Culture Airdrops - The Daily Gwei #315
In it for the culture (okay, and the money too).
We’ve all received our fair share of airdrops over the last few years from the ‘mass airdrops’ of 2017 (where tokens were sent to every single address) to the ‘loyalty airdrops’ of 2020/21 where users received tokens for simply using the app. Now, we’re seeing a hybrid approach between loyalty airdrops and something new that I like to call ‘culture airdrops’ - essentially getting tokens into the hands of those shaping crypto culture via NFTs and the metaverse.
As you can see above, SuperRare announced their new RARE token and version 2.0 of the protocol. The tokens main purpose is to act as a “curation token” for the platform as SuperRare doesn’t just let anyone sell on the platform - only 1-2% of all artists end up getting whitelisted. In typical crypto airdrop spirit, 15% of the total supply was airdropped (based on volume) to both collectors and artists who have used the SuperRare app in the past. What I find really cool about this airdrop is that SuperRare has essentially rewarded all of the people who helped to formulate the culture of the 1/1 curated art space. These people got involved as the earliest users of the product, helped the core team shape the platform, supported both popular and new artists by collecting their work and, of course, spread the word about SuperRare.
If we take a more general look at this concept of ‘culture airdrops’ we can extend it to NFTs themselves as there’s already been numerous projects that airdropped NFTs to their early supporters. For example, the Nifty Island community was airdropped special ‘legendary palms’ that will able to be used within the Nifty Island metaverse once it’s live (it also acts as an “OG” signalling mechanism to other players of the game). Also, just like in SuperRare, these early community members are working to set the culture of what Nifty Island is and can be - and they’ve already been rewarded for doing this!
There’s an adage that I often like to bring up when someone asks me what the best way to grow a community & culture is and I always say that you simply need to “make your early community rich” because if you do this, you’ll have an army of loyal supporters. We’ve seen this play out with plenty of crypto projects from blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum to DeFi protocols like Synthetix and Aave. We’re now seeing this play out within the NFT space as the early buyers of NFTs such as CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, Ringers and more have seen the value of their collectibles skyrocket - effectively making them “rich”.
I hope to see projects put more focus on their culture whether that be through rewarding early community members with airdrops or making a concerted effort to grow a vibrant and lasting community. By doing this, these projects will have a much better chance of success and a much easier time recruiting additional people into their community (to work as contributors or just to be part of the culture).
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.