Lawson Baker is the Founder of RARA, a social curation protocol for NFTs that revolutionizes how creators benefit from sharing their art, and how curators interact with and gain value from interacting with artists’ work. 

Our discussion centers around how web3 will forever change the dynamic between creators and curators. “Likes” and “heart” buttons are remnants of web2 — RARA creates tools to move away from centralized curation to decentralized curation, where fans can be rewarded for recognizing popular or viral art early. 

Users are tired of doing free labor for social media platforms. With RARA social, creators gain value from how much users interact with their art, and fans gain curation tokens for recognizing popular art early. The name of the company — Ra Ra — refers to a cheer, and in that vein, the protocol is powered by web3 reactions. Users burn reactions on NFTs that they like and receive curation tokens in exchange. The more that other people react to that NFT, the more the value of those curation tokens goes up. With this protocol, reactions are brought on-chain instead of being tied to a platform like Twitter or Instagram. This creates a permanent, portable reputation system for NFTs that benefits both creators and the fans who’ve invested in them. 

We also talk about the growth of web3 and how NFTs are entering the zeitgeist, and the history of the term “curator”: what does it mean to be a curator, both in-person and digitally, and how has this definition changed over time? Going beyond digital art, we talk about how RARA social could integrate with music platforms, rewarding creators and curators alike for generating popular music and engaging playlists. 

This is a great episode for fans of NFTs and all things web3, as well as any creators out there, or curators who love finding and spreading great content out to their network.

Follow Lawson Baker at @lwsnbaker and RaRa at @rara_social