Thread by @AllysonDowney

When I fell the NFT rabbit hole in November (thanks to @max_siegman and @curiousaddys), I started to wonder about whether NFTs could tokenize abstract concepts like access and opportunity. That idea is the seed that started @meta_angels.

A thread on NFT lending. 🧵

My mind started whirring about all the things that could be tokenized. Textbooks! Rental properties! The title to my house!

I was constantly imagining which IRL things around me could someday be NFTs.

And that led to me wondering about the intangible things in my life that had provided me with incalculable value: the @techstars network, my @columbia_biz alumni network, and @thelist.

Could *those* type of things be tokenized?

And if they were, was there a way to structure them to afford access to those who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to be part of them?

Those elite networks I’ve been extremely lucky to be a part of have some commonalities:

👉 Like-minded people
👉 Sharing a similar goal
👉 Committed to lifting each other up

Let’s try it with @Techstars:

👉 Ambitious entrepreneurs with scalable businesses
👉 Accelerating the growth of their company into a sizable market
👉 Providing feedback, support, and introductions

Here’s Columbia Business School (@columbia_biz):

👉 Aspiring and established business leaders
👉 Achieving success and making an impact in their chosen chosen career
👉 Offering career-building and networking opportunities to one another

And my fave, @thelist:

👉 Accomplished women who are leaders in their respective fields
👉 Fostering a deep sense of connection with women of similar values, while collectively chipping away at the glass ceiling
👉 Helping each other achieve and succeed, in every way imaginable

So I started playing with the idea of tokenizing that concept: like-minded people, with similar goals, lifting each other up.

From there came @meta_angels, an NFT community minting in mid-February, which already has 5,000+ members helping each other in our Discord wishing well.

My version of the above framework, applied to @meta_angels:

👉 Generous individuals sharing their expertise and networks
👉 Committed to growing a diverse community that provides value for all within it
👉 Proactively seeking ways they can offer their knowledge and skills

We anchored our vision for @meta_angels in the values of generosity, transparency, and accessibility.

We knew that articulating our vision and values would attract like-minded people.

But here’s the rub with NFTs: if you create something valuable, there’s going to be a lot of demand for it. And with free markets, high demand drives prices higher.

(Hello, ten thousand ape JPEGs each worth $250K+!)

So if accessibility was central to us — and it is — we needed a way to ensure the people who could derive the most value from the project wouldn’t be priced out.

At the time, I didn’t know much about smart contracts — but I *did* have the sense that blockchain technology would allow us to do things that were totally new.

(I often use the analogy that with NFTs, we are watching the invention of the wheel.)

https://twitter.com/AllysonDowney/status/1475691569378316289?s=20&t=B0Wuqvfgu5iWk1VuT-MvKA

So I asked my friend @intenex (knower/figure-it-outer of all things Web3!) if it was possible to loan your NFT token to someone temporarily, so they could get the benefits but you could still retain ownership.

And that got *his* wheels turning.

I analogized this lending concept to a museum loaning a piece of art to another museum, and @intenex analogized it as “the first lending library for NFTs.”

And then… @intenex coded up a proof of concept. That same night.

We were off to the races.

We would be able to build @meta_angels as a community of like-minded people, with similar goals, lifting each other up — without risk of pricing out those who could most benefit from the community.

Our superstar engineer @gabceb (we met in the @flowergirlsnft Discord – Web3 kismet!) got to work with @acav in building out the full smart contract.

We got input from @matthewdif, @nik_ska and others as we developed a new way of thinking about NFT ownership and utility.

They wrote the smart contract in a way that allows holders of multiple @meta_angels to loan their token to someone else (a friend, a mentee, someone they connected with on Twitter) for a temporary period.

Holders who’ve loaned a @meta_angel can call it back when they want to loan it to someone else—or if they need to sell it.

(Hard for me to imagine who would ever want to part from @aslanruby’s @meta_angels, unless it was to trade for a different one.)

The owner is protected from their loaned token being sold by the loanee; any transaction trying to transfer the Meta Angels NFT will fail while that token is loaned out. Everything is kept on chain so there is full visibility of where each token is and if it has been loaned out.

Because the lending is happening on-chain, there will be a gas transaction, but @gabceb has optimized every line of code to minimize gas fees for users whenever possible, including adopting ERC721A from @azukizen & @cygaar_dev.

(There are more technical nuances that I’ll leave to @acav and @gabceb to cover… but I’ll just say here that they’ve done some seriously innovative work.)

Borrowers of a @meta_angels NFT will enjoy the same benefits of owners: full membership in the Discord, including our Wishing Well channels, support from our catalysts, and other opportunities that we’re in the earliest stages of talking about.

But enough for now about the “how”: I want to circle back to “why.” (h/t @simonsinek)

Our loaning mechanism aligns with the @meta_angels core value of generosity. If we do our job right in building a community of like-minded people, our members will be intrinsically motivated to share that access with others.

For those looking to build a better, more inclusive and equitable world—access and opportunity are crucial. Not just having it, but sharing it.

And when people have access to people who are generous of spirit, magic happens. Opportunities are unlocked, and doors open.

We’re already seeing that magic happen every day in our Discord.

So: @meta_angels.

We’re minting in mid-February, so if what I’ve shared above excites you, join the @meta_angels Discord now. discord.com/invite/nYcdG2d…

We’re not a grind culture; we’re building with intention, not hype, in order to bring together like-minded people, with similar goals, committed to lifting each other up.

The surest path to our Goldlist is simple: be helpful to others. More on why we’re calling it a Goldlist here:

https://twitter.com/AllysonDowney/status/1477410149191069697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1477410149191069697%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaangelsnft.com%2Ftwitter

If you share our values of generosity, transparency, and accessibility, we would love to welcome you to the @meta_angels community.

📌 And now, back to the top to retweet!

https://twitter.com/AllysonDowney/status/1488289282137767941?s=20&t=TaT_TYoEckxEhhkhXLloSQ