Supply chains are cool now.

But calling what Crowdmuse is doing supply chain work is like looking at a sphere and calling it a circle.

A supply chain onchain is a web.

Crowdmuse is giving their supply chains the network effect. When you give creators the same benefits, the web grows.

So what? Well, that’s the difference between taking on web2 marketplaces and getting squashed by them.

The founders created the web3 platform and marketplace Crowdmuse to architect the future they wanted.

Working with people is gooey, but collaboration shouldn’t feel like your worst group project. Add money, and it usually just gets worse.

Crowdmuse’s onchain verification process is the glass pitcher that keeps all the human goo of the Kool-Aid man together.

“If five creators are working together to design a sweatshirt, every one of them has a wallet and an NFT that verifies the work they did on the project,” says Maz. “That's just a smart contract mechanism that web2 can't do.”

This also puts the project itself onchain (For the nerds: they modified an ERC721A smart contract to tie physical products to the chain).

But with the NFT, they don’t just get credit for their work, they get a chunk of the final project itself.

“We're asking partners: are you all value aligned? What is the slice of the pie everyone would be comfortable with?” says Maz, “Does design get 20% and brand get 10%? There's no hiding facts.”

Haters will say that's just a contract. But these “Revenue Splits” keep the collaborative process fair, transparent, automatic, and onchain.

And with that, you can add a new creative dimension: Circle -> Sphere ->  ___

You create Schrodinger's tote bag. It exists both as it is, and as it could be, with infinite iterations.

As an onchain asset, the physical good can be used, manipulated, and iterated by future creatives.

If your bag is Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne,” another creator could turn it into Ye’s “Champion.”

“If my pattern for a product gets licensed onchain if a bag is remixed and remade into another product, then the original creator will continue to earn through royalties,” says Maz.

Physical artifacts become like music. Products become a medium.

These “Product Derivatives” are all tied to the original product through that NFT, complete with the existing onchain verified revenue splits.

Creators will continue to earn on their work, even as it influences the work of others.

It's a creative web that gives new creators smoother paths to production. Anyone who wants can still build their own house, but they don’t have to start by drawing the blueprints.

When it is time to produce, that creative web crosses the IRL/URL threshold into the supply web, like two vines meeting from either side of a trellis.

Adding NFC chips to the IRL products ensures that connection and transparency exist everywhere in the physical world as well.

Coming from the worlds of fashion and renewable energy supply chains, Crowdmuse’s founders have a network of trusted suppliers around the world to address regional demand.

“A brand that is in Asia, but wants to sell to Portugal? Do they have to relocate? Or can they license the supply within Portugal,” says Maz.

Just like you can license pieces of another creator's idea, you can license production where you need it. Why hop in a cold plunge when you can just ice your knee?

This allows creators to focus on their work while the platform prioritizes high-quality, ethical, and more environmentally friendly manufacturing that creates value for local communities and markets where the goods will be sold.

Crowdmuse isn’t producing widgets, they’re adding physical anchors between creative and supply webs.

“Creating a supply web could move us away from the Amazon-type models. Their supply chains are not the most friendly, and they very much dominate markets" says Maz.

They proved their concept in a series of drops with handpicked partners, the likes of Base, Optimism, Zora, Lens, FWB and more.

But now the webbed garden is open.

Architect your new dimension Create on Crowdmuse. Follow on @Crowdmuse.

This article is part of the Crowdmuse and IDEO CoLab Ventures Creative Residency series. See below for an archive of related resources -