When the Moxie Protocol launch was announced, I called it the most exciting development I've seen in my 3+ years in crypto.
After a month of close observation following the launch on July 29, 2024, I decided to start a 30-day experiment on Farcaster: the Moxiesplaining Journal.
It's a daily window into my observations, learnings, and the view of Moxie from where I sit as a writer + editor.
This post is a collection of the third week's journal entries (days 9 through 21) exactly as they appeared on Farcaster. Click on the date to read the relevant threads.
The Moxiesplaining Journal was also featured as a community contribution in the sixth edition of the Moxie Monday newsletter.
You can review the first week (days 1-7) and the second week (days 8-14).
By request, I'll gather all 30 entries into one Paragraph post for the collectors. So the next post will publish on Sep. 30, and it will mark the end of this experiment.
I'll still write about Moxie, of course, but I won't necessarily be casting about it every day.
Day 15: Fan Token Auction Reflections
My Fan Token auction happened in the first week after Moxie launched.
Several early bidders + friends got priced out by flippers.
This was just before Airstack made an adjustment that altered the immediate post-auction arb opportunity.
Looking at the cost basis vs. current value for the tokens from my own auction that were auto-allocated to me, I see how the daily buy-and-burn gradually narrowed the difference between those figures. (See image - top is from Aug. 6, bottom is Sep. 15).
So as of this week I'm no longer in the red on my own token. By earning Everyday Rewards, I "worked my way back up."
I'd like my priced-out friends to become holders of my Fan Token too, but the price is much higher now.
I could buy my own token and gift it to them.
But would that be a positive-sum outcome? 🤔
Day 16: The Value of Members' Fan Tokens
It's notable that there are multiple ways for Farcaster Members' Fan Token values to increase:
People buy the Members' Fan Tokens.
The Members' casts attract significant engagement, which is then reflected in higher Everyday Rewards earnings + price increases for their Fan Token following the daily buy-and-burn cycles.
The Moxie token price increases.
One beauty of this design is that disappointing short-term price trends (#3) don’t negate the slow-burn positive-sum compounding effects of #1 and #2 on the value of Members' Fan Tokens (+ the FC network as a whole).
In fact, disfavorable early price trends for the Moxie token may ultimately serve the Farcaster community well, since there's more time to prepare for the influx of interest when people outside FC realize how Fan Tokens work.
Day 17: Restorative Patterns, Not Unjobbing
The pushback on my "Farcaster is my un-job" casts made a lot of sense, so I'm dropping the word "unjobbing" from my Moxiesplaining so as not to mislead.
I'll still use it in other contexts. I think permissionless work based on alignment is a good North Star.
It's exciting that (some) casters earn Everyday Rewards for their work + launch Fan Tokens.
Extractive entities assume "free" labor, and siphon off the lion's share of value created by that labor.
But Moxie begins to establish restorative patterns by returning more value to contributors whose labor benefits the FC network.
While Moxie can't reverse extractive patterns overnight, it's worth highlighting efforts to normalize restorative patterns this way, since FC is the only place it's happening right now.
But I'll stop calling it unjobbing.
Day 18: Public Service Announcement
PSA to the Moxie community:
Please do not (implicitly or explicitly) judge, shame, or otherwise pressure Members who don’t change their Fan Token split percentages from the default 20% to give most or all of their earnings to their Fan Token holders.
It's good to have that option. But not everyone is in a position to give away as much Moxie as they’d like to.
What if they’re cash-strapped because the value they create has been misappropriated by extractive platforms for years?
What if they’re tending to their own basic needs so they can free up time and attention for work that benefits the FC network?
With Fan Token holdings, earnings are indirect, and they may not want to sell to realize gains. Everyday Rewards earned are available to claim the next day, if needed.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Day 19: Community Call Notes
Today’s Moxie call featured community members onstage with their Moxie-related projects. Jason also outlined the roadmap for Moxie in the coming weeks. Here's a partial list:
Moxie Power (coming next week): Lock your Fan Tokens for a 3-month minimum and get a boost to your Far Score.
Moxie Heroes: Give a one-time 24-hr massive boost to someone else.
Moxie Promote: Promote and reward specific actions by specific people.
Moxie Earn: Earn rewards for you and your fans by taking certain actions (note: promote and earn will work in tandem).
Moxie Subscriptions: Subscribe using Moxie and share revenue with fans (e.g., for a channel community).
Also pleased to report that yesterday's "no shaming!" PSA got the most engagement of any cast in my whole Moxiesplaining series so far.
I love this place. Ⓜ️ 💜
Day 20: Family-Friendly Moxiesplaining
In a phone conversation with a family member yesterday, I mentioned that I’d attended a Moxie community call.
She asked: “What’s Moxie?”
She knows I’m in crypto, and I’ve mentioned Farcaster as a social network that serves as my online home to talk to crypto friends, so at least we had some basic context.
My answer was something like:
“Moxie is an economic layer for Farcaster. It’s kind of like a community currency, but Moxie uses crypto tokens so it's programmable. Moxie aims to grow the GDP of the Farcaster network in ways that benefit everyone who contributes value.”
Not bad, but I'd like to fine-tune my elevator speech so I'm better prepared next time.
Have you explained Moxie to non-crypto people?
If so, what did you say?
Bonus question: what kind of response did you get?
Day 21: Publishing In-Frame with Paragraph + Moxie
Ever since Moxie launched, there have been higher economic incentives for casting than for writing long-form essays.
Not ideal for long-form writers like me.
For Moxiesplaining Journal, I do both: cast, earn Moxie, and then collect the week’s casts into a Paragraph post.
But this week I learned two exciting things:
@paragraph has a new feature that makes entire articles (formatting and all) readable in-feed as “mini-apps.”
There’s a Moxie frame wrapper that makes any URL Moxie-eligible by wrapping it with your Airstack API key. (/hypersub subscription required. See /wctools for info).
So I thought: could writers combine these things to earn Moxie for long-form work + reward readers for reading it in-frame?
I have some big releases coming up soon.
It may be time to experiment.
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Moxiesplaining Journal Day 21: Publishing In-Frame with Paragraph + Moxie Ever since Moxie launched, there have been higher economic incentives for casting than for writing long-form essays. Not ideal for long-form writers like me. For Moxiesplaining Journal, I do both: cast, earn Moxie, and then collect the week’s casts into a Paragraph post. But this week I learned two exciting things: 1) @paragraph has a new feature that makes entire articles (formatting and all) readable in-feed as “mini-apps.” 2) There’s a Moxie frame wrapper that makes any URL Moxie-eligible by wrapping it with your Airstack API key. (/hypersub subscription required. See /wctools for info). So I thought: could writers combine these things to earn Moxie for long-form work + reward readers for reading it in-frame? I have some big releases coming up soon. It may be time to experiment. (Moxiesplaining Journal is a daily window into my observations, learnings, and the view of Moxie from where I sit as a writer + editor).
If you missed day 20 and any earlier casts in this 30-day experiment, you can catch up starting here: https://warpcast.com/danicaswanson/0x1e8d718e
Special thanks to @pichi and @wanderloots.eth for calling my attention to the two exciting developments I mentioned in my day 21 Moxiesplaining cast above. Much appreciated. https://warpcast.com/danicaswanson/0x21383f95 https://warpcast.com/wanderloots.eth/0xbd0b9dde
My pleasure 🫡 appreciate your updates in this area and inspirational writing ✨ For the URL wrapper, is that something that’s done solely through the airstack api? Or do you need the moxie tool as well? 🤔 feels like it should be a public good from airstack to enable people to monetize their own frame generations like paragraph posts
Just published the third week's entries (days 15-21) all together as one Paragraph post, so if you prefer to read them that way, here you go. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/the-moxiesplaining-journal-3?referrer=danicaswanson.eth
Exciting times.
If it works the way I'm imagining, it will be a big and long-awaited step in the right direction for long-form writers on FC. There are some examples on https://warpcast.tools/ of casters using these no-code frames to publish art, games, etc., but there are no long-form essays yet.
I think i just saw one used by Dan, which looked like it had a direct interaction with paragraph for long form text.
Explore the insights from week three of Danica Swanson's "Moxiesplaining Journal," where observations focus on the dynamics of the Moxie Protocol after its launch. Key topics include Fan Token values, community discussions, and a simple explanation of Moxie for non-crypto folks. @danicaswanson