Imagine a world where artists can monetize their work, build a community of devoted fans, and even bootstrap that community through their existing X following. Welcome to friend.tech.

Through the creation of tradable keys for an individual, friend.tech introduces:

• Social tokens with built-in liquidity. Ninety percent of each key sale goes to this built-in liquidity, locked in a smart contract to ensure people can sell at any time. The remaining 10% is split equally between friend.tech and the user whose key is being sold.

• A gated chat where you can share text and images with your ‘key holders’.

• A self-regulated market for each ‘key’ where pricing is on a bonding curve — increasing as more people are buying, and decreasing if more people are selling. There is no need to set up individual pricing for your keys because of this.

• X integration — which makes it easy for users to find you and purchase one or more of your keys to access your content. This makes onboarding of existing X followers seamless.

All these features matter for various reasons, discussed further below. In a world where the NFT market is facing liquidity issues and artists are struggling to monetize their work, friend.tech has emerged as a game-changing platform that offers an alternative route to minting and selling editions and 1/1 art.

The NFT market currently faces significant challenges, particularly in the art sector. With dwindling liquidity, fewer collectors are looking to acquire editions or 1/1s, and those that are still purchasing are working with a smaller budget.

We can categorize crypto art collectors into two broad groups: those who collect purely for appreciation of specific art, and those who see potential for financial gain. As secondary markets have slowed to a near stop, the latter category has mostly moved on, looking elsewhere for profits. While artists may differ in their views on these profiteering collectors exiting the market, it’s clear that the reduced inflow of funds is hurting the crypto art community.

As seen in the chart below, sales volume on Foundation has been decreasing month over month:

We can see a similar pattern when analyzing data from SuperRare, per the chart below:

Given these challenges in the crypto art market, let’s explore how friend.tech could be a viable solution for artists, or at the very least a worthy addition to the way they currently market and sell their work.

Friend.tech presents a compelling alternative to selling art directly as NFTs. One major advantage is the built-in liquidity pool, which is established by allocating 90% of each key sale to it. This ensures that anyone purchasing a key can usually recover at least a portion of their money, unless the key’s value drops to zero. In contrast, 1/1 NFT art or editions lack this liquidity. NFT sellers either have to wait patiently for the right buyer or significantly lower their prices, effectively creating a digital garage sale of artists’ work. This situation is detrimental for both artists and collectors. It erodes the perceived value of artists’ work and forces collectors to accept lower resale prices if they can’t afford to wait for an ideal buyer.

In a time where crypto art is facing liquidity issues and artists are grappling with the challenges of how to pay the bills, friend.tech offers a compelling alternative to minting and directly selling your work.

Another beautiful aspect of friend.tech is its flexibility as a platform; it becomes whatever you make of it. I’m focusing on why friend.tech could be good for artists, but realistically, anyone sharing content with an online audience could make good use of friend.tech. Seasoned traders can share thoughts on the market and current trades, musicians could share early links to unreleased music, and product founders could share updates with their most devoted users.

I believe the best way to think of friend.tech is as a tokenized Patreon where users can buy and sell membership with a guarantee of liquidity whenever they wish to sell it. As an artist, you could raffle off 1/1 art, create a token-gated edition for your key holders, share sneak peeks of art, talk about new projects you are working on, share behind-the-scenes (BTS) content, and so much more. The world is your oyster and it’s up to you what you want to make of it.

Personally, I joined the app very early on and so far have generated close to 0.1 ETH in trading fees as people enter and leave my chat. My last 1/1 NFT sales have been within that range, so since the revenue has reached a point where it makes sense for me economically, I raffled a 1/1 to one of my key holders. Besides that, I share updates on my life and BTS content when I go out to shoot photos, along with just chatting with key holders throughout the day.

While the 5% share from key sales could potentially yield less revenue than traditional NFT 1/1 and edition sales, it’s important to diversify income streams, especially in challenging times. Any veteran artist understands the need for financial adaptability when one revenue source dwindles. I’m confident that friend.tech, when used earnestly to deliver value to key holders, can serve as a more consistent revenue stream compared to solely relying on direct art sales. This isn’t just speculation either; I’m actively exploring this avenue myself.

If you’re convinced at this point and you’d like to get involved, in the next section I’ll be sharing how you can get started with friend.tech.

Friend.tech is a PWA, or Progressive Web App. The process of joining is pretty simple and intuitive. I’m assuming you know how to bridge your ETH to the BASE network, but if you don’t, I have a previously written article about this topic.

Here’s the guide on how to join friend.tech:

• Add the App: Since friend.tech is a PWA, the sign-up process is a little different from downloading a regular app from the App Store. Instead, open your mobile browser, navigate to friend.tech, and add the site to your home screen, following the given instructions on the site for doing so. This will make the site appear as a functional app just like any of the other apps on your mobile device.

• Sign Up With Your Phone or Email: After adding and opening the app, you will be prompted to sign up for an account using email or phone number.

• Secure a Friend.tech Invite: Friend.tech is technically in beta testing and invite-only at the moment, so you’ll need an access code. You have a few options here:

1. Grab one from a friend on X: Many people have already joined the platform, and I’d wager that if you post asking for codes someone will provide one pretty quickly.

2. Search on X: If you don’t want to post about it, you can use the search function on X to find people posting codes. I checked just now searching the term “friendtech invite” and found plenty.

• Link Your X Account: Friend.tech’s username system is powered by X, so to start your account you’ll need to link your X account. To do this you need to give friend.tech some permissions for your X account which you can choose to revoke later.

• Transfer ETH to Your Friend.Tech Wallet: As mentioned above, to transact in friend.tech you will need some ETH on the Base Network, which you’ll then send to your new friend.tech wallet — the Ethereum address associated with your new account.

• Purchase Your First Key: To begin, you must purchase at least one of your own keys; the first one costs only a very small gas fee. Once this transaction is complete, people will be able to buy and sell your keys to be granted access to your chat.

• Dive In: With your ETH transferred and your first key purchased, you’re all set to begin trading and making new friends. You’re now part of the friend.tech community!

In a time where crypto art is facing liquidity issues and artists are grappling with the challenges of how to pay the bills, friend.tech offers a compelling alternative to minting and directly selling your work. It’s not just a platform; it’s a community, a marketplace, and a social network rolled into one. With built-in liquidity and a self-regulated market for keys, friend.tech provides both artists and collectors an optimized marketplace with a greater sense of stability and regularity that is often missing in the volatile, illiquid world of crypto art.

Beyond the financial aspect, friend.tech is a canvas for creativity. Whether you’re an artist, a musician, or a seasoned trader, the platform allows you to share your work and thoughts with a community of like-minded individuals. It’s a space where you can not only sell your art but also engage with your audience in a more intimate and meaningful way, in whatever way you see fit.

As someone who has personally explored the platform, I can attest to its potential as a consistent revenue stream. While the 5% share from key sales may not replace the income from traditional art sales, it offers a level of stability that is hard to come by in the fluctuating crypto market.

So, if you’re an artist looking for a fresh avenue to showcase your work, build a community, and yes, make some money, then friend.tech is worth checking out further.

The future of art isn’t just digital; it’s also social, fun, and liquid — and it might just be unfolding on friend.tech. With this guide, getting started couldn’t be easier.

Author Bio

William Murphy is a multifaceted professional with expertise in photography, writing, community management, marketing, and business development. His passion for learning about blockchain technology and AI complements his background in social media and the arts, providing him a unique lens through which he explores consumer-facing innovations in the cryptocurrency landscape.

Editor Bios

trewkat is a writer, editor, and designer at BanklessDAO. She’s interested in learning about crypto and NFTs, with a particular focus on how best to communicate this knowledge to others.

WinVerse is a writer and editor in BanklessDAO. He is interested in the web3 ecosystem and spreads the word through marketing and partnerships.

Designer Bio

Chameleon is a designer and creator in the web3 space.

BanklessDAO is an education and media engine dedicated to helping individuals achieve financial independence.

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