Welcome to the Laplace Files, a newsletter on the Laplace project by Charles (Ledgerback Digital Commons Research Cooperative).
This newsletter includes my progress reports and thoughts on research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates, events, and more related to developing the project.
Social Tokens
What are social tokens?
Maximilian Perkmann in Social Tokens: The Next Big Crypto Thing?, defines social tokens as “Tokens that can be assigned to individual persons or communities.”
How does it apply to teachers?
In UCLA basketball sub Jaylen Clark to have his own cryptocurrency, Myron Medcalf discusses Jaylen Clark, a UCLA basketball reserve, who released his own social token ( $JROCK ) with Rally.
Some excerpts from the article:
He said he'll use his own crypto to build his connection to his fans through various events, such as ticket giveaways. Those who use $JROCK will also have access to unique content through his platforms.
Months after name, image and likeness rules changed for collegiate athletes, Clark said he doesn't believe most athletes will benefit. But those who have a strong social media following, he said, will thrive. He said he already is generating significant revenue through his YouTube page after "being able to monetize your fan base."
The same can be done for teachers. Teachers can offer their own social tokens ($TEACHER) to fans and students by using platforms like Roll or Rally to help raise funds for educational resources, and in turn, provide exclusive services such as 1-on-1 sessions to fans and students that hold a certain amount of the teacher’s social token.
Additionally, teachers could host a giveaway on PoolTogether requiring participants to have $TEACHER tokens to stake in the pool.
What is the social token paradox?
In The Double Edge Sword of Exclusivity, Mason Nystrom describes the social token paradox and digs into possible strategies around the paradox.
The challenge is that social tokens need to appreciate by including new members and yet these membership gated communities must keep their groups exclusive otherwise the social and utility value will decrease.
Nystrom outlines three strategies to deal with the social token paradox described above:
Performance or Accomplishment Exclusivity: “[a]ccomplishment or performance is a socially valuable signal. Oftentimes performance can be vague to assess, however, Rabbithole has already started to create on-chain records for completing certain tasks. Additionally, membership can be given to individuals who have completed tasks in various DAO (e.g. bronze members, silver members, etc.) or previous voters. Tiered membership based on accomplishments or participation can bring together individuals from different communities into a single DAO or community. Imagine having some of the top contributors or voters from various DAOs all in one single DAO.”
Time Exclusivity: “[c]reating membership based on time can align long-term players and adds an element that cannot be gamed or financially purchased. Time membership can also be combined with accomplishments such as tasks that involved grinding away at some task for hours or weeks until it is achieved. This model can incentivize the development of communities that require significant effort to join.”
Experience or Service Exclusivity: “[s]hared experience unites various individuals whether it be fraternities, college students, people in the same geolocation, or otherwise. Experiences can also be cause-oriented such as charitable affiliates or event-oriented by requiring individuals to attend an artist’s concert before getting an NFT that provides access to their discord channel.”
The time and performance exclusivity strategies seem the most appropriate for teachers.
I think this can be done by requiring students to complete assessments or assignments in a course with a sufficient grade (e.g., a 4 on a 1 - 5 grading scale).
Additionally, teachers could host a giveaway on PoolTogether requiring participants to have $TEACHER tokens to stake in the pool.
Alternatively, there is also proof-of-use/attention that can be garnered by having students learn in public or peer-grading of assignments.
Learning Content Royalty Market
Based on Royal.market, another possible market is buying ownership stakes (or fractionalizing ownership) in learning content directly from your favorite teachers before the course is released and earning royalties from their work.
How does royal work?
Artists use royal to share true ownership in their songs directly with fans, as investors.
1) Artists use royal to create digital assets with embedded ownership in the master recording, earning royalties from income-producing activities such as streaming. These assets can also include extras provided by the artist – access to exclusive communities, free merchandise, concert tickets... and more.
2) Investors can purchase these digital assets.
3) Royal collects and distributes royalties to all owners.
4) In the future, owners will be able to buy and sell between one another
I can see a similar how-to for a learning content royalty market.
Nftfy and Fractional maybe ways of doing this by creating an NFT of the course, then fractionalizing it, and whoever has a fraction can make a claim to royalties or any other additional goodies associated with the course.
From Student Loans to Student Currencies
The time and investment it takes to become an expert wood or leather craftsman or software developer - simply is impossible for a lot of people! What if that apprentice could be given a credit that paid for her time, and basic needs - and could later be used by people to buy her beautiful carved wooden Lamu doors or custom designed bag, or android application?
A great article by Will Ruddick on how to use a Community Inclusion Currency for funding university education.
Income-sharing Agreements
Pursuit
Through our Pursuit Bond funding model, we’re able to provide the Fellowship with no loans and no upfront costs. Instead, we have an income sharing agreement (ISA) with you. That means you'll pay a percentage of your future earnings for a set number of payments when you get a high-paying job. If you don't get a job or make above the salary threshold, you pay nothing. And if you lose your job, your payments pause until your next job.
The Ponzi Career
Lambda School enables students to sell a piece of their future earnings in exchange for tuition. The school teaches in-demand skills such as web development and data science. Courses can be completed remotely and are highly practical, focused on getting students hired once they complete the course. Lambda students pay nothing upfront but promise to give the school a share of their future income:
"The Lambda School Income Share Agreement (ISA) is a form of deferred tuition under which you agree to pay 17% of your post-Lambda School salary for 24 months, but only once you're making more than $50,000 per year. The ISA is capped at $30,000, so you'll never pay more than that for any reason. And if you don't get hired? You never pay."
If the skills end up being useless, the school will not get paid. This is true even if the student ends up earning money while working in another field. As Lambda's website points out, "you only have to make monthly payments when you are working in a 'Qualified Position' [which means] any role in any field where your participation in Lambda School helped you get the job."
Very interesting model. I might look into this later.
Play-to-Earn, Educational Games, and Gamification
Sergey Baloyan in Play 2 Earn: A New Trend on the Crypto Market defines Play-to-Earn (P2E) as a model that “lets the players create new digital assets and trade them via the game’s infrastructure.”
Some projects working on this for trivia games include:
I might look into this later.
Altminster is an alternative e-Learning platform connecting “independent teachers with independent students to give you an affordable, personalized course of study in any academic subject.”
Altminster’s mission is to help the “revival of the liberal arts education for the digital age.”
You can read their origin story below.
The origin story
The dream of the liberal arts within academia is in grave danger. We are seeing the university as an institution struggle to serve either scholars or the public:
Ordinary people can no longer afford to get an education of the quality that was possible even a generation ago. It is not generally possible to sit-in at university courses if you are a general member of the public and not enrolled at the institution.
Scholars can no longer make a living doing teaching and research. Tenured positions are few and far between - almost impossible to get.
Red tape and institutional requirements means that scholars may no longer be able to teach what they want, but must provide what is expected of them.
Students may no longer have a say in the direction of their own education or academic interests.
But hope remains: what students need, scholars can provide; what scholars need, students can provide. At Altminster, we believe that curious students should be able to find their own way to their teachers. If scholars can once again sustain themselves by teaching those things they have spent their lives studying, then the dream of the liberal arts can live again outside of academia.
Ledgerback Digital Commons Research Cooperative (LDCRC) is a 501(c)(3), member-led association coalescing a socially-aware expert community for advancing knowledge in the decentralized web and related fields through research, education, technology, and monitoring done by, for, and with members of the public.
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