[80] A Creator's Economy: Open Edition NFTs

[Creator Monetization, Open Edition NFTs]

Jul 31, 2023

GM Readers!

Let’s dive into Open Edition NFTs and how they can change the future of creator monetization. Open Edition NFTs have the potential to put creator monetization back in the hands of the creator.

-LJW

(P.S. For the summary and further breakdown of this essay, follow me on Twitter)

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_The Creator’s Dilemma

Consider the dilemma the modern content creator faces on the Internet.

They produce content that captures our attention and, by extension, provides us with some level of value.

But how are they compensated for the value they provide?

On traditional platforms, they might get engagement in the form of likes and followers. Once their engagement grows to a certain size, they monetize through traditional means of advertising and/or partnerships. But when they monetize their engagement, they are often accused of “selling out,” and they risk alienating their following.

Sure there are platforms that have more direct creator monetization (such as Patreon), but those platforms might not have the exact features that a content creator needs or an audience that a particular content creator is looking to create content for.

And if their audience is on another platform, it's hard for them to migrate especially with the way modern platforms are structured.

For example, maybe you want to create content on Twitter Spaces but prefer the monetization approach of another platform. In the current structure of platforms, a creator cannot design their economy flexibly without making unnecessary sacrifices.

_Open Edition NFTs

Open Edition NFTs (an NFT mint with no limit to the number of editions that can be minted) might offer one way to “square the circle.”

And over the past few weeks, we saw a glimpse of how this might work in Web3.

Bored Elon Musk (not associated with the real Elon Musk), a prominent figure in the crypto community, offered Thread Guy, a popular content creator, to trade an Opepen 001 NFT (valued at ~$40,000) in return for Thread Guy changing his profile picture to the Opepen 001 NFT.

After much deliberation, Thread Guy declined the offer. But despite declining the offer, he changed his profile picture to another Opepen image, simply “for the culture.”

Then Jack Butcher, the creator of Opepen, celebrated this moment with an open edition NFT mint. Anyone can mint one of these “Opepen Thread Guy” NFTs for $2 per NFT and all proceeds would go to Thread Guy.

The mint stays open forever.

In just 24 hours, over 27,000 of these NFTs were minted, translating to over $54k for Thread Guy and significant brand awareness for Opepen. At the time of this writing, over 62,380 were minted, totaling almost $125K for Thread Guy.

(Note: That was the TL;DR version, for a longer recap, see here and here.)

The point is: Using Open Edition NFTs offers a glimpse into what a creator’s economy can look like powered by Web3.

_A Bottoms Up Value Layer

An open edition NFT allows us to directly compensate the creator for the value they provide without intermediaries. With an Open Edition NFT, the value and monetization layer for a creator is disaggregated from the platform where the creator creates content.

This means a creator can freely create content on any platform without having to depend on that platform’s rules, products and decisions for monetization.

With the ability to design how they want to monetize, creators can truly be at the helm of their economies (after all, they are the ones who do the work). This moves us towards a more open, distributed model of niche communities that cater to the specific interests of individuals.

As a fan, if you love a creator’s work, you can support them directly.

As a creator, you can further segment and reward your fan base through the provenance data that sits on-chain.

This system offers a glimpse into a future where one-person companies (creators) can build highly engaged, specialized communities around their content and unique offerings. Ultimately, paving the way for a more democratic and inclusive digital economy, where every creator gets a fair chance at claiming their corner of the Internet.

Rather than NFTs functioning as symbols of scarcity based on access, similar to luxury goods, they evolve into tools that empower individuals to back their favorite creators through more approachable amounts, much like a system of tipping.

Creators who use Open Edition NFTs can build on top of the provenance data on the blockchain. They can organize and segment their community in more interesting ways.

NFTs are composable and represent an infinite design surface.

🛟 Disclaimer:

This post is provided for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing written in this post should be taken as financial advice or advice of any kind. The author(s) may own some of the NFTs, art and/or collectibles mentioned in this post. The content of this post are the opinions of the authors and not representative of other parties.

Empower yourself, DYOR (do your own research).