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.
By request, I've collected all 30 journal entries exactly as they appeared on Farcaster. Many of the casts spawned some fascinating discussions, so do click on the dates to read the relevant threads if you haven't done so yet.
This marks the end of this project, but the Moxiesplaining shall continue on: I'll be working on the Moxie Dictionary next.
Day 1: The Big Picture
Ever since Moxie launched, I've often said that "Farcaster has become my un-job."
“Unjobbing,” in my lexicon, is positive-sum and socially beneficial. It includes:
- Opportunities to do work that gives back to creatives as much as (or more than!) it takes.
- Increased freedom for creatives to align themselves as they'd choose to anyway, regardless of employment prospects or paid gigs.
As Moxie continues to work in the background to financially reward quality contributions to the Farcaster network, it helps free up more time for unjobbing.
I’d like to live in a world in which everyone who wants to can “roll their own” un-jobs into a sustainable livelihood.
I'm excited about the inroads Moxie is making toward that world.
Day 2: Want To, Not Have To
As Moxie builds an economic engine for Farcaster, it can help create more opportunities for “unjobbing”: permissionless work based on alignment instead of employment.
I didn’t ask the Airstack team for permission to start a Moxiesplaining journal. I’m simply writing what I want to write. It’s opt-in. It's inspired by my alignment with the Moxie vision.
That's why I call Farcaster my "un-job."
If people respond, I’ll receive Moxie rewards, which in turn can help free up more time for alignment-based work.
Non-coercion is baked into the design.
I find great magnetism in work that flows from “want to, not have to.”
Day 3: Rethinking Narratives
Observing Moxie Fan Token value flows is prompting me to rethink the mental models of “supporting creators” and “monetizing an audience.”
Fan Tokens don’t fit charity or patronage models. Buyers aren’t donating or becoming patrons.
Big Moxie rewards earners who don’t yet have Fan Tokens are getting nudged to launch them, because benefits can flow to their followers and the FC network when they do.
Holding Fan Tokens isn’t a loyalty test, either.
It’s OK to sell; it's necessary to realize gains. It’s part of the mechanism design. Creators receive a 2.5% fee from every sale.
They also benefit from holding other entities’ Fan Tokens.
So how much of buying/selling Fan Tokens is motivated by altruism, and how much by self-interest?
It's not obvious.
Perhaps that's the point.
Day 4: Valuing Attention
The 90-9-1 rule of participation inequality in social networks is well-known. 90% lurk; 9% contribute occasionally; 1% create.
While creators (1%) get the fanfare, all these roles contribute valuable time + attention to the network.
Moxie Fan Tokens can:
- reward the value contributed by occasional contributors + lurkers
- reduce the grind for creators
Any of these roles can buy (or be gifted) Fan Tokens to align their self-interest with the success of entities in the network.
Everyone can opt into the rewards loop. Not just top creators.
This reduces systemic pressure to compete for limited attention.
Lurkers who don't want to be creators can hold Fan Tokens and just enjoy lurking.
Creators + occasional contributors who hold Fan Tokens can contribute as they see fit, and take breaks when they want.
Brilliant.
Day 5: Creative Livelihood
For 25+ years I’ve been calling attention to extractive patterns that constrain writers’ options for a sustainable livelihood that allows them to focus entirely on writing.
After watching countless bait-and-switch patterns that prey on writers' hopes of making a decent living yet leave them with mere scraps, I lost hope for significant improvements in my lifetime.
So it’s notable that my first words upon learning about Moxie were:
“Don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about anything else I’ve seen in my 3+ years in crypto.”
Moxie rewards creative work in ways that open new paths to sustainability.
I view my Fan Token holdings as a "plug" into network effects that can accrue to users. Not extractive entities.
Here's to a world in which more writers have sustainable incomes so they can just write.
Day 6: The Moxiesplaining Begins
Rising star creator @thecurioushermit has mentioned that my newsletter persuaded her to join Farcaster, and she later purple-pilled and onboarded several other newcomers.
Our exchange in DCs from mid-July (shared with her permission) is where the Moxiesplaining began, so it's worth revisiting as part of this 30-day journal experiment.
Danica: "...there's a big-deal launch coming up in 10 days that I'd recommend you follow. I suggest you learn as much as you're able to about it. I expect it will have far-reaching effects on the Farcaster ecosystem."
Gwynne: "I'd noticed Moxie being mentioned in quite a few casts, so I'd already opened a tab to start looking into it! The more I'm reading about Moxie, the more fascinating it is, especially for content creators!"
(Bonus mention of "Fast Rope Into Farcaster," the canonical newbie reading I always recommend by @cameron).
Day 7: No-Shame Moxiebaiting
Last week Far Scores got an upgrade: Far Boosts, at a rate of +1 boost for every 100K of Moxie TVL in Fan Tokens.
Has this change eased up Moxiebaiting of the harmful/disruptive sort?
I hope so. Because there's a more subtle point to be made about pursuing engagement from high Far Score casters in hopes of earning Moxie.
My current Far Score is 1.188 organic + 7.295 boost = 8.483.
Maybe that’s high enough to attract some Moxiebaiters?
In case it is: I don’t want anyone who’s engaging in good faith to be shamed for having financial motives for interacting.
We're playing positive-sum games here; we want the network to win. If replies are interesting and not a burden on people's time, who cares whether the motives are "pure?"
Save the shaming for those harming the network. Leave good-faith Moxiebaiters alone.
Day 8: The Moxie Dictionary
The Moxie Dictionary is a new project to track, define, and organize emergent Moxie-specific jargon: neologisms, slang terms, wordplay, etc.
Thanks to @kenjiquest for the idea.
To those who've been asking "Wait, what's Moxiesplaining? What's Moxiebaiting?": I'll have more precise answers for you soon.
The Moxie Dictionary will be part of the Moxiesplaining Journal to start, so the community can comment on proposed definitions before they're settled.
Starter list:
- Moxie Maxi
- Moxiesplaining
- Moxiebaiting
- Moxicurious
- Moxiemoron
What other Moxie lingo should be included?
Feel free to tag me to call my attention to candidates for inclusion in the dictionary.
Note: If the definition of the word isn't clear from context, be prepared for some nit-picky questions. :)
Day 9: Fan Tokens Reward Reciprocity
So much of the world is overrun by financial patterns that incentivize + reward extractive behavior and glorify the individual.
Moxie Fan Tokens, by contrast, are designed to incentivize + reward positive-sum relational patterns.
While tokens may be created out of thin air, sustainable wealth is created out of “deep connective tissue”: long-term relations of trust and reciprocity.
It's short-sighted to pursue financial gain in ways that damage or disregard the role of the social fabric.
Fan Tokens are the foundation of Moxie because they reward building and sustaining healthy relations over time, instead of extracting from them.
I view my Fan Token holdings as a way of aligning myself with this kind of deep-rooted reciprocity.
Day 10: Easing the Way for Writers
A few ways Moxie Everyday Rewards help make life easier for heavily time-constrained and/or cash-strapped writers on Farcaster:
- Rewards aren’t directly tied to any particular subject matter specifics. This helps create more latitude for intrinsically motivated (but still paid) writing.
- Distribution happens in the background; claiming is straightforward. No need to chase your earnings. The reduction in mental load and effort (compared to tipping tokens) helps free up that much more time and cognitive energy for writing.
- Lowers the barriers for niche writers with modest followings to start earning, which can help them bootstrap small businesses. Less time spent pursuing uncertain funding sources (e.g., grants, prize pools, etc.) translates into more time for writing.
How does Moxie make your life easier?
Day 11: Value Flows to the Whole Network
It’s notable that 10% of all Moxie Everyday Rewards always flows to the FC Network token, and this percentage is not adjustable.
I view this as a way of recognizing that true positive-sum value creation happens in context over time. Never in isolation.
Besides the visible work done by high-profile casters + creators, lower-profile background roles like curators, channel mods, + lurkers/readers also contribute valuable time, attention, and continued effort that helps the network succeed.
Instead of revenue-maximizing by capturing hidden surplus value created by these roles and leaving them with nothing but scraps, Moxie returns value to them.
To see this it's important to consider the big picture: how all elements of the Moxie Protocol and token interact.
They work in tandem over long time horizons.
Day 12: Community Call #2 Notes
A few notable items from today’s Moxie community call:
1) Effective today, there's a change to Everyday Rewards:
- Moxie given by recasts + quote casts is reduced from 10x to 6x the Far Score for each one, with a max of 150 that can earn per day
- Moxie given by replies is reduced from 5x to 3x the Far Score for each reply, with a max of 300 that can earn per day
- No changes to likes
The idea is to encourage more thought about what merits a response. (I approve of this change!)
2) Starting in about 2 weeks, we'll have Far Power:
- Lock any Fan Tokens for a min. of 3 months to get higher Far Boosts
- Unlocked Far Boosts will be capped
- Judges for retro grants will receive a boost in voting power according to the TVL in their Fan Tokens
3) Next week’s call will focus on community stories.
Day 13: Meta-Reflections
I do most of my best work slowly, behind the scenes, and out of the spotlight, so I’m unlikely to become a high-volume, high-visibility sort of caster.
Yet I’ve set up the Moxiesplaining Journal as a daily experiment because:
- I'm inspired by the long-term Moxie vision, and
- I want to contribute something Moxie-related every day that might benefit the FC network.
So rather than wrangling with ponderous deep-dive essays that take weeks or months to write (which is where my writer-mind tends to go instinctively if I'm left to my own devices), I’m building daily habits + learning-in-public muscles this month.
In any case, I imagine most of those who hold my Fan Tokens trust that I’ll keep contributing value to the network that compounds over time, regardless of my current rank on the daily earnings leaderboards.
Day 14: Fan Token Plans
Today I'm answering a question about plans for my Fan Token.
Long-term, I hope to use Moxie + Fan Tokens as a springboard to build a sustainable livelihood around my best work: intrinsically motivated writing. The writing I actually want to do.
I’ve got 30+ years’ worth of non-fiction writings in my files, published and unpublished. I plan to edit and re-release the highlights onchain.
I'm working on token-gated vaults: special collections of never-before-seen writings (journal entries, rants, etc.) restricted to my Fan Token holders only.
Currently I'm working on this as a side project alongside work-for-hire. Once I'm able to turn my full attention to intrinsically motivated writing, my Fan Token holders will be the first to benefit.
In the meantime, I'm open to ideas!
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 #3 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.
Day 22: Value Creation + Demand
As a Moxie Maxi, I want Moxie to succeed for the sake of the whole FC ecosystem in the long term.
So I want to think carefully about sustainability concerns. It's in the network’s best interest for us to examine possible shortcomings and suggest changes if warranted.
The latest nerd-snipe for me is a thoughtful take from @abundance, founder of /impact, regarding the demand side of Moxie's tokenomics.
To be truly sustainable, Mike says, Moxie “would need to tweak the mechanism to capture value beyond just engagement,” because "engagement in itself is value-neutral."
I find this line of reasoning pretty compelling.
Value created via curation labor + channel moderation is under-incentivized, for example. But these are hard problems.
I'd love to hear more thoughts.
Day 23: Rewarding Channel Founders + Mods
With big changes to channels on the way, I'm pondering how Moxie Everyday Rewards + Fan Tokens could be used to facilitate sustainable business models for channels.
This includes rewards for bootstrapping + moderating channels.
As a forum mod myself, I’ve seen forums go under because they lacked sustainable ways to retain good mods.
For those who haven't tried it, it’s hard to fathom the Herculean effort required to build + sustain a good community that attracts quality contributors. Even for small communities, it's a heavy lift.
Using Fan Tokens for channel membership can align contributors' interests without token-gating content (anyone can still read).
Moxie offers economic levers that can be used to reward work that’s already being done but not capturing much value.
That's a major unlock.
Day 24: Selling Fan Tokens
What happens when people sell Fan Tokens?
I haven’t sold any yet, and don’t plan to for quite awhile. I plan to lock when Moxie Power launches.
But selling is the only way to realize gains, so I imagine most people will sell some of their holdings sooner or later.
When that time comes, what factors affect the outcome?
A few that come to mind:
every token sold slightly reduces the price for the next buyer/seller
5% fee (2.5% burned; 2.5% to the Fan Token entity)
taxation (e.g., cost basis and capital gains tax on profits)
slippage (how to estimate?)
In some cases it looks like sellers end up with a loss when they were (presumably) hoping to profit.
Even after reviewing the docs I still feel unclear on what people end up with when they sell, so I'm hoping to learn in public.
Thoughts...?
(NFA, of course).
Day 25: Music Journalism + Moxie?
Next up in my publishing queue is a musician interview I've worked on for years.
I released the first version on Substack in 2018 to paid subscribers only.
I'm extremely excited to finally release it to the public on @paragraph.
I never wanted to paywall the interview. I did so only because at the time it was the best available option for recouping even a fraction of my out-of-pocket production costs.
Music journalism has been gutted, leaving writers with few ethical funding options for interviews in niche genres (my specialty).
So this interview may be my last.
BUT: fully formatted writings can now be read in-frame via mini-apps on FC, and can also be eligible to earn Moxie rewards via a "Moxie wrapper." (Or maybe other ways too?)
I'd like to see what's possible with Moxie.
Maybe there's still hope.
Day 26: Community Call #4 Notes
A few notable items from today's call:
Moxie Power + Moxie Experts launched today.
Moxie Power: Lock any Fan Tokens for a minimum of 3 months to get a Far Score boost.
👉 ❗ NOTE: locking affects your Far Score onchain right away, but there’s a 1-hour lag on the front end. Don’t be alarmed if your score drops when you lock! It'll catch up. ❗ 👈
Moxie Experts (community members) will judge grant applications.
80-90 grant apps already received. (Deadline: Sep. 30)
Judges must hold Fan Tokens.
Can nominate multiple people.
To accept a nomination from someone else, you must nominate yourself.
Voting by judges ends Oct. 3.
Likes now capped: new 500 per day limit of likes that can earn Moxie.
Moxie Earn + Moxie Promote: the team plans to work on these for the entire month of October.
Day 27: Help Build the Moxie Dictionary!
Even after the Moxiesplaining Journal experiment ends (Sep. 30), I'll still be working on a behind-the-scenes word nerd project: building the Moxie Dictionary.
The Moxie Dictionary is a collection of Moxie-specific neologisms, slang terms, wordplays, customs, quirks, + witticisms that originated in the Moxie community.
Feel free to tag me with potential additions + which accounts to credit.
I'll prioritize terms that have caught on and are now widely used.
Examples:
@wake.eth started the Ⓜ️ emoji tradition for Ⓜ️oxie.
"Moxiemoron," coined by @kenjiquest, refers to "engagement baiting by asking nonsense clarifying questions." (h/t @zeni.eth)
"Moxiebaiting" (lol) is "pleasuring oneself by baiting high-follower accounts into engaging with your casts." (h/t @downshift.eth)
What else should be added?
Day 28: Channels + Fan Tokens = Moxie Utility
I’m excited about the changes on the way for channels. Especially the option to use Fan Tokens for channel membership.
Why?
Gives channels a built-in economic model to reward the time, labor, and attention of all contributors (founders, moderators, curators, active member-owners, and read-only followers who hold channel FTs) without requiring:
paywalls for content, or
monthly subscription fees.
More utility for FTs + good channels = increased demand for FTs and better long-term sustainability for Moxie.
Owners can choose how many tokens to require for membership, and can decrease that amount as desired to adjust for price increases (i.e., make the channel more economically accessible).
Easier spam filtering.
Even skeptics may come around once they see this model in action.
Days 29 + 30: Onward!
Since my application for the Retro1 grant program is due tomorrow, I’m rolling the last two entries into one so I can wrap up before the deadline.
Reflecting on (almost) 30 days of Moxiesplaining:
Glad I proved to myself that even a chronic overthinker like me can show up every day to write short-form casts and learn in public for the sake of a project (and network!) I believe in. It's helpful to work those muscles.
I've especially enjoyed the more slow-paced deep-dive discussions and respectful pushback in the Moxiesplaining threads. Love all you nerds.
Though the 30-day experiment is ending, my Moxiesplaining will continue on: I'll be serving as a Moxie lore-keeper (i.e., working on building the Moxie Dictionary).
Thanks to all who followed this series, contributed thoughtful takes, and inspired me to write about Moxie "from where I sit" as a writer + editor.
I'll keep my eye out for other stuff that needs to be Ⓜ️oxiesplained.
Onward!
Can anyone connect me with someone who knows Moxie very well? perhaps the founder too? I'd love to interview them and share insights with the /network-states school community, especially for those of us (myself included) who are still trying to understand what Moxie is all about and what it does. Thank you, Ina
Ping @alexcomeau @betashop.eth @danicaswanson @beecurious is a lovely human and currently at the network state school and wants to connect more with moxie experts
Thanks for the connect @adrienne Sending you a dc @beecurious
Will also vouch for @beecurious!
👋
@adrienne thank you so much, I feel like both you and @nounishprof are like 'Yellow Books' before that you can find any information for anything in a city. @betashop.eth Jason nice e-meeting you, will dm now. Thanks 🙏
Thanks for tagging me, Adrienne! Glad to see Alex and Jason have already responded, as they're the best experts to interview about Moxie. But maybe my Moxiesplaining project will be of interest too. https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/the-moxiesplaining-journal-days-1-30?referrer=danicaswanson.eth
@betashop.eth
Moxiesplaining Journal Days 29 + 30: Onward! Since my application for the Retro1 grant program is due tomorrow, I’m rolling the last two entries into one so I can wrap up before the deadline. Reflecting on (almost) 30 days of Moxiesplaining: - Glad I proved to myself that even a chronic overthinker like me can show up every day to write short-form casts and learn in public for the sake of a project (and network!) I believe in. It's helpful to work those muscles. - I've especially enjoyed the more slow-paced deep-dive discussions and respectful pushback in the Moxiesplaining threads. Love all you nerds. - Though the 30-day experiment is ending, my Moxiesplaining will continue on: I'll be serving as a Moxie lore-keeper (i.e., working on building the Moxie Dictionary). Thanks to all who followed this series, contributed thoughtful takes, and inspired me to write about Moxie "from where I sit" as a writer + editor. I'll keep my eye out for other stuff that needs to be Ⓜ️oxiesplained. Onward!
If you missed day 28 and any earlier casts in this experiment, you can start catching up here: https://warpcast.com/danicaswanson/0x331bd709
Just published the full wrap-up. You can read all 30 Moxiesplaining entries in one @paragraph post here. cc @antaur.eth https://paragraph.xyz/@danicaswanson/the-moxiesplaining-journal-days-1-30
Join @danicaswanson in reflecting on the innovative Moxie Protocol through the "Moxiesplaining Journal." Gather insights from 30 days of daily entries capturing thoughts, discussions, and a roadmap heading into the Moxie Dictionary. Exciting developments ahead!