Building Long Term Project Foundation is Hard Work

As Founder and Project Leader of Prosperia I’ve come to appreciate two vastly different but interconnected perspectives on NFT projects. The first view is that of a consumer. I’ll admit I’m still a degen in a sense. I ape face first into mints for the fun of it. The thrill of fighting for something unique, special and rare. The second, of course, is the view of a creator. And now having that full 360 degree look at it all has brought about some interesting musings.

There are projects designed as quick hits/flips where the creators have art and no long term plan. And there are projects with big grand plans. Before creating Prosperia I often found myself looking at projects like Pavia and wondering why they’re so quiet for lengthy periods of time. What are they doing? Have they checked out?

But now I get it. Building long term is laborious. It isn’t sexy. It isn’t hype. It isn’t the fun you get leading up to a big mint event. No, building long term is a grind. A boring, quiet and long grind. Especially for the community holding assets you created.

It means you have to watch your assets be sold for values you might feel are a bit offensive, and you have to look beyond that. Because until the utility is active and live, the assets you created and sold are missing half their value. This must be understood and consumed with a level of professionalism that is difficult to muster.

For Prosperia we have to get the horse before the cart. Which means we have to build a ton of foundational framework upon which the bulk of the long term project will stand. This includes an entire ecosystem framework, a custom built “in world” economy, societal platforms (elections, faction organization, etc) and more. We have amazing art, but our art is deeply built around utility and purpose. We can’t just keep minting art without the foundation for it to stand on.

The art and mints are where the fun and buzz are found. The foundation building is a public dead zone. And I feel this is probably why there are more quick flip style projects vs grand plan efforts. Most projects are led by artists and not business minds. There is no patience or tolerance for the quiet grind. No ability to continue grinding when there is no revenue or hype.

The Discord gets quiet. The twitter activity dies down. No one is talking about you. But you have to continue building. You have to do the dirty work and get it done. No matter how mentally taxing it can be to get through it.

I’ll be buying into some more Pavia and a few other projects quietly idling their way through this building phase thanks to this new perspective. Because now I get it. It’s not that they’ve just given up or fail to communicate often, it’s that they’re doing work that no one really cares about until it’s done.

It’s hard work. And it takes grit.

But it must be done. 

-Eric