Failed to succeed and already socially dead, Monaco's "yacht" struggles to enter the Web3 world

Author: Kyle

Social needs to add DeFi as well.

Introducing the concept of Web3, a blockchain social mining project named Monaco Planet has emerged. On November 28, the beta version of the project’s website went live. It is a platform similar to Weibo, where users can post images, text, and videos, as well as showcase their NFTs. Additionally, users can participate in "Write to Earn" mining, where actions like following, liking, and commenting on the platform can earn them the native token MONA.

At the project launch stage, Monaco conducted a wave of "viral marketing," allowing only early purchasers of its yacht NFTs to create accounts on the platform first. Each NFT holder received five invitation codes, sparking a "code-seeking craze" on social media, with invitation codes being traded for hundreds of dollars. The market enthusiasm allowed Monaco to gain initial visibility.

However, on November 30, the project stated that "only English content can be mined," igniting anger within the Chinese-speaking community. Subsequently, users discovered that the project’s error codes contained Chinese characters, questioning whether Monaco was actually operated by a Chinese team pretending to be a foreign project. Soon, Chinese users flocked to the project’s official social channels to criticize it, leading to Monaco's "social death" despite its focus on decentralized social networking.

From an operational mechanism perspective, Monaco, which is labeled as Web3 and SocialFi, also lacks innovative features. The concept of content creation as mining is not new; as early as 2017, a social blogging DApp called Steemit was launched, and a platform familiar to Chinese users, Bihu, also adopted a similar operational mechanism.

The story Monaco wants to tell is about leading people to a decentralized, collectively governed new content planet, but the controversy over "English-only mining" and its not-so-novel product diverges from its own ideals.

Monaco SocialFi platform invitation codes are being speculated upon

In the opening of Monaco Planet, it describes a story to all onlookers.

In 2150, humanity detected a massive black hole approaching the solar system, whose immense gravitational pull would mercilessly tear apart the entire solar system, ultimately turning Earth into stardust. To survive, humanity had no choice but to fly into space in search of a new home suitable for life.

Decades later, astronauts discovered a water planet several light-years away with gravity, temperature, oxygen, and water similar to Earth's. "Let's call her Monaco," the astronauts excitedly transmitted the coordinates back to Earth. Soon, the first batch of 9,999 human vanguards arrived at Monaco, living on yachts transported from Earth, sharing ownership of the entire planet and achieving common prosperity through collective governance.

Monaco paints a picture of a utopian world, hoping to launch a "planet migration" plan using blockchain to build a brand new social and content creation network.

This story is indeed captivating. Monaco believes that for a long time, a few large companies have dominated the internet, leaving users with little control over their personal data and creations, and unable to benefit from advertisers' placements. Therefore, Monaco aims to use SocialFi as a breakthrough to return data ownership to users and provide them with creation rewards, facilitating the transition of the internet from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0.

Between November 11 and 14, based on the Ethereum network, Monaco issued 9,999 Yacht NFTs as transportation for the vanguards to this "planet." On November 28, the Monaco SocialFi Beta platform went live, aiming to become the opinion and traffic center of the crypto community.

Users display NFT avatars on the Monaco page

On Monaco, users only need to connect their Ethereum wallets to log in, but in the early stages, only users with yacht NFTs can create accounts and post content on the platform. At the same time, each NFT holder can receive five invitation codes to invite other players to join.

According to the introduction, Monaco has established a "Write to Earn" content mining mechanism to benefit active content creators and discussion participants, who can earn the platform's native token MONA through following, liking, commenting, showcasing NFTs, and staking.

"Mining" is always the most engaging method to attract users during the launch phase of new projects. Soon, a large number of users rushed to purchase yacht NFTs to gain early mining qualifications. On November 29, the floor price of yacht NFTs surged from 0.15 ETH to 0.5 ETH. Those unwilling to buy NFTs sought invitation codes across various communities and social platforms, hoping to obtain a "ticket" to Monaco. At one point, an invitation code was traded for hundreds of dollars.

With the labels of Web3 and SocialFi, Monaco gained popularity. From its official website, Monaco resembles a blockchain version of Weibo/Twitter, but it is a traffic and content aggregation site exclusive to the crypto community, where users can showcase their owned NFTs and discuss crypto topics.

The project gained significant exposure in its early development by leveraging the NFT craze, but can it truly lead people to that beautiful Web3 world?

Monaco's restriction on Chinese content mining raises questions

On the road to a free content utopia, Monaco first restricted the freedom of some people.

On November 30, Monaco posted on its official Twitter that "only English content counts as 'content mining'." This clearly discriminatory tweet instantly sparked dissatisfaction within the Chinese-speaking community.

How can it be that in the promised migration to a new planet, where humanity shares ownership and governance, Chinese cannot mine? Below this tweet, a user replied in Chinese, "Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world, with one-fifth of the global population using it as their mother tongue," countering the project's biased statement.

Monaco's "only English can mine" statement sparks controversy

In fact, if one carefully reviews the content already published on the Monaco platform, it is not difficult to find that Chinese-speaking users are widely present, with many having Chinese nicknames and comments. Some community members speculate that Monaco's refusal to grant mining rewards for Chinese content may be to comply with China's strict regulatory policies. Soon, others exposed that there were traces of Chinese in Monaco's code.

According to records shared by Twitter user Paradise, the Monaco App interface error message contained the Chinese phrase "msg: type incorrect." This user questioned whether the project team behind Monaco was actually a Chinese team. In the limited public information available, people only know that the project has received investments from Three Arrows Capital and IMO Ventures, but who exactly is behind the project remains unknown.

Before even reaching the new planet, Monaco has already faced "social death" in the Chinese-speaking community. A large number of Chinese-speaking users have posted to criticize and boycott Monaco, leading to a collective backlash against this once-popular project. Meanwhile, the yacht NFTs issued by Monaco also saw significant declines in the secondary market, dropping from 0.35 ETH to 0.14 ETH.

This controversy has cast a shadow over Monaco's prospects. Moreover, from an operational mechanism perspective, Monaco, which claims to build a SocialFi platform, indeed lacks innovative highlights.

From the products currently presented by Monaco, its main feature is that it does not require identity verification to protect user privacy while providing active users and creators with token rewards. However, this model has already been explored by predecessors; in 2017, the social blogging DApp Steemit, deployed on the Steem chain, allowed users to publish content recorded on the chain while earning token rewards; the platform familiar to Chinese users, Bihu, also adopted this creative incentive model at its inception.

Steemit once became the largest on-chain crypto community, attracting a large number of crypto enthusiasts globally. However, due to a significant drop in token prices later on, the participation enthusiasm of new users also declined, and Steemit has been living a lukewarm existence.

Now, Monaco, which closely resembles the Steemit model, is re-emerging under the guise of Web3 and SocialFi, leading some players to question it as "old wine in a new bottle." On social media, some influencers have commented that Monaco is merely a blockchain version of Weibo, perfectly riding the wave of SocialFi, "I think it probably won't succeed; social networking is too difficult."

Clearly, at this stage, Monaco is still far from the free and beautiful "water planet" it describes, and the controversy over "English-only mining" is particularly contradictory to its emphasis on "decentralization." Monaco needs to provide more convincing arguments to become the answer to SocialFi.