Arweave TX
Art has always been at the heart of NFTs. Remember when "right-click and save" was the meme? The question then was, why pay for something you can just save? But now, with minting costs nearly zero, the real question is, why collect?
As Gen-Z probably will shift from current social media apps to onchain apps, do we need to swap the like button for a mint one? I’m not entirely convinced, but these next three apps are. They’re not just changing buttons - they’re defining a new way of social behaviour.
Let’s dive into how they approach onchain pictures and what makes each unique.
Moshicam is pure fun, bringing that nostalgic Polaroid vibe onchain. Whether you snap a new photo or upload an existing one, the fun begins with customizing your onchain memory. Onboarding is super easy with Coinbase Smart Wallet - sign up with a passkey and mint for free as they cover gas fees.
What makes Moshicam stand out are the borders. These frames let you add your personal touch or celebrate your favorite web3 communities. They’ve even added stickers recently, so your borders can pop even more higher ↑.
When someone collects a photo you created, you earn a portion of the fee in ETH as a creator royalty. If someone uses or collects a photo with a custom border that you created, you also earn a royalty:
- 60% goes to the photo creator
- 20% goes to the border creator
- 20% goes to Moshicam
With the introduction of stickers, Moshicam will distribute part of their 20% cut to sticker creators. It’s rewarding to mint because you earn with every collect, and if there’s something Moshicam users love to do, it’s collecting. With almost 100k mints, only 36% of users are creating these mochis; the rest are part of the lore.
There are significantly more collects than mints, which got me thinking - maybe onchain friendships have a different vibe. Perhaps they enjoy having an onchain memory of their vacations, their dog, or even IRL meetups. Not gonna lie, it’s really fun to get into Moshicam profiles.
Created by the team behind Foundation, this app is all about celebrating every moment, without overthinking. Normally, minting onchain makes us consider too many factors - pricing, collections, market. Rodeo flips that. It’s not about posting your best work; it’s about sharing what you’re up to now.
Digital ownership often gets tangled up with profit. By limiting options, they want to help users understand the essence of minting a picture and the true benefits of onchain content. You own something, you share it, you earn.
What sets Rodeo apart is its approach to scarcity. We all love scarcity, right? Normally, it’s about the artist or the edition size, but Rodeo introduces a new kind: time-based scarcity. Every post is only available for 24 hours. It’s a daily app, and if you want to be an early collector, you’ve got to be there. It's a way to showcase that you were there.
If you miss that time window, it’s like BeReal - you’re too late and will have to wait for the next chance. There's no secondary market yet. Rodeo isn’t about flipping content but staying in the moment. While other markets might eventually allow users to sell those rare pictures, for now, the focus is on making web3 fun without the option to flip media.
Where does that revenue come from? In addition to earning from users minting the content you create, Rodeo allows you to earn rewards by influencing others to mint posts you own.
Mint another user’s post on Rodeo
Earn a reward when another collector mints the same post after seeing it in their feed
Mint another user’s post on Rodeo
Click on the Share button and share your referral link to X, Warpcast, or other social platforms
Earn a reward when another collector mints the same post after clicking on your referral link
The total minting fee is .0001 ETH:
50% goes to the creator of the post (0.00005 ETH)
25% to the collector who influenced (0.000025 ETH)
25% to Rodeo (0.000025 ETH)
It might be a small reward, but at the current scale of social media, it's a significant shift in how monetization is distributed. Most content today is remixed, with reactions to others' work not being rewarded. This new social behavior will ensure that any interaction with onchain media is rewarded, marking a big change in the way content creation and engagement are valued.
Zora has been the place for artists to mint their creativity onchain. They always worked towards bringing the best experience for web3 communities, integrating culture tokens, tipping within comments, building frames, boosts, etc. Now, they focused on something new, a social app that doesn’t require users to have prior crypto knowledge. An app that combines current social media experience with onchain creativity.
Instead of a typical social app that takes ownership of your content, Zora distributes the value back to its creators and curators. Not relying on ads but on their protocol ensuring value created is compensated.
A few months back, minting content onchain was a headache: open an app, click mint, switch to your wallet, sign the transaction, go back to the app, wait for confirmation, and finally see your content minted. Zora changed all that. They’ve nailed both the tech and design, so you barely notice you’re onchain.
Sign up with your email, and the rest is a unique experience:
created a brand new account: - didn't need to connect any wallet or add funds - didn't need to pay fees to post a picture - i could get sparks with apple pay and use them in the app to collect media make onchain apps without users knowing they're onchain
Once you’re in the app, it feels like Instagram - see what your friends like, comment, and with a double tap you like the picture. Swap out "like" for "mint," and you’ve got Zora. It’s everything you do on Instagram, but onchain.
The onchain aspect changes everything, allowing you to earn from the content you post, mint or share. This shifts the dynamics of social media interactions by adding an economic layer that returns value to anyone who creates and distributes content.
They’ve recently rolled out two big updates: secondary markets and sparks.
Not to get too deep, but these tweaks solved some key issues - bringing liquidity to NFTs and making pricing easier for normies.
They have a time-window functionality, where after content reaches 200 mints, there’s a 24-hour countdown before the secondary market opens. Once the market opens, the NFT converts into tokens that are tradeable on Uniswap. By minting more than one unit, you contribute to liquidity and can potentially benefit later by selling one of your mints. This is especially useful if you missed the initial opportunity to mint it when it was posted in the app.
On the other side, Sparks, are their way of simplifying pricing, making it more intuitive than seeing 0.0001 ETH. Easy to get them with your Apple Pay and spend it minting content on the app. It’s an experiment, like casino chips, that’s catching on fast - Moshicam and Coop Records are already using it too.
Zora implemented protocol rewards a while ago, having already more than 7.8M referrals within their protocol, allowing users to transition from scrolling on social media to curating and becoming part of the value generated.
When this behavior becomes the norm on onchain social platforms, more creators will make the switch.
With more than 1.1M users and $2.3M in referral rewards, Zora is taking a refreshing web2 approach to web3 tech, making the experience fun, accessible, and simple. The app has a clean, aesthetic design with no gas fees, allowing users to mint content as easily as they like posts on current social media. It's still in its beta version, but it already feels like a premium product.
We've shifted our perception of NFTs from being scarce assets created by specific artists to something we mint just for the fun of it.
Our social media interactions are starting to hold real value, and now, that value is shared among us. But it’s not just about rewards; it’s about those "I was there" moments I can share anytime, across platforms, because it’s something I truly own and is no longer locked to one app. And it's fun:
Moshicam: custom polaroid moments
Rodeo: time-based scarcity
Zora: double tap mint
What I like about these apps is that they are exploring a new kind of social behavior - seeing content not just as something we share with our friends, but as an asset we own and can earn from. Unlike web2 platforms that rely on ads, these projects are opting for protocols that empower social networks and ensure value created is compensated.
We’ll probably look back and laugh at the idea of putting all these pictures onchain, but for the larger vision, this is a big step. Why would I want to mint what my friends are doing? I think the answer for now is: it's fun. Will this help change social media? Absolutely. If we’re not the ones experimenting with new ways of social media interactions and monetization, who will?
To more onchain experiences!
Tomu
Over 400 subscribers
Rodeo and Zora both look like onchain versions of Instagram. just realized once Zora fully shifted to ERC-20, Rodeo avoided direct competition. Content can be tokenized in many ways, NFTs or FTs, and the market will decide which is better. If you miss Zora’s old open edition ERC-1155 NFTs, Rodeo still offers that.
this Dune data only tracks the number of Zora’s 1155 tokens and doesn’t include the later ERC-20 tokens. https://dune.com/filarm/zora-vs-rodeo
we're finally seeing a difference, back in summer was all about onchain pictures and pick the app you like the most https://tomu.xyz/onchain-pictures
Thanks for sharing. almost forgot about Moshicam. Yeah, having differences is a good thing, otherwise, everything would be too homogeneous.
and aren't they going the way of stablecoin (USDC) instead of speculative tokens like eth/sparks/sol
Yeah, this kind of consumer crypto might be easier for regular users to accept. Tokenizing content into NFTs feels more like turning it into an onchain product, something people can create and others can consume.
It is incorrect to think of /zora as an Artist/Creator Tool (even if it technically still is one), like it was in previous years. They are in a different category now. More accurate "comparison" would be something like Lens/Orb.
agree! it's a social app and i'm sure we'll see different types of cryptomedia and interactions
Not loving pivot tbh — or I wish they kept some of the tools for power users when they did
so you’re saying it pivoted from a creator app to a social app?
Yea precisely
Pivoted back really. Zora in the Bobby hundreds days is closer to the current app than the former.
o_o
totally
and this is bullish
Not quite sure I’m understanding?
there is a category of onchain Artist Platforms: highlight, manifold, foundation, superrare. zora used to be in this category. the main goal of these platforms is to provide a way for Artists to release and monetize their Work (and ideally connect them with Collectors to buy). (ik you're familiar with all this) I see a lot of artists requesting zora features that are reminiscent of the features these types of tools provide, and that zora used to provide. things like custom pricing, mint duration, edition size limits, 1/1s etc -- but i think this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what zora is now. zora is now a *social* protocol with a focus on media, with an embedded money layer. which means all that Artist Tooling stuff doesn't make as much sense for this new zora. even the framing of thinking in terms of "editions" and "collections" and "collectors" feels antiquated for this new product.
I agree with this reframing. I'm not sure Lens/Orb are the best comparisons bc that also implies that Zora is a competitor to FC which I don't believe it is. Maybe I need to Zoom out though. If FC/Lens are Twitter and Zora is IG does that make them competition?
Kinda seeing this whole IG but for web3 thing play out, but still confused the primary difference from Rodeo. Is it primarily the secondaries liquidity?
a social app for artists because of the current user base. morphing into trad social day by day creator is kind of an empty descriptor of late tbh
💯it's a social platform
Happy hump day to those that celebrate — we're back with our 11th edition of Paragraph Picks, where we share a few hand-picked pieces of writing we enjoyed over the past week or so.
@tomu dives into each of the trending apps for sharing photos onchain — Moshi Cam, Rodeo, Zora — describing each app's unique features and rewards mechanism, and how he believes they’re shaping a new social behavior towards content. "We've shifted our perception of NFTs from being scarce assets created by specific artists to something we mint just for the fun of it." https://paragraph.xyz/@tomu/onchain-pictures
@curiocards writes about artist Daniel Friedman, who has a Stanford Ph.D. in Biology and combines his expertise in ant colonies and decentralization with his passion for art, creating intricate pen-based drawings that have gained recognition in the NFT world. "Noting his process, Friedman says it’s just about “repeating motifs, and making it kind of elusive of a large whole, a part that’s not on the page, which indicates a broader sense of challenge and complexity — [a] complexity on and off the page [which] is part of one’s relation with the stimuli.”" https://mirror.xyz/0x8Fbf5c7Ca1295e892cC865500A8420C3316b889c/ztyis_d2IhlBUAb0LI4mCjJrvomZr939O1T71a5-R1Y
@usv's Grace Carney explores how using ideas from social theory can help investors understand technological changes and potentially predict future changes. "During times [of intense technological innovation], there’s value to be had in leaning on disciplines like social theory to gain a more human, and therefore more holistic, view of the world changing around us." https://paragraph.xyz/@in-transit.com/toward-a-social-theory-of-venture
recently met @tomu at a Lisbon /farcasterfridays organized by @limone.eth. this dude is very tokenomics and onchain analytics strong. massive underrated OG in this space!
fan of these 'glasses interviews' !! btw i did finish the article on friday https://paragraph.xyz/@tomu/onchain-pictures
super cool 100 $degen
why mint pictures of our friends? i've been using @moshicam @rodeodotclub and @zora to understand how they differentiate and approach onchain pictures i wrote about their unique features and rewards mechanism, and how i believe they’re shaping a new social behavior towards content art cover by @tch https://paragraph.xyz/@tomu/onchain-pictures
@trebor69 @literature here's the article
I was hoping to find such a read ! Thanks
thanks for reading!
hell yeah
cheers to more fun onchain!
cheers to more music onchain!
yesss absolutely ♬♪
Great article, you explained all the platforms very well 420 $DEGEN 👏🫶
thanks for reading!! 100 $DEGEN
Great post ser 1000 $DEGEN
thanks Sid!!
Really good article, congrats, 40 $degen
Interesting! Thanks for using this cute ham for a cover.
would love to get your thoughts on /poidh as well! slightly different in that the photos are used to claim bounties, but at the end of the day very much an onchain photo collection app
oh i didn't know about poidh, i'll check it this weekend, thx!
nice! we're still a small app compared to the others, but I think you'll appreciate the bounty twist on collecting pics here's a $5 bounty you can claim by trying out the photo upload process: https://poidh.xyz/base/bounty/147 and a beginner's guide for if you run into any issues: https://paragraph.xyz/@poidh/poidh-beginner-guide
!!!