Most companies have a pretty simple job. They do things for income that they then keep or use to grow the business. And most companies fail long before 6 years. Matt is trying to run a company, manage a separate asset economy, and build up a DAO to be bigger and more well funded than the company. And after 6 years steemmonsters is still here. That in itself is incredibly impressive.
They did have a massive windfall with CL and the 5 person company founded by two people who've never run a business made a classic business mistake. They got excited by their success and over-hired thinking the success would only get bigger. Then they had to figure out how to get 150 people up to speed and then run a 150 person company in the middle of an economic and crypto downturn. Many businesses that experience major sudden growth end up failing shortly after for making these same mistakes. Steemmonsters is still here but didn't come out unscathed.
Instead of building up company coffers, Matt/aggy decided to bet that if they could get the DAO to be stronger, it would help the token, and that would in turn help the company by bringing in new players who want the token. So they sold nodes and rift watcher packs as DAO revenue and token burning. They also gave half their (main) rebellion revenue to the DAO.
There's not a lot of case studies, if any, for how to do what they're doing. Looking back, they probably should have kept more revenue but they gave it away. And now, they are feeling it and they are going to have to go ask for some of it back to fund the company. Remember the company spent their resources to build the DAO, and literally every dime the DAO has is based on work the company did to fund it instead of funding themselves. They misjudged it and they are going to need some of that money they gave away back. That is not insane to me. It's sort of incredible that the company made it this far at all or that the DAO exists at all. Because it wouldn't if they failed.
And I'm not sure why you're upset about #welcometothefamily. There's some implication here that you might think of whales as one group that all move together? If one is selling, then another one buying is somehow disingenuous? Is there one (or more) account that is dumping hundreds of thousands secretly while buying a card here or there publicly? If so please tell me who.
I mean, I'm watching whales like cryptoeater and bravetofu load up. Bravetofu buys cards and SPS constantly while selling nothing. Cryptoeater is more complicated because he sells cards here and there and has always bought accounts of people who need quick liquidity and sold them off but he also has a market place which is burning all the DEC they receive from fees. He opened a whole meme coin that burns SPS and recently increased his stake to 37 million SPS. I haven't seen vugtis sell anything but the airdrop cards but I always see him buying more cards. Those are the three biggest whales in the game.
https://peakmonsters.com/@vugtis/explorer
https://peakmonsters.com/@bravetofu/explorer
https://peakmonsters.com/@cryptoeater/explorer
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty that sucks about this whole situation but I'm just not seeing what you're seeing.
Thanks for the detailed answer. Whales usually don't concentrate around a single account. At the end of the day, anyone can see volume, cards sold, cards bought, sps sold and bought.
The charts tell a reality that no narrative can change. The dumping on the game in the last 12 months has been massive. It is what it is. "Hey but XX is buying". Right. SPS 20 cents to sub 1 cent. Someone must be selling? Lands from $500 to $40. Cards, same. A -300% easy. "Well the biggest whales are buying" - That is the good ol' Power Law and doesn't help a dime. At least, this is my opinion. Numbers over narrative.
I quoted the "welcome to the family meme" because it may lead to think that there is a healthy market out there full of optimist happy people forking $500 every other day on a card. There is not. And again is not opinion, the numbers are there.
About the Matt and Aggy company funds mismanagement I know the story :-) I have seen a company with 6 guys in Zug skyrocket to 25, with a monthly salary of 8K each, all the way down to 2 guys owning three months of rent of the place. That is crypto, it is fine.
But the solution to that is not to muddle with DAO anymore. Is getting scissors, cutting, simplifying and starting from scratch. We are in June already, still waiting for that "big PR push" promised.
5 guys.
Servers.
Daily posts.
incentives for gamers.
PR.
Hustling
They have sold MILLIONS in cards. That is the hardest part ffs. Oh and powercreeping doesn't solve anything. They need sinks, like Lands, Conflicts. Maybe a massive format, a "MTG Commander" in which you need to make a deck of 100 cards and have them locked for a season to play daily combats.
I don't know, I'm not even thinking deeply, just writing fast, I got to go to work.
Anyway. Thanks for the convo.