I’m happy to publicly announce a NFT community initiative to crowdfund a new media platform (called NFTs WTF) for and by the industry to better represent it and its diverse subcultures and one that walks-the-talk in how it is financed and governed. We’ve now completed the first stage of its launch, raising $250k from 51 of what will become 100 founding members from across the community through the pre-sale of its genesis drop. The possession of this Genesis NFT will serve as both a perpetual subscription to a monthly dzine and the ability to vote on its editor, their strategy and execution of the media platform.
“NFT culture will influence the mainstream more than the mainstream will influence nfts”
~ Hackertao
The problem
NFTs are misunderstood and regularly misrepresented in the media. Both crypto trade press and wider mainstream media, which sadly tend to focus on the wrong things. As in both the wrong people and wrong issues that don’t define or ultimately best represent our fledgling industry and the true potential of NFTs as a new form of media in their own right.
We also think NFT culture will itself become the primary driver for popular culture and therefore should be seen, not from the outside in, but inside out.
#1 NFT reporting is fucked
Mainstream media doesn’t get it. And that’s ok. But we desperately need a media that does. One written by people from and of the space, in their own voice, but importantly in a way that is still accessible to noobs. This is increasingly important if we are to cut through the increasing noise and onboard billions of new users as an industry. Many of whom have little to no understanding of crypto, its principles around sovereign wealth and who today will either be turned off by mainstream reporting or misdirected to cash grabs with low to no long term value.
#2 NFT reporting is also too narrow
Despite a handful of brilliant small players most media coverage is, perhaps understandably, only focused on art and occasionally music releases, and increasingly only from mainstream artists or celebrities. Firstly, as a general purpose technology and vessel for popular culture NFTs extend way beyond this narrow scope to include; gaming, virtual worlds (verses), sports collectibles, fashion and even adult entertainment.
Today’s coverage is also too focused on the news of numbers; what sold and for how much. And misses the nuances known and unknown that are important to users and creators from; copyright & IP, royalties, deplatforming and centralisation, onchain & the importance of metadata, personal security, hack exploits, secondary markets valuation methods, and the future yet inevitable problems of wallet spam and a lack of industry diversity.
First, a news and opinion site
Over the last couple of weeks we have already soft launched a daily news site dedicated to NFT’s WTF moments, curated by its natives, to champion the true innovators and creatives defining the medium itself, not just to be frank, celebrity bullshit. Editorially it operates on the principles of being; independent, unbiased, diverse, opinionated, funny and highly memetic through a number of media formats.
Second, a dzine
Ok wait WTF is a dzine?! Well it’s a decentralised e-zine of course: a community financed e-zine, owned and mostly governed by a dao.
What’s a god damn DAO!? Jeez please keep up. A DAO is a decentralised autonomous organization. Basically a ‘kinda company but without an actual company’ that runs entirely on a blockchain, governed by a group of people through smart contract voting.
But it’s a DAO that actually works because of its simplicity. At least we hope it works!
The 100 Genesis Holders elect a team of 10 advisors every 12 months to best represent the industry as a whole, who then support and hold the Editor and Chairperson to account (in the worst case, and subject to a significant majority), and can hire and fire them if things aren’t working out. But let’s stick to the positive of supporting them to make the media platform the best there is.
Beyond that the Editor otherwise has complete discretion on how to execute their vision with the Chair holding them financial accountability for use of proceeds through the multisig release of budgets.
It’s important to say the editorial team will be paid purely in crypto from a monthly share in 30% of NFT sales from the platform so they directly participate in its success or otherwise. Because each month’s profits are market dependent we should expect the possibility of volatility in the NFT markets, there is a Vault as a buffer made up from the Genesis Drop auction proceeds and 10% of sales each month to cover a baseline of operating costs for several months of no to low sales revenue.
100% crowdfunded from the start
The project will be funded entirely by the community through the crowdfunding of a pre-sale of a Genesis Drop Edition. 51/100 have now already been selectively pre-sold for $4.9k (in ETH, USDC or USDT) to finance its creation and the remaining 49/100 will be auctioned where 100% of the proceeds go to the DAO through a ‘fair launch’.
You can see the wallet here.. some funds are still trickling in.
This means initially no one person can have more than 1/100 of voting power in the DAO and we have been careful to make sure there is not too much consolidation of people from the same company or community group as holders, to reduce bias in governance decisioning. And it’s important to note only a small handful of VCs (3/51) have been allowed to participate, and when they have as individuals not as firms.
The genesis drop deets
A limited edition of 100 Genesis NFTs will be dropped to the initial 51 that seeded the DAO and a further 49 auctioned to the public (the exact date, mechanism and platform tbc).
This Genesis NFT both contains a bundle of multimedia NFTs and itself will be a thing of beauty that if held in a wallet entitles that wallet owner to the perpetual subscription to the monthly dzine NFT drop, the ability to vote in the DAO and an evolving set of benefits in the metaverse.
The bundle will serve as NFT Time Capsule and homage to the history of NFTs, its key people and moments but also the hopes, fears and considerations of its native creators, collectors and innovators (for aliens to discover in the future) including:
- An Audio NFT, containing a 1 hour 30 min audio documentary made by an award winning team, based on over 50+ x 20min interviews
- An NFT Magazine, containing the key moments in the history of NFTs, curated into beautifully illustrated NFT articles and complete with a generation defining front cover
The NFTs will be minted from a custom smart contract the DAO controls, all fully onchain, permanent and persistent allowing for perpetual royalties for the genesis owner of 15%
The bizness model
As if this wasn’t already cool enough it’s also a new model for publishing and media; free and financed by NFTs which should hopefully mean no need for ads. Will it work? Who knows! But it’s worth a shot right..?
Whilst anyone can read the website online for free at the end of every month its news will be compiled into a dope dzine and 1,000 editions minted as NFTs .
200 editions go to Genesis Holders . 50 go to the 10 Advisors (5 each every month they are in role)
750 will be sold at an estimated $250 each (the price can be reset via the DAO) and the proceeds distributed to its contributors against (Chart A). Any unsold editions go into a vault controlled by the DAO and every time an edition is resold in the secondary market, the DAO gets 10% of the proceeds via perpetual royalties.
Chart A
Chart B
The revenue will be fairly split through a revenue share between contributors and permanent staff as seen in (Chart B). 60% going to that month’s contributors including guest writers, illustrators and the front cover artist and 30% to the editor and staff.
Team & Advisors
The team will be hired from and by the community. Starting with the editor who will then have the executive power to hire and fire staff but roles will include;
1 x Project Manager
3 x Staff Writers
1 x Art Director
1 x Web Manager
1 x Community Manager
1 x Multimedia Producer
If you would like to apply for any of these roles email gigs@nfts.wtf with a short bio and links to your portfolio of work and shit posting. Make sure you show us a sense of humour and appreciation for memetics.
The 51/100
We invited people from across the NFT ecosystem to join the 51 and had great uptake. And to help with improved diversity we even sponsored a couple of people but on the whole feel it’s a pretty good mix of creator, collector, community and across medias.
|
@jamie247 |
@maxstealth5 |
@FLAMINGODAO |
@voxelarchitects |
| @Roham | @7surfer7 | @j1mmy.eth | @Jihoz_Axie |
| @gabusch | @pridesai | @pierskicks | @feindura |
| @chris_JP_D | @jordanLyall | @coin_artist | @sillytuna |
| @loannis_AG | @luluixixix | @bryanbrinkman | @micah_johnson3 |
| @loopifyyy | @JBanon | @pete_coinburp | @Hanrgb |
| @niftytime | @theAngieTaylor | @frankynines | @MrY_Art |
| @metaverseNFT | @m_h_d_v | @seangardner | @borgetsebastien |
| @skeenee_art | @toxsam | @wsavas | @seedphrase |
| @galaxyRTK | @cameronjohnbale | @xcopyart | @money_alotta |
| @nftland | @blackboxdotart | @DCLBlogger | @pet3rpan |
| @thesarahshow | @MattKaneArtist | @insider0x | @dankvr |
| @SerenaTabachi |
You can follow them on a Twitter List here
Next up The 49/100
The remaining 49 will be auctioned in the next 6 weeks or so.
All proceeds go to the d-zine which will operate as an on-chain revenue share with contributors paid out in crypto and if successful over time will look at incorporating as a LAO (DAO with a legal wrapper to potentially contract with staff).
To sign up for the whitelist please email us on whitelist@nfts.wtf
In order to continue to optimise for diversity we will sponsor 5 more spaces. If you or someone you know is interested apply here https://forms.gle/9M3tg2P7DRF9U3tt5
