https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1475488321187024897
2/ First, chasing millions is meaningless, and will not bring you happiness. If you get into NFTs to flip quick money, you will be disappointed. NFTs are booming rn, but it won’t last forever. Only spend what you are willing to lose.
3/ Even experts take huge Ls. This ecosystem is volatile and changes quickly enough that I am never 100% confident, despite having gained significant capital, experience, and risk tolerance. Still, there are investing frameworks I find helpful. *NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE*
4/ Blue Chips: Overrated? BAYC, Cryptopunks, Cool Cats, Doodles—all top tier projects. But we are mid-pump, and it could take years for them to 10x in value. They might prove to be more “stable” investments, but the larger opportunity lies in being early to the next big thing.
5/ Being Early
Four key signals to look for:
- Project is affiliated with proven, doxxed leaders
- Volume at launch
- Notable wallets that buy into the project
- Meaningfully engaged community
- Differentiated roadmap
6/ Monitoring Activity With tools like http://nansen.ai, http://moby.gg, and http://icy.tools, you can see which projects are taking off, right up to the minute. You can also get alerts when big name buyers buy in. These are helpful data points.
7/ Evaluating Communities Community size is important, but could also indicate bots, or a ponzi-like invite system. Better to observe the chat. Is there meaningful discussion, or just “number go up”? Do the devs engage? Community behavior is higher signal than community size.
8/ Getting Alpha I’ve benefited HUGELY from joining communities that have taught me strategy, given a heads up on upcoming drops, and faciliated networking with pros in the space. My favorites are
,
, and
(disclosure: Club CPG is my project).
9/ Apeing In If a project checks all the boxes, is within your budget, and you are early, consider following your conviction and buying multiple NFTs from the project. If you are right, this will enable you to take profits on the way up, and see strong returns down the road.
10/ Floors Vs. Rares Rares are great, but often cost 10-30x the floor of a project. Would you rather have 20 floors, or one rare? Usually it’s only the top 50 or so most rare NFTs that are meaningfully more valuable. You might also get lucky and draw a rare from the floor.
11/ Fast Flipping: Overrated? Some buy in early, then sell as soon as the floor price goes up. We’re talking 2-3x gains. This is fine, but you’ll pay gas each time, and lose the opportunity to sell later if the price booms. Flipping takes a lot of bandwidth. It’s not for me.
12/ Holder’s Mindset The mind is naturally geared towards selling when there are profits to be made. It’s important. But if you believe a project will 50x, consider holding. You can lose more by selling too early than you would lose by holding a project that goes to zero.
13/ Selling on the Way Up Say you have 5 NFTs from a project that is doing well, and selling one will cover your costs of buying in. Don’t feel bad about taking profits! This helps protect you from losses, and makes you feel more comfortable holding the others in case they 50x.
14/ The Big Sale When you feel a project has reached its peak, or simply want to de-risk your investment, do not feel bad about liquidating. No one that was early to BAYC should feel bad having sold at 30 ETH, even if the project gained in popularity. Gains are gains.
15/ Getting Out If you’re monitoring the activity of a project, and its sales or floor price are dwindling, and the community is lackluster, consider exiting. However, you just might want to be careful about leaving before any major project milestone that could pump the price.
16/ Track Your Wins When you make profits (or lose them), track everything in spreadsheets. Take notes. Reflection and analysis are important. The process of evaluating your performance will teach you as much as having invested in the first place.
17/ Supporting Artists Whatever the outcome, be glad that your buying supports artists and developers in an ecosystem that previously didn’t exist. If you find something that resonates with you, It’s OK to buy with the intention of holding forever. Some art truly is priceless.
18/ Diversification Remember, a primary function of NFTs is diversification within your broader investments in ETH. If you don’t believe an NFT’s growth will outpace ETH, it may not be advisable to buy. A risk-adjusted portfolio balances stable assets with higher-growth bets.
19/ Parting Thoughts NFTs and their communities can be intoxicating. Remember, it is easier to lose money than it is to make it. Start slow and learn the ropes, do not FOMO in. Gain confidence as you go and participate to learn, not to earn. The latter will come with practice.
0/ For more on NFTs and web3, follow along with me
. Thx for reading, and may you enjoy the ride.
https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1471208223935852546
1/ A playbook for launching successful NFT collections.
2/ NFTs are hard. From technical implementation, to marketing, to fostering a community, there are dozens of steps to manage. And ignoring any one of them can tank your brand. Let’s dive deep, starting from ideation all the way to post-launch execution.
3/ Identify your vision Root it in what makes you, you. If you’ve been developing expertise for years, lean in. It’s the only way to earn confidence in your project. Could be your professional experience, art, gaming, defi, community… whatever. Just own it. Broadcast it.
4/ Build a community Publish content that demonstrates your vision to like-minded folks, inviting them to join you. Provide a place to exchange value, and—this is important—create an equal playing field. Don’t rely on hype. Without roots, loyalty will evaporate.
5/ Form a dream team A project is only as good as its team. Founders, devs, artists, community managers, and marketers. Ensure they are all A+ communicators and properly incentivized, because their participation in the community will be critical to your project’s success.
6/ Write a bulletproof contract Your contract should be as much a work of art as the NFT itself. Test it relentlessly, make it gas-efficient, get it peer-reviewed, and don’t push it out half-baked. If there is any possibility of exploitation, it can tank your entire project.
7/ Art If it isn’t magic, don’t bother. Identify themes that invoke a sense of joy and intrigue. Be weird. If it feels safe, it’s not going to make it in NFT world. Your goal is to wow people, providing them with sets of characteristics they truly identify with.
8/ Rarity distribution Nailing trait distribution and having a clean metadata reveal is key for increasing collectible value. You don’t want too many common traits. Look to projects that nailed it, like Doodles or CrypToadz. And consider creating rare 1/1s for true collectors.
9/ Side note: It’s also cool to create projects where rarity is super distributed and doesn’t matter so much—where holders are more equal to each other. This is a trend we’re seeing more and more of. If this is your POV, be public about why and own it.
10/ Stick to a budget and timeline Don’t get in over your head hiring devs and community managers without the ETH to back it up. We don’t want any drama or missed timelines. Too many projects announce mint dates only to delay them. Sticking to timelines helps build trust.
11/ Build it for long term You are designing a project with potential multi-year implications. Whether that’s through utility, DAO formation, companion projects, gaming aspects, CC0 rights, etc., create a moat that is defensible over the long-term. Design for durability.
12/ Price it right Scarcity is key, and not every project needs to be a 10k collection. In theory, the smaller the quantity, the higher value you might provide. It all depends on the intersection of demand for your project, and the long-term utility you’re promising.
13/ Remember, it’s far better to underprice than to overprice. If people have bought in at a “steal,” it could drive demand and help the project sell out. You might not bank as much at mint, but it could help with longer-term stability. And you can always add more layers later.
14/ Marketing First of all, publish meaningful content that rallies community. Let them be your flywheel, bringing their networks and influence into the project. But you won’t earn any support without being authentic and persistent. Get out there and publish.
15/ Marketing pt. 2 Share previews Prove utility Create 1/1s for like-minded NFT heads Collab w brands and other projects Contests Influencers Just don’t rely on FOMO. It will leave you vulnerable. Better to focus on bottoms up community building and content publishing.
16/ Mint mechanism Minting from your site? Invest in a gorgeous interface and make that process clean af. Dutch auction? Could be frustrating for people who buy at the top. Whatever you do, publish clear, detailed instructions that are easy for first-timers. Don’t gatekeep.
17/ Avoid gas wars
Don’t ask people to participate in mints where they need high priority fees to win.
- Most people don’t know how
- They’re overpaying
- Your project will get botted
- You’ll wind up with too many whales
Reward early supporters, and make minting fair.
18/ If you don’t sell out If mint is slow, don’t give up. Build organically. If you’re like
, the gradual build will pay off big time when you’ve onboarded first-time NFT buyers, have great distribution of dedicated holders, and wind up with a thin, growing floor.
19/ Post-launch flywheel Trust, your community will tell you everything you need to know. Reward them for providing feedback, shout them out, and show everyone how their contributions are informing decisions at the highest level. R&D Marketing Product Dev Community
20/ After launch, be in that community every day interacting and setting the tone. Don’t focus on speculation. Focus on creating value exchanges between members. Don’t assume what people want—let them tell you. And reward them publicly when they do.
21/ After things settle, get ready to start all over again from step one and create the next big phase of your project. Only this time, you’ll have a community to back you up. Thx for reading fam. For more tweetstorms on NFTs and web3, follow along with me
.
https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1473324245426003968
1/ Who owns web3?
2/ This grenade of a tweet by Twitter’s dad has fanned the flames. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s important. Time to establish nuance around what’s misleading, and what’s true here—and find out who owns web3.
3/ First, let’s dispense with the us vs. them mentality. We all know: not all VCs are bad. They help founders shoot their shots. But we also know why this warning exists. To prevent repeating the flaws of web2. VC is not perfect. Let’s explore how web3 is improving the model.
4/ Web3 fundamentally tilts towards decentralization. Indie creators and brands, from Poolsuite to XCOPY, are bootstrapping capital directly from their communities. Does VC “own” them? No. Compared to web2, we are arcing towards progress—let’s not diminish this innovation.
5/ Web3 is by and large open-source, from code to block activity. Its openness and interoperability establishes the basis for decentralization. Disclaimer: ownership can also be assigned to off-chain entities. Still, a major QOL improvement over web2.
6/ Decentralization also enables new defenses. Because many projects can be “forked” (duplicating their underlying source), participants can simply choose to follow value-aligned derivatives if the original project becomes extractive. This reinforces incentive alignment.
7/ Constituents can now move markets with coordinated buying and social media activity. Web3 fundamentally shifts customer roles away from pure consumption and towards community stakeholdership—providing skin in the game and autonomy. Web3 enables activism.
8/ Let’s also be honest about the downsides of VC in web3. Simply put, 9/10 VC-backed companies fail. This is a problem, but it’s also a solution. It means more companies getting to shoot their shots. Yes, VC is a risky investment class—but it has its place in the ecosystem.
9/ Some startups in particular will need major cash infusion to have any chance at scale—more than they could raise from communities. Infra layers like Pinata or XMTP, for instance, are well-suited to VC or hybrid fundraising models. Not everything needs to be community-funded.
10/ However, some VCs have raised outsized capital. This can lead to startups growing too fast, and inflated markups. Yes, some web3 startups will falter due to misaligned incentives. It’s OK to be skeptical. But let’s be realistic: VC is a competitive industry like any other.
11/ The alternative is compelling: access to community capital that derisks businesses by creating meaningful network effects. Bored Ape Yacht Club is sitting on a 9-figure warchest. Bootstrapped. No VC. For many, this represents an upgrade from traditional financing.
12/ But implying that VC simply doesn’t have a place in web3, or that its incentives are universally incompatible, doesn’t leave room for innovators who need that institutional capital for a real shot at success. If you’re building today, keep your options on the table.
13/ OK. Now that we’ve established nuance (on Twitter, no less), let’s answer the question:
14/ Who owns web3? Developers Miners Startups VCs/investors Users In short, everyone. But what’s important now is getting the distribution of ownership right. That’s why Jack tweeted. Because we need people fighting to bend web3 towards decentralization and equality.、
15/ Remember: drawing battle lines and stereotyping each other isn't in the spirit of web3. We need nuanced, patient conversation—not scare tactics. If done right, web3 will succeed in part thanks to VC, not despite it. Much like web2, but now with better incentive structures.
16/ So, what can we do to support the best outcome for web3? -listen -explore nuance -keep an open mind -encourage collaboration -embrace decentralization -manifest gonna make it energy This concludes today's tweetstorm.
https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1469450494867238914
1/ How to build a thriving web3 community.
2/ It's 2021, and people are unlocking unprecedented value in communities. The kind you would never sell. And with the additional financial and social incentives enabled by web3, the benefit of finding your tribe has never been so rewarding. We are entering a renaissance.
3/ Creating that kind of value is one of the most difficult things you can accomplish. It is a delicate balancing act, and you are competing in a fierce attention economy. In my opinion, it it more difficult than building any startup. Here’s what I’ve learned.、
4/ Don’t silo It can be tempting to organize people into niches. But communities thrive on exposure to new ideas. When people with diverse expertise interact, they learn, and there is exchange of value. Some people love organizing more than engaging—don’t fall into this trap.
5/ Distribute points of failure The beauty of communities is they are not dependent on any one individual. The more you can reward responsibility to leaders with vision, the more de-risked and diversified your community will be. Don’t take on all the responsibility.
6/ Create memes As themes emerge within the community, codify them with memes. Creating symbols and iconography around insider experiences reinforces kinship. It’s also a vital form of marketing. Don’t be too serious.
7/ Centralize engagement Your new Discord server does not need 15 channels. Instead, create a single hub of engagement. When the time comes, the community will let you know exactly what to build next.
8/ The Discord problem Are you sure you even want to be on Discord? You’ll be competing for attention. Ask whether your project is better suited for Telegram or WhatsApp, where it’s more likely that members are opening the app specifically for your community.
9/ Think like a media company To keep members coming back, communities need fresh content. Try sprinkling in materials that your members are already posting on Twitter. Share polls, trends, and your authentic reaction to industry news. Keep the conversation flowing.
10/ Let it ride There can be so much alpha shared in communities that members get FOMO. This is a true sign of a thriving community. Highlight key topics, but don’t obsess over documenting everything. A little chaos keeps things natural. Don’t overthink.
11/ Leverage authenticity Communities can spring up overnight, but they’re usually led by individuals who have spent months (if not years) developing domain expertise. Lean into your specialty, and show up with it every day. Like a magnet, you'll attract the same.
12/ Community size is a vanity metric Fact: There are group chats with 20 people creating more value than Discords with 10k members. If your chat looks like this, it’s not a community—it’s a multi-level marketing model. Don’t play the numbers game.
13/ Share wins, spotlight your members Shout out every community win from the rooftops. Share every testimonial. Show the world that every member in your community is deserving of honor, and you will form unbreakable bonds. When your community wins, ring the f*cking bell.
14/ Never shill Promotion is hard, and it can be tempting to resort to hype mechanics. But shilling for quick pumps will only devalue your brand. If you have to give away ETH, whitelist spots, or tweet engagement farming hacks, you are not a community—you are a lottery.
15/ Change your mind, speak your mind Every community begins with a vision, but as its needs come to light, it’s critical to change course. Don’t assume what people want… let them tell you. However—don’t decentralize yourself out of leadership. Own your point of view.
16/ Put a price on it If your community is driving exceptional value, consider charging for it. Not every group should be gated—but I believe that community work should be rewarded. The beauty of web3? Members can participate in that upside.
17/ Diversity If your community doesn’t represent diversity, it represents the status quo. The last thing we want web3 to stand for is the reinforcement of norms that have held back underrepresented people from participating. Let people in, or get out of the way.
18/ Thx for reading. Follow me
for more on web3 and growing community. And if you’re interested in joining mine, check out
!
https://twitter.com/chriscantino/status/1468706976485888001
1/ Setting the record straight about web3
2/ Web3 is pitched as a revolutionary technology and “the future of the internet.” That’s a lot of hype to live up to. Claims like that, however true they might be, open web3 up to unfair criticism. Let’s talk about its future, and separate facts from the hype.
3/ First: What is web3? Web3 fundamentally alters our relationship with data and ownership on the web. How? By open-sourcing information on the blockchain. Web3 enables decentralized networks to freely interact with code, data, and contracts—unlocking novel use cases.
4/ Web3 also enables developers to connect decentralized apps (dapps) and user data via networks of open-source code. What it means: You’ll enjoy integrated and customized experiences across the internet, taking all your info and assets along with you.
5/ The result: a fundamental shift towards decentralization. The disintermediation of institutions like banks, record labels and wholesalers. The adoption of new data structures for the web. But how far will we go? And what are the costs? Here’s what people get wrong.
6/ “It’s expensive” Blockchains cost money to operate, it’s true. Transactions have to be validated across a distributed network of computers. And some of those network fees are prohibitive, especially when floods of transactions are bogging down the system.
7/ But we're making progress. -Emergent low-fee networks: $SOL, $MATIC, $AVAX, $XTZ (many more) -Increased cross-chain compatibility ($DOT, $ATOM, etc) -Ongoing Ethereum upgrades to minimize gas fees Web3 will eventually be supported by an abundance of affordable blockchains.
8/ Here’s a fact: the majority of web3 benefits are free. -setting up a crypto wallet -signing contracts -logging in across the net with your web3 tokens -viewing public ledgers of transactions -interoperability of your tokens You don’t need a $100k NFT to benefit from web3.
9/ “It’s unsustainable” Validating the network today costs too much energy, period. But technological revolutions require investment. If we halted all progress due to energy concerns, we may as well shut down the entire economy—from Apple to Amazon.
10/ Still, we can’t dismiss these concerns. We must make quantifiable progress here, and in fact, we are. Ethereum’s deflationary mechanisms and transition to a proof of stake model, e.g., will significantly reduce consumption. Every day the technology gets more efficient.
11/ “It’s insecure.” Skeptics are concerned: "Can my data be manipulated? Hacked?" Fair questions, considering we’ve always been taught to only trust institutions with our data.
12/ Crypto means we’re more responsible than ever for the security of our assets. It’s also early enough that we’re significantly vulnerable to phishing attempts and security flaws. (here’s a thread with some advice on the matter)
13/ Fact: blockchains promise a fundamental upgrade to security, simply by removing third parties from the equation. Centralized companies, from Facebook to Wells Fargo, hold your data behind inaccessible vaults. Web3 makes you the default custodian of your assets.
14/ “Everything will be decentralized.” No. Decentralization offers network benefits, but can lead to too many cooks in the kitchen. It’s a perilous balancing act. Web3 promises a more decentralized world—but not an entirely decentralized one.
15/ “It’s inaccessible.” Accessibility is probably the most valid critique of web3. The learning curve is steep. Developers have not figured out how to mainstream skeptical users. There are many obstacles to overcome, and it is early days.
16/ However, some of the brightest talent in the world is entering web3, and the ecosystem is receiving billions in venture capital with the goal of creating more consumer on-ramps. Web3 onboarding is getting more mainstream by the day. Still, let’s acknowledge this weakness.
17/ “It’s niche.” An unfair criticism. Web3 enables bro
ad, undeniable utility. -one login across the web -disintermediation of third parties -secure, instant contracts -stakeholder voting power -monetization for artists & creators Web3 promises something for everybody.
18/ Important: Understand that the “composability” of web3 will accelerate software development and innovation at an unparalleled rate. What’s composability? Composability means that web3 apps are interoperable. Networks that were closed, are now becoming open.
19/ Composability means developers can take existing programs, and build on top of them. This open code and interoperability enables a multitude of use cases: -developing new dapps -modifying and improving existing dapps -seamlessly connecting existing dapps to each other (!!!)
20/ In web2, companies such as Facebook had to bootstrap user data to build efficient algorithms from the ground up—by collecting user preferences over time. Web3 companies open-source that data immediately. Quality networks and recommendations can be generated in minutes.
21/ Web3 enables us to trust and verify. To build superior platforms. To help create the building blocks for a more democratic society. It is, in fact, the future of the internet.