How is Talent Protocol different from…?
If you’re new to social token space, no need to read any further. Talent Protocol is the best protocol out there. Join our Discord, leave us your private keys, and we’ll take care of the rest ser.
Jokes aside, one of the Talent Protocol values is valuing cooperation over competition. That’s why Talent Protocol doesn’t see any of the other social token projects as competitors but rather as complements. But how exactly do we differ from “them”? Let’s check the closest equivalents.
Bitclout
Bitclout is probably the first equivalent a web3-savvy person thinks of when they come across Talent Protocol:
Buy someone’s coin? ✅
Connect with others? ✅
But that’s where the similarities already end. Bitclout and Talent Protocol actually have entirely different raison d’être. Bitclout allows you to buy someone’s coin, but that coin is neither officially approved by many people on the network, nor is it tracking anything specific. There’s no utility to the token like getting perks when holding an amount of someone’s tokens or being able to buy someting with them. That makes Bitclout a purely speculative vehicle.
On Talent Protocol, on the other hand, a talent launches their token following a careful vetting and onboarding process we call Talent Camp. Also, the token tracks the talent’s career or, to be more precise, the confidence of the talent’s supporters in their career. That’s why a talent’s personal token does not start floating until a maximum market capitalization is reached. Only then is a talent deemed to have passed the “proof of talent” and allowed to trade freely. Therefore, speculating on talent is not really attractive, but investors are much better off buying, holding, and incurring network rewards.
Rally
Another fairly similar project (and inspiration) is Rally. Rally is actually closer to Talent Protocol than Bitclout but the latter generated more headlines when launching, so many people still equal social tokens with Bitclout.
Rally also allows individuals to issue their own token and has elements Talent Protocol will also have such as perks and (possibly) services. However, the big difference lies in the protocols’ target audiences. Rally focuses on (successful) creators only (and does a great job at that). Say you are a successful blogger/vlogger/musician, Rally is a great monetization tool while “giving your audience a piece of you.” Most interaction on there happens between creators and token holders.
Talent Protocol will also include a track for artists and creators in the future, but will focus on undiscovered talent that already do great work but that’s not showing on their social followings. That’s true to our value of helping who needs it the most, and one of the reasons why we launched Talent Protocol in the first place: to enable everyone to use Web3 tools to improve their professional life. Also, Talent Protocol will focus on incentivizing interaction between creators. A creator-oriented track would thus specifically onboard creators that can benefit from network effects when cooperating with each other.
For now, though, we focus mostly on founders, builders, and other web3-savvy folks that will help lay the foundation for Talent Protocol. In that sense, TAL and RLY are quite a bit different.
Braintrust
Sometimes people also mistake Talent Protocol for a “crypto Upwork.” But that’s not the case because the protocol’s goal is not to give people work (although that might be a positive external effect). That is actually what Braintrust is doing: being a decentralized and community-owned Upwork with valuable gigs for freelancers.
Talent may be able to provide services on Talent Protocol in the future, but it wouldn’t be the protocol’s main purpose. Also, supporters may source work from the protocol, but that would not be their main motivation. They would rather invest for emotional reasons (feeling of ownership, similar to NFTs), financial reasons (network rewards), or social reasons (signaling). Thus, both protocols solve different problems.
But what about boomer web2 platforms, ser?
Ah yes, web2.
There are a couple of similar projects in the web2 space, so let’s address those as well.
Guilty as charged, we sometimes still express-pitch Talent Protocol as LinkedIn meets Patreon. In some ways, it’s true. They are both professional networks focused on career growth (or so they say in LinkedIn’s case). However:
Web2: You pay the network.
Web3: The network pays you.
And let’s not even begin with notification bombardment, recruiter siege, and service provider raids in your DMs. None of that will happen on Talent Protocol.
Patreon
And what about the second part of the LinkedIn meets Patreon pitch?
Upon closer examination, Patreon is more a web2 version of Rally. A way for creators to monetize their audience with little to no interaction between creators. A developer would have no use for Patreon, but he could benefit from joining Talent Protocol (if it’s a web3-curious developer).
Polywork
A lesser-known but upcoming professional network is Polywork. They correctly realized that many people, especially younger ones, are tired of LinkedIn and don’t feel represented in the single-layered LinkedIn way.
However, Polywork is a great platform, but only an incremental improvement. It doesn’t allow people to potentially create a personal economy. It doesn’t foster having a stake in someone’s career. And it’s not focused on undiscovered talent but onboards mostly California-based tech people.
On Deck
Even less known to the general public is On Deck, a talent-focused mentorship network. This is probably the closest web2 equivalent to Talent Protocol, as they focus on building a community of talented individuals and connecting them to mentors and investors. Following our “cooperation over competition” approach, Talent Protocol can learn from some of the processes OD implements. The biggest difference is that Talent Protocol utilizes web3 tools and onboards talent to the blockchain-based ownership economy, while OD still follows a centralized approach.
Conclusion
As you can see, (almost) all of these are great products, but none does exactly what Talent Protocol will do. So, if you want to launch your own token or back talent you believe in, head here to do so 🤝.
