Original title: The Bull Case for Social Tokens

Original link: https://bankless.substack.com/p/the-bull-case-for-social-tokens

Author: Coopahtroopa

Translator: Weiwei of Attack

Proofreading: Shirley

Translation agency: DAOSquare

Start gaining attention with tokens.

Yesterday we saw RAC, a Grammy Award-winning artist, launch his community token (he will be on Bankless' Youtube channel early next week - stay tuned !)

Spencer Dinwiddie, the Brooklyn Nets point guard, also tokenized his NBA contract earlier this year. We've seen more than a dozen credit token experiments in progress. NFTs, games, content subscriptions, and more, to name a few.

It's a way to empower and unite the creator community.

But not everyone likes it (👀 David ). There are many questions, such as how to exit? How are these tokens priced? What if a creator abandons the creation of a work halfway through? These doubts are undoubtedly conducive to the healthy development of the credit token system.

But...these newfound fan tokens have huge potential.

Cooper makes a good case today.

—RSA

Added: Subscribers - Bankless badges will be handed out tomorrow! Please keep an eye out for emails from lucas@banklesshq.com.

Thursday Thoughts

The Good Case for Credit Tokens

New fields are emerging.

It is rooted in the community and endorsed by collective credit.

This is a good example of a credit token - or we can say the token is backed by the credibility of an individual, brand or community. Unlike the DeFi token model we are all familiar with, Credit Tokens are based on the idea that the community of tomorrow is more valuable than it is today.

While many people are not optimistic about credit tokens as air, this article will explore the other side .

Why Credit Tokens?

Creative people are some of the most influential people on the planet.

Whether writers, artists, musicians, or opinion leaders, our society is always driven by people who can tell compelling stories. With the advent of the Internet, creators have a digital platform to share their work with the world.

However, creative talent is limited in its ability to commercialize their work, and supporters are also limited in their ability to share in the increased value of creators.

But Ethereum and the Web3 movement are changing the game. Credit tokens not only allow them to enjoy the value growth dividends brought by creation, but also provide different levels of tokenized community access portals according to their active contributions.

Today, a very dynamic ecosystem of credit tokens is emerging, covering everything from different issuance types to custom distribution mechanisms, community tools, and now aggregators.

Many players are divided into different types, creating a series of combinable technology stacks to unlock a set of products that further enhance the online community.

As for why this field is growing so rapidly? Nothing more than success driven by these creators.

The biggest winner - WHALE - is booming with widely spread NFTs. Credit tokens are backed by a growing number of top-tier assets and collectibles, and holders can list assets on OpenSea using WHALE as a payment method. The form of NFT mining has already led to more than a dozen custom art products, as well as upcoming collaborations between communities.

Neon District CEO Marguerite de Courcelle uses her credit token, COIN , to provide a range of gaming perks, as well as access to private clubs. Players can earn rewards by solving her well-known cryptographic puzzles.

Brian Flynn , the creator of JAMM, is exploring a no-man's-land where through his credit tokens you will access blocked briefing content on Outpost , the Web3 version of Susbstack that is partnered with. The space for innovation and imagination that personal tokens can bring is limitless. Their performance has started to show.

But let's not measure success by token price. For me, the real value of a credit token comes from the application.

new player

Two new credit tokens, RAC and FWB, are doing something similar.

The former $RAC is the reward token for Grammy Maker Award winner RAC. The token is continually being airdropped to Patreon, Twitch, Bandcamp, and Merch subscribers — even though many have never been exposed to cryptocurrencies.

Thanks to $RAC , they will receive a registration link from Zora to keep their tokens intact in a digital wallet that requires email registration.

https://twitter.com/RAC/status/1311395812279087104?s=20

The latter, a community token called " Friends With Benefits " was launched by Trevor McFedries , the founder and creator of Brud and Lil Miquela , an AI influencer who has acquired 2.7 million Instagram followers. For just $50 FWB, anyone can join this vibrant community of creators who are constantly pushing cultural creations with new technologies.

Even Brooklyn Nets star Spencer Dinwiddie got in on the act, developing Calaxy , a credit token platform where professional athletes can tokenize their contracts to decentralize their career bonus entry.

Calaxy — short for Creator Galaxy — will allow anyone to create community tokens with fiat and social. The platform will be launched within the next month.

Grammy artists, NBA athletes, and AI influencers with millions of followers — these are examples of how credit tokens are gradually going mainstream.

Different levels of access rules

Although each credit token has a different goal, they all share one feature: community entry.

While we are accustomed to token governance, mainly in the form of one token, one vote, we can now see that credit tokens are driving what it means to be a token holder.

Using things like CollabLand , the credit token community grows explosively by opening up community portals only to those who hold a given amount of tokens. Whether on Telegram or Discord, bots constantly monitor users' linked wallets to track their token counts in real time. Once below a certain threshold you will be kicked out of the community. Update your role, priorities and permissions by acquiring more tokens.

https://twitter.com/jessewldn/status/1308787601344802816?s=20

To date, 350 communities have integrated CollabLand, bringing this shared trust to more than 30,000 unique users .

But this is just the beginning.

Credit Tokens Enable Universal Access

This feature of offering different levels of access to supporters is what has made subscription platforms like Substack, Twitch and Patreon the giants they are today. But all of these experiences are fragmented.

Credit tokens can allow creators to provide their true fans with the power of convenient cross-platform universal access, so that fans do not need to be forced to register as members of the network platform to access. Credit tokens unify authoring support into a single channel. Even better, creators can enjoy all the appreciation bonuses. This allows creators to minimize reliance on content distribution channels.

The aggregation of benefits is one of the first ways that credit tokens will subvert the existing cross-platform creation model, and it will also be reflected in the application of Web3. Cut out the middlemen and you have a complete peer-to-peer ecosystem. Adds a layer of mechanics that benefit early adopters, and you have a direct interface for communicating with die-hard fans.

Credit tokens can also act on steroids in the creator community.

Even though credit tokens have a long way to go, I'm willing to double down on this track.

At Audius, we are working on a tool that will allow credit tokens to be distributed based on the amount of traffic that listeners provide to creators. With these tokens, fans can unlock content that has not yet been made public, download streaming media or participate in fan-only event competitions.

The opportunities in this field are limitless. We are only scratching the surface of the functionality of credit tokens .

If you want to keep up to date with credit tokens, keep an eye out for resources like Forefront , their entire platform is dedicated to keeping you up-to-date in this space!

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, then please go together.