An experiment to circulate goods and tokens to increase the value of both - Henkaku Community 2nd Mono Auction -
It was still hot and sunny in late September. The “Henkaku mono-NFT Auction” (“Mono Auction”), a real event for members of the Henkaku Discord Community (“Henkaku Community”), was held at the NFT members-only Crypto Cafe & Bar in Ebisu, Tokyo. This was the second auction following the one held last year. I participated in this event for the second time since last year as the event moderator! This time, I will keep a good record of the event in my note.
What is Henkaku Community?
The Henkaku Community is an online community led by Joi Ito, former director of the MIT Media Lab and current president of the Chiba Institute of Technology, where participants who love culture and technology learn about the web3 world through projects. It is an online community of culture and technology lovers who learn about the web3 world through their projects. Currently, there are about 1,200 participants with diverse backgrounds from Japan and abroad, discussing and practicing various topics such as education, metaverse, regional development, and recently, generative AI and tea ceremony, not to mention web3 in general.
Its predecessor was Joi's podcast program “JOI ITO'S PODCAST” listener community, which will celebrate its third anniversary next month, and currently there are four ways to join the Henkaku Community.
Have your letter selected for the podcast program
Apply through the entry form on the official Henkaku Community website.
Selected from the students of Chiba Institute of Technology's “Advanced Comprehensive Science (Introduction to web3)” course.
Recommendation from current participating members
According to Ms. Shinada, the producer of the podcast program, 70% of the members joined the program because of the adoption of the letter. By the way, I applied 5-6 times using the entry form and was able to join at the end of May last year. For those of you who want to join right away, I recommend you to take the “Letter Challenge”.
What is Mono Auction?
The Mono Auction is an experiment conducted by the Henkaku Community to link tea utensils to NFTs (non-replaceable tokens) and circulate them within the community.
What we did at Henkaku was to experiment with tying tea utensils to NFTs (non-exchangeable tokens) and circulating them within the community.
The community issues social tokens (cryptographic assets that are used only within the community) that have no monetary value. 100 tokens per hour is the standard, and people can accumulate tokens by contributing in various ways, such as organizing events or helping out.
We have about 1,200 members in the community right now, and there are quite a few tea lovers among them. We ask them to donate any unused tea utensils or books to the community, and those who want to use them can use their accumulated tokens to auction them off and use them for a certain period of time.
The key point of this system is that the right to use the tokens is not ownership. Moreover, the right to use the tokens expires after one year, so the tokens must be passed on to the next person within that period.
A portion of the tokens exchanged in the auction goes back to the community. By donating tools to the community and controlling the amount of tokens circulated through the auction, individuals can keep the tools and tokens going in circles and increase the value of both.
https://bookplus.nikkei.com/atcl/column/030800356/040100003/
The concept of the Mono Auction is discussed in the video dialogue between Joi and Atsuhiko Nakata (play time 33:00-34:40).
Last year's auction
Based on Joi's idea, from May to August of last year, the voluntary members of the community developed an auction system that allows “bidding” of NFT and tea utensils and “winning” by token payment linked to Discord Bot, and designed an event with a tea party. Tea Party & 1st Mono Auction” was held in early September.
The 2nd Mono Auction
The 2nd Mono Auction was held with a new program and new items. The major change from the last time was that the background music was vocal music created by SUNO AI. Mr. K, a university student taking “Introduction to web3” at Chiba Institute of Technology, created 51 (!) original songs. He also created a setlist that matched the content of the ongoing program. He is an amateur composer, but he created more than 10 high quality songs in 2 days, and we were simply amazed at the power of AI, a hot topic in the Henkaku Community.
Program 1: Let's name your chashaku!
It is said that the custom of naming objects is not limited to tea ceremony utensils, but also includes swords and other weapons, and that the practice originated with the naming of tea pots in the 14th century. In order to reproduce the legend that naming an object gives it a soul, we held an impromptu competition to see who could give the best name to an unnamed tea scoop that Joi had prepared for us. The participants had 5 minutes to come up with a name and their thoughts, which were then posted on Discord, and the winners were decided by a vote. It seems that there are various ways of naming tea ceremony utensils, such as “landscape view,” “waka poem,” and “seasonal words. Many great ideas were shared by community members with diverse knowledge and experience!
The winner with the most votes was MINTA, a well-known lecturer at Chiba Institute of Technology's “Introduction to web3! The name of her work is “Shunraichiku” (Spring-Thundering-Bamboo). Joi's tea scoop was named with an awareness of the seasonal words and the Henkaku Community, and it was a tea scoop with a spirit of its own. This “Shunraichiku” was later sold at an auction.
“Shunraichiku” (Spring-Thundering-Bamboo)!
It is a seasonal term for spring, with the thundering bamboo that is early in the spring! The name evokes a powerful transformation while also manifesting a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. ⚡️
Program 2: Keyboard typing contest
The keyboard typing competition by Mr.tenpapa, a self-proclaimed keyboard expert, was a lot of fun! Using Joi's personal keyboard and the assigned text (in English) from monkeytype, participants competed to see who could type the most letters and accurately. Although this activity was limited to local participants, many engineers who use keyboards daily for their work and students who write reports and papers participated in the fierce competition.
Of the nearly 10 participants, the winner was Ayappi, a university student & Community Maneger, with impressive typing accuracy and character counts! The audience was thrilled by her fluent typing skills.
Program 3: Mono Auction
The main auction project consists of four items returned by the successful bidders of the first auction after one year of use (a book “Life Long Kindergarten” signed by Joi, a Joi's tea scoop “Senshin”, a Joi's mechanical keyboard, and a tea container donated for last year's auction) and three new items (a book “Introduction to Neurodiversity” signed by Joi, a Joi's tea scoop “Shunraichiku”, and a “HENKAKU” panel drawn by an autonomous robot), for a total of seven items were offered. Before the auction began, the winning bidders talked about the episodes of use of the four items that had been returned from last year's auction. The possibility that the value of objects will be linked to their value through this kind of ritual was on everyone's mind.
Once the auction began, everyone declared their bids with their own community tokens ($HENKAKU) whenever the desired item came up. From this point on, it was a world of simple $HENKAKU bidding, and the bidding was fierce for the three tea ceremony utensils and other popular items! Auctions are very exciting in the real world, where you have to think about what the members next to you are doing and what they are doing with their wallets.
All items were awarded to the winning bidder, and the record was engraved in the blockchain and in the memories of community members.
After the event
After all the events were over, the remaining 30 minutes were used to deepen the friendship among community members who had not met in a year. We enjoyed chatting with Joi, who had just returned from Bhutan, and other members who had come from far away, making figures with the 3D printer installed at Crypto Cafe & Bar this year, playing ping-pong, and having a friendly atmosphere until the very end. The annual Mono Auction reminded us that even in the Henkaku Community, which is based on Discord (an online platform), it is very important to spend time meeting and interacting with people in real life.
Joi's podcast program is celebrating its third anniversary, which means that the Henkaku Community will soon be celebrating its third anniversary as well (although I have been a member for a little over a year). In order to further revitalize the community and increase the value of the community tokens and community members who are the main actors, I hope that we can hold more frequent events that symbolize the “Hare” of “Hare and Ke,” not limited to mono auctions.
Thank you to Ms.yukka, Mr.Joi, Crypto Cafe & Bar staff, and everyone else involved for a productive time! I am already looking forward to the next mono auction.
Click here for an introduction to the Henkaku Community.↓
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