I've recently chatted with NFT project founders getting shocked by the "hidden" costs of launching a new collection. Building & launching an NFT project has countless costs. For example, creators need to take into account the artists & developer salary, primary & secondary sale royalties, gas fees during the mint, and marketplace fees. One fee that often surprises creators though is the gas fee for the smart contract deployment to the blockchain.How to Calculate Deployment CostIf you don...

I've recently chatted with NFT project founders getting shocked by the "hidden" costs of launching a new collection. Building & launching an NFT project has countless costs. For example, creators need to take into account the artists & developer salary, primary & secondary sale royalties, gas fees during the mint, and marketplace fees. One fee that often surprises creators though is the gas fee for the smart contract deployment to the blockchain.How to Calculate Deployment CostIf you don...

After my last NFT atomic essay, I received an inquisitive question from a creator: "Who actually facilitates the NFT secondary sales royalties? Is it the marketplace or the creator's smart contract itself?"The short answer:For creators deploying their NFT collection on the Ethereum protocol, their smart contract itself will define the royalty amount to be paid out to creators every time the NFT is sold or re-sold. However, it's up to marketplaces (OpenSea, Rarible, etc.) to actually...

After my last NFT atomic essay, I received an inquisitive question from a creator: "Who actually facilitates the NFT secondary sales royalties? Is it the marketplace or the creator's smart contract itself?"The short answer:For creators deploying their NFT collection on the Ethereum protocol, their smart contract itself will define the royalty amount to be paid out to creators every time the NFT is sold or re-sold. However, it's up to marketplaces (OpenSea, Rarible, etc.) to actually...

Beyond helping you as a creator earn more income, NFTs can also help you establish a premium membership for your community.What are Membership NFTs?Membership NFTs enable you as a creator to gate exclusive access to your community, content, services, events, and perks using the NFT itself. In effect, providing more utility to your NFT holders.What are examples of Membership NFTs?Crypto Packaged Goods is a membership NFT that enable holders to get access to private events, deal flow, incubate ...

Beyond helping you as a creator earn more income, NFTs can also help you establish a premium membership for your community.What are Membership NFTs?Membership NFTs enable you as a creator to gate exclusive access to your community, content, services, events, and perks using the NFT itself. In effect, providing more utility to your NFT holders.What are examples of Membership NFTs?Crypto Packaged Goods is a membership NFT that enable holders to get access to private events, deal flow, incubate ...

Making a successful project in web3 doesn't just magically "happen." After being in the space for the past 6 months, I've seen countless projects rise to spectacular hype and fall to tragic demise. Sometimes in the span of just a few days. The market is brutal and stressful for creators. That's why the #1 quality creators need to succeed in this space is high agency.What is high agency?Shreyas Doshi, Product Lead at Stripe, describes high agency as when you're told somethi...

Making a successful project in web3 doesn't just magically "happen." After being in the space for the past 6 months, I've seen countless projects rise to spectacular hype and fall to tragic demise. Sometimes in the span of just a few days. The market is brutal and stressful for creators. That's why the #1 quality creators need to succeed in this space is high agency.What is high agency?Shreyas Doshi, Product Lead at Stripe, describes high agency as when you're told somethi...

When I was 12, I first learned about the "tyranny of the majority" in my US History class. Tyranny of the majority is whenever in a democracy, the majority pursues its goals at the expense of minority groups. e.g. US white majority's subjugation of black and Native American groups. In the case of DAOs, wealthy whales tend to have the most voting tokens, which risks them monopolizing the decisions for their selfish gains. So how do you prevent this danger? One good way would be implementi...

When I was 12, I first learned about the "tyranny of the majority" in my US History class. Tyranny of the majority is whenever in a democracy, the majority pursues its goals at the expense of minority groups. e.g. US white majority's subjugation of black and Native American groups. In the case of DAOs, wealthy whales tend to have the most voting tokens, which risks them monopolizing the decisions for their selfish gains. So how do you prevent this danger? One good way would be implementi...

One major pain point faced by web2 community-led businesses: They depend on their community members to contribute content (Tripadvisor), act as moderators (Reddit), organize events (Eventbrite), etc. However, in exchange for their work, these contributors are rewarded in terms of reputation, swag, exclusive groups & events, but rarely with financial compensation. As a result, as a creator and entrepreneur, it's challenging to build a long-lasting relationship with your contributors since...

One major pain point faced by web2 community-led businesses: They depend on their community members to contribute content (Tripadvisor), act as moderators (Reddit), organize events (Eventbrite), etc. However, in exchange for their work, these contributors are rewarded in terms of reputation, swag, exclusive groups & events, but rarely with financial compensation. As a result, as a creator and entrepreneur, it's challenging to build a long-lasting relationship with your contributors since...

Copyright and intellectual property is a super murky area for NFT creators right now. I've heard a lot of questions like:If I create an NFT for my artwork and sell the NFT, does that mean I've sold my copyright to my work?What do buyers actually "own" when they buy an NFT?This essay is my attempt to shed light on some misconceptions I see. Caveat: I am not a lawyer and this essay is not intended to represent legal advice in anyway; instead, I wrote it just to provide general informa...

Copyright and intellectual property is a super murky area for NFT creators right now. I've heard a lot of questions like:If I create an NFT for my artwork and sell the NFT, does that mean I've sold my copyright to my work?What do buyers actually "own" when they buy an NFT?This essay is my attempt to shed light on some misconceptions I see. Caveat: I am not a lawyer and this essay is not intended to represent legal advice in anyway; instead, I wrote it just to provide general informa...

When I was 20, I watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi for the first time. The documentary profiles the story of sushi chef Jiro Ono and how he rose to highly-acclaimed success with his three-Michelin-star sushi diner. His devotion of his life to his improving his craft, rigorous 10-year training of his apprentices, and nearly-impossible standards of quality all embody the spirit of kaizen, the Japanese term for "improvement." The movie changed me forever in a small, but meaningful way. I aspired to a...

When I was 20, I watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi for the first time. The documentary profiles the story of sushi chef Jiro Ono and how he rose to highly-acclaimed success with his three-Michelin-star sushi diner. His devotion of his life to his improving his craft, rigorous 10-year training of his apprentices, and nearly-impossible standards of quality all embody the spirit of kaizen, the Japanese term for "improvement." The movie changed me forever in a small, but meaningful way. I aspired to a...

People like to say that 98% of NFT projects will go to zero, but 99.8% of NFTs already have no market value [1]. Yet NFT Twitter is a constant, 24/7 FOMO machine. You can easily lose yourself to your emotional impulses, feeling like you've missed out on the golden blue chip NFT project opportunity. The data presents a much different reality: only .03% of the world's 5B internet users have ever traded an NFT on Ethereum [2] [3]. In other words, most of the world doesn't give a s...

People like to say that 98% of NFT projects will go to zero, but 99.8% of NFTs already have no market value [1]. Yet NFT Twitter is a constant, 24/7 FOMO machine. You can easily lose yourself to your emotional impulses, feeling like you've missed out on the golden blue chip NFT project opportunity. The data presents a much different reality: only .03% of the world's 5B internet users have ever traded an NFT on Ethereum [2] [3]. In other words, most of the world doesn't give a s...

In Part 1, we discussed why community-centric creators should start a DAO in the first place. In this essay, we'll talk about how get started rewarding contributors, examples of DAO contributor rewards, and what tools to use.How to Get Started Rewarding ContributorsCabin DAO published a useful contributor reward framework, which outlines this 5-step process:Reward Principles: What’s the north star?Reward Eligibility: Who should we reward?Reward Structure: What should we reward, under wha...

In Part 1, we discussed why community-centric creators should start a DAO in the first place. In this essay, we'll talk about how get started rewarding contributors, examples of DAO contributor rewards, and what tools to use.How to Get Started Rewarding ContributorsCabin DAO published a useful contributor reward framework, which outlines this 5-step process:Reward Principles: What’s the north star?Reward Eligibility: Who should we reward?Reward Structure: What should we reward, under wha...

NFTs are all the rage in the crypto sphere. In the last month, we saw ~$5B* worth of ETH in terms getting transacted on the OpenSea marketplace alone (Dune). Insane.* And the party's just getting started with new NFT marketplaces (Coinbase, LooksRare) and new tailor-fit protocols (Treasureland) being launched every month. So the question is... why should you care about NFTs as a creator? Here's three reasons:NFTs are an entirely new channel for monetizing your creative work, which c...

NFTs are all the rage in the crypto sphere. In the last month, we saw ~$5B* worth of ETH in terms getting transacted on the OpenSea marketplace alone (Dune). Insane.* And the party's just getting started with new NFT marketplaces (Coinbase, LooksRare) and new tailor-fit protocols (Treasureland) being launched every month. So the question is... why should you care about NFTs as a creator? Here's three reasons:NFTs are an entirely new channel for monetizing your creative work, which c...