IreneDAO：Photo NFTs of a Weblebrity Transforms the Grassroots Creator Economy

2022-03-01, 09:30

Summary

1. Instagram celebrity Irene Zhao converted a set of her photos into NFTs and put them on sale on January 14th. This created much of a stir in the crypto community and the price increased over ten times within a few days.
2. The IreneDAO NFTs contain 1106 collections in total. Each NFT is a photo with the background removed and has different encrypted slang words on it.
3. With "IreneDAO Tribe Pass" in the lower-left corner of each NFT, these NFTs are also admission tickets for IreneDAO.
4. NFTs not only help achieve the fan economy in a quick and convenient way but also are conducive to the operation of the fan community in the long run.
5. In its introduction, IreneDAO is described as a "global grassroots movement" aiming to transform the current creator economy.

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Instagram celebrity Irene Zhao turned a set of her photos into NFTs and sold them at a price of 0.26ETH/piece on January 14, 2022. The release of these NFTs (called IreneDAO) caused a sensation in the crypto community soon. And the price rose more than tenfold within a few days, with the floor price of up to 5 ethers. Presently, even if the price has dropped, the average transaction price of IreneDAO is still above 1ETH.

It is reported that Irene Zhao, 28 years old, is a model from Singapore. As a complete Internet celebrity, she has more than 500,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram. She worked in Singapore as a commodity broker for four years before 2021. Then, she resigned and worked as a chief marketing officer in Konomi Network in the crypto industry.

IreneDAO is an NFT project inspired by the recently popular Ghozali Everyday NFTs. The 22-year-old Indonesian boy earned $22 million from this project of selfie photos. Initially, Irene provided her selfie photo memes to her fan Telegram community only. Thanks to a fan’s advice, she later made this series of emoji pictures into the current IreneDAO.

With 498 holders on OpenSea, the IreneDAO NFTs contain a total of 1106 collections. Each NFT is a photo with the background removed and has different encrypted slang words such as "HYPE", "SIMP", and "WAGMI" on it. In addition, "IreneDAO Tribe Pass" was marked in the lower-left corner of each photo, and they were also admission tickets for IreneDAO. Irene Zhao mentioned on Twitter that she will not directly profit from selling IreneDAO NFTs, but will invest all revenues into the community.

Mike Novogratz, the founder of cryptocurrency investment bank Galaxy Digital and a legendary Wall Street hedge fund manager, also announced on Twitter on January 16 that he held WAGMI, one of the IreneDAO NFT collections. Moreover, IreneDAO also sent an invitation to Ghozali, the initiator of the Indonesian selfie NFT. It is still unknown how they will carry out cooperation in the future.

Transforming the Web 3 grassroots creator economy

Different from a traditional DAO centered on a certain project, such as ConstituionDAOs, the IreneDAO project is centered on the character or IP of Irene, which is closer to a decentralized fan group. Therefore, IreneDAO mirrors the possible forms of the fan economy in Web 3.0. Since the second half of 2021, the metaverse has been growing rapidly. A growing number of artists, celebrities, internet celebrities, or institutions have set foot in Web 3.0. Phanta Bear, endorsed by Jay Chou at the beginning of this year, is one such example. NFTs not only help achieve the fan economy in a quick and convenient way but are also conducive to the long-term operation of the fan community.

These limited NFTs are a status symbol of owners and more of a hard or soft ticket to certain social circles. These NFTs can help them find like-minded friends on the Internet. However, IreneDAO has a broader vision beyond a simple fan economy.

In its presentation, IreneDAO is described as a "global grassroots movement" aimed at transforming today's creator economy. Irene and others are currently building a decentralized social platform called So-Col (Social Collectables), which is based on the Ethereum Layer 2 project StarkWare. The platform is positioned as a decentralized version of OnlyFans or Discord in Web 3.0.

Irene said So-Col aims to empower creators and assist creators set up their communities. In the future So-Col, individual creators will be able to connect their social accounts to Web 3.0 through DID (Decentralized Identity) and help creators establish their small communities mainly via NFTs. Irene is the first pioneer of So-Col’s grand goals. Currently, So-Col has completed the seed round of financing. DeFinance and 3AC are some of the financing participants.

In the future, creators will not "rely on" the large-scale centralized platform in the Web 2.0 era, but can convert their content into NFTs on the blockchain Internet without much effort to earn revenue. Be it music, painting, novels, or game products, they can all be converted into NFTS, priced reasonably and rapidly, and sold on the valuable Internet.

NFT and blockchain truly endow content creators with the right to freely control their works. In the Web 3.0 era, people have moved a step further to get the right of "free creation" of self-media and the right of "free ownership". This indeed highlights the fact that IreneDAO is a successful social experiment in which each of us may be able to participate in the future when the decentralized creator economy is a trend.

Author: Edward H., Gate.io Researcher; Translator: Cedar W.
*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
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