Mirror Empowers Creators to Build Audiences with 'Subscribe to Mint' NFTs
TLDR: Mirror is a publishing platform redefining how we publish content on the internet: whether it’s the next big white paper or a weekly community update, Mirror offers creators the opportunity to publish their content on-chain and enables them to store it permanently as digital collectibles.
As "the home for web3 publishing," Mirror's robust publishing platform gives web3-native creators & audiences everything from subscriptions to collectable entries and embeddable NFTs that can be integrated into any Mirror entry — enabling loyal subscribers to claim exclusive NFTs from their favorite creators & pieces.
Subscriber NFTs enable creators to reward loyal fans & build engaged audiences
For the past 20 years, hosting long-form written content online required using a Web2 platform with a centralised server. This meant that your content could be subject to censorship or outright removal by a third party.
Mirror introduced a new paradigm: content which is posted permissionlessly and hosted on a decentralised network. This means that nobody can censor or remove the content from the storage layer, preserving your content permanently.
At thirdweb we’re passionate about accelerating the development of decentralised internet products which empower creators. It was therefore incredibly affirming of our mission to see Mirror build ‘Subscribe to Mint’ using our tools, and in this piece we’re going to break down exactly how they did it.
Powering 'Subscribe to Mint' NFTs on Mirror
Mirror’s ‘Subscribe to Mint’ lets publishers supercharge their growth by offering NFTs to readers who subscribe. The drops can be used to celebrate milestones or support wider media campaigns which the publisher may be running.
‘Subscribe to Mint’ works like an open edition drop, but with a Mirror-native twist. In order to mint, a collector needs to subscribe to your project via email. It's a powerful way for creators to bootstrap a communication channel to engage collectors on a recurring basis.
Here are some of the most exciting Subscriber NFT drops on Mirror so far, ranging from some of the largest projects to independent creators:
- Base & Optimism Collaboration drop
- Optimism’s 2022 Year in Review drop
- Café JPG Genesis Pass drop
- UFO’s Genesis Pass drop
- OurNetwork’s first Members Club drop
- W1nt3r.eth early supporter drop
- Netmorf’s PNG in the EYE drop
- Marcus’s Next Billion Genesis Collector drop
NFT rewards for subscribers delivers 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 intends to be able to compose with pre-existing lists of wallets or tokens, to enable functionality such as community-gated content.
thirdweb’s signature-based minting allows Mirror to offer NFTs exclusively to subscribers
Mirror used the signature-based minting solution to provide a way for publishers to offer NFTs exclusively to subscribers. Signature-based minting allows the platform to verify in real-time and on a user-by-user basis whether a particular wallet can mint the NFT. Since these NFTs are only available to subscribers of the publication, it requires checking the subscription status of the wallet at the moment the user is trying to claim.
How does signature-based minting work?
- Wallet A generates a signature for a token (specifying name, image, description, properties, and minter address).
- Wallet B can use the signature provided by Wallet A to mint the NFT.
Publishers then grant signatures for specific wallets to mint tokens with properties they specify in their contract.
Signature-based minting ultimately allows you (the admin wallet) to generate signatures that allow other users to mint tokens on your smart contract.
thirdweb’s signature-based minting allows Mirror to offer NFTs exclusively to subscribers
Mirror used the signature-based minting solution to provide a way for publishers to offer NFTs exclusively to subscribers. This made it impossible for visitors who were not subscribed to their articles to mint its Subscriber NFT.
Signature-based minting allows the platform to verify in real-time and on a user-by-user basis whether a particular wallet can mint the NFT. Since these NFTs are only available to subscribers of the publication, it requires checking the subscription status of the wallet at the moment the user is trying to claim.
How does signature-based minting work?
- Wallet A generates a signature for a token (specifying name, image, description, properties, and minter address).
- Wallet B can use the signature provided by Wallet A to mint the NFT.
Publishers then grant signatures for specific wallets to mint tokens with properties they specify in their contract.
Signature-based minting ultimately allows you (the admin wallet) to generate signatures that allow other users to mint tokens on your smart contract.
Integrating seamless web3 tech requires a trusted partner — thirdweb delivers
thirdweb’s contracts are fully open-source on GitHub, consistently audited by trusted firms, 10x cheaper to deploy than ordinary smart contracts, and completely owned by the creator/brand deploying. This made them an obvious solution for Mirror to build their unique subscription minting tool.
From simple contract deployment workflow for teams to robust SDKs for every stack, thirdweb makes it easy for companies to build safely, effectively, and easily on web3 foundations. Companies that build with thirdweb’s tools can focus their energy on providing unique value to their clients without worrying about the caliber of their smart contracts or authentication systems.
At the heart of its efforts, Mirror has been creating more than just a new form of patronage, but a way to build community around a creator’s ideas from the bottom-up. ‘Mint to Subscribe’ is the next iteration of this goal. By taking subscriptions a step further and centering them on a web3 wallet, publishers can create meaningful social and economic links between their audience and project.