Degens, let’s regen to regen degens
I have the honor to be asked for my opinion by Jagad Marcelleno himself on his article What Does It Mean by Regenerative Economy in Web3? An applied Hyperstructure for Future Works. Jagad is the Project Director of Mindblowon Universe which recently released their V2 Roadmap.
This post narrates what I learned, what I’d like to improve from his writings, and my overall impression.
What I understand from reading the article
Moving forward, Mindblowon project’s actions aim to achieve three goals continuously:
- Maintain the project in its best condition by actions such as restoring, repairing, and maintaining.
- Distribute income and wealth equitably by distributing equal access.
- Create resilience and freedom to build by letting anyone mix and match available resources to innovate.
To operate and achieve these goals, there are three mandatory layers that the project aims to always regenerate: variables, transformation, and impact.
- Variables are like basic fuels and ingredients. They are needed to perform actions. Community’s active participation and project’s funds are examples of variables.
- Transformation is the action to use available variables. An example of this would be like when a group of community members co-create consumer goods based on the IP rights they hold assisted by the project’s team.
- Impact is when the transformation results in creating more variables. Example: the co-creation effort above created new variables, awareness to the creators and the project itself, and willingness from more members to jump-in and build around their holding.
Aside from these main layers, Mindblowon team will also ensure the provision of additional layer: tech and tools, in order to realize the regenerative economic model.
What I would like to propose for the article
- Avoid generalization for all NFT projects’ effort.
I do believe the current state of NFT space is degenerative in which every effort doesn’t generate values and future earnings; the practice of make, use, and lose paradigm.
We cannot deny that there are many bad actors in the NFT space that intend to leech resources without giving anything back. However, we should not dismiss efforts from those who are already making progress and giving value. I would take the initiate from Pudgy Penguins as an example which in my opinion fits the regenerative model. The Penguins initiate Pudgy toys and children books which characters are licensed directly from holders; not only from genesis holders but also the holders of Lil Pudgy, their 2nd collection. This initiate value generation by not only expanding the project’s universe but also giving potential income from licensing for the characters’ holders.
2. Separate a proposed approach from a universally accepted definition.
The NFT asset that you hold is worth money. The formula to calculate the worth of the asset you hold is by dividing the supply of the project’s collection by its treasury.
This is not THE formula but I think is a proposed approach. I would also disagree with this approach. First, by the time of writing, NFT is not a legal equity which gives the holder a direct portion to treasury funds. Tell this approach to Pixelmon or PXN holders and I don’t think they will be amused. Second, an NFT asset’s worth is as much as you can get by selling in the market at a given time. And, how much they worth depends on the market’s perception.
3. Provide examples from actions that have or going to be realized by Mindblowon team.
I believe the team has much to share. Maybe breakdown Mindblowon’s recent participation in We The Fest event? Or the community meetup event in various countries?
- What was the layer of variables from the event? Which variables were sourced from the community and which were from the team?
- What were the transformative actions?
- How was the impact? What variables were generated after the event?
Giving examples of actions in Web3 context, breaking them down, and labelling them as per their element (variable, transformation, or impact?) would help readers to digest the idea of regenerative model.
Overall impression and closing remarks
Holders and communities are the heart of most NFT projects. Reading the article and writing this post as a response reminded me of one thing: decentralization of access or power also means decentralization of effort. A project’s success is a collective effort from the project’s team and the active participation from their community. The project’s team can only do so much; but their actions might fizzle if the holders don’t care and are entirely passive.
I have the impression that by publishing this model they build upon, Mindblowon team asks their community to walk along them to create: “Let’s build alongside us: we need your active participation and we will continuously distribute value to you as a return.”
This is one of the spirits of Web3: reward participation.
As I’ve previously shared in my other posts, we in the Web3 space are still very early. Even the holders of bluechip NFT collections are like the same 40k people dumping and fudding on each other. We need more bridges and collaborations. In that spirit, although I am no longer a holder a Mindblowon NFT project, I wish nothing but the best for the Mindblowon team and community. A rising tide lifts all boats!
Disclaimer: none of the above is financial advice. In the time of writing, I don’t hold any Pudgy Penguins NFT.
