ted (not lasso) on Warpcast

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https://warpcast.com/~/channel/ted

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ted (not lasso) pfp

ted (not lasso)

loose thoughts on the "social media platforms capture 95% of value" argument for onchain content: it's built on the wrong assumption about what matters to creators at large. data shows ~70% of the global creator economy and creator income already comes from off-platform sources like brand deals ($21B+ in 2023), merch, and subscriptions, NOT platform payouts. even on YouTube, creators earn ~$25B/year from ad rev share. most users and creators' real challenge isn't how to get paid — it's how to get seen. most creators will choose audience over money first because reach, discoverability, and scaleable demand are what drive scalable monetization. crypto rails alone can't fix that. worse, they add friction, volatility, and speculative behaviors that alienates mainstream fans — limiting the audience. for crypto platforms to compete, they must solve the distribution and demand side and not just financial market mechanics. and overindexing on monetization reads as a misunderstanding of the creator economy.

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Mike pfp

🗣️ its a good narrative and easy to explain why crypto matters but long way to go on adoption curve fwiw (like many things) i think we get there faster than people not in crypto think and slower than people in crypto think

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shoni.eth pfp

it costs money to make someone rich, in crypto there’s often no product in return

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EulerLagrangodamus

@eulerlagrange.eth

I call this the The DeFi Manifest Destiny: ‘This creative platform would be so much better with liquidity pools!' Sir, this is a children's drawing app. D.E.F.I.N.E. - Determinedly Expanding Financial Instruments to Non-interested Enterprises.

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cc @priyanks on what i shared earlier today about waiting for 100x dau so my content finds its true audience i.e. gets seen "most users and creators' real challenge isn't how to get paid — it's how to get seen." agree with everything else that you've said in the cast too. thx for sharing your thoughts @ted 🖤

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🎀 sonya (in theory) 🐰

@sonyasupposedly

100%, distribution is everything to wit, even on web3 platforms that are designed for monetization via speculators (e.g. Zora), you're still not making anything unless you get seen

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@jonathancolton

Totally agree. It’s a mistake to assume creators prioritize payouts over visibility. The real job most creators are trying to get done isn’t “get paid”—it’s “get seen.” Distribution is the unlock. Most creator income happens off-platform—brand deals, merch, subscriptions. Even on YouTube, ad share is just one stream. The common thread? Audience. Monetization follows reach—not the other way around. That’s why Farcaster is interesting. It’s not just crypto rails—it’s a network for early signal. Not mass-market reach. Aligned reach. Frames, Warplet, and channels enable distribution mechanics, not just financial ones. (Just wrote about this: What Job Is Farcaster Really Doing? https://paragraph.com/@jonathancolton.eth/what-job-is-farcaster-really-doing Platforms that over-index on monetization miss the point. The job is visibility. The rest flows from that.

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Haele pfp

Love that you’re thinking about this, there’s so much potential for solving web2 creators problems with web3 systems and tools imo but the connection isn’t there yet

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Reid DeRamus pfp

I wouldn't overlook that the ~70% dynamic may be a product of the platform dynamics. If creators made money on Instagram, or if YouTube kept less revenue, etc., many would love to not to have to do as many brand deals or spin up tangential businesses (merch, chocolate bars). All that stuff takes a ton of time, creates a lot of overhead, need to hire business people, all of which distract from the core product - the creative output / work.

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ilya pfp

Love this take. To add my two cents about audience and discovery. There’s truly social element here (your friends) which remains important. There’s also social capital element here (someone having 20k followers) which might matter less in the future. Curious what you think about it. https://warpcast.com/ilyat/0x69ef3c28

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JubJub.base.eth

Preach! I feel there will be a switch as platforms start to pay more to the creators, this will come with a level of curation/editorial oversight bringing a return to the old system of 'get past the gatekeepers' This friction brings opportunities for crypto as you can now settle payments to content owners without needing to engage them directly. Your point about market mechanics is spot on, that should come later and has huge benefits, but to start there will kill any adoption of the underlying mechanisms imho

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++ ever since i read "Attention Factory", my take has been that the true product of the biggest social media platforms is their algorithm. users go where distro is biggest, not unlike the pvp of chains. apps surface content but their true value is in training their recommendation engine which in turns powers the apps.

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The ChainStories Podcast

The creator economy is more about reach and visibility than just monetization. Crypto platforms need to focus on distribution, audience growth, and engagement, not just financial incentives.

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Peter pfp

Spent some time researching the creator economy when looking into SocialFi for a prev company. 100% agree with your points on Creators' order of operations (create > grow > monetize) and SocialFi to focus more on distribution. I don't blame existing dApps to focus on monetizations first, though. Distribution is solved incredibly well with existing social media apps (e.g. TikTok, IG, Youtube). The primary differentiator for dApps from social apps is the ability to monetize directly instead of via middle man. From Warpcast POV, I think they've executed pretty well on differentiating. Now it's about finding the right balance between innovation and growth.

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