to Rodeo, plus thinking it was just another crypto social platform, I hadn't engaged much with it.
↓↓ Visit Rodeo Club here ↓↓
https://rodeo.club/
After completing registration, login, and wallet connection, you'll be directed to the homepage. The UI features a simple design similar to Highlight and Foundation, with an emphasis on user-friendly and intuitive navigation. The interface appears to be thoughtfully crafted to enhance accessibility and ease of use.
The timeline displays posts and artworks from followed creators and followers, showing remaining collection time, collector information, and titles for each piece. At the bottom, you can see the number of LIKES (♡), comments, and collects. If you find a piece you like, pressing the Collect button and waiting a few seconds adds the work to your collection and records it on-chain - a feature that can be seen as an extension of the Like function. Notably, comments can only be posted on collected works, which serves as one incentive for collecting pieces.
Another distinctive feature is the reward system: when another user purchases an artwork you've collected, the original collector (in this case, me) receives a reward in ETH ($0.09) through an affiliate-like mechanism. This system creates incentives for collectors who help increase awareness of artworks.
Here are some thoughts on when I collect digital art works
①View the artwork output intuitively
②Interpret the context inherently contained in the output through sensory perception, reading from the title, composition, and elements
③Deep dive into the work based on descriptions and explanations → rodeo club doesn't have this
④Research more about the artist to deepen understanding → doesn't seem to drop off the platform to look elsewhere
⑤Who bought it, who supports it, is there future potential, is there an investment perspective
⑥Purchasing might lead to receiving incentives
→In other words, it's an incentivized platform that emphasizes elements on ①②⑤⑥, making judgments based on intuitive feelings + interpretation while considering who clicked the collect button.
What else can we see from this, I put more focus on sharing comments on how I felt seeing the work.
(You can only post comments after you have collected). Artist maybe young or they maybe trying new things and here is a place that you can feel relatively safe to post and sometimes expect feedbacks from supporters. If the work is well taken, then they may be able to go to ETH and sell 1 of 1 pieces. Here is a platform to interact but people may need something or some reason to stay. So it does feel like the 2021 Tezos community, if we find the right atmosphere. We will see, just my second day starting to be active on rodeo club. But I do know that we need these kind of spaces.
How to Collect on Rodeo
How to Collect:
Click "Get Credits"
Select amount and number of collects
Pay via:
Credit card
Google Pay (JPY/USD)
Rodeo Wallet (pre-linked through wallet connection)
Crypto (ETH on Base)
Current Platform Metrics
Data Source: https://dune.com/foundation/rodeo
Key Statistics:
Unique Minters: 21,613 (3x the number of creators)
Creator Earnings: 53 ETH (~$302,100 as of Jan 4, 2025)
Average Daily Active Users: 1,544 (showing modest growth)
Total Minted Works: 55,371 (as of Jan 3, 2025)
17x increase since Dec 29
Average 20-30 mints per user
Indicates high user engagement
This data-driven analysis reveals moderate user growth but exceptional minting activity, suggesting strong platform engagement among active users.
Suitable Genres
Overall Assessment
While traditional wisdom suggests that NFT platforms should be evaluated only after demonstrating sustained stability, it's undeniable that the key to success lies in the continuous engagement of both artists and collectors. To ensure this continuity, it's crucial to clearly define two fundamental aspects: "Who is this platform for?" and "What purpose does it serve?"
In this regard, Rodeo aims to establish itself as a platform centered around the following core elements:
Intuitive enjoyment, understanding, and collection of digital art
Facilitation of collector-to-collector interactions
Implementation of incentive structures
Support for on-chain artists' growth
Development of community-based support systems
If these elements function organically and the platform successfully establishes its unique position, the ecosystem's demand will undoubtedly increase. It feels somewhat like an on-chain version of Instagram. Moreover, the strong performance of the Base ecosystem provides additional momentum. The key to future development will be whether the platform can maintain this momentum while building its own unique narrative.
