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Imagine: you're a poet, an artist, a creator. And the things you create, the art you make, you can actually make an income from that, a living wage, so you can focus on your art and delight people.
For a long time in human history, artists have been dependent on people supporting them. Maybe people who commissioned a portrait, or a benefactor, a patron, a Maecenas. Then, in more recent history, thanks to production technology such as the printing press and the emergence of galleries, the artists became dependent on gatekeepers: those who controlled the means of production and the means to grow an audience.
With the greater adoption of the internet in the form of the world wide web, the promise suddenly was different. The internet was about to democratise the means of production and the access to audience. We dove in, using geocities and making e-zines. At least, that's what I did.
Still, earning an income was hard. We had to find new ways, and we did not really manage to do that in any meaningful new way. Until the web became social and we entered the era of Web2.
Again, the promise was big, but there was a problem. The leading tech companies came up with a brilliant business model: sell data of users to advertisers. Sure, a fraction of the billions earned in this way in the past almost 2 decades was redirected to that new breed of artist: the influencer. Sponsored posts, ambassador roles, you name it. All in the service of driving more traffic to the social networks, so more data could be collected and sold. Now, I don't really like this model, but it's fair enough. This is the deal offered to us, and we loved the easy way of staying in touch with friends, family and current affairs. So, I'm not going to rally against that model.
However, there was one, I assume unintended, bad consequence for artists from all this: access to content, including art, was considered free. The value of content, which was, if at all, paid for by advertisers and sponsors, and not by the consumers, was reduced, in the mind of these consumers, to zero. With everything being offered to you without you having to pay a single cent for it, why would you consider paying for content? Sure, there was a payment transaction: privacy for access. But it was so hidden, indirect and non-monetary that even now only few people truly grasp the concept.
The regular broadcast media: radio, tv, print, have felt this hard. They had invented the advertising-based businessmodel and the new tech companies had perfected that. And by offering all of that in return for the use of personal data, they have eliminated the need for any subscription model completely.
So, as an artist, or a creator, in Web2 you are still dependent. On the monopolist social network companies and their algorithms, on advertisers and on mechanisms that often turn out to be trade-offs between real creativity and commercial success.
Fortunately, this is changing now. Where Web2 has brought down the perceived value of art and content to nearly zero, Web3 is changing this perspective. The biggest benefit for artists to move into Web3 is not the immutability, decentralisation and self custody that comes with operating on blockchains. It's the totally different mindset. While self-custody completely changes the advertising model, which will become less dependent on microtargeting powerd by extremly granular data sets, the biggest shift in mentality comes from a very simple, baked-in principle: gas.
If you are transacting onchain, you know that every single transaction carries costs: the gas fee. This basic principle returns to the center of attention the idea that if you want something, you need to cover the cost. The independent attitude of many of the users also means that they will rather cover costs, than sell out their data. This completely changes the attitude towards art, and in a broader sense content. If you like something, you mint it, and that means a direct value exchange: you get art, artist gets coins.
This paradigm shift is what is going to drive the biggest change for artists and creators who want to turn their talent into their job in the current cycle. With small fees, like the Zora protocol fee, but also with tips that are now the norm on Farcaster, and (retrofunding) grants from organisations such as Base and Optimisim and Purple and Nouns, artists finally have the chance to have a direct financial relationship with the people enjoying their art.
Below you will find three of the basic terms used in this article explained in the Glossary section. To unlock the gate, you need to be a Trpplr subscriber.
Gas fee
For every transaction you make on a blockchain, a record of that transaction is registered on the blockchain. To execute this registration in a verified and secure manner. a complex process involving cryptography and quite some computing power is run. The cost of this, is covered by the person initiating the transaction and is called the gas fee. You need to pay for the gas that keeps the blockchain going.
Gwei
Gwei is a denomination used on the Ethereum blockchain. It signifies 1 billionth of an Ether, the coin used on the Ethereum blockchain. Gas fees are calculated in Gwei.
Protocol fee
The protocol fee was imagined by the team behind the Zora marketplace. To keep the marketplace, and the L2 blockchain of the same name, running, they wanted to create a mechanism to secure funding. For every time you mint an NFT on the Zora marketplace, you pay a protocol fee of 0.000777 ETH. Of this, 0.000222 goes to Zora. The rest is shared with the creators/artists (0.000333), first collectors (0.000111) and referrers (0.000111).
We’re trying out something new — a weekly roundup of hand-picked posts to help you discover great writing on Paragraph. ⬇️ Let us know what you think and share any great writing we missed! https://paragraph.xyz/@paragraph-picks/weekly-digest-vol-1
https://paragraph.xyz/@smoothbrain/building-nft-flappy-bird-with-claude-sonnet-3-5 @nicholas outlines how he used Claude Sonnet 3.5 to build a game called NFT Flappy Bird, where players can use any NFT from their collection to play. Check out the post to watch a video of how he did it and read his key takeaways from this experiment.
https://paragraph.xyz/@micah/community-management @micah dives into the crucial role of Community Managers in crypto/NFT projects. Community Managers bridge the gap between the community and the team, facilitating communication, gathering feedback, and ensuring community engagement. They play a key role in driving product adoption and market influence. Despite the challenges of managing community expectations and dealing with occasional negativity, Community Managers are invaluable in fostering a supportive and thriving ecosystem for artists and creators in the web3 space.
https://paragraph.xyz/@tomu/rethinking-collect-as-the-like-button @tomu explores why collecting should be a premium feature, a more meaningful action than being the new like button. Collecting pieces should be used selectively, as a way to define interests and onchain identity.
@bfg makes the case for why a more meaningful form of reciprocity is essential in the crypto/web3 space. Rather than superficial follow-for-follow exchanges, deeper bonds are formed by longer comments on meaningful topics or questions, by respectful disagreement, by asking questions, by digging deeper into answers, and by being genuinely interested in people. https://paragraph.xyz/@bfg/web3-and-reciprocity
COLIN I’M HONORED BROTHER!! THIS IS AMAZING 1000 $degen
into the idea - tags by interest would be good
For sure, would be fun to have these for different categories / topics at some point. Thank you!
Love the idea 😍 even more since I found myself there 😁 But two highligted pieces actually caught my eye and I will read them! -> on protocol fees changing the culture of “free” -> and on using mint button selectively and not as a like (which I'm trying to practice myself now) Great idea!
Appreciate the feedback @bfg! :)
868 $DEGEN
Love this idea
All thanks goes to @reidtandy and the great writers on Paragraph
Thanks for the feedback! 🙏 Please send any great writing our way. :)
+1
I wrote this earlier this week, about the percepion of value for art and how web3 is changing that compared to web2 in a way I believe we don't talk about enough: https://paragraph.xyz/@trpplffct/opgtm14
I just realized how long this was, but it was so beautifully explained and said that I kept on reading Indeed, any artist still focused on just web2 alone is probably not the best idea. Web3 gives more ownership I'm not really clear on the "lead the gwei" part, were you trying to explain the gas fees artists would need to put their art on somewhere like zora and all?
Ah, thanks for reading. And for this question. It's more basic. Every single transaction onchain comes with a gas fee. This changes the perception of everything being free. When people get used to this, it's likely they will more readily accept that content or art they enjoy comes with a cost, too. It changes the culture of "free"
Much understandable Thank you Arjan🫶🏾
This is encouraging Dear artist embrace your creativity and let your art shine. Your passion brings joy to others, keep inspiring!
That's great encouragement for all artists. Thanks, Imsoft.
Always welcome king 👑
It's lovely of you seeing something special where everyone just walks past
Value is coming back to creators and artists. Thanks to Web3. What do you think? https://paragraph.xyz/@trpplffct/opgtm14
New revolution coming back for Web3
Why this poet poets onchain. Looking at the paradigm-shift that gas and protocol fees are bringing about. What do you think? https://paragraph.xyz/@trpplffct/opgtm14
To leave a legacy, build a community and communicate more with readers