After Zora airdrop goes awry, what’s next for Web3 creator economy?

Onchain social network Zora has built a reputation as a popular tool for artists, musicians and other creatives to monetize their content onchain, but the recent launch of its eponymous ZORA token has left many users confused and dissatisfied.

The token’s price tanked shortly after launch, with users and observers complaining about everything from poor communication from the team to the token’s distribution and utility models. 

This comes amid an overall decline in interest in the onchain creator economy and a changing perspective on whether blockchain tools like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are still useful for creatives who want to monetize their work on the blockchain.

With creators and builders shifting focus and NFTs no longer selling like they used to, does the ZORA token drop symbolize the end of the creator-driven NFT model? Maybe not, but many creatives are changing their perspectives and the role blockchain should play in the creator economy. 

ZORA token launch and airdrop go awry

The ZORA token launched on April 23, and it quickly became a point of controversy among users. To start, Zora did not officially announce that it had gone live until two hours after it was already trading, leading to confusion on social media.

The token’s price quickly fell by over 50% within those roughly two hours, from $0.037 to $0.017, adding to users’ complaints. It has since fallen even further, sitting around $0.013 at the time of writing.

ZORA’s tokenomics also became a point of contention. 45% of the supply is reserved for the team and investors, while 25% is for the treasury — leaving 20% for community incentives and just 10% for the user airdrop. This led some to complain that the project was keeping too much for itself.

Others disliked its general lack of utility. Zora repeatedly stated that the token “is for fun only and does not entitle its holders to any governance rights or a claim on any equity ownership in Zora or its products.” But the project seemed to respond to this criticism on May 1 by announcing that ZORA would have some additional functionalities within the network.

However, many others came to the defense of the project, saying that sharing on the platform has been financially lucrative. Others were simply thankful they received anything at all.

Singer Vérité, who has racked up hundreds of millions of streams as an independent artist and was an early adopter of Web3 tech, told Cointelegraph that “on a…