Good morning, crew ☕
This week’s EMC was part crypto confessional, part creator summit. Diana, Humpty, and Gramajo unpacked the fallout from the Zora airdrop, debated whether creators or collectors matter more, and got real about which parts of crypto are actually delivering value. Plus, Humpty gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Onchain Creator House at Farcon—and why content, not code, might be the real unlock for Web3. Let’s dive in.

1. Zora’s Airdrop: Rewarding the Wrong Side of the Market?

Zora’s long-awaited token drop landed this week—and left many of its early supporters wondering if they’d just been rugged by the protocol they helped build.

“I got a whopping $41,” said Diana, an early Zora user who had been consistently collecting and promoting content on the platform since 2021. “Just don’t even give me an airdrop at that point.”

Others echoed her frustration. Gramajo pointed out that active collectors—those who bought content, showed up early, and spent time and money—were largely left out.

“They didn’t reward collectors. And like, how can you not reward collectors? Without collectors, do creators even exist?” – Diana

Humpty tried to make sense of the allocation logic—two snapshots, one for longtime users and one favoring Creator Coin adopters—and acknowledged that the whole thing is a tricky balance to get right.

“If I had to guess, Zora sees Creator Coins as their future—and they want to reward people who believe in that vision. At the same time, they couldn’t ignore years of early support. I get why they tried to strike a balance… but to longtime users, it just doesn’t feel like one.” – Humpty

The big takeaway? Zora positioned this airdrop as a reward for creator innovation, but in doing so, it may have alienated a foundational part of the ecosystem.

2. Tools vs. Value: What Happens After the Drop Ends?

Zora isn’t the only platform facing scrutiny. Across the ecosystem, builders are wrestling with a harder truth: flashy tools don’t always equate to lasting value.

“Even though it's permissionless and self-sovereign… if there's no platform for distribution, then is it still content worth creating?” Humpty asked, pointing to how many crypto-native publishing platforms—Zora included—fail to drive long-term visibility.

There’s a growing sentiment that the “just launch something” energy needs to give way to retention-focused thinking. It's not enough to drop a token or launch a tool. Builders have to earn community trust through sustained support.

“I’ve been more disappointed by airdrops than I can count,” said Gramajo. “The people who made the network… it didn’t trickle down to them. Trickle-down crypto economics didn’t work.”

3. Crypto’s Real Use Cases: A Pragmatic Look Ahead

The group zoomed out to ask: what is actually working in Web3?

Gramajo and Humpty both agreed that DeFi, ENS, and RWAs (real world assets) are some of the few use cases consistently proving themselves.

“DeFi’s genius. It works. And ENS is doing real things—partnering with Venmo, PayPal. That’s proof of value.” – Gramajo

The team discussed platforms like Courtyard, where Gramajo’s investments in tokenized Pokémon cards have outperformed nearly everything outside of Bitcoin. Luxury authenticity use cases—especially for things like watches, bags, and sneakers—are also gaining traction, though largely in private chains like Aura.

“Self-sovereignty of money is a huge unlock. That was the whole point of Bitcoin. What do you do with that money? That’s where DeFi comes in.” – Humpty

What’s still TBD? Decentralized social. Farcaster was called out as “the closest we’ve come,” but even that, they agreed, still has a ways to go.

4. Creator House @ Farcon: The Bet on Content

While airdrops stumble and tool fatigue sets in, some creators are building anyway. Humpty is hosting the Onchain Creator House at Farcon next week, a mini hackathon-meets-content jam focused on activating Web3-native creators.

“We’re forming a tight group of creators we can collab with in the future—people actually making content, not just minting posts.” – Humpty

Backed by partners like Base, Pods, Octant, Matcha, and Farcaster, the Creator House will reward participants for producing onchain and social content—YouTube Shorts, TikToks, Reels, and beyond. Base will even debut a new social app built for creators and powered by the Farcaster protocol.

The goal? Create high-signal content and form a recurring creative cohort—not just for this event, but for ongoing activations throughout the year.

“If this were Rehash, I’d say we’re forming a DAO. But it’s really just creators helping creators.” – Humpty

Final Take
Airdrops may come and go—but the creators who keep showing up, iterating, and building community-first products? They're the ones defining what this ecosystem becomes next.