Take the monetary requirement out of NFTs
Otterspace
Otterspace is a new NFT startup that has recently successfully raised #3.7 million to build a new protocol and application with the explicit goal of reducing the financial footprint in web3.
The seed round of the project was co-led by Cherry Crypto and Inflection and was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners and Coinbase Ventures. After the successful round, the company is now valued at $20 million.
Otterspace was founded back in February by ex-Soundcloud employees. The team consists of Rahul Rumalla, Emily Furlong, and VC Ben Dobbrick who was previously employed by Btov Partners and Paua Ventures, two companies that also participated in the funding round.
The Goal
The goal of Otterspace and NFTs is to take the financial part out of the equation. Instead of purchasing NFTs users would earn the digital asset. The assets would be given as rewards for certain “behaviors” or participation in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The contributor would earn the NFT “badge” which would come with a host of its own benefits.
When speaking in an interview with the media Dobbrick explained how the badges would work within the system stating that the badges will allow teams to be formed and core contributors to be identified. There would be permissions to a space on Discord or Telegram which would be automated allowing for votes on governance. Dobbrick also explained that the system could potentially be used to pay a monthly salary. Currently Bankless uses the NFTs of Otterspace to assign roles and provide compensation.
Definancialize web3
Currently, in the system of DAOs those that have the money have the power, it is a dynamic that closely resembles that of a more centralized world and society, one which goes against some of the broader goals of web3 which pushes for an equal footing for all. DAOs are built upon this principle of decentralization, giving the ability to vote on proposals dealing with new projects to financials for the group. All investors are given the ability to vote if they have a token that gives them access to the DAO, the issue is the more money you have the more power you have in the DAO thus making it somewhat lopsided.
What this means is basically the same as the real world, the only ones that have any power are the ones that were able to purchase the most amount of tokens. In a decentralized manner the best outcome would be if every player had an equal amount of pull. With the amount of financial input into crypto and web3 by what can be called “whales,” it seems hard to have a fair system if they once again can throw their money around and gain control. Otterspace believes that by taking the financial aspect out of NFTs and DAOs the ground can be more even allowing even those that couldn’t purchase large amounts of tokens to have an equal amount of say in what goes on in the DAO. The tokens created by Otterspace would be given and, since they are on the EP-4973 interface, cannot be sold.
The Future
The system created by Otterspace is currently in beta on 15 other DAOs and Dobbrick has hinted that other platforms are interested in the service as well and expects other decentralized entities to be interested as well. Otterspace is set to launch on the Ethereum mainnet sometime this year but is currently set on Layer 2 Optimism. If this platform were to take off we would see another evolution of NFT technology, perhaps one that can level the playing field in an ever-evolving web3 world.
