The following is meant in good faith, includes humour, parody and is the opinion of the Drawn Company Board of Directors. It is also a hard slog, so grab a beverage and get stuck in!
Firstly: the History of Drawn Company Utility (Pukes in mouth)
We have worked utility (pukes in mouth) in to DC as a core mechanic since the early stages of brand development. Firstly, let us stop using the word utility (pukes in mouth) and refer to it as Holders Rewards or Perks - phew that wasn’t hard was it? You see, for a small collectible project, really, if we are all being honest the "U" word (not going to type it) is not entirely relevant. More importantly, here’s how we have added what ever it is in a ninja stealth fashion.
The backbone of the DC Rewards system is the Management Designate (Exordium) Programme. One thing that became apparent very quickly when we started was that all our collectors would want to get involved and (sometimes unwittingly) become sources of inspiration or ideas. After toying with the concept of creating a coin, we settled on an ID card system (currently 134 holders) which would grant access to wax backed NFT drops if the account met certain requirements. The reason for this was simple - input was coming in left right and centre and it became apparent that actually Drawn Company was not mine (switch to first person) it was ours! And it still is…
We use this mechanic as way to share a percentage of the profits (through cool VIP Queue Jumper Passes - think Fast Pass at the House of Mouse). We also offer access to free packs from AAA/promo drops to our ‘employees’. It’s been a success. As it stands we have offered rewards (excluding packs) up to a value of 10.7k - not all rewards have been claimed.
This could be classed as Utility (pukes in mouth) - however, it was never labelled as such. Further to that, essentially what we are doing above is no different from adding a pool of wax to a staking farm and distributing that way - however it is packaged up and as a consequence treated and perceived completely differently.
In summary; It is not viewed as the "U" word but in actual fact it is.
Profit distribution is part of a suite of perks we offer and was bolted on retrospectively. We would however, consider it the core of the offer. If you don’t know, this was not an initial incentive to collect DC NFTs - of which there was none.
Sharing with holders has served as the foundation of what we are now doing with Kar-en PFPs. The simple fact is - It worked and could be easily scaled to reward not only PFP holders but also those who have supported DC since the early days.
History lesson over…
Now we move onto a Statement made by a fictional AI man with a handle bar moustache in a Victorian drawing room holding a pipe:
Ok, let’s unpack that and specifically the part about using royalties and staking as Perks & Rewards!
Utter bollocks. What a project decides to do with its secondary sales or profits is completely up to the project. There is no wrong or right, some people are in the WAX space as a hobby (us) and some people are working full time and using creating WAXNFTs to pay the bills, either way - that’s cool? We think it is, your opinion may be different, this is also cool. The important point here is - we have that choice.
Sharing secondary royalty sales is one of the many tools available to creators to use as an incentive for collecting stuff and is (drum roll please - save the trumpets for later) something which collectors seem to enjoy as an aspect of a project. It’s, dare we say it; fun? So fun it gave birth to the DC Industries (DC Staking Prototype) slogan: "Staking today to obtain slightly more WAX than you did today, tomorrow" - but that’s the point isn’t it?
The word slightly…
In a nutshell, we are not talking mega bucks here, so we must conclude that (in the case of an art based collection) it has to be fun and people are enjoying the mechanic. It’s fun to wake up and check a staking balance in the morning - even though you have already calculated and know the outcome on a spread sheet which you may or may not have. It’s fun to press claim. It’s fun to look at the balance and mull over wether you take it out now or wait for that magic number to withdraw. We don’t fully understand why and it sounds shit on paper but the fact is, it’s fun - nothing more nothing less.
When we get to the centre of the shrubbery maze (said like Stewie) sharing royalties provides holders with a sense of ‘real’ shared ownership not possible with other collectables - and as above, it matters not the amounts, it just matters that it is something. As a side note, we don’t believe a share of drop revenue provides the same sense of ownership.
In this context, we would also point you towards the popularity of many reward cards IRL such as Starbucks and Nando's. The reality is, you are spending a lot to obtain something free which possibly works out at about a 5%/10% ROI (10 visits to be rewarded).
Drawn Company: A Mini Case Study
Let’s take the Office at the Start of the Metaverse as an Example. If DC was a start up we are currently in year two of a three year cycle. A time when you would be investing heavily, possibly not making (massive) profits and building the brand/business. We are lucky that we have tools such as staking (of royalties in this case) at our disposal to share small amounts of WAX with people - which we are told they all love! We would not do it otherwise. The point here is simple:
WAXDAO enables ease of process
It complements our other PFP rewards
It’s fun and provides holders with a real sense of shared ownership
Collectors enjoy it
It is one of many ways of us reinvesting in the project
So there is no mystery to see here, just savvy creators on WAX (including Drawn Company) responding to a clear demand for mechanics of this nature, solid marketing (we are 80% marketing/20% NFTs) and having fun with their communities!
Sue us.
Creators Note: Our recent survey said 45% of collectors are purely interested in staking and royalties, that's a huge potential market if you have not tapped into it yet. At the same time, there is an equal amount of collectors who are purely here for the art. Implement staking/royalty sharing or not, the choice is yours.
Now let’s go back to the statement made by a fictional AI man with a handle bar moustache in a Victorian drawing room holding a pipe in an alternate universe where we encourage and don’t constantly lambast creators who are making mistakes whilst trying to innovate through no fault of their own:
What we are trying to illustrate is that we can often forget that some creators (even experienced individuals) won’t know what the right thing to do is, will just look at what is working for others and repeat the process. And you can’t blame them for that! It is our job to up-skill and help collections grow (we too learn everyday). More importantly everything in both statements is essentially the same. Let’s support those who need it - we will be doing our bit by adding in a specific PFP Utility (pukes in mouth!) Course to NFTopia School in the Winter and stand ready if anyone else wants to start making a real difference ASAP!
Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions - time for the trumpets 🎺
Art by the talented AlcieToo. The Victorian AI man speaks as an amalgamation/parody of posts/statements we have seen regarding staking, royalties and utility conversation in the WAX Ecosystem.