As a musician & engineer, I'm always exploring innovative ways to engage with my community and contribute to the growth of the decentralized ecosystem. In collaboration with four talented musicians, Tobilla, Static Res, Kah'lil, and WhoKarez, we dropped an EP titled "Not yet, no?" & embarked on a bold experiment. For each of these 4 musicians, it was their first-ever music nft. By the time you’re reading this, the sale has ended, all musicians have already been paid out, equally, ~$23 for their first music nft drop. I decided to distribute my earnings from the EP "Not yet, no?" to over 500 people globally, with no strings attached. Here's how I did it:
Step One: Calculate earnings from the EP
First, I needed to determine how much I earned from the EP "Not yet, no?" by checking the distribution transaction. Each of us involved in the project earned 22.4 MATIC (approximately $23). You can view the EP distribution transaction here.
Step Two: Transfer funds to the UBI Split
Next, I sent my earnings (22.4 MATIC) to my UBI Split using the 0xSplits hyperstructure, which would be distributed to my 500+ recipients globally. Here's the transaction for the fund transfer.
Step Three: Find new EP collectors
To find new collectors for our EP "Not yet, no?", I used Alchemy Composer to switch the blockchain to the Polygon Mainnet and changed the query to getOwnersForCollection. After pasting my contract address and clicking "send request," I discovered that we had 7 collectors on our drop.
Step Four: Airdrop collector tokens
With a list of our new collectors, I airdropped my collector token to each of them. Before the airdrop, I had 502 unique collectors of my "Sweet's Collector" NFT. After the airdrop, the number increased to 508 unique collectors, including 6 brand new collectors who had never collected from me before. I then had the opportunity to welcome them to my community and learn more about them. The airdrop transaction hash can be found here.
Step Five: Generate a new UBI recipient list
I used Alchemy Composer to get the collector list from my "Sweet's Collectors" NFT, just as I did before. Then, I employed Google Sheets to calculate the percentage of 100% each of the 508 recipients should receive. In this case, everyone received an equal percentage of 0.1968%, with one person receiving slightly more at 0.2224%. I exported this data as a CSV from Google Sheets, with Column A listing the addresses and Column B showing the percentage splits each recipient would receive.
Step Six: Update the UBI Split
With the new UBI recipient list in hand, I edited the UBI split in 0xSplits UI and uploaded the CSV file from the previous step. I clicked the "Validate CSV" button, and once the new list looked good, I updated the split. The transaction hash for updating the split with the new list of UBI recipients and percentages can be found here.
Step Seven: Distribute and withdraw for all
This is my favorite part. After selecting to distribute the available balance of 22.4 MATIC, I clicked the dropdown beside the "Distribute" button and selected the "Distribute & withdraw for all" option. This made it so the funds were airdropped into all 508 wallets globally. Recipients instantly saw the funds appear in their wallets, with no need to sign any transactions. The transaction hash for the distribution and withdrawal for all can be found here.
Step Eight: Communicate with the community
Lastly, I let my community know they had received payment. Musicians could use that money to deploy their first music NFT, while collectors could use it as gas costs to interact with their favorite musicians onchain. Perhaps some recipients needed gas money to withdraw their funds and pay their bills. The point is, the funds were now theirs to use as they saw fit.
Conclusion:
This UBI experiment demonstrates the power of web3 and blockchain technology to enable artists and musicians to create new forms of economic value and share it directly with their fans and supporters. By opening up new possibilities for collaboration and interaction, we're breaking down barriers between creators and their audiences and fostering a more inclusive, decentralized world.
