What a week it has been! We’ve seen crypto prices PUMP, NFT floors DUMP, and we even have an update on my liquidation story from last week’s article 👀
Before any of that, take a moment to close your eyes & think to yourself on this question:
”What do NFTs bring to the table?”
Art? Sure.
Utility? Definitely sometimes!
Team of supporting roles? Not always.
I hope you thought on that question! If you didn’t take enough time, no worries, keep an open mind & let me know what you think at the end of today’s newsletter.
I’ll cover the loan liquidation update at the end (I won’t even be mad if you skipped ahead) but don’t miss out on the alpha for what NFT projects benefit from the MOST out of all value-add propositions: Community.
Summary of The Review today:
The Call to Community
Downsides of Community (& how to turn it around…)
Leadership Styles in NFTs
Un-liquidation?
👪Community’s Value
As humans, we are called to community. It is natural because we are made for working, and playing, and creating, and literally just BEING together. Through community, you can find a sense of belonging & common values, personal growth & support, and overall enrichment to your life with new & SHARED experiences.
NFTs are an amazing case study of these benefits.
With enough exposure & time, an NFT community naturally forms around the art, the utility & the team by attracting people to these aspects on some level. In a collective effort, what is forged from this becomes more than the sum of each piece.
Many Solana projects do this very well but as always, one bad apple can spoil the bunch…
👿Bad Actors
In the Web3 space, the right of anonymity is abused constantly, allowing grifters, trolls & frauds to disembody these principles of community such as:
TrizyTrades convincing a group from the DeGods Community to fundraise and buy him a DeGod before instantly flooring it for liquidity & deleting his Twitter account
“DELISTTTT” people in general chat simultaneously flooring their NFTs
FTX’s founder boy SBF & his massive fraud/betrayal of the Crypto & NFT community
Community can sometimes boil down to the weakest link, thankfully enough of these situations were expected stumbling blocks on a focused mission. Honestly, after the last point, do I really need to say more?
🦮Differentiating Leaders
Some parts of NFT project founders success comes legitimately from luck. Being in the right place at the right time with the right skills is always a sweet deal, but sometimes you don’t even need those skills if you have a community who fills in the weaknesses.
WendysDAO is a perfect example of how a toxic leader can make selfish choices. Jawnxwick helped build the beginnings of the community alongside many SOL natives. He began to abuse the popularity, shilling multiple “degen” mints and pushing prospective members to mint for DAO membership…
Later he attempted to push the DAO towards a merger before being scolded by the community & eventually banned. As a founding member myself, I’ve enjoyed watching the developments by the community to grow past this to support its community such as an active & safe chat to have conversations, project whitelists & presales, and expanding further into spaces & content! Ayda, Adams, Glockness, KOONTZZ, Jdee & Pan are some of the DAO’s leaders bringing value daily.
Weeping Angels founder sold out of the project shortly after building a suite of utilities & building a community to rival many degen mints during that period.
Although I’m all for being acquired, the community was blindsided by the takeover & support waned quickly thereafter. Efforts by the community have recently placed these guys back on the map. I’m curious how they’ll do as I currently own zero and have loved the pixel art.
SolanaMonkeyBusiness founders v. MonkeDAO has been a tale old as time. Uninterested team members can weigh down a project like a rock, but this DAO has succeeded in creating endless value for EVERYONE in Crypto, not just Solana.
Now considering the recent acquisition of the OG collection by HGE & Hades team along with the new Monkes Collection, this conflict now under a time limit.
💙Good Community & the Update
Creating a community and fostering those core members is a difficult but rewarding experience. For me, GhostKidDAO has become one of the most natural blends of community since its $3-4 mint back in Spring 2022.
Investing in the community early, I found myself in the pleasure of hosting many GhostKidFamily Fridays & the Chop Up under the GKD umbrella, meeting holders throughout the community who are focused on the wellbeing of all. This made my liquidation last week evermore heartbreaking.
But, with community comes with intangibles & good-natured people like Dogelana:
They’ve scooped up my OGKD to ensure its safe return in the near-term as a surprise to me.
What a GOAT, going thru the difficulty to track down the current owner & agree to a trade. We’re working on a swap this upcoming week but Dogelana has been more than kind on this front - stay tuned.
Communities devoted to uplift one another are the best to be apart of, requiring a solid core of team & supporters. If you find a group with shared interests & blossoming friendships, HOLD ONTO THAT.
WAGBOO forever baby!
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
-Coretta Scott King
-Caleb🧣
Let's build together ☺️