Mirror.xyz Product First Experience: A Narrow Gate to Web3 Content Creation
After nearly a year of development, Mirror's features and experience have been continuously improved. At the beginning of this month, the writing feature was opened to all users, and Mirror also provides creators with basic capabilities such as crowdfunding and voting.Original Title: "A Narrow Gate to Web 3.0 by Mirror.xyz"
Written by: Xia Ke Zhang
Simply put, Mirror is a content creation platform that utilizes blockchain technology, widely regarded as a decentralized version of Medium.
I personally prefer Mirror's self-positioning in one of its articles:
What is Mirror = Who's on Mirror
From this definition, Mirror is not just a decentralized content creation tool; it is more like a community collaboration platform.
Let's take a look at what Mirror can do currently:
Capabilities Provided by Mirror
At this stage, Mirror offers creators 6 basic capability tools, including Publishing Articles (Entries), Crowdfunding (Crowdfunds), Digital Collectibles (Editions), Auctions (Auctions), Collaborative Contribution Splits (Splits), and Community Voting (Token Race).
Publishing Articles (Entries)
At this stage, Mirror's article publishing capability is open to everyone. Visit here to start publishing online.
Mirror supports a one-click import feature for articles, allowing you to import articles published on other platforms via a link. (Tested, it doesn't work with WeChat public accounts, as they are blocked.)
Mirror's online editor uses a plain text + Markdown format and supports quick referencing of internal building blocks.
The biggest highlight is that each functional block of Mirror can be quickly referenced in the article and provides direct previews. For example, crowdfunding and NFT features can be completed directly within the article.
For detailed operations of the article editing feature, please refer to the official manual.
In the upper right corner of the article publishing page, you can set the publishing format of the article. By checking the NFT option, the article will be published as a digital collectible, allowing readers to purchase it as a collection.
Clicking the gear icon allows you to choose whether to publish the article on-chain; "public" means publishing the article on the Arweave distributed storage blockchain. (This requires a higher network fee.)
For each article published on-chain, you will see a unique address for on-chain storage at the bottom of the article. This enables complete decentralized access to the article.
Crowdfunding (Crowdfunds)
Similar to traditional crowdfunding platforms, Mirror's crowdfunding feature allows raising funds for projects or ideas. Unlike traditional crowdfunding platforms, Mirror's advantage lies in the ability to quickly launch a DAO.
The highlights of Mirror's crowdfunding include:
Supporters receive tokens for backing a project, representing membership in the project community.
Support for NFTs. Digital native collectibles can be used to reward supporters, whose value may increase and serve as a badge of community membership.
The top three contributors in crowdfunding will receive unique NFTs. This is a great way to distinguish super fans and top supporters of the project, introducing a competitive auction-like element to the event.
At this stage, Mirror's crowdfunding capability is open to everyone. Visit here to initiate a crowdfunding campaign.
Mirror's crowdfunding tool has proven to be the simplest way to form a DAO, allowing an internet-native community to quickly confirm participants and establish initial fundraising through crowdfunding and NFTs.
Community Voting (Token Race)
For a mature DAO, voting is the most important application. It represents the collective inclination and decision of DAO participants regarding any resolution.
Mirror's voting feature is similar to Snapshot, providing capabilities for voting proposals, token snapshots, multi-signatures, and proxy voting.
The benefit of using Mirror for voting is its tight integration with other building blocks of Mirror. Through an article, creators articulate a project's idea, gather initial community members through crowdfunding, and finally implement various community resolutions through voting. What we see is a closed-loop capability of the creator community.
Potential Value of Mirror
An important feature of WEB3 is the merging of value flow and information flow.
In the WEB2 era, various media provide information, and the process for users to obtain information and feedback value is a lengthy chain, with some through payment, others through advertising, and some through communities, etc. However, it is generally difficult to achieve immediate value feedback from information acquisition.
Mirror can serve as a fusion tool for DAOs and an incubator for innovative projects. It not only provides powerful creative tools and capabilities for distributed collaboration but also acts as a roadshow platform for the crypto world.
If you have an idea, using Mirror allows you to quickly break down the idea into actionable steps:
Publish an article explaining what you want to do, whether it's a project or product, or write a research report or make a movie.
Create a crowdfunding campaign for this idea.
This is a key step in establishing connections.
- Spread it within your circle and find users willing to participate.
Let early users get involved in the project through crowdfunding.
- Use the funds raised to implement your idea.
During this process, you can gather community users for discussions through platforms like Discord.
You can decide the roadmap through voting.
Implement fund usage, which can be allocated through voting.
Publish results; for example, you can package the results as an NFT auction.
Profits can be distributed according to crowdfunding shares, etc.
- Every creation and every vote during the process can be a Mirror article.
Each article can include crowdfunding and NFT auctions, serving as both a roadshow and a sale.
- These forms will ultimately merge creation and value feedback, which is very rock 'n' roll!
Mirror originates from the crypto circle, but its audience extends far beyond it. Every individual and DAO, from different industry backgrounds, can use Mirror as a value discovery platform, opening a door to WEB3.0.
Personal Attempts
I have had some thoughts about future work forms. Long-term work in one company feels less interesting. Long-term solo endeavors may become too lonely. DAO might be a good choice, but I have not truly participated in one; perhaps the timing is not yet ripe, or perhaps the opportunity has not arrived.
The emergence of Mirror and the popularity of Discord have shown me a possibility; perhaps it will develop into a DAO, or perhaps it is another form of my personal creation. But in any case, it is a new attempt.
Experiencing the product through practice is my consistent principle, and this time is no exception. To deeply study the Mirror product and attempt to find the killer application for future WEB3.0, one must participate personally.
A company is a community of shared visions, while a DAO is a community of shared interests. Perhaps in the future, we will all serve a certain DAO.
