Monthly Progress Report #2
hurdles, obstacles, and renewed vigor
It hasn't been a month yet, but it's time for a progress report.
Sometimes I regret getting involved in the NFT space.
It all started with a vision for a utility token. Yes, it would be an NFT, but not the NFT that everybody wanted. AKA a pixel or 3D PFP.
Instead, I will bring utility to all of these various PFP tokens. Some of my visions/plans are being done by HoneyDefi right now. They've beaten us to the punch, to some degree. But there's still plenty of room for the SSAP utility token. We can pivot, adapt, and evolve if need be.
The calculations and costs for this massive endeavor of mine will not be met with a few thousand dollars. No, something on the scale of the SSAP needs between 50k-100k to implement correctly. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of liquidity right now.
How can we solve this dilemma! AHA! We will launch the "Alien Ant Apocalypse" as a PFP art token since that's what everybody wants! This should be easy! All we need to do is:
Not be a derivative.
Bring a completely original concept.
Don't fucking rug.
Keep delivering content and generate interest around the overall brand.
Well, easier said than done! I feel so naive; I bit off more than I can chew! There are many factors at play, one being tribalism amongst different PFPs. Especially on Solana, I thought the Apes, Gods, Monkeys were all a reasonably cordial bunch, so I followed them and occasionally commented. I was primarily focused on doing my own thing, in any case. I'm not an NFT collector/investor/trader, but I do have a peculiar taste for the 1/1 thing going on.
Sure, I'd love to be able to justify to my wife and all the children that depend on me that I've invested their college savings and whatnot into some JPEGs, but I can't do it. I don't know enough, and just in a month, I've learned so much about this industry. Unfortunately, I've also learned just how much I DON'T know what's going on. So I did bite off more than I can chew. The space is much more nuanced than I ever thought. I figured it was pretty shallow, but there is much depth. Great!
So why not just call it quits and rug early? I've already invested a significant amount of time, attention, and effort into the Alien Ant Apocalypse so far, and it's too late to turn back.
There's no team as of this writing; it is only I. We do have a few supporters, but I wish I could afford to hire a team, and maybe that will come at a later date; as for right now- I am the community manager, discord moderator, web developer, marketing/sales, video promos, memes, the entire thing. It can be daunting, and I feel stretched thin.
I've been focused on marketing, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing. This isn't SEO, and the same rules don't apply on Twitter. I've attempted to figure out how the Twitter algorithm works, and so far all I know is:
Be active in Discords.
Offer free shit.
Offer free shit.
Shout on Twitter and use colorful emojis.
I need to find a way to delegate and outsource these responsibilities when the budget allows it. I'm pulled in too many different directions, and I would like to focus on what I'm good at primarily. That is where we start to figure out the tokenomics of the $AAA and flesh it out thoroughly.
I've not given it $AAA too much focus since I rushed the launch and the whitepaper for the token as a marketing effort. However, I've got a basic framework in mind for what I want to do with the token, namely, being a currency for all things Alien Ants, whatever that may entail. We will be exploring what I think is an entirely new concept, and that is #work4ant, which we will also flesh out entirely later. Imagine getting PFP tokens for your efforts instead of SOL? I know the guys in the board room are shaking their heads right now.
What can I say? I'm not greedy. I just want to make a decent living and have a little fun while I'm doing it. So for me, being creative isn't work. It's just doing what you already love to do.
I've envisioned video games, cartoons, movies; I think this brand could go to the Moon in various ways. For example, imagine seeing an Alien Ant Apocalypse Anime on Netflix? How much onboarding and value would that provide for the earliest of Alien Ant investors?
Speaking of "investing," what the hell am I even doing?
I've quit my regular work and gone "all-in" on this 'full-time degen' thing. The money isn't what I'm used to, and I've taken quite a hit working on this extremely time-consuming project. I went from 8 hours a day to 16 hours a day - and haven't made a dime so far.
It would have been so much easier to acquire art, set up a new account, rug a few poor souls that have already invested their time and attention into me, get the minting site, do a launchpad, do the cash grab, and bounce - like everyone else.
So why am I choosing to lose money and do it the hard way?
Because I like the challenge. Starting with $0 and trying to make a million.
Turning lead into gold. The Sol_Alchemist. What is Alchemy? It's magic.
Can I make magic happen? We will see, and I will keep plugging away and fighting in the trenches of the "AntKrieg." At the end of the day, if I rug, I am the one who is at a loss. The time alone spent on this venture is worth $10,000 (IMHO), not to mention the start-up costs and the lack of income from a full-time job. If I give up now, I will never achieve the potential pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We can't turn back because we've run into some roadblocks and become discouraged. We need to keep adapting, evolving, and figuring out what niches the Ants can fulfill, and then just fucking do it.
If these Ants put me in an early fucking grave from the stress, then so be it. This is the hill I will die on during the Antacalypse. There will be no retreat for the @Sol_Alchemist
It's bad enough that the wife and the kids have been neglected in place of Ants. The past few months have been rough with Dad in the home office 24/7.
I plan to dedicate the month of March to full-time Antkrieg. I will use every means at my disposal. But, unfortunately, if I keep failing to generate revenue, I will be forced to go back to work, and become a part-time degen, instead.
If we fail to reach our goals, we're not a rug; we just gave it hell and were forced to make ends meet. "Failure is not an option," yeah, well, sometimes you don't have a choice. We'll give it our best shot, and that's all we can do.
-@Sol_Alchemist 2/28/2022