1/ @RTFKT x @Nike Hoodie Drop Feedback Thread:
Let's talk feedback... @benitopagotto @clegfx @Zaptio @CardilloSamuel @RTFKTHercules
A long ass🧵 lol...
TLDR: Raffle style >>> FCFS for big, established projects "mints".
2/ In Summary, the drop was delayed an hour & eventually led to prolonged queues on the website & crashing services stemming from a overload of a third-party inventory service on the site (weak link). Minting was only reliably executed via a manual mint from contract.
3/ FFCFS: F First Come, First Serve. There were rumblings & complaints around the upcoming hoodie drop. The amount of the drop, being a mint vs an air drop, inclusion of cryptokicks in the process, not being guaranteed one as a clone holder, etc. All points of discussion but..
4/ ..the ONLY issue I personally had confusion & an absolute issue over was the drop being First Come, First Serve. Before getting into the numerous issues & dangers of FCFS, I would like to try and play devil's advocate & try to think of the reasons why FCFS might be chosen.
5/ Reasons for FCFS:
1. It's easy(er) to implement & is the natural/historical web2 way to let things play out for mints
Note: FCFS can still have a place, specifically for newer projects that are less hyped & are not guaranteed to be sold out or at least not have extreme demand
6/
2. For hype, scarcity & fomo that (potentially) build demand & excitement for a project/drop.
Note: Sounds off putting when typed out but most of your favorite brands use tactics around this idea. But there is more investment & thus entitlement (justified in moderation)...
7/ & expectations when holders have their $ sitting in a project. The "potential" for hype, etc is understandable to a degree but it should be weighed against the potential for a larger negative outcome if anything goes awry. Imo, the cons>pros for established/blue chip projects
8/
3. For @RTFKT specifically, I came to the random idea that maybe they were trying to flex a solution & a conquering of the traditional issues of FCFS in the web2 (& 3) worlds. This is probably not the case but in any situation, it's still a scenario where cons >>> pros imo
9/ Solution? It's obvious to many & doesn't require more technical/dev muscle. Move away from FCFS & stick with a premint/raffle style system. Period. All of the cons of FCFS (stress, heavy reliance on sites/3rd parties, time sink of holders, gas wars, unfairness/botting) are..
10/ ..eradicated or at least greatly mitigated with a raffle style. This can be a simple raffle, actual premint site, creation of own premint competitor onsite, a random airdrop of a mint pass (dics lol) to "winners", etc. For the hoodie, you could even address the...
11/..clone vs kick complaint that some had, if you choose to do so. E.G. 5,555 hoodies raffled to clones & 3,333 raffled to kick holders. In that scenario, clones have more priority, kicks are included & holders of both double their odds (#s could be played with but you get it)
12/ Whatever the methodology. Having people know they are able to mint ahead of time and giving all minters a window (8-48 hours) where the can mint on their schedule with no stress is the key & should be the #1 goal.
13/ Why is there any (good) reason to add an ungodly amount of stress to holders & founders, have holders drop their life for a multi-hour window of time for a "chance" & more negatives? All of this stress, rush & fomo ONLY lead to negative feelings & opportunity for scams.
14/ Devil's advocate: "But premint/raffles are boring & dull 😩". While I think the pros>>cons, I can see validity to this sentiment (in a vacuum).
Random idea to spice up raffle style mints:
1. Air drop an unrevealed item to all holders. Upon reveal, winners will get..
15/...a "mint pass" item that will allow them to mint during a defined time window. Those who do not win, will get nothing/a pile of sand lol....or better, "losers" can get a little poap to at least get "Something".
Further "Fairness" AND gamification could be applied if....
16/...the item/poap received by those who did not win a mint pass, could somehow be used or burned in future raffles for "slightly" increased odds of winning. This might be hard to implement technically but would be a very cool/gamified balancing tool. This idea can go many..
17/..directions. Holders can sell their unrevealed "ticket" if they don't have interest in a certain drop or if they think luck sucks & they prefer a little more eth to buy secondary for certain. The "good luck" poap could be beacon of hope for holders to look forward to future..
18/..drops and hold on. Or they could choose to sell their poap for a tiny bit of liquidity. People can decide to buy up poaps to nearly guarantee a raffle win (poap stacking could be capped, if wanted, though). This all is probably technical difficult but just an example..
19/..how there is plenty of room for creativity & innovation to make safe/stress-free raffle style mints more engaging, fun and even gamified (if that is the con).
20/ @yugalabs taught us the $150M lesson that FCFS is a HORRIBLE idea, specifically for hyped drops of established projects. @yugalabs could've & should've let everyone have 1 guaranteed land mint with a 48 hour window to mint, with the remaining land raffled off.
21/ Poof zero gas war, $150M saved, everyone happy or at least not pissed or emotionally broken, no wasted hours of time (I personally spent several hours in a corner of a vegas casino during mint smh #degenlife lol). It's that simple and that's what makes it sting more.
Bonus @RTFKT feedback: Communication is key. The earlier and sooner the better. Mystery around future stuff is cool & can have an allure but with impending drops, there is no reason to withhold so much information until the last minute. Many people skip out on work/..
..responsibilities to participate in mints. At least give the degens an ample heads up (days/week) of dates for announced mints so we can play out our degen process. Hopefully, this is a non-issue going forward b/c we won't be seeing FCFS for a long time.
Aside from communication (key), have you done or considered running ideas past a select group of analysts/community members to stress test ideas and processes every now and then? Like real time market research/feedback from an informed group.
This wouldn't require expanding the team & it can be limited to generic ideas, processes & occasional feedback versus highly confidential drop information (understand issues & fear around opening that risk up). If you are open to this idea, I, very modestly, would like to say...
On the bright side:
1. Kudos the community banding together to mint from contract
2. Respect to the team for immediately taking full responsibility and owning up to the failure (whether a 3rd-party was to blame or not)
3. Luckily this wasn't a high priced (relatively speaking)..
...or peak project type mint (land or something project changing or worth several eth)
4. The team (& hopefully larger market) can learn from this blip & we can all largely avoid FCFS issues going forward. @byredo collab should be rethought and tweaked from FCFS asap 🙏
Last of my ramblings: "Just airdrop it" isn't a real, long term solution imo. Airdrops are nice and ideal for holders (free.99) but realistically ALL major projects will have some level of mints mixed in with airdrops. So we need to address what to do for future "mints". FIN.
You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: typefully.com/JKB_90/IJcYZXh