Is Blockchain really going to democratise financial freedom and level the playing field so we have more equality? If so, how will we be able to take part in this technology revolution? 

In this research paper, I am to understand how we can use blockchain technology to help artists in launching their project. The research will look at how artists are currently launching their projects today and how web3 applications are introducing new ways of creating value and the buyer and seller relationship.

When change is the only constant, how do we keep up with what’s next?

Technology affects our lives in many ways. In the book “Thank You for Being Late”, Thomas Friedman shared that “the rate of technological change is now accelerating so fast that it has risen above the average rate at which most people can absorb all these changes”. As illustrated below, today most people are not able to adapt to the changes in technology.

Blockchain is the underlying technology empowering cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). It is an upcoming, if not already arrived, evolution in technology that is affecting more than just businesses but also how we work and live. Today, NFT projects have minted new millionaires like Ghozali, a student in a small town in Indonesia who becomes a millionaire after selling his collection of selfies as NFTs (Stewart, 2022). In 5 to 10 years time, DBS Bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta expects blockchain technology to run “the back office of the world”, as quoted in a recent interview with the Straits Times (Tham, 2022)

For Ghozali, his intent was only to upload his selfies randomly and it was random chance that made him a millionaire. If blockchain technology is going to run “the back office of the world”, I cannot imagine how it will change the way we work, live and play. Can we help people to adopt technology more intentionally and improve their lives?

Adoption of technology and building usability of the technology goes hand in hand. The more uses the technology has, it will likely attract more people to adopt it. And with more people adopting it, there will be more builders who will build on top of the technology and create more use cases.

Artists have evolved and adapted their craft with the development of technology; this has given birth to different types of art like the Solar Reserve by John Gerrard, an installation art that communicates sustainability. The installation’s centrepiece is a computer generated video, using a big giant LED as a medium, which is an example of how technology is incorporated to create the artwork (computer generated) and the display medium (the big LED wall, which would not be possible in the 90s).

In the mobile era, mobile devices and platforms have become an essential part of our lives. This has given birth to digital artists such as DeeKay Kwon and James Curran, who create animations and GIFs as the craft is viewed and more relevant in smaller form factors. Being digital artists, they are now pushing their foray into publishing NFTs. 

For a Singapore painter, adoption means digitalising and converting a painting as an NFT. Placing it in an AR/VR environment is a way of providing the new generation of users a new medium to be able experience it (Tee, 2022). 

Just as there are artists who are adapting, there are also those who are still figuring out their place and how they would do it. Art both analogue or digital, has a place in our lives and society, hence it is important that we ensure artists also adapt as technology changes the way we interact with art. How can we help artists continue to create and have a place in our lives?

While not all entrepreneurs are artists, all artists are very much entrepreneurs. Artists already think like entrepreneurs and in many ways today, they are already doing what entrepreneurs are doing from fundraising, marketing, supply chain and at the same time creating their product which is their art (Arenius, Chuah, Coate and Hoffmann, 2020). The struggles of an artist as an entrepreneur in starting their project and keeping it afloat often is overlooked because of their unproven economic value in our capitalistic driven economy and governments (Wolff, B., 2019). 

My intent in this research is to discover 

• What blockchain technology can we incorporate into launching a project? 

• How have blockchain technology changed the way we work, live and play that artists can incorporate into their process?

How blockchain technology has changed the way we work, live and play is a big undertaking. For the purpose of this research, I have scoped this down to how we can help artists launch their project. Artists as they resonate with me because they are passionate entrepreneurs and their work gives colour and adds perspective to my worldview. 

In particular, my aim is to uncover the needs of a budding artist, someone who has been doing his/her craft for at least 3 years, is not currently holding a contract under a label, working in a studio, in short the artist has not made a name for themselves or discovered by a label.

ChilliDxddy (Nicholas Tee) is a live artist based in Singapore who collages action, image, sound and material through body-based performance, pain and endurance; their work is often politically charged, angry and messy. ChilliDxddy’s work has been presented internationally, notably at Haus der Kunst (DE), Manchester Art Gallery (UK) and Point Centre for Contemporary Art (CY). Most recently, their work was featured in the British Art Studies journal published by the Paul Mellon Centre. www.nicholastwy.com

A recent ChilliDxddy’s work “About Endlessness” a 24 hour durational performance was performed in Dance Nucleus, Goodman Arts Centre. The performance was made possible by the Self-Employed Person (SEP) Grant through the National Arts Council. The SEP Grant is a time-limited scheme that supports the SEPs in the arts who are affected by Covid-19.

ChilliDxddy would like to continue iterating on his project and continue his exploration on duration performance and the theme of “About Endlessness”. His main challenges are funding and engaging with his audience.

The structure of the paper will be an exploration of what is currently out there and understanding how artists are launching their project. I look at NFT projects, as they have evolved, for how they have started and what is making them the hype of 2021. Next, I researched what other solutions and disruptions that blockchain technology has enabled.

Then I look for commonalities and intersections to be used in my experiment. After which, I would share the results and findings of the experiment, recommendations before my reflections.

How are artists launching their projects today? Taking the perspective of an artist as an entrepreneur, one of the first steps for an artist to launch their project would be to raise funds. Traditionally, for an artist to get funding, apart from selling their product (art), would be Applying for a grant - this typically involves writing a proposal to an institution and getting a portion of the funding required if the proposal is accepted. Private or public commission - More for an artist who is already established, hence would have an individual or institution commission him/her to produce a work. Residencies - in lieu of monetary funding, residency programs can provide artists different benefits that range from a venue/space and community to support their creative process.

Today, crowdfunding and social media offers different alternative ways to raise funds and launch a project.

Crowdfunding Popular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGogo and GoFundMe have arts and creative listed as a category of projects to be supported. From “All or Nothing” to “keep what you earn” with different tiers of funding for supporting artists, supporters are given rewards for their support.

Successfully funded projects have a few characteristics (Stewart, 2022) (Nunes, 2022)

1. Video showing the product and its benefits - these normally include prototypes of the product.

2. Rewards that make sense for different supporting tiers

3. A good team profile or successful track record

4. Communication plan - Successful projects would provide milestone updates to the supporters such as supply chain, prototypes, even challenges and hurdles to manage expectations.

Meanwhile, motivations and deterrents for supporters in crowdfunding projects can be varied.(Gerber and Hui, 2014)

Main deterrent for supporters is lack of trust in the project and how the funds would be utilised. This would be a big hurdle especially for artists who are starting out and have a smaller base of supporters.

Meanwhile, the motivation for Supporters starts from the reward (product), which means the project needs to be attractive at the base level. However, the collaborative aspect of crowdfunding provides long term value to both the creator and supporter. 

“[I follow the campaign] fairly closely. I check the [project website] once or twice a day in the forums and I interact with the community online... mostly the backers.... [We] decide which direction we feel the game should go.”

The supporter gets to be a part of a community and able to have their voice heard. For the creator, harnessing the voice of the customer can have a positive impact on their current and future projects. (Cornelius and Gokpinar, 2021).

Research Finding

Projects on crowdfunding platforms are short-term project based and once the campaign is over, there is no more interaction between the artist and the supporters. 

Supporters support a project for different reasons, however those who are made to feel included and allowed to contribute more than money can have a longer lasting positive impact.

The main deterrent for a supporter is how they can trust the creator/artist. 

For creators/artists creating a campaign with a good video or prototype, and maintaining the campaign momentum is a big challenge, especially for someone who is starting out.

Crowdfunding + Crowdsourcing + Social Media on steroids

There are many art projects that crowdsources audience participation and includes them in the end product. For instance, in a statement Aaron Koblin uses micropayments to get 10,000 individual micro drawings of a $100 note. 

However, not many have been able to do what Imogen Heap did. In 2009, she produced and launched the album, Ellipse, using video diaries, blogs, social media and her fans (Morris, 2013). She involved her supporters (fans) through her entire journey of creative production and launch of her project, such as input on demos, design of her album art and writing her press biography. In this project, Heap managed to launch her album independent of agents, distributors and managed to get it all done via her supporters. Many who were also appreciative of her letting them be part of the process and part of her community. 

Research Finding

Crowdfunding and social media put together can amplify the reach and effectiveness of the supporters. Involving and engaging supporters through the project can lead to an effective project launch. At the same time, it takes a lot of time from the artist, taking him/her away from the work of creation to more of managing and coordinating.

Digital Patronage

Applications like Patreon, Twitch and Drip have enabled a patronage type of relationship between individuals and their supporters. The main difference between a traditional patronage and digital patronage is the former normally relies on a small pool of individuals who contribute a large amount of money, but digital patronage relies on a big pool of individuals who contribute a small amount of money.

In a study (Wohn et al., 2019), the motivations of viewers to subscribe and continue to support streamers on Twitch, ie. to be their digital patron are as follows.

1. Quality of content ie. the product/reward

2. Sense of Community

3. Recognition and connecting with the artist

Research Finding

The motivation to be a patron is similar to the motivation of supporting a crowdfunding project. The main difference is that patronage is providing a consistent and regular stream of income versus a crowdfunding project where it is a one-time support, like a donation.

To the patrons, they also view the recurring nature of patronage as a higher level of support as it is beyond simply a financial investment but also an emotional one.

With online platforms and advancement of technology, digital goods and properties are now available free, perfect and instant (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, n.d.). The experience of listening to a song that you download from napster or the one that you convert from a purchased CD as a softcopy is the same. It can be distributed or shared with a friend over the internet and it still remains the same exact copy - free, perfect and instant.

The first NFT minted in 2014 started as a way of providing a way for artists to assert ownership to their digital work (Dash, 2021). Powered by blockchain technology, it is designed to give the collector or artist something that can’t be copied: ownership of the work, in the digital realm. To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print, but only one person can own the original (Clark, 2022).

However, NFT projects have evolved a lot over the last few years. In fact, a lot of projects have little to do with art and more about raising funds with NFTs ownership being the token representation of share and capital. Very much like Initial Coin Offerings, but in this case with a NFT replacing Coins, and the NFTs providing other benefits to its holders.

In this research, I selected a few projects that have been launched in 2021/2022 and currently still running. My criteria for shortlisting the projects are, 

1. They are still around, as of the time of writing

2. More than 60% of holders are different individuals as verified on OpenSea - this means that the collection is owned by multiple holders. Hence, it is not a project that is backed by a small collection of people who can manipulate the price or direction of the project.

3. They have, so far, been able to provide value to their supporters. This is either through access or drops that have increased in value to their supporters.

4. Price of the NFT are stable in their crypto currency Ethereum, not in the FIAT sense

The research is based on what I am able to review on the internet; OpenSea, LooksRare for transaction records and value.Social media, especially their Twitter feed and Discord Channel if it is not gated. The details of my research can be found in the Appendix or here and summarised below.

RTFTKT

HIGHLIGHTS

RTFKT was started in 2020 to create virtual sneakers and digital artifacts by three founders. They launched a few collections through collaboration with different artists and were acquired by Nike in December 2021. In 2021, they introduced a “forge” utility for holders of their NFT collection, where owners are able to redeem the physical item by verifying and claiming it on chain.

RTFKT released the individual 3D files of the CloneX artwork to their corresponding NFT holders. Starting a movement for holders to start a virtual avatar economy where they are able to monetize their virtual avatar in music videos, merchandise and others.

RTFKT has been able to provide increasing value to their supporters by dropping items to their supporters. Following the above example, if you bought a CloneX in Nov 2021 in the secondary market at 2.5 ETH, at the rate of USD4,800 for 1 ETH you would have paid USD12,000. Today, the value of that initial purchase would have appreciated by 50%, considering all of the dropped items, despite the drop in ETH to USD1,900 for 1 ETH, as can be seen in the table below.

Yuga Labs HIGHLIGHTS

Yuga Labs was started in April 2021 with the launch of BAYC which is a collection of Bored Apes images. The founders started BAYC with the thought of giving a home to NFT collectors who are sometimes referred to as “apes”. 

BAYC is one of the most profitable NFT launches to date. Launched in April 2021 at 0.08 ETH (equivalent to then USD240), it was worth 44ETH which is about USD137,000 by August 2021. Today, it is worth 85 ETH which is about USD161,000 (James Beyer, 2022).

In March 2022, Yuga Labs launched APE Coins through Ape Coin DAO, a cryptocurrency to be used in the BAYC universe. And in April 2022, launched The OtherSide, a virtual metaverse which can be accessed by owning the NFT OtherDeed for Otherside. Yuga Labs reserved 45,000 Otherdeeds for BAYC holders and Yuga Lab employees.

Holders of Otherdeeds for the Otherside are able to access a 3D virtual world game that, at its demo launch, allowed up to 45,000 players to play at the same time. As holders, they can participate passively as a player or actively to develop the game mechanics or even create their own experiences. This brings ownership to a whole different level. 

VeeFriend HIGHLIGHTS

One of the NFT projects I have found that is launched with a very clear value proposition offered from the beginning, access to VeeCon for 3 years. VeeCon is a conference that is organised and headlined by Gary Vaynerchuk.

VeeCon access is exclusively for holders of VeeCon Ticket NFTs, which is dropped to VeeFriends holders. At the end of the VeeCon day 3, Gary and Snoopdog announced a collaboration which would provide additional utility/benefit to the holders of the VeeCon Ticket NFT which would be launched in Fall of 2022. 

Research Finding

Through the research, I find three main characteristics that span across the these projects

1. Utility

2. Community

3. Safety

Utility of Tokens

Although it started as a way for artists to provide scarcity and ownership to their digital art, subsequent projects almost have nothing or little to do with art but more about providing utility for owners of the tokens. The people who are investing (supporting) the projects do not only value scarcity or fungibility, but the utility of the token. In short, what is the benefit that I, as a backer, will gain by holding the token? (Reply All, 2022)

The utility or benefits of the project is not fixed and can evolve. For example, holding a VeeCon ticket will have an added benefit with the SnoopDog collaboration that was not there before the VeeCon event. And it would be challenging to execute for a physical ticket because people might have lost it or thrown the ticket.

The utility can go beyond digital benefits such as access to a virtual land. Forging events by RTFKT, brings physical utility to holders of Clone X in July 2022. Clone X holders can redeem a digital hoodie, which can be “forged” for a physical hoodie in their mailbox at the end of the year. 

Community

Successful projects have active communities that are usually managed on Discord. Here are a few traits/characteristics that make them active and successful, which behaves like a town square

1. Active moderators (officials) - moderators would conduct events like quizzes or games on a regular basis. They would organise the channels and answer questions.

2. Members help members (community leaders) - Active members would jump in to welcome newcomers, answer questions and keep the channel active. As the channel grows, active members would be given recognition and promoted as channel moderators.

This aspect of the community provides an onboarding experience for anyone trying to make sense of this NFT world.

Safety

There are a lot of scams in the Crypto and NFT space. From outrightly creating a copy of an NFT page to Direct Messages on Discord giving out free NFTs, mostly to lure holders into opening up their crypto wallets. All of the Discord pages would regularly communicate best practices and how to avoid these scams but it does not seem to stop people falling prey to them.

It does not help that the nature of decentralisation and blockchain does mean that there is no recourse once your crypto or NFT is stolen from your wallet. You can see and trace where the digital item is, but there is no central entity that can help you get it back.

In this research, I looked at research papers and applications that use blockchain technology that is changing the relationship between the seller and the buyer, or disrupting the traditional way things are done.

LikeStarter

LikeStarter is a proposal for a social based platform where users are able to promote their project for eg. a song, drawing or art.  In this proposal, the authors propose the use of Ethereum blockchain for Crowdfunding with a few unique features (Zichichi, Contu, Ferretti and D'Angelo, 2019).

LIKE

Users in the platform can “share”, “comment” or “like” the posts in the platform. “Share” and “Comment” feature is a common feature in a social platform and functions in the same way. 

If a user were to “like” the page/project then the user is also supporting the project monetarily. Everytime the user “likes” the project, a certain amount of currency, in this case ETH, is converted into the platform token called “Likoin”.

TOKENIZATION

Likoin is unique to the project/artist. This means that Likoin obtained by supporting Artist A cannot be used to purchase benefits from Artist B. Likoin-A can be used to redeem products from Artist-A, by converting the Likoin for Bucks.

SHARES

LikeStarter includes an interesting way for Supporters (Users who own Likoin) to participate in the success of the Artist they support. Purchase of products can only be done by using Bucks and Bucks can only be acquired by converting Likoins.

In this way, holders of Likoin-A will benefit when Artist A’s becomes famous, increasing the value of Artist A’s products and value of Likoin-A. Rewarding those who supported Artist A early on, very much like owning shares of Artist A’s company.

Mirror

Writing NFTs is another way that Blockchain is changing the publishing industry. For example Mirror (https://mirror.xyz/) is a Web3 publishing platform, similar to Medium (https://medium.com/).

Collecting vs Liking articles

Writers on Mirror can easily publish their article and mint it as an NFT or collection of NFTs. In web2, users who interact with content by “likes”, in Mirror, users “Collect” articles in their wallet. These collectable articles can be free or priced to contribute ETH to the writer. In Publish0x users can earn crypto when they read an article and subsequently “tip” authors if they “like” the article.

Sound

A platform to mint songs as NFTs, allowing a direct relationship between the artist and the listener.  Sound.xyz (https://www.sound.xyz/about) makes it easy for musicians to launch their music and users to directly support them by purchasing their songs as an NFT. 

Listen and Own the Moment

Listening parties to release tracks are also events where listeners can discover new artists and the opportunity to own the moment by purchasing an NFT. You can then own the moment by leaving a public comment on the song.

Axie Infinity

Blockchain based game pitting Axie characters against other players or computer players. Axie characters are NFTs which can be upgraded and traded.

Play to Earn

Axie characters need AXS to be hatched/minted. AXS is the in-game currency that can be purchased on the platform. Playing the game will earn you AXS which can be traded to earn real money.

In 2021, the game soared in popularity, especially in the Philippines. Players were able to earn a significant amount above the minimum wage in the Philippines. However, recently the game’s ecosystem has failed and resulted in players who were in it to earn money losing a significant amount.

Stepn

Web3 lifestyle app with social and gaming elements. Users can equip the NFT Sneakers and earn crypto while walking, jogging or running.

Move to earn

Connecting the mobile phone’s GPS with the app and a crypto wallet. Users are rewarded when they walk, jog and run. The crypto currency GST issuance is unlimited and can be used to upgrade NFT sneakers, trade or mint new sneakers.

Research Finding

Blockchain technology is allowing different models of engagement that would not be so easily implemented in the past.

LikeStarter, creates a system that is centred around the artist and allows the users who support them to benefit from their success, by issuing tokens which will appreciate in value as the artist becomes more recognised.

Mirror and Sound allows for a direct support between the creator and their supporters through their digital wallet and collecting of articles or buying a moment in a song.

Axie Infinity and Stepn lets you earn for doing what you like, playing games or just simply exercising. What is possible next, Eat to earn?

From the research above, I try to synthesise my findings below and highlight a few points that stand out.

The power of the crowd - whether crowdfunding or NFTs when you break down the investment to a smaller amount, you will be able to harness a bigger audience versus finding a single patron or backer, and the result can be exponentially more effective. However, this is not saying that every project with a crowd element will work. It takes effort and a substantial amount to find the right audience and continually engage them like how Imogen Heap did for her album launch (Morris, J., 2013).

Community Engagement - In order to harness the power of the crowd effectively, it only makes sense to use the crowd to help engage the audience. This is what I see as the magic ingredient, how NFT project communities are being managed. Members of the Discord channel organise themselves in the sub-channels, provide updates and help each other. This reinforces the belonging factor and at the same time relieves the artist/project owner from making the community their full time job.

Technology has enabled a more direct and interactive relationship between buyers and sellers or artists and their supporters. In the past, support would only have been possible by purchase of the product (music album, art piece) or merchandise. These would normally go through intermediaries and most of the proceeds would also be diluted before benefitting the artist. Now, proceeds in a crowdfunding or digital patronage can go directly to the creator, like Twitch and Patreon, and an interactive engagement is made possible via these applications either hosting live streams or interacting through a discussion forum.

This direct and interactive relationship in turn converts supporters into fans or stakeholders. As they are investing more than just money, supporters become stakeholders because they feel involved and have invested their time and emotions in the project more than just monetary value.

This direct relationship has also removed some of the inefficiencies of previous systems where artists do not get a say on how much they should be rewarded. It also comes with challenges where it is more difficult for artists to be discovered and marketed.

** Decentralisation** - In the Blockchain Revolution (Tapscott, D. and Tapscott, A., 2016), web 2.0 is referred to as the Internet of Information while web 3.0 is referred to as the Internet of value. When we see a piece of information/article on the Internet, we can easily Whatsapp or email it to a group of friends, transmitting the information across. However, we cannot as easily do that with money ie. we can’t as easily email $100 across to a friend. In order to do that, we would have to use apps built by intermediaries and centralised organisations to do a variety of identity checks and ensure that we have the funds to transfer in the first place.

With blockchain and cryptocurrency it is possible to transfer value directly and peer-2-peer without the need of a central intermediary. Through Blockchain, we are able to transfer value directly between users securely and validated.

Why is that beneficial?

Most of how we engage today rely on central platforms as intermediaries. For example, for live streaming platforms like Twitch, streamers get 50% of the subscription purchased for their channel. Despite the platform relying on their streamers for the viability of the business, the economic incentives are skewed to reward the platforms to do what is right for their shareholders and not the users.

Users believe that the marketplace is charging them too much, making unfair rules and getting rich off the work that they put in. Middlemen are always hated because the value they extract from their users seems too much and there is nothing much the user can do to affect it. (Ovide, 2020) Without users, live streaming platforms cannot function but users do not control how much incentive the platform should take, it is all one-sided decision. The users have no control over how and when they change the terms of interaction (Popper, 2021)

This is similar to artist and creator marketplace today like IndieGogo, Kickstarter or Patreon. The success of the marketplace is very much dependent on the creators who decide to launch their project on the platform and the users who subsequently back them. However, most of the time the creators and users do not share in the success of the platform or have any say towards the policies in the platform.

Technology has enabled a direct relationship between buyers and sellers. And now with blockchain technology, value can also be exchanged directly.

I would like to explore if we are able to incorporate blockchain technology as an enabler for artists to launch their project and build their community. Success would be if my client would want to use the platform to launch his next evolution of Endlessness.

In building my solution, I used the Lean Startup Principles to validate my problem areas before building and testing my solution. The Lean Startup Method was introduced by Eric Reis in 2008 after seeing that traditional business management to a startup does not work for them. Lean Startup Methodology emphasises the Learn - Build - Measure cycle, building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as an experiment and learning as much as possible from it, then continuously going through the loop.

Learn - Build - Measure

Below are a few of the core principles I have chosen to anchor

1. Validate the problem - don’t build a solution that is looking for a problem, but ensure that I have a customer that has an actual problem to be solved

2. Base the success criteria on actual behaviour not what the customer says

With the Problem Validation and the state of the art research, I am moving to the MVP phase incorporating my learnings.

My hypothesis is 

Artists have difficulty launching their project - raising funds and continuously engaging their supporters. They will want a solution that would make it easy for them to put together a project page to showcase their project, market it to get funding, awareness and engage this community of supporters or potential supporters.

Supporters have difficulty in discovering projects that they can trust. They will want a solution where they can discover projects, get to know more about it easily and protect their interest if they choose to support it. They will be motivated by the possibility of participating in the artist's success as an early supporter.

Decentralisation part of the app will require more time and education before it can be adopted. Hence, this feature needs to be developed in a way that it will not add more steps for the users. In my introduction of the MVP, this feature is not introduced to the users.

My first iteration of TokenLoop focuses on providing 

1. An easy way for artists to issue their own token to provide rewards to their supporters. The platform would handle all of the contract and the user experience would be a simple web interface without any coding.

2. A familiar crowdfunding campaign mechanism so that it would be easy to start a campaign and raise funds

Client Feedback

The token is a very interesting way of providing connection with the supporters. For ChilliDxddy, he was not so interested in raising money through the platform but that TokenLoop would be able to provide a long term connection with his supporters and audience. 

“ChilliDxddy token, will allow me to know who are my early supporters and be able to reward them accordingly if at some point my work evolves and be more recognised. Through the tokens I will also be able to invite them to interact in my performance or provide input into the creative process”

User Feedback

The concept of tokens took a bit of time to explain and is not easy to grasp the benefits. As it is not clear how the tokens will evolve or how they will be rewarded as early supporters of the artist.

They like the idea of milestones release of funds, which protects the users. Especially for users who have been involved in crowdfunding campaigns which failed and the reasons were not communicated clearly.

What I learned

I learned that ChilliDxddy finds the campaign page daunting. He recalls his experience on Kickstarter where putting together a video needs a lot of effort for it to look professional enough to garner enough backers. 

Secondly, although it is great to have a community page within the same platform, it still does not help his struggle in trying to maintain his engagement with his supporters. As it is, he only updates his social media account only when he has an upcoming project or performance.

Through the User Feedback, I would refine the token mechanism and make it simpler. I would also add a social layer to provide the first layer of trust.

In the 2nd iteration of TokenLoop, I took the consideration that artists who are starting out would not have the luxury of having a dedicated team to support them with the campaign video and managing their community. I also observed that ChilliDxddy and other artists would make the effort to update their social media account. Therefore, in the 2nd iteration made the following changes.

1. Campaign/project page is simplified and connected to social media platforms.

   • For supporters backing/supporting a project will simply be a click of a button and be rewarded depending on the number of times the supporter clicks the button.

   • Supporters can see which of their friends have backed the project via their social media account

2. Campaign updates can be updated via their social media account and linked via an API

3. TokenLoop will also include assigned Community Managers with existing engagement templates and timelines. Artists will no longer need actively manage their community page

Client Feedback

ChilliDxddy likes the integration of social media as it helps to save time. The community manager would be a great addition but is not as important to him because he is comfortable with interacting with his supporters.

Crowdfunding feature in TokenLoop is secondary to ChilliDxddy. Given the nature of crowdfunding, it would require him to have a significant number of supporters. For comparison, his recent grant from the National Arts Council is SGD50,000. For him to raise that amount on a crowdfunding platform would probably require him to have 2,500 supporters who are willing to donate $20. In his recent production, he probably had less than 500 people who watched the performance.

In summary, he is not sold on the solution but would be willing to experiment using the tokens or NFTs to engage with his supporters, when he does his next project.

User Feedback

The social feature in the platform resonates with the users interviewed. They are more likely to consider supporting a project if a friend is also supporting it. There were some concerns raised on the data being collected by TokenLoop and by the social media platform.

What I learned

As I included more “features” on the platform it also became more difficult to communicate the benefits of the solution. This is apparent as I struggled at the first few interviews to present the solution. 

I think for a solution to work, how we tell the story and how we communicate it to different stakeholders is just as important as the product features. This is just like for an artist starting out, the story that the artist tells is as important as the work that the artist produces.

The crowdfunding feature does not resonate with ChilliDxddy as an artist starting out. However, the experiment did uncover ways that the artist can have a direct relationship and engage with their audience. Tokens as a way for supporters to have “ownership” opens different ways for supporters to support and be rewarded.

Pivot from Crowdfunding to Token issuance and management

Through the two iterations, the crowdfunding feature is not a good solution for the client. For budding artists, one of their main challenges is that they do not have a large support base and one of the main functions for crowdfunding to work is you need a big pool of individuals willing to support.

A possible pivot for consideration would be to make the token issuance a central feature of the solution and put funding as a secondary or complementary function of the solution. Tokens can be issued by artists when a supporter buys their artwork or watches their performance. Over time, this will allow the artist to have a platform from which they can have a direct relationship with their supporters, to engage and reward. Much like the way the collection and subscription feature works in Mirror.

Pivot the milestone payout as an API to a crowdfunding platform

One of the feedback I received from a user I interviewed is his bad experience with a few Kickstarter projects that were not successful. The user commented that with payments paid out in tranches when certain agreed milestones are met, users are better protected. An implementation of this feature is discussed in a paper, Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform using Smart Contracts (M et al., 2022). 

So far, I have not seen this feature being developed in any crowdfunding platforms. This feature could be developed as a plug-in for crowdfunding platforms to be offered as an option to their creators.

Implementation of Social Element 

Further research in the implementation of the social feature should be considered and design considerations should be put up, learning from real life lessons we have seen playing in our communities. For example infinite scrolling, algorithms that would encourage polarity or even the amount of personal data being used in order to maximise the platform’s success over the welfare of the individual.

Safety and Scams

Scams seem like an integral part of blockchain technology seeing how every discord channel on NFT projects would have a “Scam Alert” or “Scam reporting” sub-channel. With Tokens representing a value, it would be a target for bad actors who are looking to exploit technology for their benefit. Aside from education to increase awareness, integrating some safety features in the crypto wallet transactions can be considered. The insurance industry incorporates a “free look” period where a new policy holder has a number of days to cancel their purchase without any penalty. Something similar to this could potentially be implemented to help scam victims recover their stolen digital artifacts.

Further Research

More research into the NFT and other blockchain applications would definitely be needed. It is such a dynamic space and everyday brings a new development. 

My initial research intent is to answer the following 2 questions,

What blockchain technology can we incorporate into launching a project?

Blockchain as a technology has the potential to change the way business and trade is being conducted. Blockchain technology has pushed and made possible a more direct and interactive relationship between the artist and supporters. As users become more accustomed to being involved and have a sense of ownership, artists would be able to do well if they incorporate this into their projects. Through tokenisation, smart contracts, digital currencies can help artists to build ownership and participation in their projects.

Given the digital nature of the technology, it is still a challenge to combine this with the analog arts like painting or sculptures. Artists who are not able to work with this new medium will find it difficult to bridge this gap.

How have blockchain technology changed the way we work, live and play that artists can incorporate into their process?

In this sense, it may not so much be just about blockchain technology, but more of how technology has changed the way we work, live and play. Today users interact with the world in a different way. In the past we would know about movie stars from magazines and watching movies. When something happens to them, we will probably only know of it 2-3 weeks later. Now, we would instantly know what they are having for breakfast from their social media. There is a lot more transparency and the speed is almost instant.

How this affects users is the community building aspect has also become transparent and instant. Community building requires constant and instant engagement. This is apparent with the job titles for community engagement managers.

Artists need to be able to build and engage their community, how much to include them in the process or keep the anticipation. Today, platforms like Discord become almost the de facto venue for blockchain or software applications to organise their community digitally. However, the skills required to do it is not just simply mastering the tool, but also how to manage the crowd.

Blockchain application projects are still a big experiment with a lot of trials and errors. The people working in the space are constantly rolling out new features, experiences and learning from mistakes. The projects I cited in my research could very well be non-existent in 3-4 months' time, just look at the Terra-Luna crash in May 2022 that wiped out billions of value in the space of a few days. 

** **The technology makes business models like Mirror, So Col, OpenSea, Play-to-Earn and Step-to-Earn possible. However, it is a new area and for Axie Infinity, the initial promise of allowing players to earn a living playing games has instead been dubbed like a ponzi scheme. The crash in the value of the crypto currency Axie has left people in debt as they had tried to use their savings to pay for more Axie to level up their characters.

However, this should not mean that we completely avoid it. One area that I can see is how the content creator economy has changed the media, advertising, sales and entertainment industry. And it is still being written today, powered by web2 platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and others. I believe that the Web3 journey is still only in its nascent stages with platforms like So Col, whose purpose is to empower content creators. 

I am very excited and optimistic about the possibilities.

Research Structure

I am very grateful for the guidance by Hyper Island, especially this particular guide by Jonathan Your Master's Project: 10 Tips to succeed. The only thing I wished I had done is to have been more disciplined in my research structure. To have spread out the research, ask better questions and give more time to the experiment. 

The Lean Startup

I chose the Lean Startup Method in approaching my experiment because of the learning that I had in my IRA and wanted to build upon what I have learned previously,

1. Use the 5 WHYs to reframe my problem

2. Building small MVPs or MVIs to accelerate the cycle of build-measure-learn

I find innovation a common red string that ties how I would like to approach business management/transformation and digital technology. One lesson I can still learn from using this approach is that I tend to be too tunnel visioned into a solution and forget to ask the bigger question “What is the purpose of what I’m doing?” and “What is the impact that I want to drive for my stakeholders?”

Researching feels like going down the rabbit hole and finding myself in Wonderland. There were so many tangents to pull and at times difficult to anchor myself. The Lean Method actually “forced” me to stay scoped and focused on the problem. The 5 WHYs helped to frame the problem and solve for the root cause instead of jumping into a solution.

I wished I had more resources with the MVP. The prototype I have developed is put together using basic PowerPoint skills. Although I am quite pleased with it, based on the reaction I see when I present the solution, I think I would find a different way to simulate the product.

Decentralisation, what is the point of it?

Reading into blockchain and web3, one of the questions that kept popping up is “what is the benefit of developing the solution in a decentralised manner?” For example, in the problem validation, most of the people who are unhappy with the recent changes in Grab’s platform policy are not even willing to take the step if it causes them inconvenience. They are willing to accept the status quo because the alternative is too troublesome. 

Direct relationship, reducing friction and middlemen. People pay for value and the market often will correct itself. Centralised platforms who provide value to solve a need have a place to exist - platforms such as Grab provide value to drivers and riders, connecting them and providing the technology, verifying and resolving issues.

My prediction is that there will be a place for both types of solution, centralised and decentralised. For example a centralised Grab and decentralised Grab (DGrab), just as the way ride-booking platforms disrupted the taxi industry, DGrab type of solution will also do the same. 

The solution and the experiment

I could have tried out something more radical. The experiment on hindsight is very safe, conventional and expected. I wonder if it could have turned out differently if I approached it using design thinking or systems thinking?

Metaverse

I have consciously left Metaverse although it is very much an area that artists and creators are definitely active and an area that NFTs are also driving into. The reason being that it is not necessarily a blockchain enabled revolution.

Arenius, P., Chuah, S., Coate, B. and Hoffmann, R., 2020. The economic psychology of creating and venturing: a comparative behavioural portrait of artists and entrepreneurs. Small Business Economics, 57(2), pp.721-737.

Clark, M., 2022. People are spending millions on NFTs. What? Why?. [online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Cornelius, P. and Gokpinar, B., 2021. Crowdfunding Can Deliver More Than Just Money. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/03/crowdfunding-can-deliver-more-than-just-money [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Dash, A., 2021. NFTs Weren’t Supposed to End Like This. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/ [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Gerber, E. and Hui, J., 2014. Crowdfunding: Motivations and Deterrents for Participation.

James Beyer, E., 2022. Yuga Labs: The NFT Company Taking Over the Metaverse. [online] nft now. Available at: https://nftnow.com/guides/yuga-labs-an-overview-of-the-nft-company-taking-over-the-metaverse/#:\~:text=Yuga%20Labs'%20CEO%20Nicole%20Muniz%20and%20a16z%20general%20partner%20Chris,during%20Yuga's%20March%20funding%20round. [Accessed 19 August 2022].

M, S., S, S., S, A., S, H. and K, I., 2022. Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform using Smart Contracts. 2022 IEEE International Conference on Signal Processing, Informatics, Communication and Energy Systems (SPICES),.

Morris, J., 2013. Artists as Entrepreneurs, Fans as Workers. Popular Music and Society, 37(3), pp.273-290.

Nunes, O., 2022. Lamp, Kickstarter & Theme Parks in Venezuela. [online] Olga Nunes. Available at: http://olganunes.com/on_lamp_kickstarter_and/ [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Ovide, S., 2020. Sorry, eBay and Uber. You’re Hated. (Published 2020). [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/technology/internet-middlemen.html? [Accessed 3 July 2022].

Popper, N., 2021. As Diners Flock to Delivery Apps, Restaurants Fear for Their Future (Published 2020). [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/delivery-apps-restaurants-fees-virus.html?referringSource=articleShare [Accessed 3 July 2022].

Reply All, 2022. 185. [podcast] #185 The Rainbow Chain. Available at: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/j4he7a7 [Accessed 21 August 2022].

Stewart, J., 2022. How to Use Crowdfunding to Launch the Creative Project of Your Dreams. [online] My Modern Met. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/crowdfunding-for-creatives/2/ [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Stewart, J., 2022. Student Starts Selling Selfies as NFTs as a Joke and Becomes an Overnight Millionaire. [online] My Modern Met. Available at: https://mymodernmet.com/ghozali-everyday-nft-millionaire [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Tapscott, D. and Tapscott, A., 2016. Blockchain Revolution. Penguin Publishing Group.

Tee, K., 2022. With NFTs and AR, a pioneer Singaporean artist’s daughter is helping bring his works closer to the next gen. [online] CNA Luxury. Available at: https://cnaluxury.channelnewsasia.com/people/goh-beng-kwan-singapore-artist-nft-augmented-reality-200331 [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Tham, I., 2022. Blockchain will power world’s back office in 5-10 years | DBS Bank. [online] Dbs.com. Available at: https://www.dbs.com/media/blockchain/blockchain-for-disrupted-future.page [Accessed 19 August 2022].

Wohn, D., Jough, P., Eskander, P., Siri, J., Shimobayashi, M. and Desai, P., 2019. Understanding Digital Patronage. Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play,.

Wolff, B., 2019. Why The Arts Are The Great Unappreciated Engine Of The U.S. Economy. [online] Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminwolff/2019/03/19/why-the-arts-are-the-great-unappreciated-engine-of-the-u-s-economy/?sh=49834b71709e [Accessed 21 August 2022].

Zichichi, M., Contu, M., Ferretti, S. and D'Angelo, G., 2019. LikeStarter: a Smart-contract based Social DAO for Crowdfunding. IEEE INFOCOM 2019 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS),.

Is Blockchain really going to democratise financial freedom and level the playing field so we have more equality? If so, how will we be able to take part in this technology revolution? 

In this research paper, I am to understand how we can use blockchain technology to help artists in launching their project. The research will look at how artists are currently launching their projects today and how web3 applications are introducing new ways of creating value and the buyer and seller relationship.

When change is the only constant, how do we keep up with what’s next?

Technology affects our lives in many ways. In the book “Thank You for Being Late”, Thomas Friedman shared that “the rate of technological change is now accelerating so fast that it has risen above the average rate at which most people can absorb all these changes”. As illustrated below, today most people are not able to adapt to the changes in technology.

Blockchain is the underlying technology empowering cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT). It is an upcoming, if not already arrived, evolution in technology that is affecting more than just businesses but also how we work and live. Today, NFT projects have minted new millionaires like Ghozali, a student in a small town in Indonesia who becomes a millionaire after selling his collection of selfies as NFTs (Stewart, 2022). In 5 to 10 years time, DBS Bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta expects blockchain technology to run “the back office of the world”, as quoted in a recent interview with the Straits Times (Tham, 2022)

For Ghozali, his intent was only to upload his selfies randomly and it was random chance that made him a millionaire. If blockchain technology is going to run “the back office of the world”, I cannot imagine how it will change the way we work, live and play. Can we help people to adopt technology more intentionally and improve their lives?

Adoption of technology and building usability of the technology goes hand in hand. The more uses the technology has, it will likely attract more people to adopt it. And with more people adopting it, there will be more builders who will build on top of the technology and create more use cases.

Artists have evolved and adapted their craft with the development of technology; this has given birth to different types of art like the Solar Reserve by John Gerrard, an installation art that communicates sustainability. The installation’s centrepiece is a computer generated video, using a big giant LED as a medium, which is an example of how technology is incorporated to create the artwork (computer generated) and the display medium (the big LED wall, which would not be possible in the 90s).

In the mobile era, mobile devices and platforms have become an essential part of our lives. This has given birth to digital artists such as DeeKay Kwon and James Curran, who create animations and GIFs as the craft is viewed and more relevant in smaller form factors. Being digital artists, they are now pushing their foray into publishing NFTs. 

For a Singapore painter, adoption means digitalising and converting a painting as an NFT. Placing it in an AR/VR environment is a way of providing the new generation of users a new medium to be able experience it (Tee, 2022). 

Just as there are artists who are adapting, there are also those who are still figuring out their place and how they would do it. Art both analogue or digital, has a place in our lives and society, hence it is important that we ensure artists also adapt as technology changes the way we interact with art. How can we help artists continue to create and have a place in our lives?

While not all entrepreneurs are artists, all artists are very much entrepreneurs. Artists already think like entrepreneurs and in many ways today, they are already doing what entrepreneurs are doing from fundraising, marketing, supply chain and at the same time creating their product which is their art (Arenius, Chuah, Coate and Hoffmann, 2020). The struggles of an artist as an entrepreneur in starting their project and keeping it afloat often is overlooked because of their unproven economic value in our capitalistic driven economy and governments (Wolff, B., 2019). 

My intent in this research is to discover 

• What blockchain technology can we incorporate into launching a project? 

• How have blockchain technology changed the way we work, live and play that artists can incorporate into their process?

How blockchain technology has changed the way we work, live and play is a big undertaking. For the purpose of this research, I have scoped this down to how we can help artists launch their project. Artists as they resonate with me because they are passionate entrepreneurs and their work gives colour and adds perspective to my worldview. 

In particular, my aim is to uncover the needs of a budding artist, someone who has been doing his/her craft for at least 3 years, is not currently holding a contract under a label, working in a studio, in short the artist has not made a name for themselves or discovered by a label.

ChilliDxddy (Nicholas Tee) is a live artist based in Singapore who collages action, image, sound and material through body-based performance, pain and endurance; their work is often politically charged, angry and messy. ChilliDxddy’s work has been presented internationally, notably at Haus der Kunst (DE), Manchester Art Gallery (UK) and Point Centre for Contemporary Art (CY). Most recently, their work was featured in the British Art Studies journal published by the Paul Mellon Centre. www.nicholastwy.com

A recent ChilliDxddy’s work “About Endlessness” a 24 hour durational performance was performed in Dance Nucleus, Goodman Arts Centre. The performance was made possible by the Self-Employed Person (SEP) Grant through the National Arts Council. The SEP Grant is a time-limited scheme that supports the SEPs in the arts who are affected by Covid-19.

ChilliDxddy would like to continue iterating on his project and continue his exploration on duration performance and the theme of “About Endlessness”. His main challenges are funding and engaging with his audience.

The structure of the paper will be an exploration of what is currently out there and understanding how artists are launching their project. I look at NFT projects, as they have evolved, for how they have started and what is making them the hype of 2021. Next, I researched what other solutions and disruptions that blockchain technology has enabled.

Then I look for commonalities and intersections to be used in my experiment. After which, I would share the results and findings of the experiment, recommendations before my reflections.

How are artists launching their projects today? Taking the perspective of an artist as an entrepreneur, one of the first steps for an artist to launch their project would be to raise funds. Traditionally, for an artist to get funding, apart from selling their product (art), would be Applying for a grant - this typically involves writing a proposal to an institution and getting a portion of the funding required if the proposal is accepted. Private or public commission - More for an artist who is already established, hence would have an individual or institution commission him/her to produce a work. Residencies - in lieu of monetary funding, residency programs can provide artists different benefits that range from a venue/space and community to support their creative process.

Today, crowdfunding and social media offers different alternative ways to raise funds and launch a project.

Crowdfunding Popular crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, IndieGogo and GoFundMe have arts and creative listed as a category of projects to be supported. From “All or Nothing” to “keep what you earn” with different tiers of funding for supporting artists, supporters are given rewards for their support.

Successfully funded projects have a few characteristics (Stewart, 2022) (Nunes, 2022)

1. Video showing the product and its benefits - these normally include prototypes of the product.

2. Rewards that make sense for different supporting tiers

3. A good team profile or successful track record

4. Communication plan - Successful projects would provide milestone updates to the supporters such as supply chain, prototypes, even challenges and hurdles to manage expectations.

Meanwhile, motivations and deterrents for supporters in crowdfunding projects can be varied.(Gerber and Hui, 2014)

Main deterrent for supporters is lack of trust in the project and how the funds would be utilised. This would be a big hurdle especially for artists who are starting out and have a smaller base of supporters.

Meanwhile, the motivation for Supporters starts from the reward (product), which means the project needs to be attractive at the base level. However, the collaborative aspect of crowdfunding provides long term value to both the creator and supporter. 

“[I follow the campaign] fairly closely. I check the [project website] once or twice a day in the forums and I interact with the community online... mostly the backers.... [We] decide which direction we feel the game should go.”

The supporter gets to be a part of a community and able to have their voice heard. For the creator, harnessing the voice of the customer can have a positive impact on their current and future projects. (Cornelius and Gokpinar, 2021).

Research Finding

Projects on crowdfunding platforms are short-term project based and once the campaign is over, there is no more interaction between the artist and the supporters. 

Supporters support a project for different reasons, however those who are made to feel included and allowed to contribute more than money can have a longer lasting positive impact.

The main deterrent for a supporter is how they can trust the creator/artist. 

For creators/artists creating a campaign with a good video or prototype, and maintaining the campaign momentum is a big challenge, especially for someone who is starting out.

Crowdfunding + Crowdsourcing + Social Media on steroids

There are many art projects that crowdsources audience participation and includes them in the end product. For instance, in a statement Aaron Koblin uses micropayments to get 10,000 individual micro drawings of a $100 note. 

However, not many have been able to do what Imogen Heap did. In 2009, she produced and launched the album, Ellipse, using video diaries, blogs, social media and her fans (Morris, 2013). She involved her supporters (fans) through her entire journey of creative production and launch of her project, such as input on demos, design of her album art and writing her press biography. In this project, Heap managed to launch her album independent of agents, distributors and managed to get it all done via her supporters. Many who were also appreciative of her letting them be part of the process and part of her community. 

Research Finding

Crowdfunding and social media put together can amplify the reach and effectiveness of the supporters. Involving and engaging supporters through the project can lead to an effective project launch. At the same time, it takes a lot of time from the artist, taking him/her away from the work of creation to more of managing and coordinating.

Digital Patronage

Applications like Patreon, Twitch and Drip have enabled a patronage type of relationship between individuals and their supporters. The main difference between a traditional patronage and digital patronage is the former normally relies on a small pool of individuals who contribute a large amount of money, but digital patronage relies on a big pool of individuals who contribute a small amount of money.

In a study (Wohn et al., 2019), the motivations of viewers to subscribe and continue to support streamers on Twitch, ie. to be their digital patron are as follows.

1. Quality of content ie. the product/reward

2. Sense of Community

3. Recognition and connecting with the artist

Research Finding

The motivation to be a patron is similar to the motivation of supporting a crowdfunding project. The main difference is that patronage is providing a consistent and regular stream of income versus a crowdfunding project where it is a one-time support, like a donation.

To the patrons, they also view the recurring nature of patronage as a higher level of support as it is beyond simply a financial investment but also an emotional one.

With online platforms and advancement of technology, digital goods and properties are now available free, perfect and instant (McAfee and Brynjolfsson, n.d.). The experience of listening to a song that you download from napster or the one that you convert from a purchased CD as a softcopy is the same. It can be distributed or shared with a friend over the internet and it still remains the same exact copy - free, perfect and instant.

The first NFT minted in 2014 started as a way of providing a way for artists to assert ownership to their digital work (Dash, 2021). Powered by blockchain technology, it is designed to give the collector or artist something that can’t be copied: ownership of the work, in the digital realm. To put it in terms of physical art collecting: anyone can buy a Monet print, but only one person can own the original (Clark, 2022).

However, NFT projects have evolved a lot over the last few years. In fact, a lot of projects have little to do with art and more about raising funds with NFTs ownership being the token representation of share and capital. Very much like Initial Coin Offerings, but in this case with a NFT replacing Coins, and the NFTs providing other benefits to its holders.

In this research, I selected a few projects that have been launched in 2021/2022 and currently still running. My criteria for shortlisting the projects are, 

1. They are still around, as of the time of writing

2. More than 60% of holders are different individuals as verified on OpenSea - this means that the collection is owned by multiple holders. Hence, it is not a project that is backed by a small collection of people who can manipulate the price or direction of the project.

3. They have, so far, been able to provide value to their supporters. This is either through access or drops that have increased in value to their supporters.

4. Price of the NFT are stable in their crypto currency Ethereum, not in the FIAT sense

The research is based on what I am able to review on the internet; OpenSea, LooksRare for transaction records and value.Social media, especially their Twitter feed and Discord Channel if it is not gated. The details of my research can be found in the Appendix or here and summarised below.

RTFTKT

HIGHLIGHTS

RTFKT was started in 2020 to create virtual sneakers and digital artifacts by three founders. They launched a few collections through collaboration with different artists and were acquired by Nike in December 2021. In 2021, they introduced a “forge” utility for holders of their NFT collection, where owners are able to redeem the physical item by verifying and claiming it on chain.

RTFKT released the individual 3D files of the CloneX artwork to their corresponding NFT holders. Starting a movement for holders to start a virtual avatar economy where they are able to monetize their virtual avatar in music videos, merchandise and others.

RTFKT has been able to provide increasing value to their supporters by dropping items to their supporters. Following the above example, if you bought a CloneX in Nov 2021 in the secondary market at 2.5 ETH, at the rate of USD4,800 for 1 ETH you would have paid USD12,000. Today, the value of that initial purchase would have appreciated by 50%, considering all of the dropped items, despite the drop in ETH to USD1,900 for 1 ETH, as can be seen in the table below.

Yuga Labs HIGHLIGHTS

Yuga Labs was started in April 2021 with the launch of BAYC which is a collection of Bored Apes images. The founders started BAYC with the thought of giving a home to NFT collectors who are sometimes referred to as “apes”. 

BAYC is one of the most profitable NFT launches to date. Launched in April 2021 at 0.08 ETH (equivalent to then USD240), it was worth 44ETH which is about USD137,000 by August 2021. Today, it is worth 85 ETH which is about USD161,000 (James Beyer, 2022).

In March 2022, Yuga Labs launched APE Coins through Ape Coin DAO, a cryptocurrency to be used in the BAYC universe. And in April 2022, launched The OtherSide, a virtual metaverse which can be accessed by owning the NFT OtherDeed for Otherside. Yuga Labs reserved 45,000 Otherdeeds for BAYC holders and Yuga Lab employees.

Holders of Otherdeeds for the Otherside are able to access a 3D virtual world game that, at its demo launch, allowed up to 45,000 players to play at the same time. As holders, they can participate passively as a player or actively to develop the game mechanics or even create their own experiences. This brings ownership to a whole different level. 

VeeFriend HIGHLIGHTS

One of the NFT projects I have found that is launched with a very clear value proposition offered from the beginning, access to VeeCon for 3 years. VeeCon is a conference that is organised and headlined by Gary Vaynerchuk.

VeeCon access is exclusively for holders of VeeCon Ticket NFTs, which is dropped to VeeFriends holders. At the end of the VeeCon day 3, Gary and Snoopdog announced a collaboration which would provide additional utility/benefit to the holders of the VeeCon Ticket NFT which would be launched in Fall of 2022. 

Research Finding

Through the research, I find three main characteristics that span across the these projects

1. Utility

2. Community

3. Safety

Utility of Tokens

Although it started as a way for artists to provide scarcity and ownership to their digital art, subsequent projects almost have nothing or little to do with art but more about providing utility for owners of the tokens. The people who are investing (supporting) the projects do not only value scarcity or fungibility, but the utility of the token. In short, what is the benefit that I, as a backer, will gain by holding the token? (Reply All, 2022)

The utility or benefits of the project is not fixed and can evolve. For example, holding a VeeCon ticket will have an added benefit with the SnoopDog collaboration that was not there before the VeeCon event. And it would be challenging to execute for a physical ticket because people might have lost it or thrown the ticket.

The utility can go beyond digital benefits such as access to a virtual land. Forging events by RTFKT, brings physical utility to holders of Clone X in July 2022. Clone X holders can redeem a digital hoodie, which can be “forged” for a physical hoodie in their mailbox at the end of the year. 

Community

Successful projects have active communities that are usually managed on Discord. Here are a few traits/characteristics that make them active and successful, which behaves like a town square

1. Active moderators (officials) - moderators would conduct events like quizzes or games on a regular basis. They would organise the channels and answer questions.

2. Members help members (community leaders) - Active members would jump in to welcome newcomers, answer questions and keep the channel active. As the channel grows, active members would be given recognition and promoted as channel moderators.

This aspect of the community provides an onboarding experience for anyone trying to make sense of this NFT world.

Safety

There are a lot of scams in the Crypto and NFT space. From outrightly creating a copy of an NFT page to Direct Messages on Discord giving out free NFTs, mostly to lure holders into opening up their crypto wallets. All of the Discord pages would regularly communicate best practices and how to avoid these scams but it does not seem to stop people falling prey to them.

It does not help that the nature of decentralisation and blockchain does mean that there is no recourse once your crypto or NFT is stolen from your wallet. You can see and trace where the digital item is, but there is no central entity that can help you get it back.

In this research, I looked at research papers and applications that use blockchain technology that is changing the relationship between the seller and the buyer, or disrupting the traditional way things are done.

LikeStarter

LikeStarter is a proposal for a social based platform where users are able to promote their project for eg. a song, drawing or art.  In this proposal, the authors propose the use of Ethereum blockchain for Crowdfunding with a few unique features (Zichichi, Contu, Ferretti and D'Angelo, 2019).

LIKE

Users in the platform can “share”, “comment” or “like” the posts in the platform. “Share” and “Comment” feature is a common feature in a social platform and functions in the same way. 

If a user were to “like” the page/project then the user is also supporting the project monetarily. Everytime the user “likes” the project, a certain amount of currency, in this case ETH, is converted into the platform token called “Likoin”.

TOKENIZATION

Likoin is unique to the project/artist. This means that Likoin obtained by supporting Artist A cannot be used to purchase benefits from Artist B. Likoin-A can be used to redeem products from Artist-A, by converting the Likoin for Bucks.

SHARES

LikeStarter includes an interesting way for Supporters (Users who own Likoin) to participate in the success of the Artist they support. Purchase of products can only be done by using Bucks and Bucks can only be acquired by converting Likoins.

In this way, holders of Likoin-A will benefit when Artist A’s becomes famous, increasing the value of Artist A’s products and value of Likoin-A. Rewarding those who supported Artist A early on, very much like owning shares of Artist A’s company.

Mirror

Writing NFTs is another way that Blockchain is changing the publishing industry. For example Mirror (https://mirror.xyz/) is a Web3 publishing platform, similar to Medium (https://medium.com/).

Collecting vs Liking articles

Writers on Mirror can easily publish their article and mint it as an NFT or collection of NFTs. In web2, users who interact with content by “likes”, in Mirror, users “Collect” articles in their wallet. These collectable articles can be free or priced to contribute ETH to the writer. In Publish0x users can earn crypto when they read an article and subsequently “tip” authors if they “like” the article.

Sound

A platform to mint songs as NFTs, allowing a direct relationship between the artist and the listener.  Sound.xyz (https://www.sound.xyz/about) makes it easy for musicians to launch their music and users to directly support them by purchasing their songs as an NFT. 

Listen and Own the Moment

Listening parties to release tracks are also events where listeners can discover new artists and the opportunity to own the moment by purchasing an NFT. You can then own the moment by leaving a public comment on the song.

Axie Infinity

Blockchain based game pitting Axie characters against other players or computer players. Axie characters are NFTs which can be upgraded and traded.

Play to Earn

Axie characters need AXS to be hatched/minted. AXS is the in-game currency that can be purchased on the platform. Playing the game will earn you AXS which can be traded to earn real money.

In 2021, the game soared in popularity, especially in the Philippines. Players were able to earn a significant amount above the minimum wage in the Philippines. However, recently the game’s ecosystem has failed and resulted in players who were in it to earn money losing a significant amount.

Stepn

Web3 lifestyle app with social and gaming elements. Users can equip the NFT Sneakers and earn crypto while walking, jogging or running.

Move to earn

Connecting the mobile phone’s GPS with the app and a crypto wallet. Users are rewarded when they walk, jog and run. The crypto currency GST issuance is unlimited and can be used to upgrade NFT sneakers, trade or mint new sneakers.

Research Finding

Blockchain technology is allowing different models of engagement that would not be so easily implemented in the past.

LikeStarter, creates a system that is centred around the artist and allows the users who support them to benefit from their success, by issuing tokens which will appreciate in value as the artist becomes more recognised.

Mirror and Sound allows for a direct support between the creator and their supporters through their digital wallet and collecting of articles or buying a moment in a song.

Axie Infinity and Stepn lets you earn for doing what you like, playing games or just simply exercising. What is possible next, Eat to earn?

From the research above, I try to synthesise my findings below and highlight a few points that stand out.

The power of the crowd - whether crowdfunding or NFTs when you break down the investment to a smaller amount, you will be able to harness a bigger audience versus finding a single patron or backer, and the result can be exponentially more effective. However, this is not saying that every project with a crowd element will work. It takes effort and a substantial amount to find the right audience and continually engage them like how Imogen Heap did for her album launch (Morris, J., 2013).

Community Engagement - In order to harness the power of the crowd effectively, it only makes sense to use the crowd to help engage the audience. This is what I see as the magic ingredient, how NFT project communities are being managed. Members of the Discord channel organise themselves in the sub-channels, provide updates and help each other. This reinforces the belonging factor and at the same time relieves the artist/project owner from making the community their full time job.

Technology has enabled a more direct and interactive relationship between buyers and sellers or artists and their supporters. In the past, support would only have been possible by purchase of the product (music album, art piece) or merchandise. These would normally go through intermediaries and most of the proceeds would also be diluted before benefitting the artist. Now, proceeds in a crowdfunding or digital patronage can go directly to the creator, like Twitch and Patreon, and an interactive engagement is made possible via these applications either hosting live streams or interacting through a discussion forum.

This direct and interactive relationship in turn converts supporters into fans or stakeholders. As they are investing more than just money, supporters become stakeholders because they feel involved and have invested their time and emotions in the project more than just monetary value.

This direct relationship has also removed some of the inefficiencies of previous systems where artists do not get a say on how much they should be rewarded. It also comes with challenges where it is more difficult for artists to be discovered and marketed.

** Decentralisation** - In the Blockchain Revolution (Tapscott, D. and Tapscott, A., 2016), web 2.0 is referred to as the Internet of Information while web 3.0 is referred to as the Internet of value. When we see a piece of information/article on the Internet, we can easily Whatsapp or email it to a group of friends, transmitting the information across. However, we cannot as easily do that with money ie. we can’t as easily email $100 across to a friend. In order to do that, we would have to use apps built by intermediaries and centralised organisations to do a variety of identity checks and ensure that we have the funds to transfer in the first place.

With blockchain and cryptocurrency it is possible to transfer value directly and peer-2-peer without the need of a central intermediary. Through Blockchain, we are able to transfer value directly between users securely and validated.

Why is that beneficial?

Most of how we engage today rely on central platforms as intermediaries. For example, for live streaming platforms like Twitch, streamers get 50% of the subscription purchased for their channel. Despite the platform relying on their streamers for the viability of the business, the economic incentives are skewed to reward the platforms to do what is right for their shareholders and not the users.

Users believe that the marketplace is charging them too much, making unfair rules and getting rich off the work that they put in. Middlemen are always hated because the value they extract from their users seems too much and there is nothing much the user can do to affect it. (Ovide, 2020) Without users, live streaming platforms cannot function but users do not control how much incentive the platform should take, it is all one-sided decision. The users have no control over how and when they change the terms of interaction (Popper, 2021)

This is similar to artist and creator marketplace today like IndieGogo, Kickstarter or Patreon. The success of the marketplace is very much dependent on the creators who decide to launch their project on the platform and the users who subsequently back them. However, most of the time the creators and users do not share in the success of the platform or have any say towards the policies in the platform.

Technology has enabled a direct relationship between buyers and sellers. And now with blockchain technology, value can also be exchanged directly.

I would like to explore if we are able to incorporate blockchain technology as an enabler for artists to launch their project and build their community. Success would be if my client would want to use the platform to launch his next evolution of Endlessness.

In building my solution, I used the Lean Startup Principles to validate my problem areas before building and testing my solution. The Lean Startup Method was introduced by Eric Reis in 2008 after seeing that traditional business management to a startup does not work for them. Lean Startup Methodology emphasises the Learn - Build - Measure cycle, building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as an experiment and learning as much as possible from it, then continuously going through the loop.

Learn - Build - Measure

Below are a few of the core principles I have chosen to anchor

1. Validate the problem - don’t build a solution that is looking for a problem, but ensure that I have a customer that has an actual problem to be solved

2. Base the success criteria on actual behaviour not what the customer says

With the Problem Validation and the state of the art research, I am moving to the MVP phase incorporating my learnings.

My hypothesis is 

Artists have difficulty launching their project - raising funds and continuously engaging their supporters. They will want a solution that would make it easy for them to put together a project page to showcase their project, market it to get funding, awareness and engage this community of supporters or potential supporters.

Supporters have difficulty in discovering projects that they can trust. They will want a solution where they can discover projects, get to know more about it easily and protect their interest if they choose to support it. They will be motivated by the possibility of participating in the artist's success as an early supporter.

Decentralisation part of the app will require more time and education before it can be adopted. Hence, this feature needs to be developed in a way that it will not add more steps for the users. In my introduction of the MVP, this feature is not introduced to the users.

My first iteration of TokenLoop focuses on providing 

1. An easy way for artists to issue their own token to provide rewards to their supporters. The platform would handle all of the contract and the user experience would be a simple web interface without any coding.

2. A familiar crowdfunding campaign mechanism so that it would be easy to start a campaign and raise funds

Client Feedback

The token is a very interesting way of providing connection with the supporters. For ChilliDxddy, he was not so interested in raising money through the platform but that TokenLoop would be able to provide a long term connection with his supporters and audience. 

“ChilliDxddy token, will allow me to know who are my early supporters and be able to reward them accordingly if at some point my work evolves and be more recognised. Through the tokens I will also be able to invite them to interact in my performance or provide input into the creative process”

User Feedback

The concept of tokens took a bit of time to explain and is not easy to grasp the benefits. As it is not clear how the tokens will evolve or how they will be rewarded as early supporters of the artist.

They like the idea of milestones release of funds, which protects the users. Especially for users who have been involved in crowdfunding campaigns which failed and the reasons were not communicated clearly.

What I learned

I learned that ChilliDxddy finds the campaign page daunting. He recalls his experience on Kickstarter where putting together a video needs a lot of effort for it to look professional enough to garner enough backers. 

Secondly, although it is great to have a community page within the same platform, it still does not help his struggle in trying to maintain his engagement with his supporters. As it is, he only updates his social media account only when he has an upcoming project or performance.

Through the User Feedback, I would refine the token mechanism and make it simpler. I would also add a social layer to provide the first layer of trust.

In the 2nd iteration of TokenLoop, I took the consideration that artists who are starting out would not have the luxury of having a dedicated team to support them with the campaign video and managing their community. I also observed that ChilliDxddy and other artists would make the effort to update their social media account. Therefore, in the 2nd iteration made the following changes.

1. Campaign/project page is simplified and connected to social media platforms.

   • For supporters backing/supporting a project will simply be a click of a button and be rewarded depending on the number of times the supporter clicks the button.

   • Supporters can see which of their friends have backed the project via their social media account

2. Campaign updates can be updated via their social media account and linked via an API

3. TokenLoop will also include assigned Community Managers with existing engagement templates and timelines. Artists will no longer need actively manage their community page

Client Feedback

ChilliDxddy likes the integration of social media as it helps to save time. The community manager would be a great addition but is not as important to him because he is comfortable with interacting with his supporters.

Crowdfunding feature in TokenLoop is secondary to ChilliDxddy. Given the nature of crowdfunding, it would require him to have a significant number of supporters. For comparison, his recent grant from the National Arts Council is SGD50,000. For him to raise that amount on a crowdfunding platform would probably require him to have 2,500 supporters who are willing to donate $20. In his recent production, he probably had less than 500 people who watched the performance.

In summary, he is not sold on the solution but would be willing to experiment using the tokens or NFTs to engage with his supporters, when he does his next project.

User Feedback

The social feature in the platform resonates with the users interviewed. They are more likely to consider supporting a project if a friend is also supporting it. There were some concerns raised on the data being collected by TokenLoop and by the social media platform.

What I learned

As I included more “features” on the platform it also became more difficult to communicate the benefits of the solution. This is apparent as I struggled at the first few interviews to present the solution. 

I think for a solution to work, how we tell the story and how we communicate it to different stakeholders is just as important as the product features. This is just like for an artist starting out, the story that the artist tells is as important as the work that the artist produces.

The crowdfunding feature does not resonate with ChilliDxddy as an artist starting out. However, the experiment did uncover ways that the artist can have a direct relationship and engage with their audience. Tokens as a way for supporters to have “ownership” opens different ways for supporters to support and be rewarded.

Pivot from Crowdfunding to Token issuance and management

Through the two iterations, the crowdfunding feature is not a good solution for the client. For budding artists, one of their main challenges is that they do not have a large support base and one of the main functions for crowdfunding to work is you need a big pool of individuals willing to support.

A possible pivot for consideration would be to make the token issuance a central feature of the solution and put funding as a secondary or complementary function of the solution. Tokens can be issued by artists when a supporter buys their artwork or watches their performance. Over time, this will allow the artist to have a platform from which they can have a direct relationship with their supporters, to engage and reward. Much like the way the collection and subscription feature works in Mirror.

Pivot the milestone payout as an API to a crowdfunding platform

One of the feedback I received from a user I interviewed is his bad experience with a few Kickstarter projects that were not successful. The user commented that with payments paid out in tranches when certain agreed milestones are met, users are better protected. An implementation of this feature is discussed in a paper, Decentralized Crowdfunding Platform using Smart Contracts (M et al., 2022). 

So far, I have not seen this feature being developed in any crowdfunding platforms. This feature could be developed as a plug-in for crowdfunding platforms to be offered as an option to their creators.

Implementation of Social Element 

Further research in the implementation of the social feature should be considered and design considerations should be put up, learning from real life lessons we have seen playing in our communities. For example infinite scrolling, algorithms that would encourage polarity or even the amount of personal data being used in order to maximise the platform’s success over the welfare of the individual.

Safety and Scams

Scams seem like an integral part of blockchain technology seeing how every discord channel on NFT projects would have a “Scam Alert” or “Scam reporting” sub-channel. With Tokens representing a value, it would be a target for bad actors who are looking to exploit technology for their benefit. Aside from education to increase awareness, integrating some safety features in the crypto wallet transactions can be considered. The insurance industry incorporates a “free look” period where a new policy holder has a number of days to cancel their purchase without any penalty. Something similar to this could potentially be implemented to help scam victims recover their stolen digital artifacts.

Further Research

More research into the NFT and other blockchain applications would definitely be needed. It is such a dynamic space and everyday brings a new development. 

My initial research intent is to answer the following 2 questions,

What blockchain technology can we incorporate into launching a project?

Blockchain as a technology has the potential to change the way business and trade is being conducted. Blockchain technology has pushed and made possible a more direct and interactive relationship between the artist and supporters. As users become more accustomed to being involved and have a sense of ownership, artists would be able to do well if they incorporate this into their projects. Through tokenisation, smart contracts, digital currencies can help artists to build ownership and participation in their projects.

Given the digital nature of the technology, it is still a challenge to combine this with the analog arts like painting or sculptures. Artists who are not able to work with this new medium will find it difficult to bridge this gap.

How have blockchain technology changed the way we work, live and play that artists can incorporate into their process?

In this sense, it may not so much be just about blockchain technology, but more of how technology has changed the way we work, live and play. Today users interact with the world in a different way. In the past we would know about movie stars from magazines and watching movies. When something happens to them, we will probably only know of it 2-3 weeks later. Now, we would instantly know what they are having for breakfast from their social media. There is a lot more transparency and the speed is almost instant.

How this affects users is the community building aspect has also become transparent and instant. Community building requires constant and instant engagement. This is apparent with the job titles for community engagement managers.

Artists need to be able to build and engage their community, how much to include them in the process or keep the anticipation. Today, platforms like Discord become almost the de facto venue for blockchain or software applications to organise their community digitally. However, the skills required to do it is not just simply mastering the tool, but also how to manage the crowd.

Blockchain application projects are still a big experiment with a lot of trials and errors. The people working in the space are constantly rolling out new features, experiences and learning from mistakes. The projects I cited in my research could very well be non-existent in 3-4 months' time, just look at the Terra-Luna crash in May 2022 that wiped out billions of value in the space of a few days. 

** **The technology makes business models like Mirror, So Col, OpenSea, Play-to-Earn and Step-to-Earn possible. However, it is a new area and for Axie Infinity, the initial promise of allowing players to earn a living playing games has instead been dubbed like a ponzi scheme. The crash in the value of the crypto currency Axie has left people in debt as they had tried to use their savings to pay for more Axie to level up their characters.

However, this should not mean that we completely avoid it. One area that I can see is how the content creator economy has changed the media, advertising, sales and entertainment industry. And it is still being written today, powered by web2 platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and others. I believe that the Web3 journey is still only in its nascent stages with platforms like So Col, whose purpose is to empower content creators. 

I am very excited and optimistic about the possibilities.

Research Structure

I am very grateful for the guidance by Hyper Island, especially this particular guide by Jonathan Your Master's Project: 10 Tips to succeed. The only thing I wished I had done is to have been more disciplined in my research structure. To have spread out the research, ask better questions and give more time to the experiment. 

The Lean Startup

I chose the Lean Startup Method in approaching my experiment because of the learning that I had in my IRA and wanted to build upon what I have learned previously,

1. Use the 5 WHYs to reframe my problem

2. Building small MVPs or MVIs to accelerate the cycle of build-measure-learn

I find innovation a common red string that ties how I would like to approach business management/transformation and digital technology. One lesson I can still learn from using this approach is that I tend to be too tunnel visioned into a solution and forget to ask the bigger question “What is the purpose of what I’m doing?” and “What is the impact that I want to drive for my stakeholders?”

Researching feels like going down the rabbit hole and finding myself in Wonderland. There were so many tangents to pull and at times difficult to anchor myself. The Lean Method actually “forced” me to stay scoped and focused on the problem. The 5 WHYs helped to frame the problem and solve for the root cause instead of jumping into a solution.

I wished I had more resources with the MVP. The prototype I have developed is put together using basic PowerPoint skills. Although I am quite pleased with it, based on the reaction I see when I present the solution, I think I would find a different way to simulate the product.

Decentralisation, what is the point of it?

Reading into blockchain and web3, one of the questions that kept popping up is “what is the benefit of developing the solution in a decentralised manner?” For example, in the problem validation, most of the people who are unhappy with the recent changes in Grab’s platform policy are not even willing to take the step if it causes them inconvenience. They are willing to accept the status quo because the alternative is too troublesome. 

Direct relationship, reducing friction and middlemen. People pay for value and the market often will correct itself. Centralised platforms who provide value to solve a need have a place to exist - platforms such as Grab provide value to drivers and riders, connecting them and providing the technology, verifying and resolving issues.

My prediction is that there will be a place for both types of solution, centralised and decentralised. For example a centralised Grab and decentralised Grab (DGrab), just as the way ride-booking platforms disrupted the taxi industry, DGrab type of solution will also do the same. 

The solution and the experiment

I could have tried out something more radical. The experiment on hindsight is very safe, conventional and expected. I wonder if it could have turned out differently if I approached it using design thinking or systems thinking?

Metaverse

I have consciously left Metaverse although it is very much an area that artists and creators are definitely active and an area that NFTs are also driving into. The reason being that it is not necessarily a blockchain enabled revolution.

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