$KERMAN -> $ARCx (1st June 2022 Deadline)

Summary

It’s kind of hard to believe it’s been almost 2 years since I launched one of the first few social tokens on Ethereum — $KERMAN.

At the time of launching the token, I did it as an experiment to see where social tokens would go and how I could incorporate one as a content creator and someone active in the crypto ecosystem.

Since then, I’ve grown from being an engineer and exploring the ecosystem to founding ARCx and hiring out a talented team of over 10 amazing humans to build the future of on-chain identity and reputation.

When launching the token I didn’t really know where it’d lead but the initial idea was to:

• Provide it as an access token for my time
• Being part of the Telegram group (this was before Collab Land and score gating!)
• Having access to any future ventures (this was also before ARCx)

When ARCx was announced I promised that 1% of the ARCx network would go to $KERMAN holders. This ultimately meant that the token let my supporters get exposure to i ARCx, before it actually existed! Something like this would have never been possible before.

Claim your $ARCx Tokens

Today finally marks the day where $KERMAN holders can claim and start receiving ARCx tokens. Details are outlined below:

• 1,000,000 ARCx tokens will be distributed to $KERMAN holders over the next 2.5 years.
• $KERMAN tokens will be burned forever once deposited and you will be able to claim your $ARCx tokens from this point forward.
• To participate, you must deposit your $KERMAN tokens no later than 1st of June 2022
• I will not be personally staking any of my $KERMAN tokens into the staking contract. All of the 1m ARCx tokens will be split amongst all the other $KERMAN holders.
• You can visit kermans.arcx.money to stake your tokens today
• The $KERMAN token will cease to have any functionality after this point, other than to be burned for ARCx

Lessons

Back when I launched $KERMAN, it was easily one of the most controversial things on Crypto Twitter at the time. Personal tokens were a whole new class of tokens and NFTs were virtually non-existent. Reflecting back I think there’s been a few clues that may help the next generation of people launching social tokens or social NFTs:

• Generally time redeemability doesn’t really manifest as a use case for these instruments. While I did have people who did redeem for time, it wasn’t something people found interesting or wanted to use (given the potential upside on the tokens themselves)
• Social tokens and communities have proven product market fit, however it seems to be more on the community side than the personal side. Friends with Benefits and countless others have demonstrated this thesis. Increasingly the membership aspect is being replaced with NFTs rather than ERC20 tokens which is a key distinction. Managing liquidity for an ERC20 for something as simple as an ERC20 token is way too much of an overhead and typically not worth it.
• For individuals doing social tokens, I’d almost back them exclusively if they were only future call options. Many people are okay with speculating on your future and what it entails. If your prospective venture/career looks bullish so will your chart. This was a weird side effect where friends and family could actually correlate life events with the volatility of the token itself!? Kind of dystopian but cool at the same time.

Looking back, it’s still crazy to see how it all played out. I’m extremely thankful for everyone who has been a supporter so far and has continued to be as ARCx gets built out. I’m excited for what’s to come from here.