At least 300M $pointless in 20 days to those early, active & on-chain with Lens.
Pointless....until it isn't
  • 50m $pointless to liquidity providers
  • 50m $pointless to collectors of art nfts on lens
  • 50m $pointless to followers of papajams, Sydney & dydymoon
  • 50m $pointless to good vibes art, writing, dev etc posts
  • 50m $pointless to art/music/writing collectors of papajams’
  • 50m $pointless for product/app reviews in the lens ecosystem

GM

It's been a while!

Here we are on publication nineteen, 28 weeks after the first. Aiming to do the finale by the 30 week mark which will make it one every 1.5 weeks or so. Not bad.

In that time we've highlighted many in the lens garden that have been early, onchain and active brimming with optimism, creativity and enterprise. There have been meme competitions, price action, NFT sales, radio shows, shaking out of the bots, tipping, and impressive improvements in the web3 social experience.

A reflection on the pointless theme, started in regards to airdrop farming, is more deeply rooted a positive form of nihilism. Many products, experiences or phenomena seem meaningless, till they aren't. And it takes a very confusing form of psychosis for anyone to will that end state into being. It usually starts with one or two true believers, followed by the early adopters, and eventually the mainstream to whom it now seems completely obvious - it wasn't.

Yet till we get to that promised land its a land of experimentation, failure, rug pulls, FUD, momentary highs, disasterous lows, hopium and comraderie that's built from experiencing all these things together. The vibes we generate are our oxygen, so lets make them good ones. In that spirit, here are some gems i've found perusing what's easily becoming one of my favourite social spaces to connect with others.

First though, some alpha.

Alpha

Cyber is the first restaked Ethereum Layer 2 designed for social and optimized for mass adoption. It serves as the social layer for web3 applications and the gateway for the next wave of users to access web3 experiences, tools and financial liquidity across all Layer 2 ecosystems. They are focused on aggressively experimenting with native-AA, passkey curve precompile, gas sponsorship, and other economic designs on social data.

On Zksync @aave made its debut! Also ZKfest is ongoing from September 2nd - 13th, a music-festival themed campaign to showcase projects building on ZKsync through digital events and activities with gaming, NFT projects, DeFi protocols, and builders on the Elastic Chain. Join these activities to try new applications, discover opportunities, and win prizes along the way. For example:

Phaver creator program spearheaded by @saskasandholm and @chriscomrie is accepting nominations (you can nominate yourself or others) and is designed to support musicians, digital artists, video creators, gamers, analysts, traders and comedians. There are currently 100+ participants and new applications are continuously screened with a view towards attracting artists, Web3 Crypto Native Creators and established Web2 Creators to migrate to Phaver. Participants receive support and exclusive perks for producing high quality content.

Kaira NFT drops as a free mint on zora. Lets support one of the leading Lens clients whose unique UI/UX & curation algo is much appreciated.

Linea Culture szn participants should remember to complete your Proof of Humanity: https://poh.linea.build. If you are active on Scroll then there are also new POH badges to be unlocked on the canvas dashboard they've created.

animaprotocol NFT is a super quick proof of humanity checker which takes a short video of your face moving, doesn't store it, and saves the verification as an NFT. It looks like they want users to "come update your NFT every month and take a new PoP challenge to prove your wallet is active and held by a human. You improve your reputation over time and get eligible for higher rewards." So be wary of the hamster wheel you are getting on!

Writing Contests

Tis the season for writing (isn't it always?)

KiwiNews has launched a new writing competition "the pluralistic future of L2s" with 1,200 in USDC prizes and distribution from the Kiwi, t2 & Lens communities. Contact @macbudowski & @timdaub for further details. The contest starts on the 2nd of September and ends on the 20th of September. The contest is inspired by Vitalik’s essay: Layer 2s as cultural extensions of Ethereum.

There are a veritable smorgasbord of t2world writing contest opportunities available across topics like:

  • Exploring the Ether (onboarding) organised by @the2077collective
  • Travels OnChain (memorable travel experiences // blockchain shaping adventures) organised by @SilviaMogas.eth
  • Alongside workshops in poetry, creative storywriting etc

For our billinguals a writing competition being hosted by Sitio with hundreds of dollars in prizes is enumerated in their latest article. "Futures" is the theme with an invitation for writers to explore any cultural expression that can evolve over time via any medium they so choose e.g. experimental writing, literature, poetry, essays, or other lyrical forms—to reflect on a time that has not yet arrived but is shaped by our present actions and is in constant flux.

Good Vibes

And now, onto focusing on individuals shining bright in the Lensverse.

Shoutout to this process video from @awkquariann in /wipflow offering an insight into a cool looking creative process. 1m $pointless awarded to you!

Eliankutse is on a curation spree and has been empowered to rain $bonsai onto a series of artists spotlighting their work. Definitely worth going and doing some recon on his picks so far, amazing: @artbyjah, @toddpham. An enthusiastic collector who has demonstrated wonderful taste and support for others alongside their own talents, 1m $pointless heading your way!

Absolutely loving the flourishing Spanish speaking crew epitomised by clubs like "Lens Cuba" on Orb who just reached 100 members! As a long suffering learner of the language and culture its a priviledge to be able to read it spoken in a familiar context and parse the completely wrong thing before chucking it into a translator. Appreciate those like @ceciliajess who are open and willing to share awesome stuff about their lives in their native tongue, 1m $pointless for you!

Talent protocol builder score is now visible on Etherscan! They just released a new cards feature that's pretty darn dope and aggregates your attestations, DAO activity, humanity score, airdrops etc - well worth checking out! Thanks for sharing, and building: 1m $pointless to @juampi.

It's the middle of Korea blockchain week and our very own @stani took to the stage (still wearing his Eras Tour bracelet according to @paris) a few times in advance of the Lens builders brunch. 1m $pointless to @erica_kang who is cohosting the event as builder of KryptoPlanet ecosystem whilst simultaneously being pregnant! Check them out on youtube and/or discord.

@thedefimetro breaks down Phaver $SOCIAL tokenomics. TLDR: 30% user rewards, 25% ecosystem treasury, 18% team allocation (locked for one year). 1m $pointless to you, do please keep us apprised of Phaver developments.

*Note there is a @phaver Creator Workshop is scheduled for Wednesday Sept 11th featuring learnings from @jessyjeanne & @tinyrainboot on how to grow on Phaver.

Livestreams

It seems bloomers.tv is COOKING with some epic streams to highlight.

* very cool to see clubs are now recognised in hey.xyz as well as on Orb.
🌳

First up, @simracing with a two hour stream blazing the track at Monza, Italy. 1m $pointless to you for helping to build out the content in this vertical on lens. Formula 1 is a global behemoth and the fourth-most-watched sport worldwide: "In 2022 alone, 1.5 billion fans tuned in on TV and 5.7 million fans attended live races in 19 countries across five continents".

Taking things further, @Bogie.eth did an eight hour marathon stream hosted in the /metaverse club. 1m $pointless incoming for such infectious enthusiasm.

Finally, 1m $pointless heading over to @drdoge for lighting the /gaming club up a "Destiny" (name of the game) masterclass. Watch out Twitch!

Art

Cyber chain has been taking the creative space by storm after a twelve week layer3 campaign that has brough onchain art to the fore. One of my favourite artists SOJU (@notgonnamakeit) has been prolific in making stunningly creative contributions to Social Summer for which we are honoured to offer a 1m $pointless vote of kudos!

Philosophical thoughts are always due some love here and @colibris rarely fails to dissappoint, sending 1m $pointless for your wondrous photography & musings.

Product Reviews

Sharing both positive, and especially negative feedback is something we (myself included) don't do hardly enough. So here's some love to those who put themselves out there either to share an encouraging note, and/or to help craft better user experiences. As early adopters this is one of our highest callings!

1m $pointless to @yoshimare for this Orb video

Orb user interviews via TG

papajams.eth crew

Shining a light on some papajams.lens followers who are active and that brighten up my feed on a regular basis: worth a follow!

@cristinaspinei primarily shares stunning music content featuring snippets of her work as a composer and performer across orchestras, chamber ensembles, and ballet. She is a Nashville-based American artist building in web3 who has spoken on the TED stage about music NFTs as well as using her platform to advocate for and support other creators in the space.

@ibraheem shares tales of pilgrimmages across the world in service of his passion for culture, heritage, and community. He is tapping into buildspace + onchain summer to develop "The Tapestry" as a storytelling platform that galvanises content and experiences onchain. There's a healthy mix of touching grass (kudos to the archery skills), artistic as well as architectural appreciation plus public goods funding including a recent $bonsai mint for Gitcoin funding.

@jakubrusiecki is founder of Social Graph Ventures which launched in November 2023 to invest into onchain social apps and middleware. They recently launched a version of shark tank for web3 called "Onchain Bear Cage" using a combination of apps like unlonely, jokerace, and lens to host and select winners of $10k usdc in prizes. Excited to see which apps and experiences they help bring to fruition. A little alpha for builders, read their mirror article to join the community on TG.

Also sending 1m $pointless each to recent collectors @check and @dankshard of this free mint, thanks for the support!

Sydney & dydymoon crew

There is a healthy discussion ongoing about initiatives to identify real users through a migration mechanism that features a burn mechanism.

Contributors so far @superluminal, @iamtherealyakuza & @cavernaeremita are receiving 1m $pointless each for their notes in the comments. Have your say!

Liquidity Providors

Sending out 100k $pointless to each and every single pointless/matic LP providor. Appreciate your contributions!

  • 0x0d32FdDf343d92F55b5F21726F35eC1e8e38F468
  • 0x34b1C9ef777eAd29ddD0D51049D7810B92eE0EBf
  • 0xFa1F780A446E9CDb4c51b031686Bcf8b02F8Ed7C
  • 0xeb0e6ecd0e78b0a84ecd9663a041f453c454a99d
  • 0xcc916d4B84E2b796036B69CA93940067ba828460
  • 0x71452bFDF6A38B5FFdCc6e0896C7F51b0E889bdC

Update

In closing, an update from the captain of the ship himself. Founder and lead dev for $pointless @SydneyBro confirms the token is going crosschain, as has also been confirmed by the bonsai token crew 🌳 Bonsai blackjack is also live!

Note that i found handlefinder incredibly useful in helping compile this! Here are some stats we can look back on in a few years and revel in where it all began.

Would love to hear predictions on how these change over the next ten years!

Connect

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