Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a recent creator token model that combines decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) with predictive market mechanisms to incentivize the creation of higher-quality content.
Creator tokens, or content coins, are blockchain-based assets that can provide fans with some ownership, access rights, and even royalties for a content creator’s work, which may be in the form of posts, photos, music, or videos.
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To combat this, Buterin said one idea would be for content creators to launch tokens and apply to select creator DAOs, whose members decide which content to accept, while speculators profit from predicting which creators or content will be allowed.
Accepted content creators could then see the value of their coins boost as the DAO burns their tokens, reducing supply and increasing scarcity.
He noted that many of the top creator coins on existing platforms like BitClout and Zora are run by celebrities or people with “very high social status,” making it tough for creators to succeed solely on merit.
Another example that Buterin didn’t mention is Friend.tech, a SocialFi app on the Ethereum Layer-2 Base platform that allows creators to host content in private chat rooms that can be accessed using tradable keys.
However, some criticized the platform because the price of the keys was mainly based on speculation.
Friend.tech was shut down in September 2024 after a significant drop in activity, with its native token dropping 95% from its highest value.
To build a specific audience, focus on niches, suggests Buterin
Buterin also recommended that DAOs avoid trying to capture the entire market and instead focus on specific styles of content, whether in short-form video or long-form text, and that the content should, for example, be tailored to a specific country or political audience.
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Buterin added: “The goal is to create a group of more than one creator that can bring together a public brand and negotiate together to pursue revenue opportunities, but that is small enough to be easy to manage internally.”
Token speculators would also assist the DAO by helping to mine high-quality reward-worthy content.
“Individual speculators can stay in the game and thrive to the extent that they are good at predicting the creator’s DAO activities,” Buterin said.
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