>on tipping tokens & why the pros significantly outweigh the cons
holders aren’t users by default, but in crypto tokens are usually how you *create* users. every new holder via a tip or airdrop or what have you removes friction via pre-funding & each additional wallet broadens the pool of people likely to try the product. as the token strengthens, so does the brand: price appreciation attracts attention, and attention begets yet more holders. as a whole, this approach delivers the highest probability of attention → holder → user → loyalist → which then repeats as that holder becomes the attention catalysts for a new holder. if we assume rational beings, this will *always* because the case because they are now financially incentivized to do so
now we've become autonomous, and positioned ourselves among the strongest brands & businesses around, as our user base has evolved into a dedicated & free marketing arm. at the highest level, a well-designed tipping token does exactly this.
i understand the argument. i've made it myself. the person who eats at mcdonald’s five times a week isn’t the same person holding a few million shares of mcdonald’s stock. but this is crypto and money & energy become one here. or put another way, money & participation merge. i would go as far to say that any underlying blockchain almost implies financial connectivity. certainly if you care about decentralization, without value flowing, nothing can ever move
back to users, let's look at zora: who are the people using zora? are those non-zora holding, non-crypto-native creatives? or are they holders? how about clanker holders? are they more inclined to clank or participate in the eco because they hold clanker? of course, because they are aligned. hype worked the same way: promise the token to pull users in, distribute it to keep them, and let shared upside turn posters into evangelists
daus here tell a similar story. outside of the 1400 people who grind content & fight on the leaderboard, where are the next 10,000 users? they are farming tokens. they are using this platform because it’s earning them tokens because thats what blockchains do. i say this kindly & this goes for so many folks here who don't seem to realize this: you are all within the top 1-3% of wealth *globally*. of course, $0.05 isn’t meaningful to you, but you are the outlier. it's not the other way around. *half of the world* survives on *less* than $7 a day. and who says you have to tip dust? five cents is meaningful. five dollars is a *payday*
now this happens over a month. two months. now you have $40-50 in that token & are looking into the community. you make a friend. a minigame pops up. then the token goes up 300%. now you’re able to pay for something real that you needed to live just by posting here. now your thankful for the project, for the token. then you want to give back. now you’re a loyalist & you’re recruiting. this is propagation. this is how tokens become grassroots movements, real community, and how people make friends here that they'll keep for life
moreover, we can fast-forward & take this a different route: now the token you’ve been farming launches its own project, a real project, and it's a good idea. almost immediately, six clones appear, but you already have distribution & a sticky holder base. even a slightly better copy won’t pry them away; micro-tipping has brought community to capital & capitalized a community
this is just the surface. the design space is still open. the things you will be able to do with proper community tooling, better systems, and stronger incentives structures its 100% worth exploring. i'm surprised you're not more bullish as someone who is interested in channels, as that is where most tipping use cases become particularly interesting
tldr: tipping tokens do more good than bad & financialized engagement is inevitable across all apps building on blockchains 7 replies
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