Whitepaper Mini | NFTs with a Dividend-Based Incentive Design that Turns Individual Intention into Empowered Action for Building Positive Brand Equity
Abstract
Welcome to the LiquidiTao project: an NFT community with a deliberately designed incentive structure set up to reduce the frequency and effects of apathy — the feeling of discouragement between intention and the decision to act — which can have detrimental outcomes and can lower morale in all kinds of organizations. We believe that the removal of apathy through sufficiently compelling incentives will increase the likelihood of positive action at the individual level, and that in turn, this will have a ripple effect on the collective community as a whole, taking the form of deeper community camaraderie, a higher amount of innovative ideas, and an elevated sense of creative freedom among members.
The LiquidiTao project provides incentives through a community treasury that rewards the creation of beauty via physical installations, which are derivative works of VanPoure’s Topography NFTs. These transparent NFTs allow owners to design stunning immersive experiences through the process of sublimation — digital printing of the transparent .png file — resulting in physical representations of the digital asset on high-shine ChromaLuxe aluminum or another physical substrate. These immersive experiences — created by printing Topography NFTs onto this waterproof & fireproof aluminum backing — allow for flexible and renewable luxury spaces that are connected to tradable non-fungible tokens. VanPoure refers to the fourth-dimensional blockchain planet whose surrounding galaxies shape shift into different elements. The Topography NFTs are snapshots of the galaxy in these momentary states.
On its own, the concept of sublimation is simplistic enough in nature to eliminate the need for a lengthy whitepaper. However, the community structure contains enough complexity to merit further explanation. It is set up to work as a positive feedback loop along several intersecting pathways — referred to in this paper as channels — which are a collection of individual and collective incentives working in tandem as members influence the brand’s trajectory. Therefore, illuminating the considerations that make up the incentive design is the purpose of the Whitepaper Mini. The ways in which the channels give members more nuanced control over the collective experience are outlined in such a way as to highlight multiple ways for interested audiences to become involved.
Introduction
One of the wonderful things about blockchain technology is the marked absence of a trusted third party to mediate, validate and manage transactions, since the ledger system replaces this function. There are many ways in which DeFi teams approach the ideal of a trustless and decentralized structure. One of the common problems of decentralization is the fact that a project’s early infrastructure is highly dependent on the capabilities, business intelligence, and resources of the developers. If instead, the holders were given the ability to directly elevate the project’s valuation through opportunities to build real world brand equity, then it significantly reduces the need to focus on promises of high valuations in the future — which holders traditionally have little influence over. It reverses the former paradigm, and puts the power in the hands of the holders to focus on building positive brand equity right now.
In the spirit of building a structure under which holders can take initiative in consciously designing the kind of community they wish to see, VanPoure constructed an incentive design which rewards just such a proactive approach. The incentives are the most lucrative for the holders who demonstrate follow-through on their intended creative applications. Before outlining the incentive structure, it is important to clearly define the first principles behind its design — in this case, the removal of the blocks to empowered action at the individual level — so that it is clear how the incentives support the overall vision.
First Principles
If a community uses an incentive system which only benefits certain individuals at the cost of others, then the collective as a whole is not necessarily incentivized to help each other succeed, driving an “every man for himself,” attitude (except in individuals who consciously choose another attitude apart from the existing incentive system). If we look closely at the effect that individual incentives — whether deliberately designed or not — can have on collective attitudes, it follows that by manipulating their design we can influence behavior on both levels. This is useful in avoiding unwanted behaviors and attitudes which need to be rooted out for the sake of a productive and thriving community of members.
As a concrete example, we can examine the phenomenon of voter apathy. This condition is commonly blamed on the individual’s own mental paradigm that their “vote does not matter.” Instead of trying to change each and every individual’s mind about this issue, it may actually start to disappear if the voting system was changed so that votes are no longer calculated using single-choice voting, but are now calculated quadratically. What the calculation change does is incentivize the individual to exercise their power to vote because quadratic calculation allows them to demonstrate both a selection and the intensity of feeling for the particular issues and hand, which is something that single-choice voting cannot offer.
Stated differently, individual apathy tends to disappear when the structure of the voting method can ensure that both the nature and degree of the voter’s feelings are taken into consideration, which then influences the actual outcome to be more in line with their views. The apathy from before can be seen as a byproduct of dis-incentivizing the decision to vote, since single-choice voting tends to drown out independent thinking or less popular ideas which may have great value.
The fact that changing the individual incentives like this could have a ripple effect on the collective level should merit further examination of the interaction between individual and collective-level incentives. Since neither will ever exist in a vacuum, the more proactive approach is to determine how they best support each other in the context of everyday issues.
Community Structure
VanPoure’s community structure comprises two incentive types: individual incentives — which drive singular instances of beauty or artistic initiatives — and collective incentives that drive collaboration, global market expansion, and community celebrations. This two-part structure has a more robust ability to provide members with opportunities to increase brand equity and improve valuation than it could if the system relied on one type of incentive alone. Without either incentive type, the chances of a high-quality community experience for holders is considerably lower, and opportunities for connection are less frequent. This way, the individual and collective incentives can reinforce and support each other over time, resulting in a merit-based reward system amongst a spirit of collaboration.
Normally, a company or brand has a hierarchical structure such that the decisions which affect brand equity are made by a select few individuals at the top. Voting among the VanPoure community gives this type of decision making power to members. In order to promote sustained interest among members, individual incentives include the funding of physical installations from the community treasury, as well as quarterly dividend rewards for the holder who designed and executed the installation. These individual incentives are the primary drivers for the collective incentives (the channels of collaboration) because their content inspires other members to push themselves and the community even farther through the strengthening of community pathways for the cultivation of creativity.
Before discussing the specifics of how this incentive blueprint works, it is useful to point out that VanPoure’s community structure is markedly different from the common Discord culture which is the epicenter of many NFT communities thus far, and this is by conscious design. VanPoure seeks to channel the community focus so that it is used to innovate and create things that have never been done before, and such processes rely heavily on both visuals and narrative, which brings shape, line and color to nascent ideas.
Discord’s indexing capabilities can be useful for identifying and discussing problems or ‘sound bytes’ of information, but because VanPoure’s decision making process is so highly dependent on narrative, the platform Medium takes the place of Discord for centralized communication, celebration announcements and featured installations. The secure Snapshot dApp is used for voting on proposals, and the deadlines for submitting and voting are announced on the Medium publication.
Installation Basics
Owners of topography NFTs have a limited license to create derivative works of the NFTs they own — either for personal or commercial purposes — and this license is fully transferred to a new owner when the NFT is sold or gifted to another individual. For more information, review our End-User License Agreement on our website at VanPoure.com.
Installations are physical derivatives of the topography NFTs, sublimated onto physical substrates such as ChromaLuxe aluminum, which shares the high-shine, high luster metallic quality that the galaxy NFTs embody. VanPoure offers its community members opportunities to design and build these immersive experiences that will elevate the brand’s equity both in the cryptocurrency space and among existing market intersections for technology, interior design, and luxury goods.
Large scale installations can take up an entire wall, room, or commercial space, and can be easily switched out with a new NFT mural design once the hardware has been set in place with a laser level. Interested audiences can discover more about creating renewable, bespoke installations using the process of sublimation on our Medium publication. VanPoure’s articles Sublimation Basics and Next Level Style illustrate the kind of creative applications that arise from a community in which members build on each other’s past work to take the installations to new heights.
Incentive Structure
Individual-Level Incentives. The structure for the individual incentives relies upon a community treasury which allocates 12% of sales to holder-designed installations which successfully pass a community vote. The individual is further incentivized to complete the installation because once it is finished, they qualify for an equal share of the airdrop dividend pool (15% of sales) on a quarterly basis for as long as the address holds a VanPoure NFT at the time of the airdrops.
Diagram 1 illustrates how the funds are allocated to incentivize both the designing of the installation (Treasury Funds circle), and then further incentivize its execution (Dividend Pool circle). The philanthropic circle (Scholarship Fund circle) fulfills a pathway of giving back to the global community through partnership with an institute of higher education in visual art.
Diagram 1.
The purpose is to incentivize both beautiful, original works and prompt follow through on their execution. Therefore, the dividend pool is allocated only to those holders who meet both of these criteria.
With these incentives in place, we can expect to see a higher frequency of physical derivative works and more interest in joining a community which offers airdrop rewards for derivative works on the physical plane. This funding process repeats every quarter and full details about the submission process are listed under the About the LiquidiTao project page. Interested audiences can learn more about the actual design process in the VanPoure guide entitled How to Submit a Proposal. To learn more about how a proposal passes the community vote, please see our guide entitled How to Vote on Proposals.
Collective-Level Incentives. To support individuals actively creating installations and to elevate the member experience as a whole, it is useful to have pathways that inspire other members to become involved. To accomplish this, VanPoure created three pathways that are designed to work in tandem with the individual incentives. They include the following channels:
- channel of inspiration: the centralization of completed work on the VanPoure Medium publication and its @vanpoure.atelier Instagram
- channel of invitation: the provision of request-able party invitations hosts can send out for post-installation celebrations/events; and
- channel of intermediaries: the centralization of the global community using Medium’s storytelling features to keep members informed of upcoming events, opportunities to help with installations, and how-to tutorials for alternative physical substrate applications invented by our holders.
Collectively, these channels are meant to inspire holders to stay aware of in-progress installations, get alerts when an installation they voted for is to be completed, make suggestions/comments and put in requests for an invitation to any celebration or members-only social events.
We invite interested audiences to follow our Medium publication to stay on the precipice of VanPoure’s evolution, and eventually to become involved more deeply in the creative process. Professionals such as designers, architects, metal workers, or artists who want to provide specialty services for a particular installation that is in the works may leave a comment on the Medium post with a short idea or proposal and the best way to reach you. Following this procedure will allow all interested holders to be able to get in touch with you as installations begin to pop up more frequently. Holders can include these types of costs when they submit proposals for treasury funded installations as well.
Audiences can learn more about the community channels and VanPoure’s installation celebrations on our Medium publication. Medium is a platform where members demonstrate the community values of pro-activeness and the spontaneous creation of beauty, and it goes beyond simple inspiration. Conditions along this channel are set up such that for every obstacle along the way to a successful installation, there is an opportunity for an interested audience member to step in and become a part of overcoming it.
The LiquidiTao Project’s Intangible Assets
The LiquidiTao assets have symbolic value as intangible assets beyond the initial floor-pricing models. Intangibles refers to a certain type of asset class which is not easily quantifiable, but nevertheless have inherent and significant value to an organization or individual. VanPoure NFTs — and the structured incentives which surround their ownership — is an exploration of how cryptocurrency can elevate the ways we treat our resources and our communities when dogma and politics are no longer dominating the collective narrative, leaving members to decide on the trajectory. One of the pathways through which this occurs are the array of elements that the galaxy takes on. These are imbued with value through the owner’s conscious intentions, and it is the process of working consciously with these intentions which can have significant ripple effects on the member experience and the instances of beauty which arise in the real world.
As an example, consider a comparison of the outward appearances of two concrete, identical actions. These two actions would have very different outcomes if the underlying intention that drives the actions are not the same. Since the underlying intention occurs on the invisible plane, and the action occurs in the sphere of the visible, the cause of any significant results in the situation is commonly ascribed to the appearance of the action, instead of its underlying intention — which is the more powerful cause — but more difficult to observe or measure. This is because the surface action was a result of the underlying intention, which can also be called either a state-of-being or a state-of-mind, as the case may be. It is these states which move obstacles out of the way, and not the surface appearances of performing one action or another; the latter is simply a byproduct arising out of the former states.
The LiquidiTao assets themselves have intangible value as vehicles of intention. They serve as a pervading visual reminder that power is always sourced from within, and this power can be utilized to overcome any obstacles in its path, despite how overwhelming they may appear to be. This intangible value is the driving force behind the concept of phygital luxury. The word ‘phygital’ evokes a sense of expansion beyond physical boundaries. Thus, the LiquidiTao project’s phygital luxury movement is about an inner feeling of abundance from which we feel more inspired to develop our talents and share our gifts with each other. The project hashtag #phygitalluxury connects this shared experience across the globe, and brings this sense of inner abundance to all sorts of audiences.
Conclusion
By providing the financial means, artistic license and creative freedom to choose the trajectory of their experience within the community, VanPoure utilizes a strategy wherein one individual’s actions can have a wide-ranging effect on the collective experience. With a structure in place that allows individual members to directly elevate the brand’s trajectory, these individual incentives simultaneously benefit the collective by driving up the projects’ valuation over time, and by inspiring new creative applications as further exploration takes place.
Finally, the goal of the incentive structure as a method to reduce the occurrence of apathy by removing the blocks to direct influence has great value in many kinds of communities and industries. Further experimentation with these kinds of aims would be useful to determine best practices. Observations should strive to pinpoint the first principles of such incentive designs in order to separate them from the effects of confounding variables which will always differ across communities.
