Posted in: Comics | Tagged: kickstarter, Zoop

NFTWatch: Zoop Steps Up To Appeal To Kickstarter Boycott

Published Thu, 16 Dec 2021 11:04:12 -0600

Bleeding Cool covered just a little of the comic book industry reaction to Kickstarter announcing a switch to blockchain technology. And it has been undeniably negative. Kickstarter tweeted the following in response to such unending diatribes.

"We know our community has a lot of questions about this new direction, including how it will benefit creators, and how we'll stay true to our environmental commitments. We are listening. We've started an FAQ at http://kickstarter.com/protocol with what we've been asked the most. There's still so much more we can do together to make new creative ideas become reality. The bottom line: we're doing this because we believe it will benefit creators, and exponentially expand our ability to help bring creative projects to life. We can't do this alone, and we're planning more ways to make sure your voices are heard. To those who have shared thoughts so far: thank you. Please continue to send questions, ideas, and feedback to protocol@kickstarter.com."

No one seems to have actually explained how it will actually benefit creators or supporters aside from the vagaries above. And that FAQ doesn't help.

"Crowdfunding has made it easier to fund creative work without the involvement of intermediaries and gatekeepers. At the same time, there should be better ways for creators to connect directly with their communities, and more tools available to help creative projects of all kinds and sizes come to life. Backers should be able to easily discover and participate more deeply in projects, better control their data, and have more robust tools to assess the trustworthiness and viability of a project… The protocol will live on Celo, a carbon-negative, public blockchain, be open source, and be available for collaborators, competitors, and independent contributors from all over the world to build upon, connect to, or use. This openness enables everyone who is interested in the promise of crowdfunding to help build its future and have a say and stake in how it works. Blockchain will also open the potential to be rewarded for contributing to the systems that you use everyday. As a user, whether you're a creator or a backer, the Kickstarter experience you're familiar with will stay the same. You won't "see" the protocol, but you will benefit from its improvements. Backers can continue to utilize normal credit and debit cards to pledge to campaigns, and creators can continue to receive normal currency to fulfill their projects. Since everyone is invited to help contribute to the protocol and participate in the ecosystem, a wider array of good ideas will surface about how to transform crowdfunding for the better. As a result, more creative projects will ultimately find the tools and resources they need. We believe decentralization will result in innovation like we've never seen before, and that it's key to the future of crowdfunding. We're excited to be working towards that future—as always, in service of our mission to help bring creative projects to life."

Yup, still none the wiser. Nick Pitarra tweeted "I think a lot of folks will start submitting their work to ZOOP. A new crowdfunding platform that helps with publishing and does the distribution as well." And Zoop were on it. A crowdfunding service that actually prints and fulfills projects as well as crowdfunds. They sent out the word;

"In its current form, Zoop is a curated crowdfunding platform, plus a suite of services. What that means is we are a full service crowdfunding solution that hosts campaigns, but also handles campaign management, printing, fulfillment and other services. To date, we've focused on established creators and publishers that don't have the bandwidth to handle those things on their own. Zoop always planned to open up the platform and let anyone use it who wanted to, just like other platforms. It just takes time and resources to get to that point. So, how do we do it quickly so we can better service the comic community when there is a dire need? We're finalizing those details and are discussing internally how to best assist as many creators as our bandwidth can handle. This will look a bit different than our current model and different than what creators may be used to on other platforms. But, it works, and it works NOW. If you are a creator interested in working with us, learning more, or asking us about our platform and services, please reach out to us at hello@wearezoop.com. Please understand it may take a little time to get back to you if there is an influx of requests. But, rest assured, we are OPEN and looking forward to working with as many of you as we can!"

Could be quite a lot looking at the response…

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