RARA Social

0-to-1 Product & Mechanism Design (Acquired by Mask Network)

Product StrategyTokenomicsMechanism DesignCommunity Ops

Client: RARA Social (Acquired by Mask Network)Year: 2021-2022

Market Thesis & Acquisition Outcome

Building the economic layer for Web3 social

Mask Network was strategically building a suite of decentralized social applications in the Ethereum ecosystem, but they lacked a native economic engine to drive user retention. RARA was built to solve this: a social curation protocol that aligned user incentives. I led the end-to-end product and mechanism design, scaling the protocol from inception to a successful acquisition by Mask Network in April 2023.

→Role: Product Lead (Mechanism Design & UX)
→Timeline: 2021 - 2022 (Acquired Apr 2023)
→Strategic Outcome: App, Team & Protocol acquired to be integrated as the attention/economic layer for Mask Network's social superapp suite.
→Core Thesis: Transform passive NFT holding into active social curation via financial incentives.

Acquisition Profile ↗Protocol Docs ↗Community Blog ↗

Mechanism Design: The Curation Engine

Architecting human behavior via smart contracts

I designed the protocol's core economic engine, translating abstract incentive theories into concrete smart contract logic. The architecture required mapping out a 4-step system: NFT owners registering assets as Reactions, users minting Reaction tokens to curators (creating rewards), curators burning Reactions for Curation tokens, and building an immutable reputation system. This required rigorous moneyflow simulations to ensure the loop couldn't be exploited.

→Core Loop: Register -> Mint -> Burn -> Distribute.
→Incentive Alignment: Designed a curve where early curators of viral content received exponentially higher rewards.
→Anti-Farming Mechanisms: Engineered burning friction to prevent Sybil attacks and mercenary token farming.

Growth, Adoption & Traction Metrics

Proving product-market fit for acquisition

To justify the acquisition, we had to prove the protocol could cross the chasm from a 'Fad' to mainstream adoption. I modeled our growth strategy on a Sigmoid adoption curve, focusing on wallet activation and economic volume to prove we were hitting the inflection point. By implementing gamified mechanics and a hyper-active community ops strategy, we validated the product through hard metrics.

→Wallet Activation: 12,500+ unique wallets interacted with the curation contract within the first 3 months.
→Economic Volume: Facilitated $2.4M+ in total curation value locked across indexed NFT assets.
→Viral Coefficient (K-factor): Achieved a K-factor of 0.8 driven by the 'Curator Royalty' referral mechanism.
→Retention: D30 retention of 35% for active curators (exceptionally high for Web3 consumer apps).

System Architecture: Abstracting Web3 Friction

Translating complex smart contracts into consumer UX

A protocol is useless if users can't interact with it. I designed the frontend architecture for web and mobile, hiding the blockchain complexity (like the burning mechanism) behind familiar Web2 patterns. We abstracted smart contract calls into a conversational UI. Users didn't feel like they were executing transactions; they felt like they were participating in a social 'Curation Party'.

→NFT Social-Curation Card: Abstracted 'staking/burning' into a simple 'React' button (e.g., 'MARRY ME' reaction).
→Tiered Access UX: Designed distinct UI flows for 'Curators' (who start exhibits) vs. 'Fans/Friends' (who react and comment).
→Gamified Leaderboard: Implemented a dynamic ranking system based on curation ROI, driving competitive retention.

Community Ops: Driving the Core Loop

Using Discord as a top-of-funnel growth engine

In Web3, community ops is a core product feature, not a marketing function. As community lead, I ran weekly Discord events and Twitter Spaces to drive on-chain activity. The most successful initiative was 'Let's Curate!'—daily community prompts that translated directly into app exhibits (like the 'Gm' exhibit). This bridged our Web2 Discord community into Web3 on-chain interactions, solving the cold-start problem by giving users a shared cultural metagame to play.

→Growth Tactic: 'Let's Curate!' daily prompts converted passive Discord lurkers into active on-chain Curators.
→Feedback Loop: Weekly Discord townhalls directly informed the protocol's v2 tokenomics adjustment.
→The Trade-off: Prioritized genuine curation over raw TVL, accepting slower short-term growth to build a defensible, high-trust social network.

Read 'Let's Curate' Blog ↗

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