Why The Tilt Is Stopping Its First Creator Coin Experiment

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I have a confession to make. We built our creator coin experiment and the $TILT coin Web3 model on rented land.

Yes, me, Joe Pulizzi, the one who speaks at conferences all over the world telling content creators and brands not to build their audiences solely on social media or “rented” platforms.

@JoePulizzi confesses what advice he didn't follow and why that led to the $TILT coin experiment's unexpected ending. #Web3 #CreatorEconomy #SocialTokens Click To Tweet

For years, my guidance has been to leverage social media but move those followers and fans to something you, as a media business owner – as a content entrepreneur – can control, such as email.

Early success of social token

In 2020, I learned about the power of the token – a creator with scarce assets can build and at the same time give property rights to their audience or community.

I began to believe that Web3 was the ultimate in community-building. Whether social tokens or NFTs, I wondered: 

• Could both the creator’s business AND its fan base be financially rewarded as the community grew? 
• Are social tokens just a rewards program or could they be the engine of a content business model?

And so, in March 2021, we launched $TILT coin as the social token for our business. $TILT coin became our major referral engine. Thousands of subscribers actively shared this newsletter and received $TILT coin for their efforts. Our community used that $TILT coin to buy merchandise, gain access to training and courses, and get access to exclusive groups on our Discord channel.

In less than a year, we had over 1,500 token holders. Our token price, which started at a few pennies, rose up to $50 USD value per token.

Our “lease” worked well for 18 months. The creator coin experiment was going smoothly. The landlord (Rally.io) eagerly worked with us to get through the hiccups that often come with building on new land, especially in getting our audience – who were new to Web3 – $TILT coin tokens in the easiest possible way.

$TILT coin became the No. 1 social token on Rally based on coin supply and support value thanks to @TheTiltNews community. #CreatorEconomy Click To Tweet

We became the No. 1 social token by coin supply and support volume on the Rally.io network for a year running, thanks to The Tilt community, who supported the creator coin experiment.

Long-term reality

Then, the landlord faced its own problems, which worried all the renters. Unable to fix them, they tried to patch them. A few months later, the landlord told us they didn’t know what would happen with the land and to pursue other steps immediately.

And now, in January 2023, we let everyone in the TILT community know that $TILT coin was to be no more.

TL;DR: Rally.io developed a creator coin market built on a blockchain. Less than two years later, values have dropped to almost zero, and Rally.io seems to indicate it has no plans to resurrect a viable coin marketplace.

Like when Facebook changed its findability algorithm years ago, Google changed its rules for how content is found, and how Twitter banned people from using their platform, the one platform we put all our faith in for creator coins could no longer keep its promise to us.

Why did we build on rented land?

We saw $TILT coin as an opportunity to dip our toes into Web3 – after all, we couldn’t very well talk about it to our audience of creators if we didn’t have some stake in the game.

But as early adopters, we didn’t believe we could go it alone. We believed we needed a platform like Rally.io to make it a go. But that meant Rally.io had the direct relationship with the coin holders. We didn’t have a way to communicate directly with the token holders. And any changes made to the platform were out of our control (Yes, it was really Web 2.0.)

We thought that concession would be OK. After all, we had the email addresses of our newsletter subscribers – and they had been given $TILT coin for subscribing as well as referring. So we accepted that we wouldn’t know who purchased $TILT coin outside our reward system and couldn’t quantify the coins held by any token holder.

Our bet on Rally.io ultimately didn’t work. But the experiment taught us a lot.

Lessons from creator coin experiment

First, as much as I’m disappointed at what happened to Rally.io, I will forever be thankful for the opportunity. $TILT coin had over 2.3K coin holders. Almost 1.5K of these holders are active on our Discord channel, which remains open to any creator. I have made lifelong friends because of Rally, and even though the $TILT token is no more, the TILT community, built through the token, will go on.

Second, I’m still extremely bullish on Web3. My belief in the creation of shared assets remains the same. I believe that the blockchain is the way to make that happen. For the next project, we will control the contract on the blockchain, so this rented land situation won’t ever happen again.

My sincere thanks to everyone for going with me on this ride.

$TILT coin letter to community

On Jan 6, 2023, I sent this letter to The Tilt community about their $TILT coin options now:

Hello $TILT nation:

The TL;DR

1. $TILT coin is ending.

2. See next steps at the bottom of this email.

3. Here’s the longer version…

It is with a heavy heart that I write this note to you.

After months of trying, we finally heard back from the Rally.io leadership team. We were told, in as many words, that the future of Rally.io was uncertain at best, and we should take any necessary steps immediately.

I will detail the options below, but before that, a little commentary.

First, I want to apologize personally for the time and money many of you put into $TILT coin. We were the #1 social token on Rally.io for a reason, and that reason was you. You were incredibly supportive of our big experiment with social tokens. 

We chose Rally.io because its onboarding system was the best. Frankly, it was easy to set up an account on their system (you didn’t need a digital wallet). The problem was that, as much as we touted Rally and $TILT coin as Web3, it clearly was every bit of Web2. For $TILT coin to work, we needed Rally.io to make it go. We didn’t own the contract and have no way to get direct access to token holders. 

This whole experience has been gut-wrenching for me personally, and I sincerely apologize to each one of you for the time and money you put into $TILT coin.

Now we have no choice but to make some tough decisions.

NEXT STEPS

You have two options. 

1. Transfer your $TILT coin back to me.

When you transfer your $TILT coin, you have three options about how you can use it. You can:

a) Use it as a credit against a future Web3 initiative from Joe Pulizzi or The Tilt.
b) Use it toward the ticket price for Creator Economy Expo in May 2023. If you choose this option, we will give you 2x the value of your $TILT coin.
c) Use it toward the price of a CEX Never-Ending Ticket NFT. If you choose this option, we will give you 2x the value of your $TILT coin. NOTE: there are 37 of these left as I write this.

Log into your Rally account. Go to your $TILT coin listing. Click the Send $TILT button. At the bottom of the form, click the “Send” button next to @JoePulizzi (the creator). On the next screen, select “max” amount, then click “continue to confirmation.”

Before confirming send, add this information to the “add a note” section:

– Your name and email address and
– How you would like us to use your donation (a, b or c)


2. You can convert your $TILT into $RLY token and bridge out using this form provided by Rally. Note that we at The Tilt have no control over this process. Take your time and do your best with their instructions. Rally permits coin holders to manually bridge out once.

Whichever option you decide, do so before noon ET on January 20, 2023. After that time, I will be bridging out whatever is left and Rally will end the social token.

If you don’t hear back right away about redeeming your transfer, please be patient. We have over 2,300 $TILT coin holders and we are unsure of the response at this point.

Thanks again for all your support.

Best,

Joe