Studies suggest it’s easier to create memories when more than one of our five senses are combined in an activity. In the age of the Internet where our eyes are generally the only players at hand, creating memories is hard. Interestingly, social media solves this problem - the creation and storage of digital memory. Can’t remember what you did Sunday? Check Instagram - they’ll store your memories for ✌️ free ✌️.
But, we all know that free lunch is not so free. We pay for social memory storage with our time while being spoon-fed whatever the algorithm wants [cough: ads]. Need to show off your Instagram memories on Twitter or better yet maybe make money with them? Good luck with that.
Thankfully Web3 and all its cool tools are shaking up the digital memory space. Best-in-class NFTs store creators’ work online while also introducing the idea of portable assets that anyone can buy or sell.
But, what about all the conversations around the NFTs? Besides the price, do we know what the NFTs fans think about a given NFT? Today, NFT conversations (and their digital memories) are - you guessed it - stored primarily on Twitter.
So how can we create digital memories not subject to Web2 social systems?
“What is needed is an open curation protocol for NFTs with transparent incentives for third parties to add social context to NFTs…In this Loud Paper, we propose a solution to centralized curation through a social curation protocol with transparent incentives and expression-based investments backed by NFTs we call ‘reactions’.” ~ Loud Paper for RARA’s Social Curation Protocol
Translation: Reactions are social memories for NFTs.
Memories from NFT NYC
Speaking of memories, RARA’s team + community paired up with Skybravo + the crew at Voxels to create a space for fellow memory makers at NFT NYC. Streamed into Voxels (formerly Cryptovoxels), the events reached far beyond the 300+ who stepped foot in the Lower East Side venue.
As an open NFT metaverse platform, Voxels excels at digital memories. Anyone can create memories when experiencing Voxel’s 3-dimensions and you had to be there moments - something severely missing on social media platforms. Only so many people can fit comfortably into Connie’s DiGiTAL STUDIO of memories (NFTs) in the Music District where each event creates memories (IYKYK).
Ben Nolan and the Voxel’s crew make for pretty good memory creators, too.
For attendees, RARA made beaded necklaces and trinkets with all the memes (“LFG”, “WAGMI”, “GM”, and more).
All giveaways were documented with the king of nostalgia - polaroids.
By Thursday afternoon, RARA’s team was riding the Coney Island Cyclone. It was a hot day but the local beer, Atlantic breeze, and 🎢 roller coasters of all shapes and sizes ensured we stayed cool.
All things told, NFT NYC was a success for RARA’s team. We met our newest team member (Gm Ishii!) for the first time, had our first IRL party, planned the next steps for the Launch Plan (we’ve got a launch date!), and created a lot of on and off-chain memories, too.
Reactions = Social Memories, On-Chain
This leads us back to RARA - we are officially launching our social curation protocol in a private beta on Saturday, July 23rd, at noon ET (RSVP here). Powered by NFT-backed reactions, we hope to create a new dimension on top of NFTs - digital memories for NFT fans, owners, and artists.
For as little as 1 $USDC (cost of a reaction), anyone can react to and, if desired, add a comment when curating an NFT - providing time-stamped, social context on-chain forever.
Bonus*: make money when others react + comment after you. Reactions, curation, and social memories FTW.*
Follow us on Twitter @rara_social for updates.
Sign up for electronic mail updates at RARA.social.
Join our community on discord at RARA.house.
Finally, register your NFTs as reactions in the Genesis Reaction Registry by July 14th at register.rara.social. Be the first to make money when your reactions are used to curate NFTs starting July 23rd, 2022.