A different approach, friend.tech may be the community artifact for NFT artists.

Friend.tech could be the NFT artists' community artifact.

Author: William Murphy Translation: Odaily Planet Daily Fu How

Recently, the discussion on friend.tech has resurfaced, with divergent opinions on its future development. Some people are optimistic, while others believe it is just a flash in the pan.

However, according to DefiLlama’s data on September 15th, friend.tech’s 24-hour protocol revenue reached 2.27 million US dollars, ranking second only to Ethereum and surpassing Lido.

Although the protocol revenue seems impressive, what is the real function of friend.tech? What kind of gas should be injected into the bubble to slow down its burst? William Murphy of Bankless provides a new idea: friend.tech can form a novel NFT sales solution.

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Odaily Planet Daily now presents the essence of the article as follows.

Imagine a world where artists can monetize their works, establish a loyal fan base, and even start communities with their existing X (Twitter) followers. In this world, friend.tech would be a good choice.

friend.tech creates tradable Keys for individuals, introducing the following features:

● Social tokens with built-in liquidity. 90% of the sales from each Key are used for built-in liquidity, locked in smart contracts to ensure that people can sell at any time. The remaining 10% is evenly distributed to friend.tech and the user selling the Key.

● Gated chat rooms where you can share text and pictures with your “Key holders”.

● Each “Key” has a self-regulating market, with pricing increasing along an upward curve as more people buy and decreasing if more people sell. Due to this mechanism, you don’t need to set individual prices for Keys.

● Integration with X, allowing users to easily find you and purchase one or more Keys to access your content. This enables seamless importing of existing X followers into friend.tech.

Each of these features has its own uses, which will be further discussed below: when an NFT market faces liquidity issues, artists find it difficult to monetize their works, and friend.tech provides a disruptive alternative path for minting and selling works.

Current Issues with NFTs

Currently, the NFT market faces significant challenges, especially in the art field. As liquidity decreases, fewer collectors are willing to purchase editions or 1/1 works, and the budget of those who are buying is gradually decreasing.

Crypto art collectors can be divided into two categories: those who collect purely for the appreciation of specific artworks, and those who see potential investment opportunities. With the secondary market almost stagnant, the latter category has mostly turned to other places to seek returns. While artists have different views on these profit-seeking collectors leaving the market, it is clear that the decrease in funds inflow is hurting the crypto art community.

As shown in the figure below, the sales of Foundation are decreasing every month:

By analyzing the data of SuperRare, we can see a similar trend, as shown in the figure below:

In view of these challenges faced by the crypto art market, let’s explore how friend.tech can become a viable solution for artists to sell NFTs, or at least a valuable complement to their current marketing and sales methods.

Use case of friend.tech

friend.tech offers a novel alternative to selling art works directly as NFTs. One of the main advantages is the built-in liquidity pool that aggregates 90% of the sales of each Key. This ensures that anyone who purchases a Key can usually recoup at least a portion of their funds, unless the value of the Key drops to zero.

In contrast, 1/1 NFT artworks or editions lack this liquidity. NFT sellers either have to patiently wait for the right buyers or significantly reduce prices, effectively creating a digital flea market for artists’ works. This situation is disadvantageous for both artists and collectors. It weakens people’s perception of the value of artists’ works and forces collectors to accept lower resale prices.

The advantage of friend.tech as a platform lies in its flexibility. Anyone who shares content with online audiences can make full use of friend.tech, not just limited to the art field. For example, experienced traders can share their views on the market and current transactions, musicians can share early links to unreleased music, and product founders can share updates with their most loyal users.

I think the best way to understand friend.tech is to see it as a tokenized LianGuaitreon (Odaily Planet Daily Note: an overseas platform that helps creators crowdfund traffic and support digital content sales), where users can buy and sell memberships and obtain liquidity guarantees when they want to sell. As an artist, you can draw a 1/1 art work as a token-gated version for your Key holders, share previews of your art, discuss your ongoing projects, share behind-the-scenes content, and more.

Personally, I joined this application early on and so far have generated nearly 0.1 ETH in transaction fees from people entering and exiting my chat room. The price of my last 1/1 NFT sale was also in this range, so since the income has reached a reasonable point economically, I drew a 1/1 work as a lottery for my Key holders. In addition, I share my life and behind-the-scenes content when I go out to take photos, and chat with Key holders throughout the day.

Although the 5% share obtained from Key sales may generate less income than traditional NFT 1/1 and print sales, diversifying sources of income is particularly important in difficult times. Any experienced artist understands the need for financial adaptability when one source of income decreases. I believe that when providing value sincerely to Key holders, friend.tech can serve as a relatively stable source of income, not just relying on direct art sales.

The Gameplay of friend.tech

friend.tech is a Progressive Web App (PWA). The joining process is very simple and intuitive.

Here is a guide to join friend.tech:

1. Add the app: Since friend.tech is a PWA, the registration process is different from downloading regular apps from the app store. Instead, open your mobile browser, navigate to friend.tech, and follow the instructions on the website to add the site to your home screen. This will make the website appear as a functional app on your mobile device.

2. Register with your phone or email: After adding and opening the app, you will be prompted to register an account using your email or phone number.

3. Get the friend.tech invitation code: Currently, friend.tech is in a testing phase and is limited to invitation-only access. Therefore, you need an invitation code. Here are a few options:

● Get an invitation code from a friend on X: Many people have already joined the platform, and I bet if you post a request for an invitation code, someone will provide it soon.

● Search on X: If you don’t want to post such a request, you can use the search function on X to find people who have posted invitation codes. I just searched for the term “friendtech invitation code” and found many results.

4. Link your X account: friend.tech’s username system is supported by X, so before you can start using your account, you need to link your X account. To do this, you will need to grant friend.tech some permissions related to your X account, which you can choose to revoke later.

5. Transfer ETH to your friend.tech wallet: As mentioned above, in order to transact on friend.tech, you need to have some ETH on the BASE network and then send them to your new friend.tech wallet, which is associated with your new account.

6. Purchase your first Key: First, you need to purchase at least one Key for yourself; the first Key only requires a small Gas Fee. After completing this transaction, people will be able to buy and sell your Key to gain access to your chat room.

7. Start experiencing: Once your ETH transfer is complete and you have purchased your first Key, you can start trading and making new friends. You are now a member of the friend.tech community!

The Future of Art with Liquidity and Social Attributes

As the crypto art faces liquidity issues and artists strive to cope with survival challenges, friend.tech provides a novel alternative for minting and directly selling artworks. friend.tech is not just a platform, but a comprehensive entity composed of a community, marketplace, and social network. Through built-in liquidity and a self-regulating Key market, friend.tech offers an optimized market for artists and collectors, providing a greater sense of stability and regularity in the volatile and illiquid world of crypto art.

In addition to the financial aspect, friend.tech is also a platform for creativity. Whether you are an artist, musician, or experienced trader, the platform allows you to share your works and ideas with like-minded people. It is a space where you can not only sell your artworks but also interact with the audience in a more intimate and meaningful way, in the way you see fit.

As someone who has delved into this platform, I can attest to its potential as a stable source of income. Although the 5% share from Key sales may not replace the income from traditional art sales, it provides a stability that is hard to come by in the volatile crypto market.

Therefore, if you are an artist looking for a new way to showcase your work, build a community, and make some money, friend.tech is worth further exploration.

The future of art is not just digital, but also social, fun, and fluid, and this future may unfold on friend.tech.

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