Zora

An optimistic case for the new Zora model

1. Everything that can be a token, will be a token. This trend is accelerating because the largest capital market in the world—the US—is finally has a pro-token regulatory environment. (Using coin and token interchangeably here.)

2. If you create digital media, you can immediately can earn money. No bank account, payment process or platform (Zora contracts are a protocol).

3. Additionally, if you create digital media that goes viral, i.e. captures internet-scale attention, you can make a lot of money. Traditionally the only beneficiaries of internet-scale attention are the web2 social media platforms—they monetize via attention (time spent) and they minimally share the upside with the creators.

4. Coins (ERC20) are the most composable primitive in crypto. Order of magnitude more than NFTs (ERC721). Leads to weirder / emergent use cases.

5. Zora open editions fee distribution stack is underrated for curator / app layer monetization.

This is great, but also hoping we can find ways for folks to earn money without having to go viral.

If going viral is the only way to earn money, I'm a little worried about where that bends the onchain ecosystem (probably more in-line with internet today).

instagram, but with higher profit margin for influencers.

writing at: https://paragraph.xyz/@thearcadia || curating vibes over at /football || bringing football onchain at /thefalsenine

I mean, there's got to be something there bc IG makes SO MUCH money from advertisers, none of which goes to people publishing on the platform. Creators, influencers, etc. have to leverage their audience to get paid by sponsors directly, outside any support from IG.

You kinda want a platform that helps you go viral to get discovered & find new audience. But then for some of that audience to be loyal and stick around, providing foundational support for any ongoing creative work.

Yep, absolutely.

And huge +1 on the last point - we all gotta keep trying new things and learning to push the onchain world forward.

the idea (or how i've always thought about it) is for a revolution in profit-sharing and ease-of-discovery/distribution.

if zora's model does catch on it will probably lead to a revolution in profit-sharing and the big influencers will move to zora. 

but nothing has really changed about the other side of that equation. is it easier for smaller creators to get discovered? build an audience and make money of their work? 

still. love to see experimentation in this area.