**Note: All MetaFactory posts will be published via Mirror moving forward at meta.mirror.xyz. The link to this original article is here: https://meta.mirror.xyz/DoSGYLsUyPqm2Ct9dHVeyQFgfW3lX6-raWXWYkGYlhU**

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Happy New Year! We want to start by saying a big Thank You to all the individuals, teams, artists, projects, communities, and brands who comprise the ROBOT family and helped to make MetaFactory’s collective dreams a reality. None of this would have been possible without the amazing creativity, ingenuity, dedication and hard work of you.

A Quick Rundown of MetaFactory’s 2021 Accomplishments by the Numbers (approx.):

• 6,000+ Orders
• $1.3MM in Product Sales
• 150 Products Created and Sold
• $214.50 Average Order Size
• 300+ Creative Contributors
• 1,130 ROBOT token hodlers
• 3,385 Discord Members

Stay tuned for a more thorough recap of MetaFactory’s 2021 accomplishments and plans for 2022!

iROBOT Season One

There is no shortage of notable 2021 successes, but one of the most exciting was the emergence of iROBOT, a decentralized community and fundraising mechanism to grow MetaFactory.

Throughout the course of 2021, MetaFactory was approached by a number of interested investors. However, after some discussion with the community, we were reluctant to take on any external funding or large capital partnerships at such a nascent stage. We have big aspirations, far beyond just a simple merchandise marketplace, and it is critical that any investor is aligned with our vision. Additionally, we wanted to ensure that any investment into ROBOT benefited the entire MetaFactory community equally — in short, we wanted it to be on-chain.

In September 2021, MetaFactory joined a number of teams and individuals who are part of the MetaCartel ecosystem at MCON 2021 in Denver. During the event, MetaFactory threw its first ecosystem party, which included a pop-up shop. We were overwhelmed by the response from the community and the following day, an effort emerged to help support MetaFactory’s growth. Led by the Fire Eyes and DAOHaus teams, a new DAO was formed to coordinate ROBOT liquidity on a large scale through on chain governance: iROBOT.

More specifically, 171 different participants deployed 1024 ETH via a Balancer Liquidity Bootstrapping Pool (LBP). Although initially intended to bootstrap liquidity for a new token, the iROBOT DAO leveraged the Balancer LBP approach to deploy a new Balancer v2 liquidity pool. This new pool started heavily weighted towards WETH (99% WETH /1% ROBOT) and auto-adjusted its weighting to match the existing v1 liquidity pool (70% ROBOT/ 30% WETH). In summary, the new v2 pool slowly purchased ROBOT from the existing v1 pool over a period of two months increasing the buy pressure and overall liquidity of ROBOT.

Season One Results

By taking a decentralized approach, the iROBOT DAO was able to collectively coordinate and permissionless-ly deploy a large amount of capital in support of the MetaFactory project and community. Acting as a decentralized seed round, the 171 members of iROBOT were able to dollar cost average into a large ROBOT position early in MetaFactory’s growth. By specifically leveraging a Balancer LBP, iROBOT DAO was also able to avoid any front-running/sandwich attack bots, as well as save on gas fees.

To learn more about the technical details and approach, please check out this post by Robot Isaac.

iROBOT Results by the Numbers:

• 171 Original Members
• 1024 ETH yeeted into the DAO
• 3.3 ETH spent on gas fees
• 89% of members retained throughout the mission
• 25,000 Robot purchased by the DAO — 6% of the total supply!
• 5 accidental early rage quits which were re-issued shares by the DAO

The final result was a doubling of both ROBOT price and liquidity (during a general languishing winter market) and at a reasonable cost basis (~$92/ROBOT)to the iROBOT members.

One of the most impressive outcomes of this initiative was highlighting a new weapon for slaying Moloch. Could each of the iROBOT members have individually purchased ROBOT via the open market instead of as a group? Sure, but such a zero sum approach pits each individual against one another. Instead, the iROBOT members embraced MetaCartel’s core tenet: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ They demonstrated the power of effective coordination and as a result, established a better cost basis for all members. Additionally, the approach demonstrated that groups of motivated individuals are now able to coordinate and compete with large, centralized funds and deep-pocket investors. In kind, MetaFactory has decided to reward iROBOT members with additional ROBOT rewards for their collective coordination.

With the deployment of the initial ETH funds, iROBOT DAO Season One has officially concluded, but we’re just getting started!

Next Steps

1. We have taken a snapshot of all iROBOT members who were still active as of January 1st when the deployment strategy concluded. This snapshot will be used for the distribution of additional ROBOT rewards. The following proposal outlining the rewards options for iROBOT has been published and is open to voting by the MetaFactory DAO members: https://snapshot.org/#/metafactory.eth/proposal/0xb1ab8c0703167d27a50754d55a59a12af2802e6ef92f770bd4c3f405a29c9db7
2. Pending approval of the above vote, 3000 ROBOT will be immediately distributed to the members of the iROBOT DAO. 1200 ROBOT will be distributed to a Coordinape circle of the Season Two members (all v2 LP token holders) incentivizing ongoing contribution to the iROBOT army.
3. Moving forwards, we’re looking to simplify governance. We propose to dissolve the Moloch DAO structure and deploy Snapshot voting as a more cost-effective structure for future coordination. If passed, iROBOT members will be asked to rage quit the DAO in order to receive their LP tokens and future iROBOT membership will then be open to any individual that holds LP tokens in the new Balancer v2 pool: https://snapshot.org/#/robotsafe.eth/proposal/0xc394015891d5e29a27df0a819b1b8ddc94891f6b9f6258a050ea44879ec15137.
4. Any current Balancer v1 liquidity provider (GEAR holder) will need to migrate their liquidity in order to claim their additional ROBOT rewards (TBD) and officially join iROBOT Season Two.
5. iROBOT joins MetaFactory as the fourth official working group — alongside the Fashion Production Squad, the DAO Research and Tooling Squad, and the Virtual Reality / Metaverse Crew. iROBOT will serve as the front line when it comes to all things related to liquidity, tokenomics, and market growth.

iROBOT Season Two

Participation in iROBOT Season Two is limited to v2 LPs and grants members the ability to propose and vote on new tokenomics, liquidity strategies, investment opportunities and more. 1200 ROBOT will be awarded to and voted on by the members of Season Two. This reward is separate from the normal MetaFactory Ops Distribution and will only be available to Season Two contributing members. Potential ideas include new staking mechanisms, OHM fork tokenomics, L2 liquidity mining strategies (not to mention special access to custom product drops and IRL events).

One idea we have been exploring internally is the creation of a Fuse Permissionless Lending Pool. This provides DAO members with a place to a) borrow against their holdings without giving up governance rights and b) support the DAO with interest. In turn, MetaFactory receives a high-yield source for compounding its treasury and reduce the need to potentially sell ROBOT to fund operations.

We look forward to seeing how the iROBOT army continues to evolve and support MetaFactory and its many goals for 2022. Finally, MetaFactory and the ROBOT community once again thank all the iROBOT members for their support.

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LEARN MORE:

Shop: https://shop.metafactory.ai/

Community: https://discord.gg/bhn8Xr9

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMetaFactory

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themetafactory/

Governance Forums: https://gov.metafactory.ai/

Although it has been a crazy year, 2020 has marked the emergence of exciting new trends and opportunities in the crypto space including the exploration of DAOFi (the combination of community governance and decentralized finance protocols), the explosion of personal/social/community tokens, and of course, the unarguable potential of NFTs as an asset class.

MetaFactory sits at the intersection of these trends acting as a community-owned culture studio focused on the creation and sale of digi-physical goods that celebrate crypto. Artists of all types are invited to create products that promote their art, community, project, protocol, token, etc. We abstract away all the logistics with our network of fashion houses and production partners in California and Sweden, so creators can focus on their craft while MetaFactory facilitates creation, fulfillment, sales and support.

$ROBOT is the MetaFactory Governance Token by which community members decide on token mechanics, reward schedules, partnerships, platform features, treasury use and more. It is also the vehicle by which value is captured, distributed, earned and shared. Creators receive $ROBOT based on the success of their product(s), buyers are rewarded with $ROBOT for their patronage, and the community earns $ROBOT by helping to curate the marketplace. Revenue from product sales are used to buy back and provide liquidity for $ROBOT, which support ongoing community rewards. Fund management is entirely under the control of the community members via the MetaFactory DAO.

We have completed airdrops to all project supporters thus far and a Balancer Smart Pool was recently created to provide liquidity for $ROBOT. You can learn more about $ROBOT here.

MetaFactory was born out of a desire to cultivate crypto culture. Its form and function is continuously shaped by its community. Amongst the chaos of 2020, we collectively explored new ideas, found new creativity, discovered new opportunities, created new products, experimented with new technology and design patterns, made new friends and colleagues, and built a home to celebrate all the amazing, funny, insane, stupid and wonderful things that make crypto… well, crypto.

We thank everyone who contributed and supported the project in 2020 and we’re excited to provide a sneak peek into whats in store for 2021.

BRANDS

Vaunker by Van

MetaFactory will be kicking off the year with a new brand auction in collaboration with Van. Inspired by cyberpunk aesthetics, Vaunker aims to turn visually appealing, digital art into physical products and apparel.

Vaunker draws inspiration from cyberpunk themes, tech/utility wear with a nod to eSports and gaming. Technical patterns, neon colors, minimalist iconography and geometry combine to create the foundation of the Vaunker style.

Vaunker collections will be released in waves with each wave representing a unique set theme building on the brand style guide. All brand members will have access to the Vaunker style guide and be able to use the design elements to submit new product ideas.

The first wave will include three different tee designs available for direct purchase — ONI, RAD and XXX — and one exclusive, custom designed hoodie, NEO, reserved for brand members who participate in the Genesis auction. The upcoming Genesis auction includes a number of goodies from limited edition NFT(s), $VAN tokens and of course, $ROBOT as well. Brand members will also get access to exclusive drops and promotions by the brand and by Van directly.

The Vaunker Genesis Auction will go live on January 2nd, 2021 -so get your ETH ready!

Wicked Sunday Club by Twisted Vacancy

Wicked Sunday Club (WSC) was the first MetaFactory brand launched in collaboration with celebrated crypto artist, Twisted Vacancy. WSC is a new cultural experience promoting cooperative management and collective creation for the good of the brand and its members.

The WSC Genesis shirts are currently being finalized and represent the second signature product offering that include our dedicated physical hardware, directly sewn into the garment for tracking authenticity and provenance. The community have also created the ‘Twisted Dreaming’ Joggers and the newly released ‘WSC Pully.’

Expect more exciting new merchandise, as well as some special art drops by Twisted Vacancy himself in 2021.

EXCLUSIVE DROPS

$ROBOT & $GEAR Exclusive Releases

$ROBOT, the MetaFactory governance token that powers the community, can only be earned by contributing to the project through product design, the purchase of products, project contributions and soon, marketplace curation. Individuals can also support the project by purchasing the token directly and/or supplying liquidity by adding their $ROBOT to our Balancer Smart Pool. Users who provide liquidity receive $GEAR — ROBOT liquidity pool tokens. We will be creating an entire collection of exclusive $ROBOT and $GEAR apparel drops. Users will be required to hold $ROBOT and/or $GEAR in order to access the respective product releases.

Only the most loyal will be able to drip in the finest threads!

The Vacation Station

The new Playstation 5 is one of the most coveted new products this holiday season and is currently sold out everywhere. MetaFactory has gotten its hands on one of the first consoles and treated it to a custom paint job transforming it from a plain old PlayStation into the new and improved ‘Vacation Station.’ The plain white covers of the new PlayStation 5 have been custom designed by artist, AATIF, with beautiful summer scenes turning the bland console into an engaging art display and conversation piece. The Vacation Station is beautiful inside and out, providing an enjoyable experience for all whether a gamer or not.

Mandem

MetaFactory is greatly inspired by streetwear trends and culture. And the product of choice for the majority of hype beasts out there is definitely sneakers. Sneakers, however, due to their complexity and wide size variety are definitely one of the more tricky items to produce, especially on a smaller scale. We are happy to annoucne that we have partnered with Mandem Streetwear to offer our first digi-physical sneaker drop including a custom designed physical sneaker by the Mandem team and a complimentary CryptoVoxels digital wearable designed by Pixls.eth.

Community + Artist Collaborations

MetaFactory is a huge supporter of the community / social token movement and recognize it as one of the emerging trends for 2021. These tokens present an exciting opportunity to experiment with decentralized governance, fair value distribution, incentive design and more in an effort to shape the future of web3 and beyond. We believe that high quality apparel and merchandise promotes and strengthens a community. MetaFactory provides a frictionless opportunity for ANY community, project or individual to create, produce, sell and deliver custom merchandise worldwide. Additionally, MetaFactory’s approach creates aligned incentives and leverages the network effect between communities in a positive sum way.

MetaFactory provides a frictionless opportunity for ANY community, project or individual to create, produce, sell and deliver custom merchandise worldwide.

In the past, we have supported projects such as $YFI, $MEME, $BASED PrimeDAO, $YAM, the MetaCartel and collaborated with many artists including Van, Rare Designer, Alotta Money, Twisted Vacancy, Skeenee, Spaced Painter, Hexeosis, Coldie, ToxSam, Jivinci, Shortcut and many more. We have a number of new exciting collaborations coming 2021.

If you own or are involved with a project that is looking to create branded apparel and merchandise for your community, please get in touch!

CURATION MINING

In addition to the existing rewards, our community has proposed a new reward pool dedicated to ‘curation mining’ — an ongoing, action based way for the MF community to earn rewards for curating the MetaFactory marketplace.

Here’s how it will work:

1. Designer makes a proposal for a product drop
2. Curators can “charge” the proposal by staking their ROBOT tokens on them. The more ROBOT that gets staked, the faster it charges.
3. Once the proposal builds up enough charge, it will go into production and pre-orders/sales will open.
4. Curators who staked on that product will get X ROBOT per dollar sold, proportional to how much “charge” they contributed.

(This is essentially a form of Conviction Voting)

This new mechanic will empower our community to decide which products make the cut and/or are released for sale first. It also increases incentive alignment among all MetaFactory community members by creating demand for $ROBOT, reducing supply through staking mechanics, increasing overall product design submissions, rewarding active curators, and promoting product sales.

MetaFactory recognizes the need for a strong initial inventory and constant inflow of new designs in order to create an engaging and lasting experience. As such, we have partnered with MetaFactory community member and voxel master, Sinkas, to bring all the designs from his T-Shirt Project to life as the ‘Voxtees’ Collection.

FASHION 3.0 + NEW HORIZONS

Metafactory’s explorations in apparel design and production have highlighted opportunities for innovation, from the way garments are designed, to how they’re sold. As the legacy fashion industry faces up to a hefty waste problem, visionaries in the field are stepping up to implement decentralization, fair value distribution, and other principles familiar and foundational to our own ethos.

In 2021, we will be introducing more sustainable production methods via a network of independent producers. Our goal is to enable production and fulfillment to occur based on where the buyer is ordering from — EU orders are handled by our European partners, Asian orders by our Asian partners and so on. Our focus on pre-sale and made-to-order production has also eliminated our need to maintain excess inventory, reducing waste and overhead.

Additionally, new fashion design software enables MetaFactory to create realistic 3D renders of all our garments before going into production. We can source and pull in ‘real world’ fabric options to evaluate the physical characteristics (look, shine, weight, etc), resulting in an agile prototyping process that saves on time and materials.

There is also innovation in garment design itself. Fashion moves through trends fast, but structurally has been slow to change; the industrial revolution brought ready-to-wear to the masses, but the actual patterns remain largely the same since Western-style tailoring’s beginnings in the 1500s. This has also contributed to fashion’s waste, as we unpack fashion’s equivalent of “planned obsolescence”: garments that don’t adapt to bodies in motion and fluctuation.

Cue Rickard Lindqvist, PhD., a fashion designer and visionary that we are excited to be collaborating with. His Kinetic Garment Design respects a moving body, without changing the silhouettes we’ve grown to love. MetaFactory is calling it Fashion 3.0.

Rickard and his team have been creating and open sourcing new product templates (‘sharewear’) based on these concepts. For an upcoming MetaFactory release, artist Winston Chmielinski, aka Weseeclearly is creating our first piece, the “New Horizons Jacket,” based on kinetic garment design principles. The design of New Horizons is an allusion to the precipice of potential on which we all find ourselves standing.

THANK YOU!

We want to thank everyone who supported us on our journey in 2020 and helped to make MetaFactory what it is today. We’re excited for the future and invite all of you to join the ROBOT family in 2021!

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LEARN MORE:

Shop: https://shop.metafactory.ai/

Community: https://discord.gg/bhn8Xr9

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMetaFactory

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themetafactory/

Governance Forums: https://gov.metafactory.ai/

MetaFactory is a rhizome emerging from the interconnection of multiple communities, technologies, social arrangements, contracts, people and entities — a kind of emergent nervous system without a body.

The three main nerve clusters of MetaFactory are:

1. the MetaFactory DAO, which consists of an unincorporated association of ROBOT holders interacting through one or more specific smart contracts;
2. the MetaFactory Entity, through which MetaFactory can interface with the off-chain fiat/physical world (e.g. paying manufacturers, receiving fiat payments, paying taxes, etc) through the government-recognized fiction of legal personhood granted to limited liability companies; and
3. the MetaFactory BotYard, which is a multi-signature Ethereum account holding undistributed ROBOT guarded by MetaFactory community members elected by the MetaFactory DAO to implement the MetaFactory DAO’s decisions regarding the use and distribution of unallocated ROBOT.

Through the MetaFactory DAO, ROBOT holders can propose and vote on:

• MetaFactory-branded product launches
• uses and distribution of ROBOT
• MetaFactory-branded commercial partnerships and strategy
• marketing and incentive design for the MetaFactory brand
• MetaFactory platform / marketplace features (e.g. sales mechanics, P2P secondary market, NFT standards and integrations, etc)
• use of the MetaFactory DAO’s treasury

The entirety of the 420k ROBOT supply will be minted to the BotYard. From there, the ROBOT will be distributed based on increasing “sales milestones”, as illustrated in the table below to the following groups:

• Buyers: proportional to dollars spent on MetaFactory Products
• Designers: proportional to revenue generated by their products
• Ops/Gov: proportional to the value of their contributions, as approved by the DAO, potentially using tools such as SourceCred.

TBD: by the discretion of the DAO (e.g. liquidity mining, dutch auction, reallocation to other categories, etc).

The initial token distribution of 39k ROBOT will go to the 43 buyers/designers of the MF Genesis Bomber auction proportional to their bid amount, which fulfills the first $25k sales milestone for the token distribution. From there, the ROBOT holders will vote to approve the token allocation for the ops/gov distribution (36k ROBOT).

The issuance schedule described above is only the starting state. The MetaFactory DAO can choose to change the distribution schedule through governance vote of ROBOT holders, but the goal is to respect that issuance schedule unless there’s a compelling reason to course correct.

It is hoped that the initial MetaFactory development team, which includes the MetaFactory entity, its equity holders and advisors, will receive a portion of ROBOT as a reward for their efforts. ROBOT holders will vote to determine the relevant ROBOT amounts and terms and conditions of these rewards through the MetaFactory DAO using the Governance Dashboard. There is no founder-specific premine (outside of the tokens allocated to all buyers / designers of the MF Genesis Bomber). The outcome of the vote will be executed on chain by the multisig signers.

Any longer form discussions around governance decisions will take place on the governance forums at gov.metafactory.ai, with realtime discussion happening in community calls and in the Discord server. To access the insider discord channels, members must hold at least 100 ROBOT. This threshold can be changed via governance vote.

The next token distribution that will go out after that will be for participants of the WickedSundayClub Genesis auction, completing the sales milestone up to $50k. Lastly, the data for all the shop sales and corresponding ETH addresses will be aggregated to mint tokens for the $100k milestone. All tokens will be locked for transfer until the tokens for all shop purchases before September 30th are distributed. After that, transferability will be permanently enabled. The circulating supply at this stage will be approximately 100k ROBOT.

Following that, once the claims contracts and UI are deployed, there will be a retroactive token distribution going out to all individuals who designed or bought any products from the MetaFactory store, proportional to the amount spent for buyers and amount sold for designers. The number of tokens distributed per dollar will be halved at every sales milestone (100k, 200k, 400k, 800k, etc, up to 6.4m). UPDATE: Buyer rewards changed to a percentage of purchase price by Governance on 4/22/21. The sales data will be anonymized and published to IPFS and the code to calculate the token allocations from that data will be made open source and independently verifiable. The output of that code will be a list of Ethereum addresses and their token allocation, which will be ratified by token holder vote and executed by depositing the tokens into the claims contract.

The revenue from sales will go to the MetaFactory Entity and will be used to pay for recurring expenses and production costs for goods. ROBOT holders can then vote to decide through the MetaFactory DAO how the surplus profits should be spent. For example, they could be locked in a Balancer liquidity pool to create a permanent incentive model with continuous issuance while preserving a fixed supply of 420k tokens.

“By recycling bought-back tokens into constant rewards and liquidity, we ensure there is always an incentive to continuously capitalize the system. This is great because it allows the network to leverage the benefits of issuance forever, while keeping the economic benefits of buybacks and the certainty of a known maximum token supply.” — https://www.placeholder.vc/blog/2020/9/17/stop-burning-tokens-buyback-and-make-instead

In the past year, the MetaFactory core team has spent ~$75k USD (not including time commitment/labor costs) from their pockets to bootstrap the project. The goal is to pay down this debt and then keep the operations of the LLC as lean as possible so that maximum value can be recycled back into the MetaFactory ecosystem. ROBOT holders with at least 500 tokens can get access to the detailed expense / revenue data for the LLC for the sake of transparency (subject to any confidentiality obligations or legal limitations that certain information may be subject to).

MetaFactory DAO decisions which affect the MetaFactory LLC will initially have an advisory or signaling status only — i.e., they will not be legally binding. Eventually, once things stabilize with governance and the token launch and token holders are confident in the operations / processes, we aim to put legal structures in place to ensure that the LLC has to abide by the governance decisions made by the DAO, allowing for a truly decentralized (as possible) community owned and governed platform/organization that bridges from web3 into the real world. We are building MetaFactory for the next 10 years, join us in making fun realities.

Thanks to our community for all their support and helping us to realize this collective vision!

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To learn more about MetaFactory and the $ROBOT token release, please check out the following links:

Join the $ROBOT launch party: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/metafactory-token-launch-party-tickets-123089003523

MetaFactory Shop: https://shop.metafactory.ai/

Presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e1bPYooG7cxfDt9AJvQTKRN8-RkiQAdw/view

Discord: https://discord.gg/4AuM2WZ

For those who missed it, MetaFactory has teamed up with the Indonesian sensation Twisted Vacancy to launch a new product line with collaboration at heart.

Harnessing the power of a Dissociative Identity Disorder, Twisted’s style blends 80’s Japanese style with 90’s culture to offer a vibrant color palette full of allegory. His retro, multidimensional take on pop-culture lends itself perfectly to extrapolation, ultimately creating a brand that is meant to be repurposed and reproduced.

Recap time! All animated piece compilation sold through @SuperRare_co and all owned by these awesome collectors! Say Hi to them; @WhaleShark_Pro @j1mmyeth @basileus_eth @Coldie @cryptoroses_ @Moderats @web3brett @shayne_coplan #cryptoart #nft #nfts #eth #digitalart pic.twitter.com/YWzrstZX9f

This cooperative season pass — entitled the Wicked Sunday Club — provides members with access to exclusive goods and product drops like t-shirts, digital collectibles, and other-worldly wearables. However, what’s really unique about WSC is the comprehensive style guides, asset libraries, and product templates that members can use to create Twisted Vacancy-themed products — all of which are meant to be sold and shared with the community.

This hyper experiment in brand exploration is limited to just 42 slots, 22 of which have already been purchased to date.

The base price for membership started at 1.85ETH, with each purchase increasing the cost by 0.05ETH. This pseudo-FOMO styled price appreciation takes the best elements of favoring early adopters without punishing the last participants with outrageous price multiples.

All in all, Wicked Sunday Club is not meant to be treated as a flip. Instead, those who are most active in the conversation will earn exclusive upside in the form of governance shares and profit-sharing, while those who participate passively through memberships receive the custom goods that make the Twisted brand so unique.

Twisted x MetaFactory

As MetaFactory continues to grow web 3 culture, we’ve always had a vision to take art to a new canvas. This made partnering with someone like Twisted — who has a strong background in brand licensing — a perfect fit.

After being introduced to MetaFactory by a community member Kinshasa, Twisted came to our first call with an entire product line that perfectly met the vision of collaborative creation we’re seeking to incubate.

Twisted Vacancy itself is an IP. It is a character outside of my personal life meant to have it’s own way and represent its own ideas.

Carrying a vision for Wicked Sunday Club to live on long after Twisted Vacancy has passed, this collaboration seeks to empower people to really own the brand. Too commonly, individuals become attached to their brand and it becomes their identity. Twisted sees the detachment of himself from the brand as the real value — giving himself a chance to incorporate other creative avenues like music and apparel which would otherwise be ignored as he grows in popularity.

Catastrobe * WickedSundayClub 🏝

Now, Wicked Sunday Club members can share a comprehensive style guide to carry on Twisted’s creations in whatever way(s) they see fit. For MetaFactory, this gives us a great way to source the true visionaries — with those who rise to the occasion and demonstrate their value earning their keep in the Wicked Sunday Club DAO.

“With MetaFactory, you have the ability to create anything that you want. Wicked Sunday Club allows me to expand beyond my artistry. Now I’m tapping into music and branding and it’s all possible with a strong community of supporters to back”

Next Steps

For those of you with a WSC membership, go ahead and redeem your membership so that we can add you to a private Discord channel with other members and Twisted himself.

Speaking of Twisted, he’s got a number of collaborations in the works, including a deal with one of crypto’s favorite car companies that will fully demonstrate the magnitude of his artistic ability.

Beta testing the @niftygateway display app with this beautiful @twistedvacancy piece, looking 🔥🔥🔥!Get your own here https://t.co/4HVWPRWR2l pic.twitter.com/8Hl9q8dDkz

Until then, be sure to stay up with Twisted Vacancy on Twitter, or by checking out his artwork on SuperRare.

To get involved with Wicked Sunday Club, head on over to the Wicked Sunday Club homepage, or join the MetaFactory Discord for any questions about how it works.

In the meantime, we’d like to thank all of our supporters to date, as without you this community would be nothing. Wicked Sunday Club represents the first of many partnerships in the works, all of which will see the light of day before you know it.

Robots out!

Special thanks to Cooper Turley for writing this piece!

The Time Has Come…

🙌 🤖 The MetaFactory Genesis Auction is Officially Live! 🤖 🙌

This auction represents the inaugural membership auction and product release for MetaFactory’s signature brand. To participate in the auction, individuals must place a bid in DAI, a third-party “stablecoin” operating on the Ethereum network. The top 42 bidders of the auction will receive membership in the MetaFactory brand entitling them to governance rights and special perks proportionate to their bids. Higher bids are rewarded with product priority and larger Factory Memberships. The top bidder wins the first item and the largest Factory Membership, etc.

Winning bidders will also receive the MF Bomber with reversible Light Mode and Dark Mode designs (MetaFactory’s Genesis product) along with a matching digital wearable for use in CryptoVoxels, as well as other virtual worlds in the future. The MF Bomber is a limited-run, custom jacket designed by META_DREAMER for the MetaFactory Genesis Auction. They are constructed from a luxurious and durable viscose fabric blend and premium hardware. Each MF Bomber comes embedded with the 🔑 MetaFactory Secure Enclave, a state-of-the-art microchip that serves as a cryptographic proof of authenticity and ownership. It provides access to unique metadata including product number, membership details and ownership history.

We will be hosting a Community Call tomorrow, Thursday, April 16th at 11am PDT / 8pm CEST in order to provide a walkthrough of the platform, explain what it means to be a Brand Member and answer any questions.

Join our Community Call 📞 Tomorrow, Thursday April 16th at 11am PDT / 8pm CEST

Stick around afterwards and join us at 12pm PDT / 9pm CEST for the Cent WIP Meetup in CryptoVoxels + Charity Auction directly following. It’s going to be a virtual good time!

Welcome to the future of community owned and operated brands! 📈

Sign up to be informed of upcoming Brand Factory auctions

Learn more about Brand Factories and how they work

Join our community to participate in the conversation:
Twitter, Instagram, Discord or Telegram.

MetaFactory creates new brand economies where creators and their communities share aligned incentives through vested interest in success. MetaFactory has built a crowdfunding platform with the goal of creating community-owned brands, where the initial focus is on fashion/apparel. The platform provides a unique opportunity for creators and communities to share both responsibility and success through “Brand Factories.”

What is a Brand Factory?

A Brand Factory is a decentralized organization that promotes the collective management of a brand. The traditional distinction between supporters and artists is blurred, as everyone has a part in guiding the brand in a positive community with aligned incentives.

Factory members share the responsibility of managing the brand via Factory Memberships. The members of a Factory include: MetaFactory, brand artists/designers, and community supporters (that’s you!).

How does a Brand Factory work?

Each Brand Factory is responsible for designing, producing, and marketing its own products. The original artist/designer provides a style guide, specific to the brand, that sets a standard for the use of typography, iconography and illustration when creating new products. The artist is typically responsible for designing products, but Factory members themselves can also suggest brand-relevant product designs that are voted on by other members.

Proposal creation, voting and general Factory management occurs directly on the MetaFactory platform. Brand Factories may use any of MetaFactory’s auction and/or sales strategies for their products. New products are listed on the MetaFactory marketplace. Production and fulfillment of all products is handled by MetaFactory, under the direction of each Brand Factory.

Product auctions raise funds in the form of DAI (a third-party stablecoin* operating on Ethereum). The Brand Factory manages the DAI, including any surplus remaining after paying the cost of production, fulfillment, and other service providers, as applicable. The founding brand artist(s)/designer(s) and MetaFactory have the opportunity to redeem any or all portions of their individual Factory Memberships, at any time. In doing so, their Factory Membership percentages are reduced, while increasing those of the remaining Factory members. Thus, if the founding brand artist(s)/designer(s) and/or MetaFactory choose to redeem their Factory Memberships, the governance vote and brand value will proportionately skew to favor other Factory members.

Why use a Brand Factory?

A brand is not a single concept, but rather a set of ideas. It is the sum of every concept, impression, representation, interaction that consumers have with a product or company. It lives (and dies) by public opinion. It can be informed by official company marketing, but it is defined by its users through public reviews, blogging, social media and more.

Today, companies have more control over how they build, market, sell, and ship their products. However, consumers have more control over how they discover and decide which brands to trust. The result is a closer, more direct relationship between brands and users, with a stronger focus on participation from both sides.

Companies have addressed this change, driven by digitalization and networked communications, by increasing transparency and introducing proactive consumer engagement via advocacy programs. MetaFactory aims to take this a step further by empowering consumers to become official brand members.

No longer passive participants, brand members actively engage in defining brand meaning and its relationship to the market. They are able to direct and influence a brand based on their personal values and needs. Brand Factories promote cooperative management for the collective good of the brand and its members.

In order to benefit from a positive network effect, brands must become increasingly decentralized, sharing the burden of responsibility and the potential for success directly with its community. Public consensus increases and more value is created when all participants are aligned and community members have a say in a brand’s future.

A brand is only as valuable as its community!

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*Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies which are designed to be pegged to the US Dollar, with the value of 1 DAI equal to 1 US Dollar (subject to subtle market-driven fluctuations).

Sign up to be informed of upcoming Brand Factory auctions!

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🌐 The metaverse is upon us 🌐

The possibilities of a immersive virtual world where one can live out their greatest fantasies or explore their biggest fears in a way thats impossible in the physical, ‘real’ world is just upon the horizon. These experiences are still raw in their substance and artistic style, but the potential is pungent for those with a nose for it. Ethereum lays a solid foundation for these new worlds to emerge.

In-game items, digital art and virtual land are experiencing strong demand and with their tokenization — we are able to trustlessly transfer value, the key for a virtual world to go from a game or an experiment…to a reality. But this transformation isn’t just one of technology or economics — its a transformation of culture.

🤖 + 🏭 = ✨💎✨

MetaFactory is democratizing brand creation and empowering anyone to create and grow their own culture economy.

We are enabling a paradigm shift in how brands, community and culture are born and spread. It’s a revolution in engaging social experiences and brand ownership, accessible to anyone to participate in and profit from.

Creators and communities, through aligned incentives, will work together to cultivate brands that collectively resonate, highly accelerating growth. These brands will emerge in the streets — the streets of the physical world and the metaverse. MetaFactory will build the bridge between these worlds, blurring the lines between the digital and the physical.

🔥👑🌏🎁👟🐟 🎮🐉 🖼🌴😺🎩🐻⛴🌼

Inspired by streetwear, gaming, NFT art and crypto-economics, MetaFactory has developed a crowdfunding platform for the creation of limited run, custom goods with an initial focus on fashion and apparel.

• We curate and manage the product marketplace, promote auctions and stimulate community support.
• We handle all product production & fulfillment on behalf of our partners, so they only need to focus on their art.
• We understand the power of fashion to drive culture and community and will facilitate access to high quality production and fulfillment lowering the barrier to entry to an normally elusive industry.

By managing the marketplace and handling production & fulfillment, we can stimulate community growth while allowing creators to focus on their designs. Seeing as fashion drives culture, MetaFactory recognizes that facilitating access to high quality production at the best possible price allows for an explosion of independent, communally owned and operated brands.

The first cryptoeconomic experiment with physical goods was Unisocks.

Unisocks sold a digital token that could be redeemed for a pair of socks. More specifically, it introduced a model where tokens are sold along a bonding curve with each purchase increasing the token price and the redeemable value of each pair of socks.

This was the first effort to create a decentralized brand economy. The tokens, however, exist as a separate product, not directly attached to the socks.

In other words, any individual is able to buy and sell the tokens separate from the socks, promoting speculation by parties uninterested in the product or the brand itself. We recognize and appreciate the game theory of Unisocks, but believe there is a more value-added approach to build brands and elevate creators. The emphasis should be on the product itself and the creator behind it. Rewards should be shared by buyers, not speculators looking to make money ‘playing the market.’

But what about NFTs?

Enter Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs). With an NFT, the product IS the token. When purchasing a product, buyers receive a token representing ownership and any associated benefits or earnings.

By removing the design of a single brand token — limiting the ability for different products to form unique markets — we can create an NFT for each product allowing for better value accrual and transfer.

Each physical item will be embedded with a unique silicon chip that tracks the specific order number of that product and its associated metadata, linking it to its digital counterpart.

Accompanied with the sale of each physical item, buyers will also receive a matching digital collectible — a wearable in the Cryptovoxels Virtual World (with support for other worlds and platforms in the future). Supporters are able to wear their threads in physical form or adorn their avatars in virtual worlds.

MetaFactory creates and produces the very first digi-physical brands whose products will exist as both physical items and digital wearables.

Leveraging apparel as a new canvas for creators, MetaFactory will enable creators and projects to reach new audiences. The fashion world has seen the success of hypebeast brands and communities such as Supreme, Yeezy, Off White and others. MetaFactory aims to attract these same communities and expose them to the world of web3 including digital collectibles, virtual wearables, and decentralized finance.

MetaFactory will not only facilitate the creation of the world’s first digi-physical brands, but anticipates the emergence of entirely digital fashion lines and seeks to aid in their development.

MetaFactory will initially launch with its own brand and product creations of its own design. We aim to set an example for how the platform can be utilized and the power of decentralized brand economies.

We have also partnered with a number of top artists and projects in the crypto space. Our launch partner designs are incredible and we are excited to have them join us on this journey. They are natural trend setters, cultural curators and creative leaders, sitting at the intersection of art and technology, writing and capturing society’s stories as they unfold.

We are proud to officially announce collaborations with the following artists:

Twisted Vacancy

Twitter: https://twitter.com/twistedvacancy

Artist Spotlight: https://medium.com/superrare/artist-spotlight-twistedvacancy-8f15c5a1d493

Van

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VansDesign_

Homepage: https://vansdesign.net/

Alotta Money

Twitter: https://twitter.com/money_alotta

Homepage: http://alottamoney.com/

Skeenee

Twitter: https://twitter.com/skeenee_art

Homepage: https://skeenee.com/

Welcome to the Future of Culture and Fashion!

EDIT 2/22/2020: The MetaFactory platform and process has changed considerably from the description outlined below. Thanks to all the testers who provided feedback and have helped us to refine our vision. We will be providing a revamped description shortly.

UPDATE NOW LIVE!

https://medium.com/@themetafactory/metafactory-rearchitecting-culture-for-the-digital-metaverse-df2693b7ec3b

What?

MetaFactory is a crowdfunding platform for the creation of community-owned brands with an initial focus on fashion/apparel. It curates and manages the brand ownership (IP) and product auction marketplace, as well as handling product production and fulfillment on behalf of its brand partners.

Why?

MetaFactory aims to solve incentive misalignment between fashion designers, labels and their customers. Apparel pricing is often set by perceived value, driven primarily by emotion, hype and information asymmetry around material/production costs and product quality. This has contributed to weak retail sales, struggling brands and dissatisfied customers. By representing products as tokens and selling them along a bonding curve, we enable organic price discovery based on free market dynamics.

Additionally, consumers are starved for meaningful, authentic relationships with brands — particularly those that reflect their lifestyle and culture. Brands that have focused on building robust, inclusive communities or ‘belonging’ have seen significantly greater brand loyalty and growth in recent years. In fact, ‘more than half (58%) of consumers aged 25 to 34 say they’d be likely to spend more money on a brand’s products and services if they are part of meaningful brand communities.’ Through direct incentive alignment, enabling individuals to participate financially in brand success, as well as help to govern future brand product direction, MetaFactory believes it can cultivate more successful brands through higher-engaged communities.

How?

MetaFactory hosts bonding curve auctions where brand creators auction off fractional ownership of brand IP / governance, as well as dedicated product auctions for the apparel produced by each brand. MetaFactory acts as a curator, only selecting brands that we believe have the creative skill and operational leadership to succeed. In addition to facilitating brand and product auctions, MetaFactory also manages the relationship with product fulfillment / logistics / shipping partners, allowing artists to focus on creating great designs and developing their label.

We work closely with the label designers and/or creators to define the auction parameters including starting price, ending price, number of participants, as well as initial genesis product line. Designers designate how much of the original brand IP to retain and how much they are willing to sell to auction patrons. With all the parameters defined, the brand and its assets are put up for auction including a claim to the genesis product(s) of that brand. The auction is conducted via a reverse bonding curve with earlier buyers receiving a higher share of both the label IP and claim to future governance, but at a greater premium.

This is achieved through the use of DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations). MetaFactory will deploy a dedicated DAO that will represent each brand. Each DAO will own its respective IP and its auction participants are actually purchasing a portion of the voting shares (and proportionate claim to profits) in that DAO. In this way, the patrons also get to participate in governance and vote on the future direction of the label including new product releases, additional designs and potential licensing opportunities (specific details are at the discretion of each brand). Buyers who participate earlier in the auction receive a greater percentage of the DAO shares and respective vote weight, along with a claim to their share of the brand IP. Each auction participant will also receive the brand’s genesis product(s) to be listed in the MetaFactory marketplace after the brand auction ends. MetaFactory itself is also a brand DAO and will be auctioning off membership shares in early 2020. Additionally, MetaFactory will receive a small share of each subsequent brand’s DAO shares for managing the auction platform, vendor relationships and product fulfillment. As a result, participation in the MetaFactory Brand auction is a bet on the future success of the MF platform and all of its brand partners.

Most brand products/apparel items are also sold at auction and represented by their own unique, digital $TOKEN. Each product $TOKEN is listed on the MetaFactory marketplace and sold on a bonding curve. $TOKENS may be freely purchased and sold with each exchange increasing or decreasing the price accordingly along that product’s bonding curve. In the case of product auctions, the $TOKEN price will start low (close to product cost) and increase with every purchase. Ownership of a $TOKEN entitles the owner to one (1) of that specific product including shipping. The MetaFactory marketplace is likely to offer a combination of both product auctions (as explained above), as well as direct product sales (with price potentially determined via the results of the auction).

When a $TOKEN is redeemed, the product is produced and shipped to the buyer along with a representative NFT (with special benefits). Product $TOKENs can be burned by the brand DAO (reducing supply and increasing the value of each remaining $TOKEN) or sold back to the market with any profit deposited to the respective label’s DAO bank. Label DAOs can choose how many product auctions to host and the specific parameters for each. In order to capitalize on the profits of a label, DAO members must sell their shares (also known as ragequit), effectively exiting the DAO. This reduces the brand’s DAO bank balance, but also subsequently increases all remaining DAO members proportionate claim to both IP/profits and governance.

What’s Next?

MetaFactory will begin by hosting various one-off product auctions to seed its marketplace and identify its first potential brand partners. We anticipate the first product auctions to begin in early 2020 with brand IP auctions occurring shortly thereafter.

Follow us here: https://twitter.com/TheMetaFactory

Join our community here: https://t.me/joinchat/FyFDjFd1vHfdrvusKrJ81w

Interested in launching a brand and selling products, reach out here: https://metafactory.typeform.com/to/MC5Rxb