Ruminations

Some thoughts on redeemable NFTs.

So after a wild week with a lot of new people joining, I thought I would share what has happening before we got on CoinGecko and CMC.

This project has been around for just over a couple of months. Initially the project only intended to offer NFTs on vinyl, and we did this. We offered original music that we loved on vinyl. You could buy one and then one would only exist, this has a sentimental factor but also is a very good explanation of what an NFT actually is, also the music was great.

So, a group of music lovers formed a community, shared tunes and we continued to upload music. Sometimes giving the artists all of the money, sometimes with charity donations, we played and tinkered with lots of variables. Now, all of our original NFTs up until the “When Gecko?” airdrop were redeemable, but how many people have actually redeemed? And how did it work?

Toxic versions of anonymity vs trustworthy actors

Less than half of NFTs we have sold have been redeemed, perhaps this is because people are speculating or perhaps they prefer privacy. You see in the somewhat toxic space in which the DeFi community currently exists, people are not so comfortable handing out their address. Although crypto may be cypherpunk in its roots, the decentralised finance world with its endless rug pulls has given a group of people a general lack of trust. This lack of trust is then only increased by the level of discourse you see on Twitter and Telegram. Homophobia, swearing and rampant sexism don’t exactly make for a space in which is going to be enjoyable for artists and musicians, the people our project creates a platform for.

Our perceived attitude in the space by people who want to make a quick dollar is very different than those who have actually redeemed NFTs with us. We communicate in a direct way, we do not shill ourselves and we will not tell you what you need to hear.

Doxing to redeem

I also have my own name and details on all packages I send out. I also require an address to send those packages to. I try to make it easy, many European countries offer parcel stations which function somewhat like PO boxes, and I am open to sending to those. The people who have redeemed with us are people who have talked to us and built trust with us over a period of time.

A question for other people interested in sending out redeemable NFTs will be how do you develop that trust? Proper community moderation? Being somewhat faceless? Or having a personality? The answer will probably be different depending on what products or art you are selling.

One would like to hope the ecosystem can advance to the point whereby we leave this phase of people ripping each other off and exit scamming, but if we look at the past, it seems unlikely. The truth in all of this is trust comes with time and patience is key. Something we like to repeat a lot in our Telegram.

All the best.

Simon