Back in 2021, I minted 1 million POW eTokens without giving much thought to what I planned on doing with them. At the time, all I said was I would give them out as “tokens of my appreciation”.
And that’s exactly what I did. Over the past four years, I’ve given my POW tokens to hundreds of people in the eCash community as a way to thank them for their attention, or in rare cases, for helping me improve my blog.
In total, I’ve given away ~200K POW to followers on X and another ~200K POW to a few people who voluntarily helped me with my site. Of course, this means I still hold ~600K POW, which begs the question, what do I plan on doing with the tokens I still have left?
Before I reveal my plans, I want to discuss a concept called delayed reciprocal altruism. The basic idea goes something like this. When you help someone, it’s natural to expect that person to reciprocate your good deed at some point in the future. Think of it like doing someone a favor and saying they owe you one.
Now, what if we considered money a tool for facilitating this kind of reciprocal altruism, not just between the two parties but across an entire society?
For example, imagine a situation where A does a favor for B, then B does a favor for C, so C does a favor for A. In this scenario, you might say each person’s gratitude is being exchanged from one to another like a kind of delayed reciprocity.
I would argue that our money acts as a tangible representation of the above, a transferable token that can be viewed as a symbol of delayed reciprocal altruism. Money enables individuals to provide each other with value without requiring immediate repayment in kind or by the same party. Let’s say you cooked your neighbor a meal. Instead of having them cook you a meal immediately after to repay the favor, you accept from him a token that can be exchanged for a meal in the future, or can be redeemed for a haircut from the barber next door, or for a dozen eggs from the local farmer down the street. You get the idea.
All this to say that I want people to view my POW token in the same vein. It represents my gratitude to all those who gave me their attention early on, those who helped me build this site, and those who might one day help me in the future.
Well, what if I told you that future starts today?
Over the past four years, I’ve been a tireless supporter of the eCash project. During that time, I’ve also worked to improve this blog and am extremely proud of how much progress it’s made since my first post way back in January 2021. While some may think I’m being hyperbolic, or won’t understand my meaning when I say this, but I believe this blog is truly one of a kind. Show me another blog that runs on crypto rails and charges people microtransactions for content while doing so as seamlessly as can be experienced here.
Except there’s one big problem. Hardly anyone knows ProofOfWriting exists, and hence the reason why I’m trying to raise 50M XEC in exchange for 50K POW.
I know what some of you may be thinking. Is Cain trying to do an initial coin offering or ICO? I know it kind of seems like it, and if you’ve been in crypto since 2017 you probably associate ICOs with grifters and rug pulls. (If you haven’t been around since the ICO craze, think of it like memecoins today, only the people who bought ICO tokens were fooled into thinking they would one day have actual utility.)
I’m happy to report that, as the title suggests, this is not an ICO. For starters, I’m only trying to raise 50M XEC, which is ~$1200 at current prices and nowhere near enough for me to rug. Also, the POW token isn’t legally binding in any way. It doesn’t entitle you to a stake in my blog or give you voting rights on some nonexistent board. What it gives you is a token that represents my thanks, which I have every intention of reciprocating in the future.
Some numbers before I continue. At the current price of $0.000024 for 1 XEC, this would mean the total value of all 1M POW tokens is $24,000. But that number is irrelevant other than as a data point, because if someone offered me $24,000 today to hand over ProofOfWriting.com, I wouldn’t even consider the offer. However, I do think it’s in the ballpark of what might be considered a reasonable valuation of what I’ve built so far and a reasonable floor for the token.
So why am I trying to raise 50M XEC?
I want to use the funds to reinvest in this site and run even bigger contests to attract a larger audience.
Another reason I’m doing this is because it serves as a signal. For more than four years, I’ve continued to work on this blog, along with paying for hosting fees, as well as my domain name, and it’s time for me to see if the market values my efforts. If people buy POW, it tells me they see value in what I’m doing. It will motivate me to continue while also giving me additional capital and resources to try and grow my customer base. If nobody buys my POW tokens, then that will also send a signal telling me my strategy may not be the right one.
So now that I’ve explained what’s in it for me, why I want the 50M XEC, what’s in it for you?
I wouldn’t be working on ProofOfWriting if I thought there was no way I could turn this site into something valuable one day. At the same time, I understand that I’ve earned a meager 60K XEC from a whopping 600 unlocks so far (with a significant number of those unlocks being made by me for testing purposes).
So I understand if you find it hard to imagine I’ll ever attract enough customers to make any real money from this site, at least not enough to warrant a 1B XEC valuation. This is why anyone purchasing POW would essentially be taking a huge leap of faith, or to put it another way, you’d be doing so altruistically.
But I want to be clear that what I’m asking for isn’t a donation or a handout. My pledge is that even if only one person purchases my POW tokens, I will continue to work to make this blog as great as possible.
Think of my POW tokens as a promise of future reciprocation if this site ever achieves any level of success. Of course, I can’t guarantee I will succeed, but if I do, I plan to share that success with anyone who holds POW, and in so doing, prove that it will have paid dividends in the future.
The 50K POW I’ve currently listed on Agora represents 5% of the total supply of POW tokens ever minted or ever will be minted. I am also hoping this listing helps create a POW market so holders can cash in on them whenever they want—in other words, cash in their tokens of delayed reciprocal altruism through a liquid market for my gratitude.
Even though it’s been more than four years, I still believe this site and eCash are both just getting started, and one day, I hope POW tokens can become some of the most valuable tokens in the eCash ecosystem.
Please note that I may sell more of my POW tokens in the future to raise more XEC, but the goal is to first reach certain milestones so I can sell each POW for more XEC, not less.
To me, this is what makes crypto so unique and powerful. By giving us the ability to transfer value digitally from one peer to another, it allows us to form connections in a way that wasn’t possible before. While email gave us a way to exchange information with anyone we met online, there was no easy way to exchange value with them without giving up our privacy until now.
Anyone can purchase POW. You don’t have to sign up, prove the source of your funds, or be some accredited investor. POW isn’t a security. As I’ve said, it’s a token of my appreciation. A handshake, if you will, and here’s to hoping that my appreciation undergoes a great deal of appreciation in the future.
If you’re interested in purchasing POW, please pay 100 XEC and unlock the paywall below to reveal a link to the Cashtab listing page. You may see other POW listings belonging to other holders, but to purchase POW directly from me, look for the ones with the little blue hammer icon on the left indicating those listings belong to the minting address.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you consider buying a little POW in case it catches on. If they fully sell out, I plan to send a small dividend to all POW holders as a little gift. Oh and one more thing, rude squeeze chimney chicken screen upgrade wink alien avocado trim rebel drift. The previous twelve words unlock a bounty if you import them to your own wallet. Thank you for reading, and I hope you consider buying seeing POW just in case it catches on.