Author Credits: Vince Wicker of Social Bees University
Rarely does the average NFT project community get to have more than a long thread chat on Discord. Only successful projects — and projects well on their way — spend the time to work towards the common goal of improving the project’s economic value.

During our conference in Austin, one of our moderators, Brooke J. Lacey, coined the term “flip shaming” as a description of people, products, or memes shaming NFT holders into holding on to projects versus “flipping.”

Not only is this a real thing, but it is also the crux — along with whether a community can work together towards a common goal — that can build the economic energy and value of an NFT project.

Access as Economic Energy

Consider the scenario of a counseling NFT project with 3,000 NFTs, most of which (i.e., a concentration of holders) are held by the project’s founding members — but there are holders with less of a concentration of ownership. This counseling project comprises professionals who help its members — people suffering from burnout, workplace stress (including web3 stress), and being overwhelmed; sort things out.

Consider the situation where a member who bought in “early” and had their counseling issue supported by members of the project and is able to work with a professional to sort it out — at no cost above and beyond their NFT acquisition costs.

Now imagine that member’s work acquaintance, noting the improvement in the demeanor of the member — their colleague — asking about the source of the change.

When the response is that it was the NFT community, the next question may be, “Well, how much did they charge?” Our member responds, “more than the NFT? Nothing.”

What happens now? Does our non-member colleague — especially if she’s suffering from the same challenges — just shrug it off and think her colleague is an idiot?

Or does she just shrug it off and seek out someone online who’s taking appointments?

Or does she find out where to pick up that NFT so she can take advantage of those services?

For the sake of my scenario — and I don’t imagine myself to be a counseling expert — let’s consider the selected option is to purchase the NFT from one of the holders on the secondary market.

Not only does this put money in the pocket of an early NFT holder (hopefully at a higher price than the price at which they acquired it), but it also creates royalties that benefit the project.

In this situation, those that bought in early become NFT brokers of those that begin to discover the value of the project post-mint. Every time someone else hears about this project’s value and wants to be a part of it, their entry price is to acquire one of the project’s NFTs.

Access can drive up the economic value of an NFT project if something about the project is worth accessing. Add to that if the project designs this in and ensures that the community gets together to continue creating real value that outsiders want to access.

Think about that for a while when you think of the economic energy your NFT project can create.

Author Credits: Vince Wicker of Social Bees University