Thread by @DCLBlogger

What does it mean to help projects build?

In the NFT/blockchain industry, founders and their community can be business partners.

Let’s explore the many ways you can buy + hold + BUILD.

1/ Thread.

2/ Blockchain/NFTs have an interesting customer-company/artist relationship where the user/collectors are incentivised to help.

Unlike just buying a Netflix sub, in the NFT world that sub can be an NFT that can also be an investment.

So why just hold when you can help grow?

3/ Building could mean many things.

Here's some ideas that come to mind including things I've implemented and seen around in the last 3-4 years.

The future is about shared incentive models for all parties involved.

4/ Incentive structure.

A big investor strategy in this space is to buy into projects, NFTs, Art etc that you know/have skills to bring value to and then help.

Maybe you're a dev and can build a stat website for a game, maybe you have a Twitch channel and can do some streams,

5/ Understand the project.

Is it avatars? Is it virtual worlds? Is it Art?

Eg,

Art - Build a virtual gallery, fractionalize, intro artist to others/collectors/network.
Game items - Play it, educate newbies, run tournaments.
Virtual land - Build on it, experiment, inspire.

6/ Fill in gaps.

What does the project lack? Not enough mods? Do they run their Twitter actively?

Can they use help with awareness or is there an idea you think they should implement?

Some projects are GREAT with tech but just don't know how to run their socials.

7/ Running a blog/YouTube/Twitter.

Honestly, having a big social channel is a life hack.

Not only can you invest but you can EASILY build awareness.

Suddenly every investment that you believe in and naturally use and share becomes a great investment.

8/ Actually use - same as above,

I feel like this is how @mcuban invests.

Finds projects he genuinely uses, (which proves to him it's needed), then invests.

lazydotcom, opensea, zapper, mintable, etc.

Build socials, use, invest, share.

9/ Use/protoype/experiment.

In the early Decentraland days, much of the community didn't build on their land, (including me).

When I realized this I'd experiment myself, pay for some devs/ideas and build simple scenes that showed what could be done.

So did many others.

10/ When @decentraland was new, @SugarClub_ made the first club, I/we ran the first conferences, @gabusch and @reneil1337 raised funds in MANA.

@MetaZoneio built a marketplace that made millions of MANA, @nonfungibles made a stat site, @NFTPlazas made a dedicated news site, etc.

11/ All examples of how we helped Decentraland grow along with holding.

Fun times. Imagine if 100s of members did this for their projects? @AxieInfinity is a great example here.

12/ Axie started with an idea, gathered an excited community who started to build, stream and play the game.

@cagyjan1, @kookoocryptotv went on to have huge YouTube channels,

@AxieGg hosted Axie tournaments,

@gabusch went on to build a huge Guild.

Others built websites, etc.

13/ All the above were passionate yes but through their effort were also incentivised by helping grow in their own way.

The incentive structure motivated many to work hard(er) than your traditional game, project, etc you spend your time on.

14/ Help stress test.

When Decentraland enabled video streaming, we'd run big conferences to get as many people as we could in so that Decentraland could gather info on the backend to help make better next time.

Others in @cryptovoxels did the same thing.

15/ Build data/education sites.

@TokenTrove is a great stat site for @GodsUnchained

They built a marketplace that was competing on volume with the official gods unchained site because the UI and functionality was amazing.

16/ Build on top of.

The beauty of blockchain is that ANYONE can build a game, project, etc and give utility for a diff NFT project.

Just bought an NFT Avatar project and know game dev? Why not build a minigame utilising those NFTs?

Imagine if the whole community did this?

17/ That's why when it comes to community, I try to look for and analyze who's invested and how driven the community is in understanding all the above.

Many early NFT investors were also builders that actively helped the space grow.

18/ Network.

This is what VCs and Angel investors do.

They invests in projects and connect them with others in their portfolio.

If you have a network why not leverage it.

My blog/youtube brought in companies which I helped set up in Decentraland.

19/ Touching on the above, if you have art, why not make an art gallery in Decentraland and run the gallery on Twitter?

Or turn your avatar into 3D and take it there?

Why wait for the founding team to do this when you can get it done yourself?

Community + founders = team

20/ Another note on the above, using as your profile pic.

I mean, this is a no brainer and the beauty in it is how organically this started.

Cryptopunks investors would change their profile pic to a punk in the early days.

Now it's the norm but it's SO powerful.

21/ Formalize.

Maybe you know others who would be keen to help build. Find those members and work together.

We'd run weekly streams in Decentraland with @FrankyNeedles @Anorak_NFT @iman_blockrun @MetaZoneio @NFTPlazas and others talking about events, progress, etc.

22/ It's insane how much ONE person can do to help a project.

The true power is to get your community to take over doing all the above.

You grow, the project grows, it's a win-win.

23/ These days you have people buying into a new project with minimal research and then complain about why it's dropping in price the next day while they do nothing.

Good investing is finding gems but also getting busy.

The future is with those that understand the above imo.