What I Think About Friend.tech

What are the the best proxy plays if the socialfi trend really takes off?

Been thinking about the potential of this too and have some initial thoughts / questions at this stage (some of which may be solvable). I'll use the term "creator" to represent any person/account with tradable shares for simplicity.

• Don't think a one-size-fits-all bonding curve will prove to be the best model given how quickly we've already seen the price of some shares spike, pricing out a lot of new potential buyers (these curves are hard to scale especially if you onboard larger influential names with much larger audiences).

• By creating an account today, the inherent expectation is you engage with "shareholders" in some meaningful way. Think most creators won't want to maintain a private channel with shareholders (because constant engagement requires a ton of work and for most is hard to sustain over a long period of time). So need more perks/benefits for shareholders beyond private groups to mitigate this risk and give creators more flexibility to create value in their own unique way(s).

• Don't believe most people want a real-time price associated with their likeness (can lead to negative sentiment about a creator if price dumps which can lead to emotional distress or just become a big distraction).

• If the primary revenue source for creators is a % of trading fees then your incentive is to drive as much speculation (and turnover) to your shares to maximize your creator "earnings". Monetizing your audience by selling your own creator shares likely won't be received well by shareholders (and could lead to spiraling prices if sell pressure compounds)

There are some interesting use cases that could spawn from this though:

• Token-gated content (or exclusive access to things like early product launches, premium features, or even limited merch for fans, etc.)

• Co-created products or co-authored content (i.e. hold shares of two or more names to get access to X). Again, likely need customizable bonding curves for these things to really scale though.

• New avenue for discoverability, especially among smaller lesser known creators who are SMEs in specific areas (via curation boards)

I'm sure there's plenty of others, but playing devil's advocate one alternative is why not just issue your own NFT collection and use that to create token-gated products or access to exclusive content (like a private group channel) given you have more control over the supply and pricing dynamics (vs. using a pre-set bonding curve).

Could be because the virality of FT creates a Schelling point where the concentration of attention increases the potential distribution of all creator shares (versus trying to garner interest and demand for an NFT collection in isolation). Not to mention the seamless link to Twitter accounts makes the account creation process much easier for non-crypto native creators. 

Anyway bit of a ramble here but wanted to spill some early thoughts.. curious to hear others' takes too

There's a few cool things about friend.tech:

• they call it shares, not token. easier to digest for noobs
• the CT influencers don't get any sales proceeds but the 5% trading fee. there is no individual selling shares which looks like it mitigates regulatory risk

I wonder in how far there's a new primitive in the making? The tools emerging around it are interesting

What do we think about the bonding curve, fees, spread, etc?

Do we think this is something that can gain a wider audience outside of CT given these mechanisms?