This is essay 2 of 4 for the BanklessDAO Writers Cohort.

While my last post centered on the impact of web3 on the creator economy, this week's post builds on that as we explore more details of what drives the creator economy. One thing that excites me about web3, blockchain technology, and the crypto space as a whole is that it opens a new world of possibilities for literally anyone. This minute you may think you've seen it all, and the next thing you know, there's a whole new concept waiting around to be explored. This can be said of Social Tokens.

First came the idea of digital currencies like bitcoin and ether — a digital asset class that doubles as a store of value and could also be publicly traded globally in open markets. And now, thanks to the emergence of social tokens, anyone anywhere in the world can create digital currencies for their communities.

Gone are the days when creator earnings were solely reliant on third-party tech companies, and creators had to live through being significantly ripped off what was due to them. The emergence of social tokens opens a world where creators can leverage the power of strong fandom and community to create sustainable income from the effort put into elements of their creation. What a time to be alive!

The sector has grown to be a thriving ecosystem within the web3 community, as the market cap currently sits at $1.22 billion at the time of writing. This article aims to introduce the concept of social tokens and how brands can optimize their content through social tokens while exploring the use cases of social tokens.

Social tokens are blockchain-based assets created by individual creators or brands to incentivize their communities to participate in certain activities and also share in the ownership of the creative work. For instance, they could be used to reward participants for doing things like sharing content, completing tasks, or even just joining the community.

Broadly speaking, social tokens are categorized into personal, creator, and community tokens. These digital assets serve as monetization tools for brands, businesses, and individuals. In that, they offer content creators a novel way to earn revenue from their active efforts, in addition to sponsorships and paid advertising. Therefore, there is no doubt that social tokens play an important role in the new ownership economy.

According to The Defiant, they represent a fractionalized share of the intrinsic value of a brand, community, or human creator. It is a form of ownership economy that gives its participants exposure to the growth trajectory of what the community is centered around as well as the potential to shape that trajectory.

The distinguishing feature of social tokens is that, unlike other regular blockchain-based assets, social tokens are not centered around price prediction or speculations. Instead, they are driven by social capital, reputation, trust, and the value of community.

Another feature is that they can be earned and spent within the social media channel where they are created.

Also, apart from individual or creator tokens, social tokens can be created to serve a communal purpose. This is where the social token is not built around a single individual or creator but allows a community of individuals with shared mutual goals to come together for a course. This scenario is most evident within Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) or other groups like collectives, online communities, or informal clubs.

Branding in the new creator economy is now evidently a viable means of community participation and engagement as it is both advantageous and profitable to both the creator and the community involved. On one part, the brand or creator could secure funds from their community, while on the other part, members of the community who invest in such tokens also stand a chance to gain financially when the project or community grows.

There are many ways brands can use social tokens to monetize their businesses, from exclusive group access to a share of a community's treasure. However, if you want to create a social token, you need to figure out how fans, contributors, the general audience, or community members can earn your social token first. Then, it is also crucial that you know the type of community you are working with, so you can decide what your social token will be used for.

Once you've decided to create a social token, the next step is to build a community. This community should focus on your brand goals. Set up social channels on your preferred platforms in preparation for onboarding community members. Discord and Telegram seem to be the most popular web3 social platforms. If you are a known creator, this might not be an issue since you already have a community.

Thanks to protocols like Roll, Rally, Strataprotocol, and other platforms that have simplified the token creation process. It is now easier than ever to design and launch social tokens.

One of the earliest use cases of creating social tokens for a personal brand was the creation of $BOI and $CNSL by Matthew Vernon and Reuben Bramanathan, who both created social tokens that could be redeemed for an hour of their time. Fans, investors, or anyone who purchases either of these tokens are at liberty to trade same in the open market. $RAC is another example of a social token created by Portuguese-American Grammy award winner André Anjos (RAC). Ownership of $RAC tokens unlocks access to merch drops, discord server access, and a few other benefits, which include rewards and direct interaction with RAC.

The social media landscape is currently valued at $380 billion, and with the emergence of social tokens like those offered by Tokens, social media is expected to grow even further. Social tokens have many advantages over other rewards and loyalty programs, such as the ability to scale globally. Many brands use a rewards or loyalty program but can only scale their program within a limited area. With social tokens, there is no geographic limitation. So a creator or brand could reward its customers from anywhere in the world.

Another reason you should leverage social tokens for your brand is that you can turn your fans, supporters, subscribers, and likes into investors through token creation. These people are more than willing to support you and your brand by purchasing your social token.

Communities could also create social tokens that encourage participation and engagement within the community. This means members, fans or contributors could earn tokens by interacting in various social channels or get rewarded for completing minor tasks like polls or surveys or others that contribute to the community's collective success. The members can then spend the tokens on discounts, or special offers your brand may provide in the long run.

Some popular community tokens include:

1. WHALE ($WHALE), a social community token backed by high-value NFTs, including P2E assets, virtual assets, digital arts, e.t.c, collectively called "The Vault." Some of the perks of being a member of the WHALE Community entail access to branded WHALE NFTs and access to The Vault's NFTs. To participate in the community, you could buy the WHALE token in the open market, airdrops, or even join a community event.

2. BanklessDAO (BANK) is another prominent brand/community social token. Formed around is a decentralized autonomous organization whose mission is to help the world go bankless through education, media, and culture.

3. Friends with Benefits (FWB) is a collective community of artists who brand themselves as futurists passionate about building the future of Web3. To become a member of the FWB community, an individual has to hold a required amount of FWB tokens. Some benefits accrue to members include access to their discord server and community events online and in real life.

***

While there is no doubt about the potential for social tokens to improve the creator economy, social tokens are digital assets just like other cryptocurrencies; therefore, they are also volatile in nature. Therefore, it is important that creators ensure that their tokens comply with the necessary legal regulations.

This is essay 2 of 4 for the BanklessDAO Writers Cohort.

While my last post centered on the impact of web3 on the creator economy, this week's post builds on that as we explore more details of what drives the creator economy. One thing that excites me about web3, blockchain technology, and the crypto space as a whole is that it opens a new world of possibilities for literally anyone. This minute you may think you've seen it all, and the next thing you know, there's a whole new concept waiting around to be explored. This can be said of Social Tokens.

First came the idea of digital currencies like bitcoin and ether — a digital asset class that doubles as a store of value and could also be publicly traded globally in open markets. And now, thanks to the emergence of social tokens, anyone anywhere in the world can create digital currencies for their communities.

Gone are the days when creator earnings were solely reliant on third-party tech companies, and creators had to live through being significantly ripped off what was due to them. The emergence of social tokens opens a world where creators can leverage the power of strong fandom and community to create sustainable income from the effort put into elements of their creation. What a time to be alive!

The sector has grown to be a thriving ecosystem within the web3 community, as the market cap currently sits at $1.22 billion at the time of writing. This article aims to introduce the concept of social tokens and how brands can optimize their content through social tokens while exploring the use cases of social tokens.

Social tokens are blockchain-based assets created by individual creators or brands to incentivize their communities to participate in certain activities and also share in the ownership of the creative work. For instance, they could be used to reward participants for doing things like sharing content, completing tasks, or even just joining the community.

Broadly speaking, social tokens are categorized into personal, creator, and community tokens. These digital assets serve as monetization tools for brands, businesses, and individuals. In that, they offer content creators a novel way to earn revenue from their active efforts, in addition to sponsorships and paid advertising. Therefore, there is no doubt that social tokens play an important role in the new ownership economy.

According to The Defiant, they represent a fractionalized share of the intrinsic value of a brand, community, or human creator. It is a form of ownership economy that gives its participants exposure to the growth trajectory of what the community is centered around as well as the potential to shape that trajectory.

The distinguishing feature of social tokens is that, unlike other regular blockchain-based assets, social tokens are not centered around price prediction or speculations. Instead, they are driven by social capital, reputation, trust, and the value of community.

Another feature is that they can be earned and spent within the social media channel where they are created.

Also, apart from individual or creator tokens, social tokens can be created to serve a communal purpose. This is where the social token is not built around a single individual or creator but allows a community of individuals with shared mutual goals to come together for a course. This scenario is most evident within Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) or other groups like collectives, online communities, or informal clubs.

Branding in the new creator economy is now evidently a viable means of community participation and engagement as it is both advantageous and profitable to both the creator and the community involved. On one part, the brand or creator could secure funds from their community, while on the other part, members of the community who invest in such tokens also stand a chance to gain financially when the project or community grows.

There are many ways brands can use social tokens to monetize their businesses, from exclusive group access to a share of a community's treasure. However, if you want to create a social token, you need to figure out how fans, contributors, the general audience, or community members can earn your social token first. Then, it is also crucial that you know the type of community you are working with, so you can decide what your social token will be used for.

Once you've decided to create a social token, the next step is to build a community. This community should focus on your brand goals. Set up social channels on your preferred platforms in preparation for onboarding community members. Discord and Telegram seem to be the most popular web3 social platforms. If you are a known creator, this might not be an issue since you already have a community.

Thanks to protocols like Roll, Rally, Strataprotocol, and other platforms that have simplified the token creation process. It is now easier than ever to design and launch social tokens.

One of the earliest use cases of creating social tokens for a personal brand was the creation of $BOI and $CNSL by Matthew Vernon and Reuben Bramanathan, who both created social tokens that could be redeemed for an hour of their time. Fans, investors, or anyone who purchases either of these tokens are at liberty to trade same in the open market. $RAC is another example of a social token created by Portuguese-American Grammy award winner André Anjos (RAC). Ownership of $RAC tokens unlocks access to merch drops, discord server access, and a few other benefits, which include rewards and direct interaction with RAC.

The social media landscape is currently valued at $380 billion, and with the emergence of social tokens like those offered by Tokens, social media is expected to grow even further. Social tokens have many advantages over other rewards and loyalty programs, such as the ability to scale globally. Many brands use a rewards or loyalty program but can only scale their program within a limited area. With social tokens, there is no geographic limitation. So a creator or brand could reward its customers from anywhere in the world.

Another reason you should leverage social tokens for your brand is that you can turn your fans, supporters, subscribers, and likes into investors through token creation. These people are more than willing to support you and your brand by purchasing your social token.

Communities could also create social tokens that encourage participation and engagement within the community. This means members, fans or contributors could earn tokens by interacting in various social channels or get rewarded for completing minor tasks like polls or surveys or others that contribute to the community's collective success. The members can then spend the tokens on discounts, or special offers your brand may provide in the long run.

Some popular community tokens include:

1. WHALE ($WHALE), a social community token backed by high-value NFTs, including P2E assets, virtual assets, digital arts, e.t.c, collectively called "The Vault." Some of the perks of being a member of the WHALE Community entail access to branded WHALE NFTs and access to The Vault's NFTs. To participate in the community, you could buy the WHALE token in the open market, airdrops, or even join a community event.

2. BanklessDAO (BANK) is another prominent brand/community social token. Formed around is a decentralized autonomous organization whose mission is to help the world go bankless through education, media, and culture.

3. Friends with Benefits (FWB) is a collective community of artists who brand themselves as futurists passionate about building the future of Web3. To become a member of the FWB community, an individual has to hold a required amount of FWB tokens. Some benefits accrue to members include access to their discord server and community events online and in real life.

***

While there is no doubt about the potential for social tokens to improve the creator economy, social tokens are digital assets just like other cryptocurrencies; therefore, they are also volatile in nature. Therefore, it is important that creators ensure that their tokens comply with the necessary legal regulations.