Degens Gone Charity | MUNCH x Snobiety
As DeFi establishes its uses in society, decentralized projects are beginning to weave together, finding ways to connect their communities and unique utilities.
As the leading charity token, MUNCH is exploring ways to use our donation technology and relationships with charities to help other projects donate funds to causes they want to support.
MUNCH is helping new projects build intrinsic philanthropy to their models from day one and encourage ‘on-chain benevolence’.
One such project exploring the way that crypto and DeFi can collaborate and do good for others is Snobiety. We spoke to Mike and Jack, co-founders of Snobiety, to discuss how to bring Web3 to mainstream life and the vision behind their upcoming project.
After a live Twitter spaces session, we distilled some of the key highlights and takeaways to read here, as well as a link to the full recording for anyone that missed it.
Quick links:
- Who are Snobiety x Culture Cubs?
- Current market conditions
- Application and real-world uses of DeFi
- Strengthening the wider economy
- What does decentralization really mean?
- The power of community governance
- NFT charity auction
- Link to the full recording here
Who are Snobiety x Culture Cubs?
Snobiety is an ecosystem of long-term NFT projects with shared utility, but unique, tightly knit communities. Rather than building independently projects can co-create together with members. The long-term vision is to bring together the best builders in Web3 to deliver more utility.
Culture Cubs is our first genesis collection — holders will gain early access to future NFT drops and member- only features. Culture Cubs are early adopters, early contributors, and looking for career-defining opportunities in web3.
The conversation ranged from market conditions to the personal experiences that drew each person towards DeFi technology, and where they see the next 12 months taking us.
Navigating the current market conditions
Both investing since around 2017, we have seen major price crashes before. There is now a tendency for shorter circles. There is no doubt in my mind that we won’t spend 4 years in the dark now
What changed the most is that people realized how they could tokenize businesses, like using NFTs for proof of ownership. This meant crypto has basically multiplied into this diverse network of businesses.
Back when we started, it was essentially the chains, either you had a blockchain or not. Now, we have entire companies being backed up by a token. Even DAOs weren’t a thing yet. More and more people are realizing that there is a valid business model there, and I think it will change even more when people realize the full potential of the technology that is already being used.
I was talking to our lawyer, he was involved in a really cool project where someone was buying an $8 million house and wanted to turn it into an NFT so it would be backed by a real asset.
I think within 5 years, at least the major companies if they are not all Web3, will have a major Web3 component.
I’m working with a big company now that are making their first steps into Web3 with a learning platform.
Application and real-world uses of DeFi
Look at the login process on something like Opensea. You can connect, change your profile, edit your details, all without having to provide any personal information. All because you didn’t log in with your email, you didn’t connect with Google, Facebook. It’s completely private and you’re not targeted with marketing that’s based on your behavior.
When you combine this with global payments, through crypto, you have something amazing. This is just the start of decentralized, peer-to-peer-based online experiences. It’s the tip of the iceberg of what we can do with Web3.
Strengthening the wider economy with crypto integration
All of these emerging crypto start ups are opportunities that benefit the economy. It creates innovation and different businesses that serve these new companies.
It’s also been a very positive move for creators and artists. These are people that are accustomed to providing their work for far below market value but now, through things like NFTS, are able to take control over this process and set a standard for the value of their work and get paid in perpetuity through programmed royalties when people re-sell or use their work.
What does decentralization really mean — what is the real value there?
The value is there because, like others, I trust code more than I trust people. Decentralization is amazing in this sense. If the code works, no entity or authority can alter or dictate how it works. That’s the best part, we give a transparent, open protocol the authority over things like transactions.
Soon, most people will have enough basic knowledge to look at a smart contract and know what is happening there. It really is taking things from the hands of a few and creating things that stand on their own and run on the power of the people that use it.
As another example, prior to Web3, if you had an idea for a business but didn’t have the money to fund it, you would approach people and promise them ownership. You promise a percentage but there are not many ways people can liquidate out of a business, it’s often only through acquisition or investment rounds where you pay back these initial investors. We’re talking months, more often years.
One of the most exciting things about the tokenized economy is that you can allocate tokens rather than equity, those tokens can be vested over a period, but this person has a tangible value. They know their share, they have ownership and access to liquidity that can be controlled.
The barrier to entry has lowered — which is both good and bad. Good in the sense that it has piqued the interest of a lot of newcomers, new people in the space that want to innovate. But at the same time, because the barrier to entry is low, you have a lot of bad actors that give the space a bad name.
But tokens open up a world of micro-financing and community financing, people around the world, not constrained by region, you’re able to microfinance and have a share of a business concept or project and also liquidate whenever they need to.
That’s very different from traditional financial models. We have crowdfunding platforms but they are not global and liquidity can be hard.
‘For example, I invested in Brewdog about 7 years ago. On paper, I may be up around 100X but because they haven’t IPO’d yet I haven’t been able to exit. That’s been one of the lures of blockchain for me.’
The rise of community governance
The way we build in DeFI or NFT projects is very community focused. The core team sets the infrastructure and the platform and provides tools and the architecture for a project to thrive, but really you put trust and empowerment in your community to build out the project on these lines.
In a recent Degens Gone Charity episode, we interviewed SeaChain and the owner explained that he would even allow the community to vote him out as CEO if needed. That’s real decentralization and community governance right there!
NFT charity auction
To celebrate the upcoming collection and the partnership between the two projects, Snobiety are generously auctioning a MUNCH-themed Culture Cub NFT, with all proceeds going to charity.
We are proud to announce that MUNCH will be Snobiety’s official DeFi charity partner and this auction will be the first collaborative move we make together.
More info here:
🎮 Discord: http://discord.gg/snobiety
🌐 Website: http://snobiety.com
You can be part of the next Degens Gone Charity by following MUNCH here
