In the short time I have been in the crypto space, one of the things that stood out to me is the importance of communities. These communities can be a set of users of a protocol, a group of contributors to a DAO, or just a collective of people vibing around, ready to be tapped for certain causes. Given the open-source nature of crypto native products and services, communities are one of the highly valued moats and differentiators of any protocol or organization. Similar protocols can have different trajectories depending on its community of users (Uniswap and Sushiwap). By the very nature of their varying missions, each DAO is different based on the type of contributors it attracts (RaidGuild vs MetricsDAO). A community of NFT (non-fungible token) collectors can be different depending on the ethos and status projected by the NFT (Cryptopunks vs Nouns).
How do NFTs fit into the aspect of community? Outside of their financial nature, NFTs are an on-chain signal regarding a certain quality of a user. Some of these signals can be of status (Bored Apes), belief (Poolys), and wealth (Uniswap LP Positions). NFTs holders can be tapped by particular protocols and organizations depending on what these NFTs signal. With this, NFTs offer a way to bootstrap communities. These communities can then be incentivized towards being users of a protocol, be driven towards supporting different causes, or be readily tapped to become contributors to a DAO.
Formally introduced by Mirror last May 25, 2022, Writing NFTs are interesting in particular because they are explicit in what they are signaling, which is about the central idea of the written piece. These NFTs are digital collectible versions of the writings published on Mirror. Hosted on Optimism, a Layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution, these can be minted virtually without any transaction costs. For writers, this presents a way for them to truly own and showcase their ideas. For collectors, this provides a unique way for them to show their support around an idea or cause. Currently in the primary market, over 70% of these collectors own just one distinct Writing NFT. The rest have at least two.
I believe these NFTs unlock a new way to build and organize communities in the crypto space, centered around ideas.
To dive in deeper, I made a Dune dashboard around these Writing NFTs. I’ll run through some of the insights I uncovered.
1. Only 32% of those who minted Writing NFTs have previously owned an NFT on Optimism. For the majority of Writing NFT owners, this is/was their first NFT on Optimism (including myself).
This shows the potential of these Writing NFTs in terms of onboarding users onto platforms and having them discover other aspects of the crypto industry such as owning NFTs.
2. The first mint of nearly 70% of all Writing NFTs were done by the writer.
You could say that writers themselves are bootstrapping communities around their ideas. Given that they are the source, this is a great way to signal their belief and draw attention to their piece.
3. Amongst the paid Writing NFTs (not free to mint), the most collected piece is “Come for the creator, stay for the economy” by Patrick Rivera.
Coincidentally, the piece talks about how to bootstrap creator-focused platforms and protocols in the crypto space and build them to last. It provides a framework on how to approach the different phases of protocol building. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a peek into how it’s like to build these creator-focused protocols, participate in one, or even build your own.
4. The average mint price of writing NFTs is at 0.01 ETH, which is a little over USD 9 with current prices, depending also when you’re reading this. They are relatively cheap and there are over 2,000 unique addresses that own a Writing NFT by way of minting (counting only non-free mints).
While the financial barrier to collecting is low, the number of collectors do not stand out. However, the writers and collectors are still increasing every day so it will be interesting to see how things pick up from here. Remember, these NFTs were only formally launched a couple of weeks ago.
There are also some areas for future research that are worth exploring:
- What are the NFT ownership trends on Ethereum-mainnet of the Writing NFT collectors?
- Do mint prices play a factor when it comes to the collection of Writing NFTs (e.g. are they barriers)?
- Do collectors have a stronger affinity towards a writer or is it purely towards the Writing NFT’s idea/signal itself?
Writing NFTs open up a new way to build and organize crypto-native communities, centered around ideas. NFTs in themselves are on-chain signal about a certain quality of a user and these NFTs can be a way for protocols and organizations to bootstrap communities. These communities serve as moats and valuable differentiators in crypto given the open-source nature of the space.
Given these, I believe the space around Writing NFTs would definitely be one to watch as it develops and becomes a key to building more communities.
What do you think? Let me know your thoughts on Writing NFTs and if there are areas in the space you think are worth exploring (Twitter: @robplust).
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Shout out to Andrew Hong and Drake Danner for their valuable feedback on this piece.