NFT-based social interaction: Instead of liking, why not mint?
NFT is everywhere.Author: TPan
Compiled by: ShenChao TechFlow
Let's go back to the end of 2021, the peak of the NFT craze.
If you just bought in without selling, you might look back on that year like that Chihuahua, memories flooding your mind. The valuations of NFT collections reached absurd levels, and the community clamored for rare traits, with new hot projects launching every day. Almost all of these projects heavily relied on the concept of scarcity, with limited supplies—5,000, 10,000, or more—what a time to be alive.
As the industry moved past the NFT boom (though this boom still exists), we saw various NFT-related token standards and minting methods continuously emerging:
1155: Version numbers of the same NFT. Doodles: Certified Viral Collection is an example, with the version count of each NFT reaching into the thousands.
Soulbound Tokens: Tokens that are bound to a wallet address and are non-transferable.
Time-limited infinite minting: This method, promoted by digital artists, introduced unique burning, minting, and other gamified mechanisms.
ERC-6551: Token-bound accounts that allow NFTs to hold other NFTs.
ERC-404: Allows standard non-fungible tokens to be converted into a certain number of fungible tokens.
Despite many scarce collectibles seeing their prices plummet, even to zero, I observed two trends:
The functional layers of NFTs are continuously increasing.
NFTs are becoming ubiquitous.
These two trends are evident, but I want to focus on the second trend. To illustrate this point, here’s the situation:
Try Excalidraw
Note that this does not mean there won't be valuable projects with limited supply in the future, or that current projects lack value.
Base, Rodeo, Zora
In the past month or so, I have used and observed three application platforms that truly make the theme of "time-limited infinite minting" particularly noteworthy.
Base
Base recently shared their Onchain Summer event, where over 2 million unique wallets minted more than 24 million on-chain assets, generating over $5 million in on-chain revenue for builders, creators, and projects.
The Onchain Summer highlight video in the post is also an NFT, with over 54,000 NFTs minted so far.
Rodeo
This application released about 3 months ago was developed by the Foundation team and reminds me of the simpler times of Instagram.
A brief overview of how it works:
Users can post their artwork, photos, or any content.
Followers can mint this content at a fixed price of 0.0001 ETH (about 25 cents) within 24 hours.
The feed is populated based on the accounts you follow or the content they mint. In this case, the accounts you follow become "influencers." In the screenshot above, coopahtroopa is that influencer.
Minting revenue is split 50% between Rodeo and the creator.
If minting is attributed to an influencer, the minting revenue is split 25%, 25%, and 50% among the influencer, Rodeo, and the creator.
Rodeo shows signs of slow but steady growth while continuously adding features. Notably, their public Dune dashboard focuses on retention and minting engagement.
Zora
The minting platform has recently transformed into a discovery and social platform, reaching beyond crypto users, introducing new features and mechanisms:
A simplified secondary market experience integrated into the app in collaboration with Uniswap.
++Sparks++ (✧), a new Ethereum unit of measure in the Zora ecosystem. 1 ✧ = 1 millionth of an ETH.
A unified minting price for all content set at 0.000111 ETH or 111 ✧, approximately 25 cents. Previously, the minting price was set by the creator. However, there are some exceptions, though specifics are unclear.
Minting will remain open until there are 200 mints on a post. Once the 200 mint threshold is reached, a 24-hour timer starts. When the timer ends, the Uniswap-driven secondary market will open based on supply and demand.
Zora's mobile app launched last week, providing a simpler minting experience as users purchase Sparks in-app. This makes the mobile experience seamless, without pop-ups, bridging, or fees.
Minting Enhances Social Interaction
Following the evolution of Rodeo and Zora, they are emerging social media platforms aimed at addressing the pain points of current mainstream social media.
The Value of Likes is Diminishing
Likes have become a form of emoji response in iOS text threads, merely used to confirm that someone has seen your post or message. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in the overall interaction, it’s the lowest value interaction signal aside from browsing. At least you know who saw and acknowledged your post.
My wife sent me a text reply
Existing social media platforms are aware of this. Twitter values replies 27 times more than likes.
Comments Can Become a Privilege, Not a Right
Most social platforms allow anyone to comment or reply to posts, but in some cases, the comment feature may be turned off. For example, Solana co-founder Anatoly only allows accounts he follows or users mentioned to reply to his posts.
Response to This Matter
Rodeo and Zora address these pain points and make them core features of their respective applications.
Minting > Likes
The like button is replaced by the mint button. If you really like the content, you can mint it for about 25 cents, creating a win-win situation:
Creators receive economic compensation for their work.
Collectors receive an NFT in return.
The platform receives a portion of the minting revenue without relying on traditional advertising models.
Comments Open Only to Minters
Anyone can comment on a piece of content if they have minted it.
In the context of these applications, this all makes sense. Platforms like Rodeo are not aiming to prevent creators from connecting with users but rather to create more meaningful connections through minting and limiting the comment feature.
These Behaviors Exist on Traditional Social Platforms
Despite my criticisms of this fragmented engagement model, the emotions, psychology, and intentions behind the behaviors that Rodeo and Zora have built from scratch exist in different forms, proving that their approach is effective.
Tinder Super Likes
In the world of dating (a realm I am currently completely unfamiliar with), Tinder introduced Super Likes a few years ago. Super Likes increased your chances of matching and automatically placed you at the top of the matching list.
These Super Likes are not cheap either, with 3 costing $9.99.
Saving Content
Social platforms also allow you to save content and organize it. Saved content indicates higher value, worth revisiting at some point.
Future Application Scenarios
Fleeting Moments in Life
The examples I provided mainly focus on art, making the incentives between creators and collectors easier to understand. Collecting art at a low price of 25 cents is a win-win choice. But what about those who are not outstanding photographers or artists, posting great works on Rodeo?
While they are few, users like Privy's Max Segall are more like using Rodeo as Instagram. These posts do not have dozens of mints, nor do they need to, or are not necessarily for that purpose.
They are not without mints, though. For example, Max's post has two mints, one of which was minted by Alex in the photo. That’s the key.
Alex's mint might hold more value than 20 likes on other social platforms. Of course, if Max wants those likes, he can choose to cross-post that photo.
Important Moments in Life
Engagements, weddings, new jobs. These types of posts are filled with numerous likes and congratulatory messages, but due to the endless updates in the feed, they are forgotten within minutes.
While happy couples or posters appreciate those little dopamine spikes and the notifications lighting up, what if there were another way to congratulate the creator? Minting this post provides a way to do so, allowing the minter to show more effort than a standard "Congratulations!!!" And minting 1 feels a bit stingy; why not mint 10 or 100… or mint 1 and directly give a wedding gift, haha.
Non-Profit Organizations
This is a case that feels very meaningful to me. What if every post from the Red Cross could be mintable, and all minting revenue (the platform turning off the fee switch or transferring their share later) went directly to them?
People could still visit the website for larger donations, but minting would become a previously unattainable way of micro-donations, gradually accumulating and forming DTC (direct donations to charities).
What if you were an animal shelter? Post cute cat and dog photos and see how those micro-donations pour in. Who wouldn’t want to donate 25 cents to mint a cute kitten or puppy photo?
MVF - Minimum Viable Financialization
As I write this article, the concept of financialization comes to mind. Blockchain has propelled financialization in an unprecedented way. The value of memes has reached billions of dollars, we have established prediction markets based on what presidential candidates say in speeches, and people are still speculating on JPEGs worth thousands of dollars.
However, financialization, more specifically minimum viable financialization, can give meaning to certain digital interactions that are becoming increasingly meaningless.
Perhaps the way forward is not friend.tech, but rather a lowercase f SocialFi presented through platforms like Rodeo and Zora.
