PROOF Signal: Week of August 21

Welcome back to PROOF Signal, your exclusive gateway to the world of all things PROOF. Let's dive into the latest updates.

TL;DR:

• Foundry events: 100 PROOF live on August 25, Grails IV exhibition till September 3, and Diamond Exhibition starts September 7.

• Global meetup alert: Seoul meetup on September 6 for PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Mythics, and Mythic Eggs holders. Marfa meetup details coming soon!

• Inside look: Explore friend.tech's rise, social tokenization, early challenges, and significant revenue boom.

PROOF Updates

IRL Events and Exhibitions at Foundry:

Prepare for a stacked lineup of events at Foundry! The much-anticipated 100 PROOF live from Foundry featuring Jordan Lyall and Snowfro kicks off on August 25 – be sure to secure your spot by RSVPing here. Meanwhile, the Grails IV exhibition is still open for attendees to explore until September 3. Looking ahead, the Diamond Exhibition at Foundry starts on September 7, with details about the closing event on September 29 to be announced soon.

Global Meetup Alert:

Calling all global holders! Mark your calendars for the Seoul meetup on September 6. This exclusive gathering is a unique opportunity for PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Mythics, and Mythic Eggs holders to connect. Snag your limited tickets on the PROOF events site. Plus, stay tuned for upcoming meetup details in Marfa – exciting times await!

Innovative Grail UI Update:

Attention holders of Grail #19 by Basiic, the artist has introduced an innovative UI enhancement as detailed in their recent Medium article. Basiic, renowned for applying AI and behavioral economics to art, has integrated an economic mechanic where the value of the collection of 25 NFTs increases via an underlying pool of 50 staked ETH and the accompanying yield (~3.8%). This innovation encourages long-term appreciation of the collection while increasing scarcity. If a holder wants to exit, they can claim their share of the 50 stETH pool at any point on the artist’s grails page.

Participate in the Lunar Society:

The Lunar Society, a grant program driven by community creativity and passion, is in full swing. Dive into the opportunity to propose, vote, and contribute to PROOF-funded initiatives that are shaping the future of the NFT space. Don’t have a Moonbird? Don’t worry! Mythics holders are eligible to take part in the proposal and voting process. Be sure to check out the here.

Community Updates

Connect in Munich:

The Munich meetup is just around the corner, scheduled for August 26 and 27. Don't miss this chance to connect with fellow European Birbs! RSVP here and be a part of the community-led gathering in Munich.

Celebrating MB Builders:

Kudos to the MB Builders community! Let's celebrate @FlyersDistrict for introducing the MB Genesis e-bikes – an exciting addition to the ecosystem. Explore the latest updates here: 

Also, @DrewBarman's progress in bottling Moonbird #649 Gin is one step closer! Follow the journey here: 

Inside Look: ‘The Explosive Rise of friend.tech on Base’

This week’s research piece comes from PROOF’s @WarDaddy, highlighting the invite-only decentralized social media platform, friend.tech. It is the newest hyped project to hit the Coinbase-backed Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem, onboarding over 110,000 users.

In this week's Inside Look, we focus on friend.tech, a decentralized social platform built on Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 network, Base. Friend.tech has gained traction and generated massive revenue since its beta launch on August 11th, with a unique model that allows users to tokenize their social network reach by trading "keys,” along a bonding curve. Is the Paradigm-backed project here to stay? Or is this another maniacal pump in volume and users that will dissipate in a couple weeks? Let’s take a look.

Friend Tech's Unique Proposition:

Friend.tech's innovative approach allows users to buy and sell ‘keys’ to influencers, celebrities, athletes, content creators, and IRL friends to gain access to a private group chat. While, to this point, the private chat is limited to text-only conversations, I would not be surprised to see images, videos, and voice-based content make an appearance in the near term.

The traction that the platform has gained in ten days has reached outside of the inner-niche Crypto Twitter circles and has now onboarded over 110,000 users, over double the amount of wallets that have bought Ethereum-based NFTs in the same duration. Operating on Base, Coinbase's Layer 2 solution, Friend Tech ensures faster and cheaper transactions than the Ethereum mainnet, and the in-app web3 mobile wallet has been strikingly easy to use.

Soaring Revenues and Surge in User Base:

Since its August 11th beta launch, friend.tech has raked in a staggering $65 million in trading volume, accompanied by over 1.3 million transactions and 110,000 unique buyer addresses. The platform's 5% fee structure on transactions, split between the share owner and the Friend treasury,has translated into a significant revenue stream. The invite-only social platform's surge in popularity saw it surpassing industry giants like Uniswap and the Bitcoin network in terms of generated fees, and the app has pushed Base daily active users over 145,000 and daily transactions over 850,000.

Challenges and Controversies:

As with any rapid ascent, friend.tech encountered its share of challenges. The exponential increase in share prices as outstanding shares grew led to concerns about potential inflation. Key prices of leading influencers on the platform have pushed into the 2-3 ETH range with only 140-150 holders, causing many to question the sustainability of the project. Additionally, privacy concerns emerged, as the platform lacked a clear data privacy policy at launch.

What’s Next?

The rise of friend.tech underscores the evolving landscape of decentralized social networks and the potential for social tokenization to revolutionize how individuals interact and monetize their connections in the digital realm. We have seen an influx of non-crypto native celebrities, adult content creators, athletes, and influencers break into the friend.tech leaderboard, and the influx of fresh blood to the platform does not seem to be slowing down yet.

This Week in PROOF Media

Here is a quick rundown of some of the top highlights from PROOF’s weekly content!

PROOF Daily NFT Countdown

This week, our Director of Research, Sam, highlighted Sam Spratt’s ‘Monument Game’ on PROOF Daily NFT Countdown. Catch the insightful discussion here. 

100 PROOF

Be sure to take part in our first 100 PROOF live from Foundry, this Friday at 10am PST featuring special guests Jordan Lyall and Snowfro! In the meantime, here’s last week’s 100 PROOF chatting all things royalties and an exclusive guest appearance by Sam Spratt.