Future of the Creator Economy: How Individuals are Utilizing Social Tokens

Social Tokens are probably one of the most overlooked phenomena in the web3 space. Yet, they give much power to content creators and are well worth our attention. First things first, what are social tokens? A social token is a type of cryptocurrency used to monetize a brand. Social tokens are a sweet spot between DeFi (decentralized finance) and NFTs. They can be used as personal or community tokens.

Any brand, community, or influencer can easily create a social token using platforms such as Rally or Roll. While many celebrities are currently using web2 platforms like Instagram to connect with their fans— this method can come with inconveniences.

Fans can get locked into one platform, making it difficult for brands and creators to carry their fans to other platforms. Another issue with using web2 platforms is that the brand or creator's value accrued is entirely decided by intermediary platforms and corporations. They decide how much of the revenue to share (if any) and have complete control over artistic expression. 

Social tokens enable creators to bypass the existing system and give the ability for creators to connect with and reward their fans directly. They can also monetize their clout by building independent digital economies. People get to create micro-economies built on fandom, rewards, and ownership in this new tech frontier. 

This is a great way to unite the fragmented fan base across platforms and create a gatekeeping mechanism to offer exclusive content. 

RAC - Music producer 

Reward early supporters 

Musician RAC has been a pioneer of crypto and creator economy. He was one of the first people to utilize social tokens and create a direct line of connection with his fans. He launched $RAC token in 2020 and sent it to his loyal fans from Bandcamp, Patreon, and Twitch. $RAC tokens are not buyable, only earned. RAC rewards $RAC holders by unlocking access to different perks and content. Since then, he also launched rac.os, a hub for token holders. 

Duncan Robinson - Basketball Player 

Bring your fanbase together 

Miami Heat shooting guard Duncan Robinson became the first NBA player with a social token after announcing the launch of $DBO. Holders of the token get exclusive access to limited edition merch, private in-person events, secret episodes of The Long Shot podcast, and access to private channels on his Discord. Fans can gain $DBO by playing roles in the ecosystem, such as being discord moderators.

Kevin Chou - Entrepreneur 

Sell your time 

Founder of Rally, Taki App, and GenG. esports, Kevin Chou launched his $CHOU token, which reflects his interests and background in crypto and entrepreneurship. If you have some $CHOU tokens, you can use them to get meetings with him for founding advice, receive feedback on an elevator pitch, or even get him to retweet a post. 

Roberto Carlos - Football Player 

Create a hub for your life-long fans 

Considered one of the best left-backs, former Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos launched his own social token, $RC3, to reward his fans who supported him throughout his career. By holding the tokens, fans will receive access to signed merchandise, private NFT drops, Zoom calls, private chats, and other additional perks. 

Portugal. The Man – Rock Band 

Give exclusive access to your fans 

A band utilizing social tokens is Portugal. The Man. By holding its $PTM token, fans of the band can show support and get exclusive content, access to private events, VIP channels on Discord, merchandise, and presale codes of their future concerts. Especially for upcoming artists, social tokens are a great way to create a close fanbase because, for the first time, fans can be a part of the artists’ progress. If the artist becomes well-known, the token’s value will also increase, thus creating a positive-sum situation. Social tokens enable fans to invest in artists. 

Alex Masmej - Crypto OG 

An honorable mention is Alex Masmej, who created the first social token. After wanting to raise money to move to San Francisco, he decided to tokenize himself and sell 10% of the $ALEX token supply for $20,000, which sold out in 100 hours.

He promised holders a return in profit from his future income in return. He also worked on creating value for his token owners by launching a newsletter, a private Telegram group, and a liquidity mining experiment.

The most interesting was a voting system where he let people choose his daily habit.

While we see some exciting experiments with social tokens, it’s still in its infancy. Here, we talked about individuals creating their tokens. There are also communities doing the same, and one could imagine platforms creating their in-platform ecosystems by utilizing this concept. It's an area that is still so new and undefined— you can create any community you want utilizing social tokens, so let your imagination run free.