Pandemonium
The airdrop sector has become a pandemonium.
This field is rife with too many temptations, bots, point races, criticism, relentless work, and shilling. Builders find it challenging to achieve organic KPI growth and distribute tokens without criticism.
The assertion by Chris Dixon that token incentives could bootstrap network effects has worked in some cases but failed in the remaining 99%.
The introduction of point systems has forced users into more competitive behavior.
Token distribution has increasingly favored the wealthy, but this does not seem to be moving in the right direction.
Bots are proliferating, making it difficult for builders to eliminate them during token distribution.
For users who genuinely add value, an exodus from this decadent and inorganic field is becoming necessary.
Garden of Eden
We have a Garden of Eden in Farcaster.
Here, users are orchestrated through entirely new incentives. For those weary of airdrops, organic human connections and community serve as new vectors of incentives.
The Dynamics of Digital Tribes:
The Web3 era brings a renewed focus on authentic, meaningful connections. By drawing from the rich insights of sociology and anthropology, we can create digital communities that are not only interconnected but also deeply rooted in human values and mutual respect. Our success will hinge on our ability to foster genuine relationships and build resilient, self-sustaining ecosystems that reflect the diverse nature of our human society.
Onchain Principles: Network first. Economy second.
But fundamentally, community is the result of a shared identity's gravity. There's an almost magnetic quality about a sufficiently established identity.
As networks create content, connection, and culture, they create value. At this point, it's important to also note that not all value is financial in nature. In today's world you could even argue that social capital (attention, reputation, influence) is just as (if not more!) important as financial capital.
Layer 2s as cultural extensions of Ethereum
Culture has a similar effect to incentives - indeed, culture is part of incentives. It affects who is attracted to an ecosystem and who is repelled. It affects what kinds of actions people are motivated to do, and what kinds of actions people can do. It affects what is considered legitimate - both in protocol design, and at the ecosystem and application layer.
Organic entities (people) are drawn by incentives expressed as identity, community, and culture. People are launching rockets from the pandemonium and are about to reach escape velocity.
My Previous Project
Previously, as a co-founder, I launched a product called Phi.
Phi is a service that shines a spotlight on self-expression and onchain identity. Users can customize their land according to their activity history. It's a simple yet enjoyable form of play and self-expression, where users decide what objects to place and where to place them. Despite the lack of financial incentives, the project saw approximately 4 million NFTs minted and around 170,000 unique users.
Through this project, I became convinced that people seek self-expression and identity onchain.
Onchain Culture Era
The era of onchain culture has arrived. In this era, people are orchestrated through cultural incentives such as establishing identity and participating in and engaging with communities. This stands as an antithesis to Airdrop Pandemonium. But why should this be done onchain? Can blockchain enable cultural activities that were previously impossible?
Creative Activities for Onchain Identity
Onchain culture can be seen as analogous to street culture. Young people gathering in the streets, often socially marginalized, have historically expressed resistance to the establishment through creative activities, thereby establishing their identities.
In other words, creative activities are a form of self-expression, closely related to identity and culture.
Street culture: Diving into the Urban Culture: Bagging the Street Vibe
Origins of Street Culture: Street culture can be traced back to the early days of urbanization when marginalized communities found solace in creative outlets to express their struggles, dreams, and aspirations. One prime example is the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx during the 1970s, which emerged as a form of cultural resistance and self-expression for African American and Latino youth. The four elements of hip-hop rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti laid the foundation for street culture as we know it today.
Street Art and Cultural Identity: Celebrating Diversity
https://thestreetbuddha.com/street-art-and-cultural-identity-celebrating-diversity/
Street art and cultural identity share a symbiotic relationship, with artists using their creative talents to celebrate diversity, honor heritage, and empower marginalized communities. Through expressive storytelling, honoring local histories, embracing multiculturalism, beautifying public spaces, and empowering marginalized groups, street art becomes a testament to the richness and resilience of cultural identity.
Extension Pack for Self-expression
Blockchain can unleash the limits of creative activities.
Our current project, Ethereum Image Service (EIS), empowers people to express themselves and promotes identity establishment and multiculturalism.
What Ethereum Image Service (EIS) is
EIS is a canvas that lives in the sky. Imagine that the whole world’s creations are stored in one space, and anyone can remix them. The more artworks are stored in EIS, the more remixable they become; we call this the network effect. The flywheel will start to jump up, then reach the astrosphere, and the public canvas will unlock the limit of human creativity. Additionally, EIS encourages artists to make public domains while they earn profit with EIS’s revenue streaming; that is precisely what blockchain technology can do.
EIS encourages people to create artworks. These artworks are stored as CC0 full onchain images, allowing anyone to call them up, edit them, and create new artworks. It is a playground for street art on the blockchain. This democratizes creative activities, enabling everyone to express themselves. Collaborations between different artworks are also easily facilitated, promoting cultural remixing.
The new garden of self-expression and cultural creation prepared for the end of the airdrop era is not limited to EIS. Looking back at the history of street culture, they have established identities and created communities through cultural activities such as fashion, hip-hop, dance, street food, street photography, slang, and street sports. These activities may seem frivolous, like play or toys, but they create culture. (That’s why we adopted the .toys domain.)
Conclusion
People are growing weary of the overly financialized blockchain culture and are seeking more organic connections. Here, identity and culture function as incentives instead of airdrops. Establishing identity and creating culture are acts of self-expression and creative activities. We need to explore new ways of cultural creation that can only be executed on the blockchain.
We have created the Ethereum Image Service for this purpose. EIS is the new garden of self-expression and cultural creation prepared for the end of the airdrop era. If interested, follow us on social media and try using EIS.
Cat-athon 🐱✨
We are currently hosting a cat pixel art contest using EIS. We're offering $200 to the person who creates the coolest cat pixel art.
With EIS, you can also remix someone else's pixel art to create something new. This means even beginners can join the contest by adding their personal touch to already cool creations.
Check it out at:
Website: https://eis.toys/
Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/eistoys
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