June 17th – 2021
New Today: The CulturePledge Alchemy Program ?
‘Alchemy’ refers to the magic process of turning lead (fiat) into gold (crypto).
We’re proud to introduce a one-of-kind fundraising program for artists in the creator economy. We call it our Alchemy Program ? and it represents a radical pivot to leverage crypto in order to empower artists the world over.
Before diving in, we want to wish everyone in the world of CulturePledge a very HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! We made it! WE STILL EXIST! ?
In fact, our traffic and community have been growing steadily. (Join us on Discord!)
Why Does Crypto Matter?
For centuries, elites have lorded power over the people with self-serving financial policies, including the imposition fiat currency. The regulatory framework these policies extend from is exclusionary by nature. Case in point, still today there are over 1.5 billion people who lack even the most basic financial services.
In recent years, crypto has matured into its own asset class with the promise to level the playing field worldwide, by providing access to state-of-the-art financial services to anyone with a smartphone.
And check out this recent announcement by the government of El Salvador on how they’re making Bitcoin legal tender. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, is pushing forward the initiative in response to his country losing billions in remittance fees paid to foreign banks, corporations, and governments.
But this fascinating tale of David and Goliath is far from the only promising thing happening in crypto!
Score One for Artists and Creators
There are plenty of reasons why the financial system of the future will run on crypto. And a few of them intersect directly with our mission at CulturePledge: to promote solutions to help independent artists survive and thrive in the new digital economy.
In financial terms, we believe that artists have long been under-appreciated by society. This is in part because the value of their productive output and their potential isn’t always evident in dollar terms. For example, there’s no obvious way to project a financial outcome for a talented artist who has been under-hyped or is yet undiscovered. This makes it difficult to invest in up-and-coming talent.
Artists must typically work on passion projects for free and for “exposure” (lol) for years until such time as they’re discovered and shepherded or subjugated by gatekeepers (art gallery/curator, record label, publisher, government culture agent, etc). In the meantime, they alone must bear significant career and financial risk in order to pursue their true vision.
There’s also a drastic financial asymmetry in the arts. For every Picasso who achieves a high degree of success and becomes a millionaire, there are countless talented artists who, despite their achievements, earn relatively microscopic financial returns.
Finally, thanks to innovations in crypto further discussed below, any artist can take full control of their career while significantly improving their potential to make money.
Art Is Not a Hobby
A scratch golfer may be nearly as good as the pros, but being close is not good enough to pay bills. Only in outlying cases can people expect to earn real money from hobbies like sports, chess, gambling, fishing, gaming, flying drones, or playing parcheesi. Notice how it’s also true that most people do not engage in these activities in order to directly enrich society.
But any work of art does provide a higher benefit to society, whether crafted by a master or an apprentice. We all know this intuitively. Art is humanity’s truest voice, and the value of the creative works of art that inspire us is incalculable.
Art Is Not a Job
We’re not arguing that by creating art independently you automatically deserve a salary. Or even that all works of art should possess at least some small amount of financial value. Some art is worthless! And that’s OK. We just want to express how there is indeed significant disfunction in the arts economy. And to share our belief that as crypto disrupts the global financial system to create a fair playing field for all, it will in parallel have hugely positive impacts in the arts.
The Crypto Creator Economy
A new creator economy is emerging that is built on crypto. This new paradigm will be global and inclusive, and provide opportunities for all artists worldwide to monetize their work in a wide variety of new ways.
Despite all the promises of today’s large corporations, it is the decentralized crypto networks underpinning the new creator economy that will win the future. This is because legacy networks specifically favour governments and mega-corporations, whereas the new networks are public goods that favour no one. We see this as an insurmountable competitive advantage in the global context.
At CulturePledge, for the past year we’ve been studying this creative revolution and sculpting our content to bring to light the best innovations for the benefit of independent practitioners of the arts. Moving forward, we’ll be adding a financial dimension to our work as we begin investing directly in artists and arts related projects.
About Our Alchemy Program ?
On a monthly basis, CulturePledge revenue will now be converted to crypto and invested directly into artists and arts-related projects on BitClout. Our revenues for May total $251, but we have barely begun monetizing our site and social presence. Our hope is to start with a trickle and build a wellspring. (Look for a post tomorrow featuring our investees for June!)
BitClout, Heh? Tell Me More…
BitClout is a new cryptocurrency that also functions as a full-featured social media network.
Let that idea sink in for a moment…
Unlike Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies, BitClout offers a suite of secure social media features available right in your web browser or apps.
Unlike corporate social networks, BitClout is entirely open source. Corporations no longer sit between you and your friends to intercept your data and sell it off to the highest bidder! YOU now control the economic aspects of your social account.
“We’ve been aiming to leverage a blockchain for the benefit of the arts community since our 2020 launch. Today, CulturePledge is proud to be the first-ever arts publication on BitClout. The convergence in this new global protocol of the abiding rise of crypto and hypergrowth in the creator economy have made our path forward crystal clear.”
Salvatore ‘Salvo’ Delle Palme
Culture Pledge Founder
How Can Artists Make Money on BitClout?
Aside from basic features, such as the ability to create a post, share an image, favourite a post, send messages to friends, etc, BitClout also enables every account with their own unique cryptocurrency called ‘Creator Coins’. Anyone can leverage the system to earn a ‘Founder Reward’ on purchases made of their coin.
Example:
→ Emily sets up BitClout to share her art.
→ Rafael thinks her art is wonderful. He follows her and decides to invest $30 worth of BitClout into her Creator Coin.
Assuming Emily set her Founder Reward to 10% (it can be toggled from 0% to 100%):
→ 90% of the purchase value ($27) goes to Rafael in the form of Emily’s Creator Coin.
→ 10% of the purchase value ($3) goes to Emily in the form of BitClout.
In the example, notice how Emily didn’t need to invest any money at all in order to start earning through her work. She’s free to leave that $3 value invested in BitClout, purchase Creator Coins, send a micro-payment anywhere in the world with one click, or just cash it out.
Artists can now easily transact in a liquid crypto tied to their social media presence and creative work. Fans and supporters of the arts can always purchase works or merchandise from artists – limited edition vinyl, prints, etc. – but they can now invest in the artist directly as well. (Also, rumour has it native BitClout NFTs are right around the corner.)
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Creator Coin prices are directly pegged to the price of BitClout itself. All things being equal, their price only rises and falls algorithmically based on buying and selling. As more and more supporters buy an artist’s coin, its price rises (and vice versa). These dynamics allow supporters (who can invest less than a penny!) to own a piece of the future success of their favourite artists.
Read more about Creator Coins in the BitClout documentation.
Our Strategy
Through our Alchemy Program ? we invest in:
- Independent artists (any medium)
- Arts projects that share our mission
- Our own $CulturePledge Coin
This way, CulturePledge creates consistent upward price pressure on our own coin while bolstering the arts with direct investments. We see this as the best way to provide great value to all of our stakeholders as we work to grow the arts economy.
Artists and arts projects can be nominated for investment in our public Discord chat, and final selections are made by our editorial team.
Who Is a CulturePledge Stakeholder?
Anyone can be a stakeholder! We have a core team of 9, 9k social followers, 20+ coin holders, and we’re backed by BuildGuild ?. On BitClout, our own account (@CulturePledge) is our largest coin holder, holding 15.5 Creator Coins (worth $10k USD at the time of this writing). We intend to distribute these coins widely to members of our team and community!
Connect on our public Discord and check out our Submissions page!
Follow CulturePledge on BitClout, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn!
