on the free mint stockholm syndrome
tinyrainboot
3 min read·
it's been bothering me for a while that the current "meta" in the digital-art-on-the-blockchain world is to give your work away for, essentially, free. i was trying to make peace with it. because let's be real, there's a bit of a stockholm syndrome thing going on here. i have audiences on platforms like zora and rodeo, and i'm scared to bite the hand that's been feeding me (when you're starving, the smallest crumb tastes good). "if only i could grow my following on those platforms," i'd tell myself. "then, maybe, maybe, i can find 'bigger-deal' opportunities that lead to income."
two months ago i started a new job. trying to "make it" as an artist in this space was becoming too stressful. i needed a break so that art could become fun again, and so far, that's kind of been working. but it also made me realize that i don't really have to put up with this shit, if i don't want to.
"mint anything," "onchain instagram" (because instagram is totally something we want to replicate), "don't overthink it." bröther, i am overthinking it like hell.
free mints do not primarily benefit artists, aside from potentially exposing their work to a wider audience. free mints primarily benefit the platforms that the works are being posted to. they encourage an inflated number of transactions that those platforms can then use to show how well they're performing. (look mom, we're helping create shareholder value.)
i don't mind the "mint anything" idea, per se. but we started participating in this game before we knew how the rules were going to change. with zora, we used to have so much more control: we could decide how long the mint would be open, or close it manually if we wanted. we could limit the number of mints per address. and we'd get a few dollars per mint, which was...a slightly bigger crumb. there were some great projects that worked really well with the time-limited-mint feature.
then, rodeo (a platform launched by foundation) came up with even cheaper mints, zora followed suit, and the rest of us started crying. i've spoken with other artists, and the general sentiment can probably be described as "glum disillusionment."
while "overthinking it," i came up with the following list of options for myself moving forward:
1) keep going as i am and eventually mint "higher value" pieces as 1/1s on other platforms (that is, works that require more effort, like 3D pieces)
2) boycott free mint platforms entirely, potentially to the detriment of my onchain career
3) shift to minting a different kind of content on these platforms - only works in progress, behind the scenes, etc.
4) compromise. instead of minting the entire piece, what if i were to just mint part of it?
as regards 1), i don't really want to keep going as i have been. i hate that i can't close my mints manually anymore on zora. i could just use rodeo instead, as the time limit is set to 24h, but i can't add much of a description there and the creator tools are worse. plus, it feels like such a slippery slope. if i value my work at 50 cents now, how can i justify wanting to charge more for my other work later? when will i, as an artist, suddenly become "more valuable"? 2) i am not ready for a full-scale boycott right now. people see my work being minted, people check out what i'm doing, maybe they like it, maybe they follow me. 3) i don't really want to mint my wips and behind the scenes?? i don't think these things need to be onchain as nfts. (ymmv)
but is option number 4 a cop-out?
my thought process is that this way, my work still gets more eyes on it — while i maintain control over the actual piece it is derived from. if someone were to want to own it digitally, they could contact me and we could arrange it.
or am i just psyopping myself to appease my captor again?
will this have repercussions for context? is this a weird frankenstein way of going about it? probably. will i change my mind again in a month or two? very likely. but the fact of the matter is that there is no "right" or "best" way to do any of these things, and we're all just stumbling along more or less in the dark, feeling the wall for the damn light switch (it's got to be here somewhere).
i just feel a bit frustrated, and i know i'm not the only one. these models incentivize the consumption of art as a quick bite, something you scroll past once, double-tap, and never look at again. meanwhile, your wallet is getting bloated. these models incentivize the creation of art as something quick, low-effort, and easy, because why pour hours of your time into making something with such a low ROI?
please, tell me if you think i'm crazy and looking at this entirely the wrong way. i am open to that possibility.
regardless, i'm going to give it a shot.
https://zora.co/collect/base:0x2776462ba61d6c505aa1aced2241ee4e39b776f5/1Collect this post as an NFT.
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Well said post. Platforms like Zora and Rodeo are turning into the platforms they wanted to replace.
I totally understand what you’re saying here. I’ve been creating NFTs for 4 years. I never buy NFTs priced over $20 USD. I remember the $400k people were pay for those awful looking apes back in 2021. I told everyone then they were idiots, but no one would listen. I personally think of my NFTs as supplementary to my fiction. I think the healthiest way to view NFTs is the way people viewed trading cards when they were huge in the 90s. I think if this way of thinking had been promoted originally, we wouldn’t have this problem now. And, one last thing. You have here a. Article making some very cogent arguments about the current NFT meta. However, reading your article was absolutely painful. Are your shift keys broken? I’ve been in the editing game for 20 years. If it cans to my desk to be published, I’d never have read it. When we don’t care enough to use the most basic and easily understood elements of English Grammar & style, we are telling our readers that we don’t take writing seriously. Things like capitalization and punctuation tell the reader how your work would sound if you were reading it aloud. If you insist on writing articles for public consumption, then learn how to write correctly. It’s important to respect the craft. And it needs the respect now more than ever. When you ignore so many blatantly bad errors, it’s like if Picasso had only created art in crayon. You are an adult, act like it. This article could have been written. By a tween for all I know. And when we allow ourselves to share writing, the least we can do for the craft, and the reader is follow the most basic rules of language. As is, this article tells me that you hate writing.
I'm from the standard photography industry and Web2 social posting. I'm currently trying to understand the meta for artist on Web3, how to use it, and the real value it can bring to the art industry. And as you said, offering free mint for every work is a nonsense for me. I don't see the value for the artist nor the user. But I'm not a experimented artist on Web3, maybe, do you have any ressources, articles, advice, to help me understand the Web3 art ecosystem?
Back with another handful of hand-picked pieces of writing over the past week or so!
Before we dive in, we wanted to spotlight a writing contest hosted by @kiwi & @nouns. Writers are invited to write about the any Nounish topics for a chance to win part of a 3.5 ETH prize pool (among other benefits!). Read more about it here: https://paragraph.xyz/@kiwi-updates/into-the-nouniverse-writing-contest
@tinyrainboot shares a frustration with the “free mint” culture in blockchain art, criticizing its benefits to platforms over artists and weighing various strategies for regaining control over their work and its value. "These models incentivize the creation of art as something quick, low-effort, and easy, because why pour hours of your time into making something with such a low ROI?" https://paragraph.xyz/@tinyrainboot/free-mint-meta
@cbxm shares his journey from a casual viewer to an avid New York Liberty supporter, praising standout players like Breanna Stewart, Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi, and A’ja Wilson, while capturing the drama and excitement of the season and playoffs. https://paragraph.xyz/@cbxm/the-w
🫡
@tinyrainboot reading my mind https://paragraph.xyz/@tinyrainboot/free-mint-meta
my tiny protest against the free mint meta: why i've decided to no longer sell full pieces on free mint platforms. https://paragraph.xyz/@tinyrainboot/free-mint-meta
my 1 month august break from zora, etc. turned into an indefinite break ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ for me, i don't even think it's so much about the dropping prices (i was airdropping lots of things anyways) but it was as u also mentioned – the removal of controls. that, more than anything for me, really changed the vibe. now i'm kind of like, why bother? the other thing i've noticed, which i feel really bad about, is that since this all went down, i feel like i've lost a lot of interest in collecting. like before it felt better (still not the best) that a single mint provided slightly more tangible support for the artist. now that it's devalued so much, it feels no different than just pressing like on social. so when i'm busy and i'll just quickly press like rather than go through the steps to connect, sign, load wallet, change app, etc. to send 25 cents (╥_╥) i also see ppl increase their output frequency and churn things out to compensate and this content overload makes me less interested in collecting as well
thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experience. i was really thinking a lot about very internet printout, the mechanics at the time were so fitting for that project. it’s ok that things change, but i agree with you in the sense that i’m losing motivation to create or collect onchain.
for me, the promise of "web3" or sovereign internet or whatever u want to call it meant that u had more control over what u put online (on the blockchain.) you know, the whole read, write, *own* thing. when basic options start getting stripped out of services and narrowed to one very particular vision, it just makes me feel like a cog in a someone else's machine when i first started creating in this space, i wrote my own contracts in order to have full control. at the time, marketplaces only offered very limited communal contracts so coding diy was the only way. over time, it got better as platform tooling/ownership improved and i felt more comfortable putting my work on platform contracts. now it feels like it's going back again ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ so the disadvantages of using convenient platforms now is outweighing the advantages and i might as well just write my own contracts again if i want to preserve stuff onchain
and yes, why put it on chain just for the sake of it 😆 sure, they tried to solve it with the “double tap to mint”, but again, is that what we really want?!
the insta model is terrible. that's why i stopped using ig years ago. i didn't like how it just turned everything into mindless scroll slop. i didn't like how much less special it made me think of my friend's posts ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's really timely that you mention this because @benna and I were just discussing something similar. For our upcoming exhibitions, we might eventually try to break free from existing platforms at some point by creating fully DIY websites that will house all the artworks. This way: 1. We’ll have complete control over the design, allowing it to fully align with the narrative and themes we’re exploring. 2. It could bring us closer to what we might call decentralization.
i think that's a good idea, especially for group exhibitions where u want to provide more context around the specific groupings of work. it will definitely give u more flexibility in presentation as well since not everything needs to be in an insta grid (⌒_⌒;) i think it's also important to go the extra mile these days with online presentation bc it's so easy just to have automated systems spit things out now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. Also, trying to bring back this nice feeling of collecting onchain.
/microsub tip: 40 $DEGEN
would love to hear a response from @jacob imo this is primarily a ux/brand issue. zora protocol is super innovative, but the app is a clone of a product creators and consumers don't like (but are super addicted to). regardless, it's a good thing that they're opinionated, otherwise they'd learn very little. let superrare and foundation flounder with proven bad token and marketplace models. who else has incentivized curation? who else has created compelling solutions to secondary liquidity and creator royalties? in a digital environment these are the big problems to attack. we can't fight the realities of a digital environment - it's an attention game and it's only going to get harder. zora feels much closer than any other nft platform. found mint protocol very interesting: https://mint.vv.xyz/guide/
brand issue, yes. because it feels like they took a sharp turn from what they used to preach.
very easy to destroy brand equity, very hard to build it. even harder to rebuild it. for them to right ship here would be an exercise in honesty and empathy. that would be a pretty big shift for them.
/microsub tip: 46 $DEGEN
🙏🏻🙏🏻
500 $degen also I didn't cancel you off my microsub - you are still there but it's being a bit erratic as to who actually gets it so here you go - here's to disillusionment with nft prices x
oh don’t worry at all 😆 thank you, pentacle
Btw, some of use now using /impact for tipping our artist friends and it works well 👌🥂
it’s the equivalent of “we will pay you with exposure” this model is not in the interest of artist but the platform to boost onchain activity, and like you said, very web2-esque unfortunately
oh, that’s a great way to put it
Yes i totally agree with this. 🥹
/microsub tip: 9 $DEGEN
nice piece. made many excellent points that i agree with. i basically see free mints as art ads for (other) pieces.
Navigating the shifting landscape of digital art on blockchain isn’t easy. In the latest blog post, @tinyrainboot shares insights on the frustrations artists feel about free minting's impact on creative currency and proposes new paths forward. #reflectingonthecraft