Introducing Subscribe to Mint

Today, Mirror is excited to launch Subscribe to Mint, a new way for creators to transform their collectors into an engaged web3 community.

Subscribe to Mint works a lot like an open edition drop, but with a Mirror-native twist. In order to mint, a collector needs to subscribe to a creator’s Mirror publication with their email, bootstrapping a communication channel for creators to engage collectors on a recurring basis.

Subscribe to Mint expands on Mirror’s hallmark web3-native publishing features like[ web3 subscriptions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/Jn62zF5n62BfowdaFgm3uIx3Fgp2vIR7b-HTSxKVXqk) and[ Writing NFTs](https://dev.mirror.xyz/5gt60vKFJZ_tR1BjoJ7-Y0sNw7REebStHjzFU5x73J0) to make it an even more powerful tool for creators and their projects.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/zYYaBy_y48yS7Dr0guF5W.gif?height=450&width=800)

### Editions are a powerful community catalyst

Over the last several months, creators have experimented with web3 tools that have blazed **new trails for community participation**. Specifically, the free NFT movement is creating powerful incentives that are catalyzing hundreds of thousands of people to discover new on-chain communities:

* **Rainbow and Zora** launched a [collaborative NFT](https://rainbow.me/drop/zorb) with >120k collectors in less than a week

* **Escher** announced a new NFT platform and minted their [logo](https://zora.co/personalize/collections/0x1bbec3ef715cce96b715bc0aa8fef8989f7ad3b2) as a collectable with >15k collectors in less than a day

* **Checks** by Jack Butcher started out as a free [open edition](https://opensea.io/collection/vv-checks) and turned into an iconic evolving artwork that sparked dozens of community derivatives

Data shows that [thousands](https://dune.com/embeds/2168731/3552340) of free drops are created monthly with [millions](https://dune.com/embeds/2168791/3552416) of free NFTs collected!

Although these mints have been successful in producing sparks of hype, the long-term engagement opportunity has been restricted by limited options to engage, activate, and retain collectors post-drop.

**Audiences are just collecting today, when they should be *collecting, subscribing and engaging*. Enter Subscribe to Mint.**

Large and small projects across web3 have already proven the success of Subscribe to Mint during our recent pilot of the feature:

* [Optimism](https://optimism.mirror.xyz/O8DesNLJ5HXD6C55Lwnks8xIPU45BjJlwZARKWBqXuE) has gathered 334k subscribers with a collectable celebrating their accomplishments last year

* [Base](https://base.mirror.xyz/H_KPwV31M7OJT-THUnU7wYjOF16Sy7aWvaEr5cgHi8I) has gathered 222k subscribers commemorating the historic collaboration between Base and Optimism with a drop

* [UFO](https://ufo.mirror.xyz/nWrNTnT4aqyyysokP7-__NRXanph6WDO-G-txYMELaM) has gathered 8k subscribers with a genesis pass for their podcast listeners

Here are two of the many use cases for Subscribe to Mint we’re really excited about:

1. **The genesis drop**: A recent trend for new web3 projects has been to pair their launch announcements with a collectable NFT featuring the project’s logo or mascot. The ability to collect immediately gives a project more credibility and helps propagate it as a meme. It also serves as a powerful catalyst to rally around a project’s genesis, form community, and promote the announcement. With Subscribe to Mint, that initial spark of interest can be fanned into a durable flame of engagement with a project’s audience through newsletter updates and subsequent drops.

2. **The collectable series**: A collectable series gives projects the opportunity to strengthen community engagement on a recurring basis. New followers would have a consistent incentive to sign up as subscribers by participating in recurring drops. Existing holders can complete collections of brand assets to show their continued support.

In addition to web3 subscriptions, Subscribe to Mint composes with [Writing NFTs](https://dev.mirror

Update on Publishing Tools

Since our launch, new communities that have coalesced on Mirror have redefined what we can accomplish together. Mirror has been fortunate to support ambitious crowdfunding campaigns like [The Ethereum Film](https://ethereumfilm.mirror.xyz/3SV8gLXHIW8Ot45h3RL7aOgDINxN2hjLfFVOvyatB2A). [Krause House](https://krausehouse.mirror.xyz/WERHklPoT3jGq2dxjy1Fxpi6NFnuvl3xeeNVeTdegSg) bought a professional basketball team and is working toward buying an NBA team. [Blvkhhvnd](https://blvkhvnd.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x320d83769Eb64096Ea74B686Eb586E197997f930) launched the first decentralized e-sports team and just won a world [championship](https://twitter.com/UniteEsports/status/1561042963421175811?t=sQ0O9SmXuhV6PePIXihCgQ&s=19).

We’re inspired by how communities like these have used our tools in ways we could have never imagined, and grateful to see primitives pioneered at Mirror (like [crowdfunds](https://dev.mirror.xyz/llJ_AboiDJwB_ZAFz-CXU7fL2p8v5Wz6MjfluLafewQ), [splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw), and [editions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/AOoIsKPfZvf8LACKWp7gj_mg1ICCDOfPnVBOsDQoXo8)) adopted by leading platforms and tools across the ecosystem.

As always, we continue to ask: **how can Mirror best serve the web3 creator community?**

While we’re extremely proud of all the experimentation since Mirror’s genesis, the community has made it clear that what sets Mirror apart are its unique capabilities for sharing ideas that catalyze communities in web3. To that end, we are reaffirming our commitment to creating the best home for web3 publishing.

Going forward, Mirror will do less but at a much higher level of quality and execution. Over the next few months, we'll strengthen the core functionality around writing and reading on Mirror, and then expand from there.

We’ve already shipped a number of features to improve the foundation of the publishing experience, such as [writing NFTs](https://dev.mirror.xyz/5gt60vKFJZ_tR1BjoJ7-Y0sNw7REebStHjzFU5x73J0) and [web3 subscriptions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/Jn62zF5n62BfowdaFgm3uIx3Fgp2vIR7b-HTSxKVXqk). As part of this distillation, we are reimagining how funding tools can natively integrate into a holistic publishing toolkit for creators.

Starting today, we are temporarily pausing creation of new plugins and simplifying the dashboard, as we design a new integration of funding tools composed with publishing and community building. 

Existing crowdfunds, editions, and splits will continue to be accessible via their permalinks and entry blocks. For additional information on closing crowdfunds and withdrawing funds, or suggestions for excellent alternative tools in the ecosystem, visit the [support portal](https://support.mirror.xyz/hc/en-us/sections/6797278569620-Plugins).

In alignment with this focus, we’ve updated the [homepage](https://mirror.xyz/?persist) to articulate the core functionality of Mirror. We look forward to building the future of online publishing with you.

Make sure to subscribe to get the latest Mirror news directly to your email.

Introducing Web3 Subscriptions

Today, Mirror is excited to announce the launch of web3 subscriptions. This new feature allows readers to subscribe to any Mirror publication with their wallets and receive email notifications when new content is posted. For creators, web3 subscriptions open the door to building a wallet-based community that can be used across web3.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/S37nWsAjlstpXvo0BFvw_.png?height=1142&width=2284&size=medium)

Mirror has always been a place for web3 creators to publish and make announcements. The output has encompassed project and product launches, whitepapers, thought leadership, education, fundraising announcements, and NFT drops. But until now, there hasn't been a way for communities to stay engaged through notifications.

Mirror takes subscriptions a step further by centering it around a web3 wallet, rather than an email address. We believe wallets are the fundamental representation of identity in web3, and creators will want to build a community represented by wallets rather than emails. A "hello world" post, whitepaper, or manifesto that marks the genesis of any important project on Mirror can now enable its audience to subscribe, creating a social and economic link between community and project.

## The Future of Community is Wallet-Native

The social and economic characteristics of wallets already converge across web3 in activities like NFT collection and participation in community governance, but that’s just the beginning. Socially, wallets are evolving into the means by which everyone in web3 communicates, interacts, and follows each other. Blurring the lines between social and economic identity presents a completely new design space with enormous opportunities for the next generation of social applications. At Mirror, our mission is to build great publishing tools at this junction.

For the next generation of creators and builders, a wallet-based community will be an immeasurably powerful asset. In web3, community isn’t about passive consumption, liking, or sharing—wallets transform a community into active participants via collection, ownership, patronage, and governance participation. Wallet-based communities can facilitate new creation models, new engagement models, and new business models.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/mitS_Rv_0cYLXPgpJ0A7E.png?height=1142&width=2284&size=medium)

For creators and projects that don't yet have a community of wallets, we believe publishing on Mirror should be the first step in that direction. Every big idea that sparks a movement begins with a story, and now it can inspire a reader to subscribe and join yours.

Wallet-based subscriptions also deliver on the broader promise of web3— composability with other tools used daily in the ecosystem, such as community chat rooms, token gated drops, and community analytics dashboards. And vice versa—in the future Mirror will be able to compose with pre-existing lists of wallets or tokens, to enable functionality such as community-gated content.

Non-web3 tools have been used in combination with wallets towards similar ends, but ultimately fell short as community-building exercises. "Drop your ENS" was a viral phenomenon on Twitter last year, but created more noise than utility because it wasn't productized in a web3-native way. Critically, there was no easy way to communicate with people that shared their wallets with you. Twitter just wasn’t the right place for that. Mirror is the right place to engage with an on-chain community at scale, because it is purposefully built to be. On Mirror, you could generate the same level of attention, but the end result will be the foundation of your community, all starting with the delivery of your post directly to their inboxes.

Wallet-based subscriptions on Mirror make community updates a core tool in the web3 ecosystem. We can only begin to imagine what you’ll be able to do with a list of your community members’ wallets, but here are som

Introducing Writing NFTs

Before Ethereum was code, it was a piece of writing. A year prior to Ethereum’s launch in 2015, Vitalik Buterin published a [whitepaper](https://ethereum.org/669c9e2e2027310b6b3cdce6e1c52962/Ethereum_Whitepaper_-_Buterin_2014.pdf) that laid out his vision for the project. Like Satoshi before him, Vitalik’s whitepaper served as a call to action that inspired a group of believers to help bring his ideas to fruition. This whitepaper has become an invaluable artifact — a foundational text with historical significance.

Over the last year, Mirror has built a space for web3 ideas to grow. Thousands of writers – including [DAO operators](https://creators.mirror.xyz/5YUK1Ef3BEMA9QEZvbOIh7ukbjAYL_0cs_NLplqgHw4), [NFT projects](https://cryptocoven.mirror.xyz/A622VSRm8-9oLzc8l3oFGmfnFUZQmDQ3Wx3ObhSlhsc), [engineers](https://polynya.mirror.xyz/OScOYZJj82107SAuSC0p0AofVesBbje6IT8NymBVi1g), [investors](https://variant.mirror.xyz/WwHDcojWvXU8mwYbcsvnN1kx6uLS4wV6fuS-ghkw3X4) and [protocol teams](https://optimism.mirror.xyz/gQWKlrDqHzdKPsB1iUnI-cVN3v0NvsWnazK7ajlt1fI) – have used Mirror to introduce their best ideas to the ecosystem. Their voices have made it a vibrant destination for web3 writing.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/vjPMlew7k5rtD-oaWIjMg.png?height=1344&width=2688&&&&size=medium)

## At Mirror, we believe the next big idea will be collected as a Writing NFT.

**Starting today, you can:**

* Create your first Writing NFT from your [Dashboard](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard)
* Collect from a list of genesis entries [curated by Mirror DAO](https://dao.mirror.xyz/collection)
* Explore the top entries on the new [leaderboard](https://mirror.xyz/leaderboard)

Many of the ideas published on Mirror have become invaluable to their communities — just like Vitalik’s whitepaper. Starting today, we are empowering people to collect the most important writing they find on Mirror — to publicly signal support for those ideas and to find belonging in like-minded collector communities.

Mirror now allows you to mint your writing as a digital collectible and set a customizable supply and price for it. Writing NFTs are completely free for writers to create, and collection happens on an Ethereum L2 — making transactions inexpensive, fast, and environmentally friendly. And, like everything published on Mirror, Writing NFTs are decentralized and censorship-resistant.

For collectors, owning a Writing NFT confers a stake in the piece’s legacy and a place within the community that develops around it. Did someone announce a project that you want to see brought to life? Did a trend forecast spark your imagination or validate your own intuition? Is someone embarking on a research project that resonated with you?

Adding a Writing NFT to your collection is a way of capturing these special moments and rallying behind the potential of an idea. Imagine, for instance, having proof that you were one of the first 100 people to read the Ethereum whitepaper. It not only signals that you were an early adopter or superfan, but it also binds you with other collectors of that Writing NFT.

Many writers from our community have minted their first Writing NFT as part of today’s launch. For example, [Chase Chapman](https://twitter.com/chaserchapman) minted [Co-ownership as a web3 social primitive](https://chase.mirror.xyz/PjnfkklAMUcEIBQuZ-An5xlBheQchsLwkRx6GHPfGzw?wnft=true) with a supply of 333 at 0.01 ETH each. If you have an Ethereum wallet, you can collect it right now. Once the supply is sold out on Mirror, collectors will be able to purchase Writing NFTs on secondary markets.

To complement the launch of Writing NFTs, we want to do all we can to boost great ideas. Over the past year, one of the most frequent requests from both writers and readers has been to improve the discovery of high-quality content published on Mirror. Today, we’re adding two new discovery surfaces: the global [leaderboard](https://mirror.xyz/leaderboard) and [collector prof

Building and occasionally writing, both at Mirror.

https://twitter.com/strollinghome

Introducing Editions v2

**This week, Mirror launches v2 of Editions as part of its publishing tools.**

Introduced last June, [Editions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/AOoIsKPfZvf8LACKWp7gj_mg1ICCDOfPnVBOsDQoXo8) were designed to address the limitations of the growing NFT marketplace. NFTs gained renown as 1/1 digital artworks, finally allowing digital artists to imbue their works with a rarity previously only associated with traditional art. But with that baked-in rarity came exclusivity. And with exclusivity, we felt the NFT marketplace was limiting itself from realizing its full potential. First and foremost, with a single collector, NFTs were not well-suited for building communities around an NFT collection.

Editions allow creators to mint a limited supply of identical NFTs at a fixed price, directly on Mirror. There’s an analogy we’ve probably overused by now: If a 1/1 NFT is a Picasso at Sotheby's, Editions are like the thousands of first-edition holographic Charizards released. Since their introduction, Editions minted on Mirror have been used to [fund research](https://waterandmusic.mirror.xyz/d9VEr-P5AhWkyJtE-DM1qhWWAANaEMtqxSPTY2ueGw0), [support public goods](https://stateful.mirror.xyz/rsUhYxXARr7j2iDjqJeelY7nc6CN_Y-MilVDP1S5voA), [raise money for social causes](https://vv.mirror.xyz/sb9NU7Wzpg-53wqNFPM-MCwWQ7y48RJlri3cr3Nt0Do) and [gate access to IRL events](https://eco.mirror.xyz/qSWxeFuOq6XZwpTk4rqtcDAUm0uCuVdnwNfHlJSclQ8).

So why v2?

Weren’t Editions a perfectly self-sustaining protocol at their inception? Well, let’s look at that. It comes down to ownership, one of web3’s core principles. Zoomed out, yes, creators have exclusive authorship over an NFT and buyers have exclusive ownership. But when you get into the fine details, it gets blurry. Until recently, NFT protocols used shared minting contracts, meaning creators didn’t retain exclusive ownership over the contract used to mint their NFTs. That, unfortunately, means:

**Centralized admin privileges**
Shared minting contracts are usually controlled by the core team that developed the protocol, not the creator.

**Bundled collection pages on secondary markets**
On secondary markets like OpenSea, all NFTs from a shared minting contract are displayed on one collection page which constrains the growth of secondary market activity.

**Lack of provenance**
NFTs minted from a shared contract don’t point to the creator as the owner of the contract on-chain. This makes it difficult to tie an NFT back to a specific creator.

**Lack of custom royalties**
Shared minting contracts usually have a standard royalty percentage for all NFTs and don’t support the latest royalty standard, [EIP-2981.](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-2981)

Through this lens, revisiting Editions was a no-brainer. Based on community feedback and internal research, we’ve updated the Editions protocol to meet the highest web3 standards. The protocol now features:

**Creator-owned contracts**
Every Edition is now its own contract represented by a standalone Ethereum address. Additionally, the creator is the only account with admin privileges on the contract.

**Branded secondary market collection pages**
Editions now automatically get their own branded collection pages on secondary markets like OpenSea, which include a floor price scoped to that collection. The creator also has the ability to update metadata on those collection pages at any time.

**Media files and metadata are completely decentralized**
All media and metadata associated with Editions are no longer reliant on centralized servers. They’re now stored on IPFS and uploaded using [Estuary](https://estuary.tech/) to guarantee data replication.

**Gas efficiency**
It costs [\~100,000 gas to mint an Edition](https://etherscan.io/tx/0xf2367427fdef7f333b090f614d4648ae1a17c15a51e460756c0ae8259761a58f), which is \~$13 at 43 base gwei and an ETH price of $2,500.

**Custom on-chain royalties**
Editions now support EIP-2981, the latest on-chain royalty standard, and custom

Introducing the Tokens Plugin

With our recent release of Plugins, we also debuted the ability for creators to deploy their own ERC20 tokens in seconds on Mirror. And with not just any contract—this is the most finely tuned and efficient way to mint an ERC20 token around. To get started simply [connect your wallet](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard/plugins) and enable the Tokens plugin.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/KDWoibg_ilsNsmkzmTzCu.png?height=1142&width=2284&&&&size=medium)

To celebrate, we’re going to do a deep dive on the ins and outs of ERC20 Token minting on Mirror. In this post, we’ll look at how the ERC20 factory contract works on-chain in order to explain some of the advanced functionality available to power users. Additionally, we invite the broader web3 ecosystem to integrate our ERC20 token factory into their products, as we believe we’ve struck the right balance between token flexibility and low gas deployments necessary for a neutral and efficient public good primitive.

You can find the deployed contracts at:

* [ERC20Factory](https://etherscan.io/address/0xFdAEF6d6AC99243B80643730bADaec4171118fd9#code)
* [ERC20](https://etherscan.io/address/0x42ca48648b355e64ef68330e1743a4FA7e310e67#code) (the clone logic)

## ERC20-Factory

The `ERC20Factory` is a contract that facilitates the deployments of new ERC20 tokens for creators. The factory uses the [EIP-1167](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1167) standard for simply and cheaply cloning contract functionality. Another benefit of using clones is that we can predict the address to which your token will deploy before submitting the transaction.

When you deploy a token with the ERC20Factory you will have the option to specify an owner and a total supply. The total supply will be minted to the owner’s wallet.

The easiest way to interact with the contract is via the Token plugin in your Mirror [dashboard](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard), Advanced readers can interact directly with the factory contract on [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/address/0xFdAEF6d6AC99243B80643730bADaec4171118fd9#writeContract) by reading along!

**How to:**

* Deploy a new token: using the factory, call the `create` function. Most parameters are self-explanatory. A few parameters to watch out for:
  * The `totalSupply_` parameter needs to be specified in Wei; You can use [Etherscan’s Unit Converter](https://etherscan.io/unitconverter) tool for this; simply type the decimal value you want in the `Ether` box and copy/paste the `Wei` value into the `totalSupply_` parameter.
  * For the `decimals` parameter, we suggest using 18 decimals, as most ERC20 tokens use that.
  * For the `nonce` parameter, you need to pass in an integer; This parameter is used on the cloning functionality. For advanced details, see the **Clones** section below.
* See your token’s address: After you deploy a new token, there are two ways of seeing your token’s address:
  * First, [on the deployment transaction](https://etherscan.io/tx/0x24dd7a7982e979d4e14c31fcacc51210fd5184ebd3a88b55d8134d2e97ddae51), you will see a “Tokens Transferred” section; This token transfer represents minting the initial supply to the owner’s wallet. If you click on your token’s name, that will take you to the token’s page on Etherscan.
  * Second,  [on the deployment transaction logs](https://etherscan.io/tx/0x24dd7a7982e979d4e14c31fcacc51210fd5184ebd3a88b55d8134d2e97ddae51#eventlog), you can see multiple events; The last `ERC20Deployed` event gives you information about your token deployment. The `clone` parameter is your token’s address.

## ERC20 Logic

### Ownership

The Mirror ERC20 implementation allows for creators to set a token owner, which is an Ethereum account/wallet that controls a few settings on the token. Token ownership can be transferred to any other address or renounced altogether, effectively making settings immutable. This means a token’s supply can be made fixed by renouncing ownership.

**How to:**

* Transfer ownership: The ERC20

Plug in to web3 plugins

### Today we’re excited to begin a reveal of something we’ve been considering since day one: Plugins.

Mirror first emerged a year ago with tools enabling anyone to connect their wallet and instantly begin publishing on web3. The power unlocked by telling stories with blocks for creating media and economic content quickly became clear.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/1g_nuXnM6II3g_nGtW_Iz.png?height=1142&width=2284&&&&&&&&&&size=medium)

This excitement led to a series of experiments expanding on the utility of blocks. Features like [Crowdfunds](https://dev.mirror.xyz/llJ_AboiDJwB_ZAFz-CXU7fL2p8v5Wz6MjfluLafewQ), which enable sharing *and* funding projects with others, created the foundation for some of the most notable web3 communities. The following months saw the introduction of [NFT Embeds](https://dev.mirror.xyz/wfJMWdyKZxUkdoKOllyV3zSQQ1n1Rzggf-0RBbMsCF0), [NFT Auctions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/_OstP6dwYsX-0YsIaGDw-W4fs3VzESC_QpxrhiyM_Bg), [NFT Editions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/AOoIsKPfZvf8LACKWp7gj_mg1ICCDOfPnVBOsDQoXo8), [Splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw), [Governance](https://dev.mirror.xyz/dLLIq4Iebg5DLWJbOWa3sU6oQuwbogkmqPnz-ZbzPUg) and (believe it or not) much more.

Simultaneously, teams across the emergent web3 ecosystem continued innovating on new ideas, such as [collective NFT bidding](https://www.partybid.app/), [community treasury management](https://juicebox.money/#/), mechanisms to [swap](https://sudoswap.xyz/#/) or [airdrop](https://disperse.app/) tokens, and [fresh experiments](https://twitter.com/SnapshotLabs/status/1483168945234321408) on L2s.

Something became abundantly clear; with Mirror, it should be possible to compose web3 blocks from across all of web3. With this expansive insight came renewed focus.

We’ve created a new surface in the Dashboard called **[Plugins](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard/plugins)**. Features like Crowdfunds, Editions, and Splits have migrated from Blocks to Plugins, which can be installed or uninstalled depending upon your project’s needs. Secondary features, like Token Race and Auctions, have been paused while we focus on building out Plugins. And most exciting of all; we’re laying the groundwork for anyone to be able to create a Plugin for any web3 tool or project, and compose stories with everything Mirror has to offer.

To kick things off, we’re also proud to announce a fresh new plugin: **ERC20 Tokens**. Finely tuned for gas efficiency and flexibility, this best-in-class contract enables you to mint ERC20 tokens for creating new communities and more.

Composability is a core tenet of web3, and we couldn’t be more excited about enabling the next generation of community-built tools to co-exist alongside each other. Interested in creating a Plugin? [Say hello and we’ll keep you in the loop](https://1k2riazti5d.typeform.com/to/v2bRVmv2).

We look forward to sharing additional updates from the Mirror team and community in the coming weeks, and invite you to join the community [Discord](https://discord.gg/yADkknbr) and follow Mirror on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/viamirror).


---

Ready to build? [Connect your wallet](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard) to Mirror and get started.

New Year, New Mirror: Reflecting on Mirror's First Year

It’s January 1st, 2021, about one year ago. The price of Ethereum is hovering just below $1,000, the world has never heard of NFTs, and Mirror is barely two weeks old. As a web3 project, it goes without saying our bets were on a web3 future, and there was no better time than December 2020 to rally around that optimism. The web3 community (which primarily congregated on Twitter) was reaching a fever pitch, in which there brewed a contagious aura of camaraderie, mutual support and experimentation.

Growing as a web3 community in 2021 was dizzying at times and always rewarding. Actually, it was magical. We tested new things. We made new friends. We were constantly surprised by the output of our community. We learned a lot over the course of our first year.

Now, we’re excited to share a vision for the platform that we believe represents the best of our previous efforts.

We look at our new dashboard and get excited for all the projects we’ve yet to realize, and the plugins available for taking those projects to the next level. We look at our community and feel a buzz, like the future’s tapping on our shoulder. And just as we’re propelled forward by all of this, we, too, can’t help but see the past.

This post is a little trip down memory lane, highlighting the major milestones that got us to where we are today. We couldn’t have done it without you.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/h01Nfl_KpiR9-YId9jF7A.jpg?height=1142&width=2284&&size=medium)

## The MVP Before Christmas

*January 6 — [Mirror publishes its genesis post](https://dev.mirror.xyz/J1RD6UQQbdmpCoXvWnuGIfe7WmrbVRdff5EqegO1RjI)*

At the end of 2020, there were so many great conversations happening within Crypto Twitter that we had to ask whether a web2 platform best suited the ideas coming from the community. It was finally time we put web3 ideas where they belonged: on web3.

In a month-long sprint, we came up with a clean, convenient and web3-native publishing tool that rewarded writing and ensured an author’s control and ownership over the material, no matter what changes were made to the platform itself.

And just like that… Mirror was born.

## Crowdfunding Writing with NFTs

*January 20 — [Mirror adds crowdfunding to its toolkit](https://dev.mirror.xyz/llJ_AboiDJwB_ZAFz-CXU7fL2p8v5Wz6MjfluLafewQ)*

In our first month, we debuted Mirror’s crowdfund feature. Creators could now fund their projects and offer incentives to their backers. Backers received project tokens representing governance in the project. So the more successful the project, the more backers could celebrate in their community.

On January 25, John Palmer launched Mirror’s first crowdfund, successfully raising 10 ETH to write [“Scissor Labels”](https://j.mirror.xyz/RUeJfZEZxr-hkuzUCakQyUuf2kOJVMPPiAWBaQFhhqc). He created the $ESSAY token to distribute amongst the project’s 63 backers. As of today, there are over 200 holders and 500+ transactions using $ESSAY.

## $WRITE RACE

*February 26 — [Mirror’s first round of $WRITE Race takes off](https://dev.mirror.xyz/vZxxUIeGMQK9NNLcrT0eDYZ6wXhXVr6vTQzztj1DaEA)*

At two months old, Mirror’s community growth was key. Open signup gave us pause, but invite-only felt too insular. It took us a minute to figure out an onboarding approach with a web3 backbone, but lo and behold: the $WRITE RACE.

The $WRITE Race went on for 38 rounds—in which new members competed for $WRITE tokens—ushering in a total of 380 new members. It was our favorite two hours of the week, including the multiple occasions the site crashed due to related traffic.

[It was paused in November](https://dao.mirror.xyz/3TxEN2C91udh8B3qAzQt6oYTlMDvqvUsjkgIX3KC32A), but for the early adopters, there will always be its cherished memory stored away in the oil-slicked racetracks of our minds.

## Introducing Splits

*May 4 — [Mirror adds Splits to dashboard](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw)*

By May, creators were well equipped to fund and monetiz

Say hello to your new (and very improved) Dashboard

### This update enables you to envision and build a home for your web3 projects and communities.

To say Mirror has been busy would be an understatement. A few weeks ago, all publishing, economic, and governance tools were [opened to everyone](https://dev.mirror.xyz/wghpfxTpxwXjXM9HsH7GUm4177oDXrTOjKI-aKPMOB0). The [Mirror DAO Pre-Season](https://dao.mirror.xyz/VrKe5AEjoXFUVnDMfBALbu0f7VomQGImdL9CZVt_EcU) began and the team introduced new features like [Token Race](https://dev.mirror.xyz/dLLIq4Iebg5DLWJbOWa3sU6oQuwbogkmqPnz-ZbzPUg). The importance of a great home for all of these tools became very clear.

Today, we are introducing a brand new Dashboard!

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/-JlDHrz6_43_ZqyFzf1Te.png?height=1142&width=2284&size=medium)

Some of the new features include:

* …just look at it! Your eyes are welcome.
* Improved structure—everything in its right place.
* An abundance of room for all the exciting features and integrations we have in store.
* Delicious dark and light mode flavors.
* Enhanced collaboration when contributing across multiple projects.

Mirror’s mission is to enable projects and communities to grow by telling their stories and funding their aspirations.

Your new Dashboard is the next big step forward in improving what’s possible in service of this mission. Over time, you’ll be able to compose more features and creative blocks for building your web3 project, community or DAO.

We look forward to sharing additional product updates and launches from the Mirror team and community in the coming weeks and months, and invite you to join the community [Discord](https://discord.gg/mmsxQPsA) and follow Mirror on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/viamirror) to stay in the loop.

**Ready to build? Connect your wallet to the Mirror [Dashboard](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard) and get started.**

Mirror’s Suite of Web3 Tools is Now Open to All

**Connect your wallet and start building a web3 project in seconds.**

Today, we’re opening up the rest of the Mirror economic and governance suite to the public. This includes [Editions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/AOoIsKPfZvf8LACKWp7gj_mg1ICCDOfPnVBOsDQoXo8), [Splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/V_7Jp1hy_g8bz-J1B4Wb5KYSmj5Lt4W7q7cw0noxJsU), [Token Race](https://dev.mirror.xyz/dLLIq4Iebg5DLWJbOWa3sU6oQuwbogkmqPnz-ZbzPUg), and [Auctions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/_OstP6dwYsX-0YsIaGDw-W4fs3VzESC_QpxrhiyM_Bg).

For the past few months, people were required to [earn and burn a $WRITE token](https://dev.mirror.xyz/vZxxUIeGMQK9NNLcrT0eDYZ6wXhXVr6vTQzztj1DaEA) to get full access to Mirror’s web3 creative suite. Going forward, anyone can connect their wallet, tell their story, launch a crowdfund, sell NFT editions, split revenue with collaborators, create a tokenized governance game, and auction NFTs.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/L3eJdGjwywhDVEe5SNADZ.png?height=1142&width=2284)

Mirror is evolving to support creators, communities and DAOs throughout their whole lifecycle. We believe the best way to do so is by opening up all the tools for anyone to use.

Today, Mirror’s suite of web3 tools consists of:

* **Publishing.** Start a blog where posts are permanently stored on the decentralized web and authorized by your private key. Writers have earned thousands of dollars worth of ETH on single blog posts by monetizing their content through [web3](https://notboring.mirror.xyz/rPk2Ozej8JHZZ_qayaekCfc1OUUHkmzLtZF3axlfmok) [business](https://darkstar.mirror.xyz/seA6j67Jc0mm8vqGe1zTuXC7O0h95XlmazSQXDlrd24) [models](https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d).
* **Crowdfunds.** Bootstrap a community treasury by issuing tokens and NFTs to contributors in exchange for ETH. We've helped [filmmakers](https://ethereumfilm.mirror.xyz/3SV8gLXHIW8Ot45h3RL7aOgDINxN2hjLfFVOvyatB2A), [writers](https://air.mirror.xyz/lmV9Dxeos9HvKSu0BKY9pqARK2vAlPXhrNMt68E4GkI), [musicians](https://danielallan.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x18f623e397EF28F1A5a094840f7F6f5587828b94), [e-sports teams](https://blvkhvnd.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x320d83769Eb64096Ea74B686Eb586E197997f930), [grant giving DAOs](https://club.mirror.xyz/dnN3Dwe-iD6jBpzkase4YLHTxYtnuFnmUbSoOfPEkjI), [media DAOs](https://neuroswish.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0xcf7f28d4c06f81Efc273a78446735C19B21C94C6), and [party DAOs](https://d.mirror.xyz/FLqkPA3iN4x-p97UhfhWwaCx8rBmVo-1yttY20oaob4) start their communities.
* **NFT Editions.** Build your community by selling a custom number of NFTs at a fixed price. Our members have used editions to [support open source projects](https://stateful.mirror.xyz/rsUhYxXARr7j2iDjqJeelY7nc6CN_Y-MilVDP1S5voA), [donate to relief efforts in Afghanistan](https://vv.mirror.xyz/sb9NU7Wzpg-53wqNFPM-MCwWQ7y48RJlri3cr3Nt0Do), [provide early access to an upcoming book](https://stateful.mirror.xyz/Y1ED9RorG9OvEUXD8NBmXgYhSVhjj8H537-I2SZJkYA), and [sell tickets to IRL minting experiences](https://brightmoments.mirror.xyz/WBND1KbJvg6ripddVSasW0wkvhTeXmCOdCh2rzRGpkE).
* **Splits.** Share revenue with collaborators and other communities. Members have used splits to share NFT revenue [between core contributors on a project](https://stateful.mirror.xyz/rsUhYxXARr7j2iDjqJeelY7nc6CN_Y-MilVDP1S5voA), [co-authors on an essay](https://notboring.mirror.xyz/SPV_-bchriVn_ncDj8OgnLccSb5qAsU0sXNpg9y_UTk), and [charitable donations](https://mirror.xyz/splits/0x92b6006233EF63DaBfb3A8FFaeD8b5914592A7eC).
* **Token Race.** Launch a community governance proposal that’s fun and social. [Onboard DAO members](https://club.mirror.xyz/token-race/bafkreidnqdtyls7q62w6mvfuaiwzn52ivlvephw4wul7g5ph2lqbjzymom), [collectively decide which NFTs to collect](https://blvkhvnd.mirror.xyz/token-race/bafkreiffyubfftl7w47l5m4tovv7b7vgrbm3q643pwb6rr754m3spse7eq), and [decide what topics should be covered](https://society.mirror.xyz/token-race/bafkreiace4v25jdn6la4h5owjbdnhf6u

Publishing on Mirror is Now Open to All

### Connect your wallet and start a decentralized blog in seconds.

Last December, Mirror launched its first product: [a decentralized publishing protocol](https://dev.mirror.xyz/J1RD6UQQbdmpCoXvWnuGIfe7WmrbVRdff5EqegO1RjI). Over the past year, we’ve also launched economic blocks for [crowdfunding](https://dev.mirror.xyz/kkpmBMFAeKlCv4zi2HcyO0MfmpguVqTHoo-DL0WxwS8), [auctions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/_OstP6dwYsX-0YsIaGDw-W4fs3VzESC_QpxrhiyM_Bg), [NFT editions](https://dev.mirror.xyz/AOoIsKPfZvf8LACKWp7gj_mg1ICCDOfPnVBOsDQoXo8), and [splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/V_7Jp1hy_g8bz-J1B4Wb5KYSmj5Lt4W7q7cw0noxJsU)—as well as a [governance product](https://dev.mirror.xyz/dLLIq4Iebg5DLWJbOWa3sU6oQuwbogkmqPnz-ZbzPUg). Mirror has evolved from a tool for writers to a full-stack web3 creative suite for communities and DAOs.

More than ever, we believe that every creative project starts with a story. Our goal is to make Mirror the best place to share your story with the world and build a highly-engaged community around it, powered by world-class crypto-native tools.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/X3jHDWCza8Yu9rS5gizJH.png?height=1142&width=2284&&&&&&size=medium)

Today, we’re opening up decentralized publishing on Mirror to anybody with an Ethereum address. Anyone can connect their wallet and [start writing](https://mirror.xyz/dashboard).

Why does decentralized publishing matter? We believe the core principles guiding Mirror development answer this question:

### Identity and data is owned by users

When you use Mirror, you log in with your Ethereum wallet instead of a username and password. This means your account is owned by you and lives on an open blockchain instead of a centralized database. [All data published on Mirror](https://dev.mirror.xyz/J1RD6UQQbdmpCoXvWnuGIfe7WmrbVRdff5EqegO1RjI) is cryptographically signed by users and stored on permanent decentralized storage (Arweave). This means that data cannot be corrupted or modified by faulty service providers or malicious parties. Permanent storage means that you don’t need to rely on the Mirror team to ensure the longevity or integrity of your content. Most importantly, cryptographically secure and permanent data ensures users can *credibly exit* a platform if it no longer serves their needs or becomes misaligned.

### Crypto rails enable new business models

Online publishing drives enormous engagement but has been notoriously difficult to monetize in sustainable ways. Because Mirror is built on Ethereum, it natively supports new crypto-native business models around tokens and NFTs. For example, posts on Mirror can be minted as Entry Editions, allowing them to be collectible at different price points while the content remains accessible to all. Entry Editions let writers monetize their work without putting it behind a paywall. At Mirror, we strongly believe that high quality, popular content is worth much more than $0, and [early](https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d) [experiments](https://notboring.mirror.xyz/rPk2Ozej8JHZZ_qayaekCfc1OUUHkmzLtZF3axlfmok) [with](https://darkstar.mirror.xyz/VTLvmo0xzs6I9YFIN2f7EZna-Zj4tNIEbF7RVpJOS7s) Entry Editions have validated this thesis.

### Every DAO needs a home

If a DAO doesn’t have a credit card in the physical world, how can it start a website or access cloud service providers? There are many DAOs with vibrant communities and significant treasuries, but they are not recognized as first class entities by the web2 ecosystem of creative and developer tools. Every crypto-native entity needs a website, and Mirror lets any DAO onboard with a multisig wallet to start sharing its story with the world. In a sense, Mirror bridges a web3 entity into web2 distribution of ideas. This is crucial for DAO success, since most audiences still engage on web2 platforms like Twitter. Collaborative publishing between web3 entities is [natively supported](https://dev.mirror.xyz/WPnZIC

Grand Opening: Crowdfunds Go Public

*Mirror is working to open its creative and economic suite to the public, beginning with crowdfunds.*

Mirror is entering a big new era in which we open our ecosystem to the public. Since last year, we’ve been expanding our creative and economic suite, and its applications within our community has been inspiring to say the least. So far, the suite includes publishing capabilities, crowdfunds, auctions, NFT editions, splits and voting—each with a web3 foundation. It’s a lot to roll out at once, so we’re beginning by opening up access to one of our most powerful and popular tools: the crowdfund.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/U0p62Trlddj7rLYAJ6wY-.png?height=1142&width=2284&&&&&&&&&&size=medium)

Like traditional crowdfund platforms, Mirror’s crowdfund feature allows you to raise funds for your latest project. We’ve been most excited to see it used to fund completely new kinds of web3 projects, whether it be a [decentralized e-sports guild](https://blvkhvnd.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x320d83769Eb64096Ea74B686Eb586E197997f930), a [grant giving program](https://club.mirror.xyz/dnN3Dwe-iD6jBpzkase4YLHTxYtnuFnmUbSoOfPEkjI), an [online learning community](https://g.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x819b12E7b398021fbD9D2acdC8B7349E3D732B51), or a [community-built NFT marketplace](https://d.mirror.xyz/FLqkPA3iN4x-p97UhfhWwaCx8rBmVo-1yttY20oaob4). Unlike traditional, web2 crowdfund platforms, Mirror’s crypto-native crowdfunding gives the tool a disruptive edge. With the application of tokens and NFTs, backers have automatic and permanent stakes in the success of a project. The result is a unique cross between starting an online community and an internet-native company, all in real time and with the simplicity of filling out a form. Notably, our crowdfund tool has proved to be the easiest way to form a DAO, where an internet-native community is able to bootstrap its treasury and issue membership via tokens and NFTs in just a few clicks.

Here are the highlights of Mirror crowdfund functionality:

* **Tokens**: The tokens that backers receive through supporting a project represent membership in a project’s community. Crowdfunds on Mirror have used their native tokens to gate access to member-only spaces on Discord and coordinate decision making in governance.
* **NFT Tiers**: While the reward tiers on Web2 crowdfunding platforms typically feature physical goods and merchandise, Mirror crowdfunds natively support NFTs. In just a few clicks, you can reward backers with digitally-native collectibles with the potential to grow in value and serve as membership in a community.
* **Patron Podium**: Mirror crowdfunds support a reward tier called the Patron Podium that rewards the top three contributors with unique 1/1 NFTs. It’s a great way to distinguish the project’s superfans and top supporters, and introduces a competitive auction-like element to your campaign.
* **Crowdfund Editor**: Finally, we spent the past few weeks rebuilding the crowdfund creation flow from scratch. With our new inline WYSIWYG editor, composing a campaign is now easier than ever.

To date, Mirror crowdfunds have collectively raised 1,751.36 ETH. Here are some of our favorite campaigns launched on Mirror:

* [Newly Finite Themes](https://techdirt.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0xDbf6787Bf9322f8768B36cCa815bcC91474aD5bC)
* [DAO Masters](https://awesomepeople.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x7F6B4d98789d283622D6B85d0efa3a7928C59B89)
* [Heavy is the $HVND](https://blvkhvnd.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x320d83769Eb64096Ea74B686Eb586E197997f930)
* [Ethereum: The Infinite Garden](https://ethereumfilm.mirror.xyz/3SV8gLXHIW8Ot45h3RL7aOgDINxN2hjLfFVOvyatB2A)
* [This DAO is here to $PARTY](https://d.mirror.xyz/FLqkPA3iN4x-p97UhfhWwaCx8rBmVo-1yttY20oaob4)
* [Crypto, Culture, & Society](https://g.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0x819b12E7b398021fbD9D2acdC8B7349E3D732B51)
* [Shall we start a new DAO?](https://club.mirror.xyz/dnN3Dwe-iD6jBpzkase4YLHTxYtnuFnmUbSoOfPEkjI)
* [Crowdfunding creator residencies 

Announcing Mirror-Bot, a Discord bot for Community Discovery and Discussion

Open data in Web3 means we get to play with a large variety of interfaces for displaying information. While this means there is a lot of flexibility, it does introduce an extra step in the groundwork requirements for creating any kind of live discovery feed. We’ve decided to build a V1 feed into our Discord server for all Mirror events from our smart contracts, which can be further leveraged for our web interface in the future.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/zxV6miW9j-39H63Lax1Ej.jpg?height=1142&width=2284)

So why Discord? On most platforms, it's fairly difficult to get both organic discovery and discussion across content, teams, and individuals. Discord provides a happy (albeit chaotic) medium to bridge this gap and it also has a strong third-party developer ecosystem around bots.

While the basis of development is a feed, building this into a Discord bot will help supplement discovery and discussion within the community on a platform that already enforces a tight feedback loop between those two elements.

The development of the bot came in three parts:

* provide a feed that covers all new writers, their project and content creation, as well as their funding or sales progress in activity channels.
  * the bot can sit in any Discord server and *push the events of a specified set of Mirror publications*.
* provide interactive commands for easily viewing *all* ongoing project raises/sales on Mirror
* provide commands that enable streamlined communication of feature requests and bugs, pushed *directly into our development backlog*

## Activity Feeds

We've added event tracking to activity channels in our discord for live updates based on the following categories:

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/j2okljkwzsJQwssrUgqzZ.jpg?height=1142&width=2284&&size=medium)

1. **[#sign-ups:](https://discord.com/channels/821771133422272542/888094195108180078/890650527334023188)** A new creator has started or joined a publication on Mirror.
2. **[#new-entries:](https://discord.com/channels/821771133422272542/883857527899582475/890906411066884107)** A live feed of all entries published.
3. **[#crowdfund-updates:](https://discord.com/channels/821771133422272542/883479657830301716/890934211932979230)** someone has contributed to a crowdfund.
4. **[#edition-updates:](https://discord.com/channels/821771133422272542/883857355584974878/890856633121538108)** someone has bought an edition.
5. **[#milestones:](https://discord.com/channels/821771133422272542/883857477861539850/888759370895208509)** A creator has started a crowdfund raise or editions sale. Additionally, all crowdfund closes and editions sell-outs will get a shoutout on both Discord and [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/mir_milestones) as well.

### Registering Mirror-bot in your Discord

Want to bring all of the above events from your publication to your own community server? You can now register any channel to track your ENS-specific events (as long as the bot has access)!

After you invite Mirror-bot to your server, you can use the `/track register_ens` slash command in the channel you want events to feed into:

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/WGogDe9CUiZwC-orDjxX6.gif?height=125&width=935)

For now, **you can add up to five publications to your server,** any of which can be removed from tracking by using the `/track remove_ens` slash command.

If you're interested in this feature, please [DM me](https://twitter.com/andrewhong5297) and I'll give you the bot invite link and help get you set up!

## Interactive Commands

We've leveraged Discord slash commands to bring more interactivity into other channels as well. Are you wondering what projects are currently raising a crowdfund or selling editions? Pull up a paginated table using either the `/table crowdfunds` or `/table editions` commands!

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/g8fObWJh6nFDNXqgbcMWD.gif?height=340&width=682)

In case the activity feed 

An NFT Launch Experiment Using $WRITE Race Oracle

The $WRITE Race Oracle is a contract that enables creators to make Sybil-resistant, fair-launch NFTs. Imagine if Loot, for example, could only have been minted once per person.

The oracle we deployed is an attempt to explore models with fair distribution, to build games that everyone can play - where a single address cannot mint a large percentage of the NFTs that drop.

It accomplishes Sybil resistance by validating that an account has participated in the $WRITE race, which requires Twitter authentication. The list of participants is ordered by the number of votes they have received by the Mirror community; the higher they are on this list, the less likely they are to be a Sybil attack. Developers can use an account's place in the list (their index) to prevent Sybil attacks by limiting minting if the index is too low.

## Introducing Heroes

We made the first example of using this method, creating a metaverse identity generator that we call Heroes. It allows anyone who participated in the $WRITE Race to mint an identity, which they can use as a pen-name or character identity.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/7eaf4d13-6773-46b6-b316-98edfb2af51e.jpg?height=1142&width=2284&&&&&size=medium)

Like Loot, these can have prefixes like "Captain" and suffixes like "the Brilliant" - but we used name generation instead of adventurer gear.

There is exactly one NFT available per account that registered; it is free to mint and can be traded afterward to allow people to get the names they think suit them the best and provide a market for the interesting ones that *look rare*.

### How to Claim a Hero

* Get proof that you entered the $WRITE race. You can find this in the data we published [here](https://write-race-oracle.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/write-race-proofs.json). Copy your address, index, and proof.
* Head over to the [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/address/0x1283ff14fb1de447955af429af05eafe959d2639#writeContract) page to mint your NFT.
* Open up the `claim` method, and paste in the data that you just copied. Submit the transaction, and you will receive a randomly generated name. 
* We hope you get something rare!

You can find the [collection on OpenSea](https://opensea.io/collection/heroes-waiwbtnarp).

## Oracle Details

To generate the $WRITE Race Oracle, we took a snapshot of all accounts participating in the $WRITE race and created a Merkle Tree with their address and current spot. We then deployed a contract that holds the Merkle Root and exposes a function that, given a Merkle Proof, verifies if a particular account has participated in the race.

We have used Merkle Trees before for our splits implementation; if you want a more in-depth look into it works, see our previous [Engineering Splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/V_7Jp1hy_g8bz-J1B4Wb5KYSmj5Lt4W7q7cw0noxJsU) post.

The proof data has been uploaded [here](https://write-race-oracle.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/write-race-proofs.json) for anyone to use. On there, you will find the three inputs necessary to verify that you have entered the $WRITE race: account, index, and proofs. You can try it out on [Etherscan](https://etherscan.io/address/0x6a6893cb59a559458d61618300598394743f0747#readContract), copy and paste the arguments:

![Check that your identity is verified](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/dbd3c3c0-577e-4021-b3b4-d7b97ae152b7.png?height=852&width=2694&&&&&size=medium)

The contracts and scripts we used to generate the proofs have been published on the Mirror Github; see this [repository](https://github.com/mirror-xyz/write-race-oracle).

## Disclaimer

*The oracle is an experiment, and we do not guarantee that we will update the root often or at all. Currently, only accounts that entered the $WRITE race before September 1st will be valid on the deployed oracle.*

Editor 2.0

### Mirror is excited to release a significant update to the writing experience with a completely new editor.

The new editor allows you to seamlessly weave together multimedia content and economic participation into a cohesive narrative. Create a story that’s collectible. Raise funds to make your dream project a reality. Build a community around your writing.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/9df2e94e-c96b-41fc-96b5-46c7be65441f.png?height=1142&width=2284&&size=medium)

We’ve evolved the editor to better support your creative process. No more toggling to preview mode or looking up Markdown syntax. As you write, the editor displays your story how readers will see it. You can even insert rich embeds directly into the document — like Mirror economic blocks (crowdfunds, splits, etc.), web3 content (NFTs), or third-party content (YouTube videos, tweets, etc).

If you like using Markdown, you still can. Markdown syntax gets transformed into rich text and you can even paste Markdown into the editor. For those who prefer formatting with their mouse, there are new selection and block menus to get things just right.

In the future, this foundation will help support new features, like auto-save, table support, collaborative editing, etc. We are excited to get this into creators’ hands and see what you create.

Introducing Editions

### Mirror is excited to introduce Editions to our suite of crypto-native creator tools.

Editions are a way for creators to mint a limited supply of identical NFTs at a fixed price. If a 1/1 NFT is a Picasso at Sotheby's, Editions are like the thousands of first-edition holographic Charizards released. As a stupidly obvious sidenote, a cool thing about NFTs is that they’ll never get scuffed, scratched or bent :)

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/095c8b28-b76a-4aef-938e-4188f322a782.jpeg?height=1138&width=2024)



To put Editions in context, they have a clear predecessor: the NFT auction. When NFTs took off this year, they gave creators a new way to prove scarcity around digital artworks. For digital artists, that was huge. They could finally unlock the latent value in their work that was traditionally reserved for physical mediums. They also adopted the fine art characteristic that works are one-of-a-kind, known as the 1/1 NFT. That successfully gave these assets a flair of distinction and collectors all the more incentive to raise their bid. Reserve NFT auctions became the most common and successful market mechanism for creating demand around the works (Mirror added reserve auction support earlier this year). The public nature of auctions met with a ticking clock has really turned out to be a viral mechanism.

While there's an undeniable sense of play, competition and victory that we love, there are also characteristics of 1/1 NFT auctions that are a little antithetical to crypto’s emphasis on community. For instance, there’s only one winner, despite however much support the artist received from other bidders. It’s sort of like going to a concert and only one person gets to walk away with the signed vinyl from the merch table. Bidders are also incentivized to conceal their interest in a piece until an auction ends, discouraging them from drawing attention to the auction. The strategy might work out for them, but it isn’t ideal for the artist. Finally, a lot of people simply can’t afford to participate in competitive auctions, no matter how supportive they might be of the artist. It’s never fun to alienate your fanbase.

At the end of the day, as far as 1/1 NFT sales go, it often matters more how much it sold for than who it sold to.

We love auctions, but it’s just one way to play. Editions are our proposed alternative. We’ve outlined a few advantages we imagine Editions will present to creators:
- Multiple patrons can own an Edition since they come in a large quantity.
- Since early editions are considered more valuable than later editions, patrons are incentivized to participate in a sale immediately. They also benefit from publicizing their participation, drawing more interest around the collection and bumping up its value.
- A creator can price the NFTs in different tiers, to reward their superfans for showing up first. For example, there can be a 3/3 edition for 1 ETH, a 20/20 edition for 0.2 ETH, and a 100/100 edition for 0.05 ETH. Patrons can walk away with something cool at any price point.
- Editions use lazy-minting, which means that all of the NFTs are set up cheaply and efficiently, but no NFTs are minted until they are bought. Additionally, when these NFTs are minted, it is typically much cheaper (sometimes by as much as 5 times) than on other NFT platforms.

We imagine Editions coming in handy for both crowdfunding projects, representing membership in a community, and as a crypto-native business model for digital media. Imagine Kickstarter’s crowdfund tiers, but instead of getting a signed poster for backing a project, you receive a digital collectible (editions within crowdfunds will be available on Mirror soon).

We’re really excited to get Editions out to our community. We’ve seen so many interesting things done with NFTs and reserve auctions, and believe this feature will help evolve that.

To see Editions in action, check out Forefront's latest [drop](https://ff.mirror.xyz/OYyqJ5rlRkQ

Introducing Media DAOs

### Collaborative publishing is now enabled on Mirror
We’ve always said Mirror is a sum of its community. *What is Mirror* = *Who’s on Mirror*. Beyond its crypto foundation, we’ve continued to implement features that reinforce a decentralized, collaborative effort. [$WRITE RACE](https://dev.mirror.xyz/vZxxUIeGMQK9NNLcrT0eDYZ6wXhXVr6vTQzztj1DaEA) gives community members the power to influence how the platform grows. [Splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw) allow creators to route value from their work to other creators, suggesting no idea is an island. While Splits cited multiple voices as responsible for a single work, those citations came from a single individual. One publication, one author.

We’re excited to announce that’s no longer solely the case.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/e6b47756-3773-4056-8deb-a3777fd03726.jpeg?height=1138&width=2024)

Beginning this week, Media DAOs make it possible for creators to work collaboratively on Mirror. As long as you have a Mirror publication, you’re now free to add other collaborators to that publication. Together, you’ll be able to do everything you’d be able to do on Mirror as an individual—publishing, crowdfunding, creating auctions and editions, and assigning splits. Accordingly, Mirror now allows multiple authors to be listed in bylines.

We should also note that whether or not your chosen collaborators have advanced in the $WRITE RACE, they’ll have full access to all of Mirror’s tools. **SCREEEEECH**

We know virtual collaboration’s nothing new. How’s collaborative publishing on Mirror different from outlining a manifesto in Google docs, sketching an app in Figma or working out a business model in Sheets? As collaborators on Mirror, you’re already economically bound to your work. In that case, we see Media DAOs as a category of their own. They’re somewhere between a Google doc and a company.

For Media DAOs to work, permissions are controlled by a smart contract that lives on Ethereum. While adding or removing collaborators requires a bit of gas, it gives creators full control over access and defines permissions as a fully decentralized protocol. We feel the added gas also makes the initiation of a new collaborator all the more special.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/507c62c2-7eee-4d4e-b888-473902a0f676.jpeg?height=1138&width=2024)

To reiterate, a Media DAO [playbook](https://air.mirror.xyz/lmV9Dxeos9HvKSu0BKY9pqARK2vAlPXhrNMt68E4GkI) might go as follows:

- You or a collaborator wins $WRITE RACE and secures a publication for the media DAO on Mirror
- You or a collaborator sets up the ENS subdomain (e.g. `mediaDAO.mirror.xyz`)
- You add your collaborator via the Contributor settings on your dashboard, or your collaborator adds you
- Now that you’re both in, you might create a crowdfund towards a season of content for your media DAO and distribute a token to your community
- You earn revenue throughout the season by selling essays as collectable limited edition NFTs and auctioning off rare NFTs.
- You and your collaborator share the upside with each other and the community by routing value to your token
- You allow token holders to vote on governance decisions. For instance, how to allocate the treasury, how to structure a grant / bounty program, and when to add new contributors to the media DAO (Governance and community tools are coming soon)

There’s a palpable sense of support within the Mirror community. It is evident in the way that ideas and features evolve that people are adamantly paying attention to other people and their work. It’s only natural that they’d want to create something together. We couldn’t be more excited for what happens now that they can.

Give a Split: Using Mirror to Fund Public Goods

Last week, we [announced](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw) Splits, a new feature on Mirror that allows you to continuously route ETH to an unlimited number of Ethereum addresses, according to a set of percentage allocations. The feature took off in novel ways across the Mirror community, already demonstrating exciting signs of early product-market fit.

A [music collective](https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/xVIye95frUFrZ4RbfYPFNhfi1emI7kvXCcxJOTbcBlM) auctioned off songs as NFTs and used splits to share the upside. A [visual artist](https://vv.mirror.xyz/bE9MJMwZ3qimMP0NzUyS9qBdl9NmkhIrGkHQPS5wlag) used the feature to reward each of his previous patrons using the proceeds of a new NFT sale (aptly titled Infinite Players). A writer published an essay about [micro-economies](https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/gWY6Kfebs9wHdfoZZswfiLTBVzfKiyFaIwNf2q8JpgI) and embedded a split at the end of the post, functioning as a tip jar that’d be shared amongst the author and those who inspired the text.

As a new primitive of economic attribution, patronage, and giving thanks, Splits hold a lot of potential. In addition to the use cases we’ve already seen, they present a particular opportunity we believe is especially worth highlighting: **the funding of public goods**.

[Gitcoin, ETHGlobal and Mint Fund Split](split://0x92b6006233EF63DaBfb3A8FFaeD8b5914592A7eC?network=mainnet)

When you think of philanthropy, one visual that might pop into your head is Time Magazine’s Person of the Year issue from 2005. On the cover, Bono is [sandwiched](http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20051226,00.html) between Bill and Melinda Gates, captioned “The Good Samaritans.” It portrays a narrative of how charity seems to work: become rich and famous and then choose your cause.

Splits enable and encourage another scenario. They allow one’s charitable contributions and personal wealth to grow side by side, forever. You choose the cause you care about, add its Ethereum address to your split, determine the percentage allocation and you’re good to go. The feature commits you to the cause, automates the contribution and records everything publicly. However much money you have, or however much money your work generates, value is flowing.

Mirror makes this entire process easy with its economic blocks. To demonstrate, we’ve created the first public goods split, featuring a few of our favorite organizations that help fund public goods. We’re officially dubbing it the **Gitcoin, ETHGlobal and Mint Fund Split**, which can be interacted with a tip directly in the block above. It also lives on its own [permalink](https://dev.mirror.xyz/splits/0x92b6006233EF63DaBfb3A8FFaeD8b5914592A7eC) page for easy sharing.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/275d03d1-b184-4710-80cb-6195dda83f32.jpeg?height=1012&width=2024)

The organizations are each worth looking into:
- [Gitcoin](https://gitcoin.co/) is a community helping thousands of projects and teams grow their open source ecosystems.
- [ETHGlobal](https://ethglobal.co/) is a series of hackathons and summits onboarding thousands of developers into the Ethereum ecosystem.
- [Mint Fund](https://themint.fund/) is a community-owned and funded initiative helping crypto creators mint their first NFTs.

Beyond direct tips, things get really interesting when this split is composed with other economic blocks on Mirror. All value-generating blocks on Mirror—like crowdfunds and NFT auctions—allow you to specify a "funds recipient". While historically one would be required to set their personal wallet as the sole recipient, splits allow you to include multiple Ethereum entities, including other splits. So an artist could create a split that routes 50% of the proceeds from an NFT auction to their own wallet and the other 50% to the Gitcoin, ETHGlobal and Mint Fund Split, automatically and immutably committing to support public goods in the process.

Creators no longer need to wait around to 

Introducing Block Permalinks

One of the earliest provocations at Mirror went a little like this: what if you had a great idea, and when telling the story introducing it to the world you could *also* enable the reader to participate in making that story *come to life*. What if that happened directly within the narrative as part of the story?

This scenario has informed our approach to interface since day one, and lead us to creating a series of *Economic Blocks*—embeddable interfaces you can place within a story enabling readers to interact by funding and sustaining great ideas. *To be active participants of the story being created.*

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/6a6ce55c-ead2-4343-99ae-93568ffbd715.jpeg?height=1012&width=2024&hide=true)

Clearly there was something to this. We’re beginning to lose count of how many successful projects have taken place during Mirror’s first few months! Projects like Colin and Samir’s [NFT auction and split](https://colinandsamir.mirror.xyz/G5kD1SysIvVE-Socv7zknOExp3wZWZPSZ9_sxBj_cV4), Songcamp’s [auctions and splits for three original songs](https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/xVIye95frUFrZ4RbfYPFNhfi1emI7kvXCcxJOTbcBlM), Emily’s [crowdfund for $NOVEL](https://emily.mirror.xyz/0AFENlMKv9amUC1OJIZY26udpISw_raXkoEcvelPvzg), and many more.

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/permalinks.svg?height=1012&width=2024&size=medium)

The economic blocks powering these projects have turned out to be just that—*very powerful.* Although they take form as focused embeddable blocks within stories, each contain much of the same functionality you’d expect from an *entire platform*. No joke!

With this in mind, we decided to give economic blocks permanent homes by creating **Permalinks**—direct links to URLs where blocks are accessible outside of entries. You can discover a block’s permalink by clicking the 🔗 link icon in the a block heading. Auctions in particular look good! Here are a few favorite examples:

- COPE’s [First Issue crowdfund and split](https://cope.mirror.xyz/crowdfunds/0xb0c813151d18482a914a2b95b1a25d020532Bb36).
- SongCamp’s [auction and split for a song](https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/auctions/0xabEFBc9fD2F806065b4f3C237d4b59D9A97Bcac7/3028).
- Visualize Value’s [split for the Infinite Players auction](https://mirror.xyz/splits/0xc811597463a2A5ec2dda2291fF3F35938dE48702).
- Mint Fund’s [auction and split for an entire zine](https://sirsu.mirror.xyz/auctions/0xabEFBc9fD2F806065b4f3C237d4b59D9A97Bcac7/3051)!

In truth, this has been on our mind since day one, but overtime the idea was validated by seeing how blocks have been used by *you*. We’re excited to continue introducing other ideas up our sleeve. It’s easy to imagine how a design system of embeddable “blocks” which represent expanded web3 “apps” may evolve in the future. *Yes, we’re thinking about THAT thing you just thought of, too* 😉

Onwards!

Engineering Splits

Mirror recently introduced [splits](https://dev.mirror.xyz/mQ03-JXlfdoBnRrZisC5X3kM9nBkOILlHwxbdq382Gw), a native feature that lets you route funds continuously to an unlimited number of Ethereum addresses, according to a set of percentage allocations.

But what did it take for splits to evolve from an idea to a set of efficient, production ready smart contracts on Ethereum? Read the full story in this post!

## How do Mirror Splits Work?

There were three problems that we needed to solve for splits:

1. Each split needs a unique address that can be used to receive funds from an economic producer (e.g. NFT auction, crowdfund, or just an EOA sending ETH). It needs be cheap to deploy and specify the split allocations.
2. Splits need to allow allocations for many accounts, while being relatively cheap to distribute the funds. At first we were thinking in the range of 15-20 accounts.
3. Splits need to be reusable — accounts should be able to withdraw and deposit multiple times

To solve the unique address problem, we use a simple proxy pattern that allows us to deploy a contract that only stores some storage variables and delegates all functionality to a core logic contract. This makes it cheap to have unique addresses, and is a fairly common approach in protocol design. It costs 233,315 gas to deploy a Split, which today would be about $50.

When we first set out to build our split mechanism, we tried a number of different approaches. The first one was naive: a contract with a function that efficiently sends its balance to a pre-set list of addresses cheaply, according to some allocation verified against a hash.

But what if we wanted to split across 30 addresses? This would make it more expensive to operate, since costs scale linearly with the number of allocations. And 100? At that point, the paradigm breaks down completely.

We decided to try a different approach, using some of the core cryptographic primitives of Ethereum to enable cheap splits. In the next section, we'll go over how these work, and how we integrated them into a useful new feature.

### Technical Foundations: Understanding Merkle Trees

The Merkle tree is perhaps the most salient data structure in blockchain architecture. It can be used to create a very small representation of a large amount of data, while still enabling one to prove certain information about the original data in an efficient way. 

To create and use a Merkle tree, we split our data into chunks, structuring them as a tree (e.g. a binary tree), and then hash the nodes together repeatedly until we get a root hash. We can use the root hash to prove whether some chunk of data was in the original tree at a given location, without needing to share all of the original data. This kind of proof is known as a Merkle Proof.

![We can prove the existence of node 2, using only the root hash and a Merkle Proof.
](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/11b49380-e373-4af2-810f-2823c5baddc2.jpeg?height=1138&width=2024)

Given a public Merkle Root, we can prove that some data (e.g. a balance) exists at a given place in the tree, by verifying a Merkle Proof. For example, we can provide a proof that Hash 2 is in the given place in this tree.

A simple application of a Merkle Proof is to create a Merkle tree for a large database of balances, and publish the root. When someone wants to know what the balance is for a given address, we can return the balance and a proof, which can be verified (assuming you trust the published root) without downloading the contents of the database.

Therefore, we can prove facts of a large dataset, even when we only access a very small amount of data. Each block in Ethereum contains multiple Merkle trees to prove various aspects of Ethereum's state and state transitions.

### On-chain Merkle Proofs

While Merkle Proofs have been primarily used as the foundation of core blockchain architecture, they have also found uses in applications built on top of blockchains. 

Smart 

Introducing Splits

*Mirror introduces splits, a native feature that lets you route funds continuously to an unlimited number of Ethereum addresses, according to a set of percentage allocations.*

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/3301e34f-7fca-4eb3-a2f7-772c7962fb6e.jpeg?height=569&width=1012)

Footnotes. Special thanks. Instagram tags. These are a few ways we incentivize and credit names and works that have contributed to or influenced our work—whether an old idea that sparked a new one or a hair and makeup artist who worked on a model’s latest cover shoot. These citations come with their own benefits. They reinscribe a thinker’s influence in academia. They loosely attach an intellectually generous friend to another friend’s project. They drive followers from one social account to another—yielding dividends of clout.

Splits, Mirror’s latest feature, present a truly exciting alternative to involving people in your work. From a monetary perspective, collaborators typically have to divy up their earnings manually. That process relies on trust, manual coordination, and sometimes a ton of paperwork and legal overheard. Split’s crypto-native approach replaces a social contract with code-enforced rules that can’t be fudged.

On a crazier level, splits redefine what collaboration is. Traditionally, it involves a group of people getting together and churning something out. You’ve got to get people in the same space—whether that be a remote vacation home or a shared Google doc—and there’s usually a common objective. Splits make the citation and incentivization of participants so easy that the nature of one’s participation could be as ephemeral as a conversation shared on a late night subway ride from three years ago. The participant might barely remember.

Collaboration then extends to who inspired your idea and to what extent. Who originally gifted you your *Finite and Infinite Games* paperback? Who’s always been there to lend their opinion or retweet your post? Who appeared in your dream last night? Which charity do you feel could benefit from your work? And because crypto allows economics to route between any smart contracts, split value can flow beyond just people to entities like DAOs, crowdfunds or NFTs.

Splitting is the new tagging, and it’s just as easy. If Web2 was about social graphs—where a tagged photo connects each participant who attended last night’s dinner party—Web3 is about economic graphs, connecting entities whose influence is baked into a work. It’s not only cool that those entities get money, but that it begins to create a fascinating ledger of where ideas from different sources intersect.

To help inaugurate this new feature, Jack Butcher (aka [@visualizevalue](https://twitter.com/visualizevalue) on Twitter) has minted a single edition NFT titled Infinite Players and will use Mirror’s split feature to evenly route proceeds between ETH addresses who have supported his work in the past.

[Token #3039](auction://0xabEFBc9fD2F806065b4f3C237d4b59D9A97Bcac7?network=mainnet&tokenId=3039)

Stay tuned for our technical breakdown of splits tomorrow and check out splits in action elsewhere on Mirror:

- [Power to the Person](https://notboring.mirror.xyz/SPV_-bchriVn_ncDj8OgnLccSb5qAsU0sXNpg9y_UTk)
- [Stem III](https://j.mirror.xyz/qnvV6hGoxq6gIO2anZ4KLi-kXz3RDZh6qFS78QDSM0Y)
- [Songcamp](https://songcamp.mirror.xyz/xVIye95frUFrZ4RbfYPFNhfi1emI7kvXCcxJOTbcBlM)

Introducing Auctions to Mirror

Today we're excited to officially introduce a new feature to the writers of Mirror: **You can now embed reserve auctions for zNFTs into any entry!**

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/48330597-1c94-4397-be25-e8648336b431.jpeg?height=900&width=1600&hide=true)

The journey to get to this release is full of adventure. A month ago, Mint Fund had an idea to add timed auctions to the Zora Protocol, and decided to crowdfund the effort on Mirror. Mint Fund ran this crowdfund on March 5th, raising 7 ETH to hire a developer to build a reserve auction contract.

[https://twitter.com/themintfund/status/1368023582727696384?s=20](https://twitter.com/themintfund/status/1368023582727696384?s=20)

## Building Auctions

Mirror and Zora worked together to outline a contract that would work with the Zora Protocol. Then, with the funds they raised, Mint Fund commissioned developer [Billy Rennekamp](https://twitter.com/billyrennekamp) to build an implementation of that outline.

This implementation was a promising first pass, but after we reviewed the code closely, we found at least 3 critical bugs and some other issues that needed to be patched before we could say that it was production ready. We did attempt to run the original version with a live auction, but it broke due to an interoperability issue that wasn't handled. Luckily, we were able to exploit a bug in the admin functionality, by creating a mock version of the Zora protocol, updating the Media address, and having the NFT and funds sent to our address, to retrieve the funds and the NFT. All of that is a feverish episode more appropriately described in its own post, but ultimately we were able to recover from the problem without loss of funds, and everyone involved was patient and gracious. It was yet another lesson in building and maintaining smart contracts on Ethereum, which requires extreme diligence.

Following the failed trial run, the Mirror team took full ownership of the auction contract, which involved allocating a few days for intensively rewriting, reviewing, and testing it. We arrived at [a new version](https://github.com/mirror-xyz/reserve-auction-v2/blob/main/contracts/ReserveAuctionV3.sol) that we thought was tight from a security and UX perspective (developers: see note at end).

We then ran a high-value auction using this contract for the Generalist, including two animated NFTs by artist Jack Butcher:

[https://twitter.com/mariodgabriele/status/1378032448664170505](https://twitter.com/mariodgabriele/status/1378032448664170505)

The auction was successful, and has been covered by a few mainstream media outlets such as *[The Hustle](https://twitter.com/mariodgabriele/status/1380174352113676294)*, which has over 1.5 million subscribers. This speaks to the power of protocols, the fascinating work that's happening on Ethereum, and how it can touch creators in a real way. We're delighted to be able to build these open source tools for creators to use.

## Auction in Action

Here is an example of the Mirror auction block in action. This auction was used for to auction the Mint Fund source code NFT.

[Token #1522](auction://0xabEFBc9fD2F806065b4f3C237d4b59D9A97Bcac7?network=mainnet&tokenId=1522)

## Quick Walkthrough of its Design

The auction [code](https://github.com/mirror-xyz/reserve-auction-v2/blob/main/contracts/ReserveAuctionV3.sol) is really well documented, and anyone who wants to understand the functionality at a deep level should be able to do so by reading it. Almost every line contains a comment that explains its purpose. Here I'll quickly take you through some of the setup.

It is open-sourced under the GPL3 license, which means anyone can use this code. It is compiled with Solidity version 0.6.8, so that it can be compiled and tested alongside Zora's contracts, and will be compatible.

```jsx
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
pragma solidity 0.6.8;
pragma experimental ABIEncoderV2;
```

A key part of the philosophy of this auction d

Enhanced Editor

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/YMhOxUcG053_Pu2EnfMp7.png?height=1563&width=2691&&&size=medium)

Writing is at the center of Mirror. The editor is where ideas begin, and when ready, made public. But Mirror is not only a tool for writing. It also proposes new ways to fund, sustain, and grow the practices of writers. Not only are these big ideas, it’s also the early days in Mirror’s story.

With these constraints in mind the Editor has been a no-frills expression of the bare minimum. This latest update retains that simplicity. It’s a plain text Markdown editor, but with a little imagination you may begin seeing hints of the future we’re aiming for.

We’re glad to get this latest iteration in the hands of writers today, and look forward to seeing what you create with it.

$WRITE RACE

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/299095ce-0e99-4c80-8f3e-a79ef48d765d.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

This week, Mirror begins an ongoing experiment in growth—granting our community the power to determine the platform's new members.

---

*“What is Mirror?”* and *“Who’s on Mirror?”* are synonymous questions. At least we aspire for them to be.

Mirror is a community-owned and operated protocol and economy. The value of Mirror is the aggregate value of the community’s body of work, meaning existing members have both cultural and economic stakes in who’s contributing. To ensure a quality foundation, we decided to grant access on an individual basis in the early stages of the platform.

For this we created **the $WRITE token**, a crypto alternative to the traditional platform invitation system. Obtaining one $WRITE token affords someone publishing power on Mirror. In exchange for burning their token, users are granted a unique plot on the Mirror frontier, which includes a unique name on ENS (`*.mirror.xyz`) and a minted publication.

But how do people get these tokens? Are we, the Mirror team, the sole gatekeepers of the platform? Is that at all in line with our values? Do we even have time for that? The answer is no, no and no. While we handpicked the first batch of writers, we’d hate to grow this thing as if our taste and knowledge is definitive. It obviously isn’t.

**WELCOME TO $WRITE RACE**

[$WRITE RACE](https://mirror.xyz/race) is a weekly showdown between writers who want to join Mirror. Our community will vote for writers they want to see join the platform next. At the end of each week, the top 10 writers are awarded one $WRITE token, which they can redeem for a publication on Mirror.

It’s an effort to replace the traditional invite system used by Web 2.0 platforms like Clubhouse, Superhuman and Gmail circa 2004-2007 with a crypto game. We’re talking token governance, staking and airdrops. It’s an effort to ensure the Mirror community gets to decide who it’s composed of and, accordingly, what it wants to be. It’s an effort to guarantee that our path towards a truly community-owned platform—where writers are the arbiters of the network and economy—begins on the right foot.

Nepotism and scarcity take a backseat to hive mind and reward. It’s simultaneously a collective rally behind the best writers and a way to discover them. It’s the crowdfunding of a profile. It’s a campaign. And, most of all, it’s fun.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/739b516c-9a7d-46c0-afe9-1b7496dc0e1f.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

**HOW IT WORKS**

1. You need some $WRITE to vote. Because $WRITE isn’t widely distributed yet, we’re bootstrapping voting power by airdropping $WRITE to existing members and anyone who joins the Mirror waitlist. You can join [here](https://mirror.xyz/race).
2. The amount of $WRITE will be distributed in two tiers:
    1. Existing members with publications get 1 $WRITE. Since they’re actively creating value for the platform through content, we feel they deserve it.
    2. All new applicants who [join the waitlist](https://mirror.xyz/race) will receive 0.01 $WRITE. We see this as a first step in what we hope is a long term relationship.
3. The more $WRITE you have, the more your vote counts. The weight of your vote = $WRITE balance x 1000.
4. You can only vote once per round, staking all your votes on a single candidate.
5. Participants are ranked on the leaderboard based on total votes.
6. The first round of $WRITE RACE will last 12 hours. When the clock runs out, the top ten applicants will each receive 1 $WRITE token, enough to join Mirror and start a publication.
7. Whether or not you win, your continued participation in $WRITE RACE represents an investment in Mirror. That, too, will be rewarded with a little $WRITE.
8. Celebrate, go home, stretch, rest.

*After each round, a summary of participation and the results will be published on-chain using a Merkle root verification con

Crowdfund Block

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/043ddf76-5382-4249-94f2-86f8c8b6ef54.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

We’re proud to have released a beta block to crowdfund writing on Mirror. Our first two experiments were a total success. [John Palmer](https://twitter.com/john_c_palmer) raised 10 ETH for his essay *[Scissor Labels](https://j.mirror.xyz/RUeJfZEZxr-hkuzUCakQyUuf2kOJVMPPiAWBaQFhhqc)*, which has since be published. Just last week [Cooper](https://twitter.com/Cooopahtroopa) raised 2 ETH for *[Net Value Capture Equation](https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/b3_zJsOv8vvvJsaOKyCM-KcCeA_zEbn6K1yrmnRSK8Q)*, which will be published imminently. The next step is to unlock this for all Mirror writers; all in time! 

NFT Blocks

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/a9383a7a-7903-4fcd-b50e-1111f23902f1.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

Mirror now supports embedding NFTs from several of the big platforms, including Zora, Foundation, Rarible, and SuperRare. In addition to images and videos there is also support for audio and text. Our plan is to progressively introduce greater coverage for metadata, such as display names for creators and owners, along with a few other surprises. You can see the updated NFT embeds in action on [Jesse's entry](https://variant.mirror.xyz/T8kdtZRIgy_srXB5B06L8vBqFHYlEBcv6ae2zR6Y_eo) and [Cooper's entry](https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/PF42Z9oE_r6yhZN9jZrrseXfHaZALj9JIfMplshlgQ0) on NFTs.

Big shoutout to [Sam](https://github.com/sammdec) who authored of the [NFTE](http://nfte.app) component, which we use as the foundation of our NFT embed.

Invitation Flow Finesse

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/9ca22e0d-66eb-4b12-92fe-72deb1c793ed.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

Good news for those who have received $WRITE invitations; there’s a fresh [joining process](https://mirror.xyz/join) with a few surprises. Big thanks to [Seth Thompson](https://seththompson.org) at [A Lot of Moving Parts](https://alotofmoving.parts) for creating the token animation. We find ourselves losing track of time flipping it around 😂

Mainnet Migration

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/39ddbe86-92e2-4e58-8a45-47ff28f518c2.jpeg?height=1440&width=2560)

So far we've been onboarding users through Rinkeby, while evolving our on-chain protocol. We call our onboarding model "burn-to-register", because members need 1 $WRITE token to join, and the token must be destroyed once they do so. To do this, our $WRITE token's ERC20 contract has a `register` function that burns 1 token before calling into a `registrar` contract that registers the user's ENS name. That `registrar` contract can only be accessed from the $WRITE token, and so these contracts are tightly coupled, and we have needed to take our time to make sure that they were working well and were very gas-efficient. Over the last two weeks, we finalized this system and deployed it to mainnet. Check out the code on [GitHub](https://github.com/mirror-xyz/write-token/) and the contract on [mainnet](https://etherscan.io/address/0x622236bb180256b6ae1a935dae08dc0356141632#code).

Over the next two weeks, we will migrate existing users to mainnet ENS, and start air-dropping mainnet tokens to new users. We will meticulously observe this process and ideate ways to improve.

Crowdfunding Writing with NFTs

Monetization of publicly accessible written content has never had a strong basis on the internet, since it suffers from the [public goods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good) problem. As publishing has moved online, funding for high-quality, long-form writing has broken down.

NFTs give us new tools to solve this problem — by representing previously infinitely-reproducible creative works as scarce, tradable digital assets. This means that artists can now *sell* a scarce digital asset representing an essay as a unique collectible or artwork, while the content itself remains open and freely accessible (a public good). Still, the problem remains for funding the time and work necessary for a creator to produce impactful writing. 

We imagine a world where writers on Mirror can publish an intention to research and produce high-quality writing, and receive crowdsourced funding. In this model, the contributors who fund the project also receive a stake in the future financial upside produced by the work, captured by subsequent sales of the NFT. This improves considerably on existing crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter.

To achieve these outcomes, the content must be tradable as a single artifact (an NFT), and the ownership of that artifact must be fractional — allowing multiple people to own a small stake. By using Ethereum as the economic infrastructure, we can allow tradable, fractional ownership of the NFT using ERC20 tokens.

The funders of the project should be able to trade their own currency (e.g. ETH or DAI) for an ownership stake before the project is completed. The creator should be able to withdraw pledged funds and use them to fund the production of the public good. The backers should be allowed to redeem the underlying funds (including profits) once the NFT is traded, proportional to the percent that they contributed to the fund. They can do this by provably burning their equity tokens in a single transaction that also redeems their funds. 

Since equity is represented as an ERC20, contributors might also trade their tokens on an exchange like Uniswap, instead of redeeming the underlying value — similar to trading options.

In the future, we imagine that the creator could be the operator of a DAO that produces many works, each of minted as an NFT, with ongoing revenue from trading accruing back to the DAO. Funders of the DAO can therefore expect profits beyond those coming from sales of the first NFT.

This could signal the beginning of a movement towards journalist and artist DAOs.

In this post, we include our technical considerations for this project and a sketch of the contract that might serve this purpose. We welcome any and all feedback on our ideas. We will target a demo of the working functionality on Friday during a live-stream.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/1cddf105-e9c1-4a79-b72a-9daf4be83712.jpeg?height=1504&width=1348)

## Problems We're Solving

- Writers want funding for a long-form piece of content before writing it
- Contributors want to fund their favorite writers, and receive some return on their investment
- Contributors want to be recognized as patrons of public goods
- Speculators want to invest in NFTs, including those that represent *written* works
- Nobody wants to pay excessive gas costs that make it unprofitable to solve these problems

## What Success Looks Like

- Contributors can exchange currency (e.g. ETH) for some ownership stake in a future work
- The Creator can withdraw the funds that are raised, and thereby close the funding session
- The work is represented by a tradable NFT
- The Creator can update the NFT's metadata once the work is finished
- The Creator can trade that NFT for a profit
- Contributors can trade their ownership stake on Uniswap
- Contributors can divest their stake for accumulated revenue
- The Creator can receive an ownership stake once the funding is closed, entitling them to a share of the future profits as well

## Out of

The MVP Before Christmas

Mirror has the ambitious vision of redefining publishing online by empowering writers with the tools offered by crypto. We are delighted to share that we've officially closed our first full-stack engineering sprint: the MVP of the Mirror blogging platform. This will allow us to onboard our first writers and serve as the foundation for all the functionality in the future.

We have a lot to figure out over the next few months and years—from discovering new crypto-native business models for creators to supporting basic things like embedding NFTs—but we knew that the starting point for the project was supporting a basic publishing experience—the ability to post text and share it with the world. 

This post details our journey so far.

![Season’s Greetings!](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/bb9a61e1-f524-4135-bae5-91ddf7f0a1e9.jpeg)

## The Starting Line

Our first commit to the backend API was 29 days ago, on December 7, 2020 — my (Graeme's) first official day at Mirror. Denis had been speaking with [Trent](https://stateful.mirror.xyz/) about announcing his book on Mirror, and working with Jon-Kyle on designs and UI. We set an ambitious goal to have everything working for Trent by Christmas time — our gift to the world! 🎁 

To ship the MVP, we needed to make crucial early technical decisions. Most importantly, how to create a world-class writing tool with a native web3 and crypto foundation.

## How to Construct a Web3-Native Writing Platform

One of the first challenges was thinking through building the platform from a web3 perspective. Here are rules of the web3 game (*via negativa* style):

1. Post content shall not be centralized
2. The reading experience should not require trust in Mirror
3. Mirror shall not own a writer's domain
4. Writers do not need to connect their wallets and sign everything they write
5. Mirror shall not attempt to store Ethereum private keys in the browser!
6. Writing shall not be excessively expensive (for Mirror or writers)
7. Bonus: No using email-password signup!

The architecture we came up with looks something like this:

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/4ad92c52-5226-40c1-b654-4bbfe905c278.jpeg)

I will now briefly break down how we solved each of these problems.

### 1. Post content shall not be centralized

We decided to use the **Arweave** data storage protocol to store user content. Arweave provides permanent storage of data for a one-time cost at upload time. The data posted to Arweave includes all of the information required to *retrieve* all entries for a publication (including any changes made), and to *verify* authorship authenticity. (We have plans to publish the protocol specification along with an open-source tool that can assist with this retrieval and verification process, so that it would be trivial to migrate off of Mirror if the time ever comes for that.)

### 2. The reading experience should not require trust in Mirror

All entries are signed by a user's *signing key* (this is a non-Ethereum keypair that does not contain any direct economic value. I'll explain more on this later). The signature is then published to Arweave, along with the digest that was signed, and with the content that went into the digest. The *signing key* itself is put into a message that asserts authorship rights, which is then signed by the writer's Ethereum address. All of this information is stored on Arweave, along with the entry's content — for every entry and update. Therefore, it's possible (and fairly easy) for anyone to verify whether an entry was authored by a given Ethereum account.

We're still iterating on this model, and it's obviously very early. Consider us in the "testnet" phase of this (along with everything else you read in this post).

### 3. Mirror shall not own a writer's domain

We use ENS to provide domain ownership to the writer, who claims this ownership by burning an invite token (called $WRITE; expect more information on this soon) durin