Where's the Music Video Hyperstructure?

Podcast NFTs

I am the co-host of On-Chain Experiments, a podcast interviewing the creators & collectors building Web3. We use Anchor to distribute the podcast and create 30-60 second video clips for NFTs. To mint NFTs, we use Mint Songs, a music NFT platform that allows audio files & static images. We like Mint Songs because they’re the only music NFT marketplace that supports Polygon. However, Mint Songs doesn’t support videos. If you look around on Twitter, most people will talk about Glass Protocol:

https://twitter.com/Piff_Marti/status/1513539797129834510?s=20&t=sY9BJJpBkWzpUXlZTiGaSg

Music Video NFTs

I’ve looked into using Glass Protocol. Glass is built, open-source, on top of the Zora hyperstructure on ETH mainnet. Glass specializes in Video NFTs, so this seems perfect! The biggest downsides I’ve found with using Glass:

https://twitter.com/ourZORA/status/1516826840484225043?s=20&t=sY9BJJpBkWzpUXlZTiGaSg

• Walled Garden UI - Glass requires you to fill out a survey to publish video NFTs.

• ETH only - not a good place to experiment or offer low-cost NFTs.

• Fees - Glass takes a 20% cut of NFT sales. Public infrastructure should exist that operates free, at gas cost, for creators.

• Lack of Documentation - some question I found challenging to answer in my search:

  • If Glass is built on Zora, why do they have a custom buyEdition method in their smart contract that doesn’t use Zora?

  • What are the addresses of Glass’s smart contracts? Can I create NFTs on Glass Protocol without using their UI?

  • Are there any developer / founders docs I can explore for building on Glass?

Hyperstructures are important.

Hyperstructures are public, equitable infrastructure, accessible by all, free-to-use, running forever on-chain. There’s no approval needed to begin publishing. Some of my favorite hyperstructures include 0xSplits, Zora (V2) & Uniswap (V1). These protocols have the attributes of a hyperstructure:

• Unstoppable: the protocol cannot be stopped by anyone. It runs for as long as the underlying blockchain exists.

• Free: there is a 0% protocol wide fee and runs exactly at gas cost.

• Valuable: accrues value which is accessible and exitable by the owners.

• Expansive: there are built-in incentives for participants in the protocol.

• Permissionless: universally accessible and censorship resistant. Builders and users cannot be deplatformed.

• Positive sum: it creates a win-win environment for participants to utilize the same infrastrastructure.

• Credibly neutral: the protocol is user-agnostic.

Where’s the music video hyperstructure?

We have hyperstructures for:

• NFT Marketplace - Zora.

• DeFi - Uniswap.

• Split Royalties - 0xSplits.

• Music Video NFT creation - TBD.

It’s easy to say “we’re building the music video hyperstructure” but what does that actually look like in practice?

Front-End

• Connect Wallet.

• Everyone can access (no gatekeepers).

• Mint NFT.

• Allows 0xSplits recipients.

• List on Zora.

• Sell NFT.

• 100% open-source code.

Smart Contract

• Networks: Ethereum & Polygon (any EVM compatible chain in the future).

  • mainnet.

  • testnets: Rinkeby & Mumbai (respectively).

• Composable:

  • ERC721 - possibly ERC721A for more gas-efficient minting.

  • Marketplace - Zora (auction, list price, offers).

  • Split Royalties - 0xSplits (create, receive, distribute, withdraw).

• Methods (less is more):

  • createContract - creates a new ERC721 contract, owned by you.

  • mintNFT - mints a new music video NFT.

    • parameters:

      • numberOfEditions - number of editions to mint (1 for 1 of 1).

      • videoUri - link to the music video.

      • sellerFundsRecipient - address to send funds to.

        • EIP2981 compliant.

      • sellerRoyaltyFeePercentage - percentage of future sales sent as royalties to the sellerFundsRecipient.

• Zero fees.

• Non-upgradeable.

• 100% open-source.

Future of Music Video NFTs.

1. Upload your music video to a decentralized hosting site.

   1. IPFS. (Pinata)

   2. Arweave.

2. Create your custom smart contract - new protocol.

   1. similar to Manifold.

3. Mint your NFT - new protocol.

   1. similar to Glass.

4. Create a Listing - Zora.

5. Promote your NFT listings - Twitter & other Web2 distribution platforms.

6. Sell your NFT - Zora.

7. Distribute Earnings - 0xSplits.

8. Repeat.

Next Steps:

1. Share this article with community to source feedback.

2. Create MVP ERC721 smart contract - ERC721Main.sol

   1. Deploys a custom ERC721 contract, owned by you, the creator.

3. Create MVP UI.

   1. Easy-to-use website where creators can deploy a custom ERC721 contract on Polygon’s Mumbai Testnet & Ethereum’s Rinkeby Testnet.

4. Initialize Documentation.

   1. Use Gitbooks.

   2. Getting Started Guide

      1. Etherscan - tech savvy.

      2. Website - traditional.

What are we missing?

This is a team effort. If you don’t like what we’re building, feel free to fork the code and build your own. The goal of this effort is not to build a cash-cow monopoly, but to build public infrastructure anyone can use. My end vision is for this to be accepted into Glass Protocol. I would like to open up a PR with Glass Protocol to help improve their UI / smart contracts to be the public infrastructure we all know they are capable of becoming. DM me on Twitter.