RAE TOKEN
A QUICK INTRO
Youtube is worth $500 billion.
And it’s easy to see why.
They have the best content creators on the planet.
Youtube is worth $500 billion.
And it’s easy to see why.
They have the best content creators on the planet.
But those creators only get a small fraction of the value they bring to YouTube. In spite of its $500 billion valuation, YouTube only pays creators between 2-3% of that amount each year.
Creators as a group would have the leverage to demand more from YouTube, but they don’t operate as a group. Creators are fragmented. The result is that the vast majority of the value creators collectively bring to a network, like YouTube, gets siphoned away from them.
Networks grow exponentially, and the company and investors get rich as they do. Meanwhile, creators get commoditized and are left competing to earn a salary that is anything but guaranteed or predictable. Even though creators' fans want to directly support them, networks make this challenging and cumbersome. Micropayment models (i.e. Amazon Prime, tipping) don't quite capture the value creators bring to networks.
What are the other options? 🤨
Creators can go out on their own and try to generate income from different revenue streams. They can start a subscription channel, sell merch, do paid live sessions, etc. which give them the opportunity for an immediate financial "pop." Over time, however, they run into the problem where their revenue base plateaus.
They are trapped as employees in a business 100% reliant on their time and effort. If they stop creating, their business quickly erodes. Not to mention, they get no discovery and no stake in a larger network.
So, in summary, creators want a large network to be discovered, but the larger the network, the more the platform takes from creators. When going off network, creators get to take more but are pinned down to obligations and left in isolation without discovery.
The way creators get compensated needs an upgrade.
What is RAE Token?
RAE Token is a payment infrastructure that allows creators to package their content with other creators, providing them with better economics and flexibility. It treats creators like founders of the network by providing them autonomy and has proven to be a better compensation model.
How does RAE Token work?
Casey the Creator
Casey is a top-tier content creator who just launched a new podcast on a RAE platform called Rokfin, and gets compensated in RAE Token.
Frank the Fan
Frank follows his favorite content creator, Casey, on social media.
Frank notices that Casey is creating content on Rokfin. Then Frank sees that some of the other creators he follows are on Rokfin too. Frank wants access to Casey and all of these additional creators. It’s a no-brainer to subscribe.
To get unlimited subscription access he can choose to pay a monthly $10 fee with his credit card or stake RAE Token. The decision is obvious; he decides to stake RAE Token because he will get access while owning a stake in the network.
How do RAE Token burns work?🔥
Frank pays to access premium content with a credit card or by staking RAE. Once subscribed, the subscription $ price is immediately converted into RAE Token at the current market rate, and queued to be burned, forever removing it from circulation. Currently there are over 30,000 paying subscribers in the RAE ecosystem. This means over $300,000 dollars is injected into the ecosystem each month.
Every RAE Token burned contributes to fulfilling the requisite RAE Token needed to trigger a new mint. When the mint’s designated burn quota is met, RAE Token is minted and queued to be distributed to creators.
The next burn quota is calculated based on the rolling median of the last 30 mints each normalized to 24 hours. This process ensures that each creator gets the full value they contribute no matter how busy or slow that day is.
There will only ever be 34 million RAE Tokens minted. During the first half-life, 10,000 RAE Tokens are minted per period, and that amount is halved every 1,700 minting periods (~4 1/2 years).
Learn more about the burn calculation and minting schedule here.
How does Casey the Creator get paid?
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How much RAE Token does Casey get?
Approximately each day, 10,000 RAE Tokens are minted and Casey will get a pro-rata portion of his network contributions. This payment is distributed upon mint.
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How is Casey's pro-rata portion calculated?
Three inputs are used:
- Casey's content gets Frank and other fans to subscribe, either through USD payment or RAE Token staking
- Casey's content helps retain any of his subscribers or subscribers acquired by other creators
- Casey stops creating but his subscribers stay active to watch other creators
Casey gets paid for creating content that invokes Frank to subscribe. But why does Casey get paid with RAE Token and not USD?
It’s harder for the network to acquire its first 1,000 paying subscribers compared to increasing the paid subscriber base from 1 million to 1.001 million subscribers. USD would compensate Casey as if those two scenarios were the same. The RAE Token accurately compensates for the dynamic value creators inject into networks. Creators who join early play a vital role in bootstrapping the network.
In addition, Casey can reap the benefits today when the market bids up the price of RAE Token. When the RAE Token price drops, Casey knows more RAE Token is needed to fulfill subscription burn obligations. These mechanics align ecosystem incentives between the platform and the creator.
Casey has the best of both worlds. Casey gets a recurring income stream secured by his and other creators’ efforts, and he gets discovery. He has the flexibility to take vacations or walk away, knowing that other creators are incentivized to retain his subscribers. As an added bonus, more of Casey’s fans are willing to pay a higher amount when they see they get more of their favorite creators.
Frank also has the best of both worlds. He pays a convenient and predictable monthly subscription, and his payment only supports the creators of the content he watches. None of his money is directed to content or creators that don’t fit his preferences.
How does Frank the Fan use RAE Token?
Frank uses RAE Token to stake so he doesn't have to pay a membership fee to access content and unlock future features.
Frank, like Casey, also has the best of both worlds. He has one easy subscription for his favorite creators, and he knows his contribution only goes to the creators he values through the RAE token mint distributions. None of his payments are directed to content or creators that don’t fit his preferences.
What is the future of RAE Token?
As the network paying subscriber numbers increase, the USD allocated to burning RAE Tokens increases. And like Bitcoin, there will only ever be a fixed amount of RAE. And over the next 10 - 20 years, the amount of new RAE minted will decrease rapidly.
As an ERC-20 payment infrastructure, RAE Token is interoperable with the larger ecosystem primed to take advantage of future innovations in the space.
So how else could RAE Token be utilized?
Imagine the possibilities.💡
The on-chain nature of the RAE ecosystem supports innovation of all kinds. Here are some possibilities:
Cross collaboration between subscription offerings. By working together distinct subscription offerings can collaborate in a trustless manner for their mutual benefit.
Empowering creators to uniquely finance collaboration. A creator needs capital to build a studio? Creators could give their community the rights to future earnings for upfront payment. When a member of the community buys into the channel they get an NFT that gives them rights to the value of the channel.
Empower projects to offer utility for their token or NFT to exclusively grant access to their content for their holders. Popular NFT projects, including those launched outside of the RAE ecosystem, can start creating content on a RAE ecosystem platform, and give exclusive access to their NFT holders simply for holding the NFT.
On-chain payments allow for unique funding opportunities for creators, consumers, and communities, resulting in better content and a more engaged audience. A media business wants to automatically distribute a portion of its earnings directly to a specific creator without a ton of legal papers? RAE has it covered.
The beauty is, for all of these reasons, RAE is growing and Casey and Frank can reap the benefits.
Interested in Participating?
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Creators
Automatically package your content with other creators and build a recurring income from a stream of highly engaged subscribers.
I'm Ready
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Users
Watch, support and engage with your favorite creators while betting on their network. Explore crypto at your own pace with credit card payments as an option.
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Crypto enthusiast and builders
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