[Thoughts #122] Applying for NFTs, Free Deep Dives from PROOF
PLUS: 🖼 What is Beeple "BUILD"ing?
Sorry folks, I didn’t write yesterday. I know some of you were feverishly waiting for the e-mail to show up in your inbox (jk, I really hope you weren’t).
I was at the LinkedIn HQ with several other content creators and provide some feedback to their Content Experience Product team.
It was timely since I spoke at a conference earlier this week with non-Web3 professionals and was accepted into LinkedIn’s Creator Accelerator Program.
Though Substack is and will always be my first love as a content creation platform, other platforms like LinkedIn present a vast opportunity for Web3 education. I’ll be spending more time thinking through how I can expand my presence and content formats to do my part in bringing Web3 to the masses.
If we want to increase adoption to the next billion, we’ll need to educate those who have the ability to reach those billion. Many of those people use LinkedIn, not Twitter or Discord. I’ll try to meet them where they’re at :)
OR…Gary Vee could just post about Web3 regularly and we could call it a day.
How about this Gary? Tell your 5.3 million followers to follow me and I’ll do the dirty work 🤝
Applying to colleges NFT projects
Yesterday one of my alpha groups posted a few different NFT projects that required an application, dubbing it an application ‘meta’. (If you don’t understand the concept of metas and derivatives, I encourage you to read my piece on this. It’s the weekend so you’ll have more time to read, right? 😉)
Applying for NFT projects is a relatively new concept. The most popular example of this is y00ts and the y00tslist.
Everyone that wanted to get on the y00tslist had to apply, and the Twitter account tweeted and tagged every applicant that got accepted.
As you can imagine, this was a brilliant growth tactic as clout (status) is a great motivator.
Keep in mind that the y00tlist Twitter account isn’t even the main Twitter account. It’s just an account that announces who made the cut. Wild.
This tactic is being remixed in various ways.
Dreamy has created their own version of this:
Instead of an application, FATES has a survey which helped with assigning roles when a user joined the Discord server.
So when I came across KPR, I thought it was going to be a standard application (it is), but I was figuratively floored when I went to their website.
I have written about how important a website is and how it is a good barometer to understand the quality and potential of a project. It doesn’t guarantee success, but it’s a factor to help understand a team’s attention to detail.
Seriously, check out the site, it’s cool. Websites are becoming experiences.
The application process wasn’t 🤯, but there were some interesting details. For example, you had to connect your wallet to the website in order to apply.
As well as your Twitter and Discord accounts. I imagine this is to help with validating applications. I’m sure people will try to apply with dozens if not hundreds of accounts.
Shooting my shot. I can write about KPR if they want (but of course, only if it’s interesting!)
Also, I wrote “Heck, I may write about it tomorrow…” and I’m following through!
A few fun personality based questions to get the applicant to better understand the backdrop that KPR is set in.
And there we have it! It really is like applying to college all over again 😂. Next thing you know, these applications will include an essay submission. Fortunately, I’m well equipped to do that 😈
In a pseudonymous Web3 world, it’s still advantageous to gather data about your prospective audience. “Which of the following roles best describe you?” is particularly helpful.
Many projects blindly focus on covering a large surface area and driving in as many people into the Discord server to build hype. If they’re all degens looking for a quick 0.01 ETH gain, the project will likely be DOA.
However, if there’s a healthy mix of Artists, Developers, Content Creators, Founders/Builders, etc., that’d lead to a project with a balanced community. Believe it or not, Degens are important for the space…just not too many of them in one place.
The same goes with any professional organization or sports team. Too much of a particular skill is a strength and at the same time a weakness.
I believe that community persona mapping will increase in importance and various community tools will rise to the occasion to assist in understanding that.
PROOF’s Deep Dives
I listened to @Punk9059 speak on Rug Radio’s morning show today.
Punk9059 is the Director of Research at PROOF (parent company of PROOF Pass and Moonbirds) and has shared his research across a variety of topics in the space on Twitter.
Most recently, he’s spent time on the topic of royalties. I’m glad I listened in on the Spaces because I learned that PROOF has free research reports in their Gitbook (sorta like a Wiki).
These are free to access and provide a level of quantitative analysis that I could never do. Makes sense considering Punk9059’s background was as a Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs back in the day.
21 pages of juicy goodness about NFT Royalties. I’ll definitely be reading the Fashion one as well 😜
It’s great to see that that these PROOF Deep Dives are a public utility. It creates more legitimacy for the space and is formatted in a way that people with deep pockets (read: financial institutions, funds, and corporations) are used to reading.
What’s Beeple up to?
Beeple dropped this video yesterday:
Since y’all don’t click on links when I tell you to, here’s his thread about the studio being built.
Beeple is arguably the biggest digital artist today:
“Everydays - The First 500 Days” sold for $69 million
“HUMAN ONE” sold for $29 million (it’s a sick concept)
Now he’s “BUILD”ing his own studio
The message he’s making is a powerful one:
“I believe by showing people that this artwork can absolutely be shared and appreciated in real life not just on our tiny screens, they will see that this medium is just like any other with the ability to bring beauty, provoke thoughtful discussion, and truly move us.”
Whether or not you like digital art or believe NFTs and Web3 are the future, the fact that Beeple is building something of this scale and for the broader movement demands respect.
The biggest winner (at least from a tourism revenue POV)? Charleston, South Carolina, where the studio will be located. People will be descending upon this small city to see Beeple’s next mastermind creation.
I hope they’re ready for it. 😨
See you next week!