The problem with existing platforms
TAO brings a sense of connection between artists and collectors, that isn't immediately obvious on OpenSea. Sure you get to see who has collected each edition or 1/1 but OpenSea provides no dashboard that displays collectively who owns what across multiple collections...and there is no differentiation between a 1/1 collector and an edition collector.
These subtleties matter, because artists like to know who has collected their work across many collections and across many years. That is why collector provenance on a collection basis was not enough, and it was surprising to see no other platform has come close in solving in a classy not gamified way. The closest was Deca, where dashboards were generated but the artist didn't have control over which collections got counted, nor how much an edition or 1/1 might contribute. Their system was a points based one rather than a metric based one. I will come on to what the difference is.
What TAO measures
TAO stands for Total Art Owned 🧧 You can see how many 1/1s collectors have of yours, and how many editions they have. You can also see the date they last acquired an artwork, which helps to see who is still active.
And the meaning? The Tao literally means 'way', 'path' or 'road' in Chinese, and represents the fundamental, guiding principle of the universe. It dictates how everything in the universe moves, changes and maintains balance. For that reason it seemed like the ideal acronym for a philosophy that creates harmony across multiple art collections and displays your collectors base in a straight forward manner.
How TAO accrues
TAO is automatically accrued by collectors every 24 hours and the rate it accrues is set by the artist. Each artist can decide to have a different TAO rate for their 1/1s and their editions, or they can use the standard TAO numbers:
1/1 69 TAO per day
edition 4.2 TAO per day
There is nothing you need to do to activate TAO 🧧 It is active and accruing to collectors for each artist on The Line. Your top 10 collectors by TAO are displayed on your profile.
Your collector base
You can see your entire collector base, how much TAO has accumulated across all your artworks and even download a csv of all your collectors that can be deployed for allowlists for upcoming art drops.
Is it perfect? No. All your collector names are not showing yet, their pfps aren't always appearing and their X handle isn't always showing. We have done a pretty good job at displaying stats of 6529 identities. Each of these insights helps you understand who your collectors are.
The Chat
Finally, you are able to activate 'The Chat' between your collectors and you right on your Line Artist Profile (LAP). Use it to coordinate drops, check eligibility for allowlist or simply ensure that you can verify the collector you are talking to actually controls the wallet that has your art in it. 'The Chat' is only accessible if you have activated it, and collectors must connect their wallet to verify their identity.
Build off it
There are infinity things you can do with TAO 🧧once you have your collector list and chat active. You are not constrained to The Line either. Download your collector csv and build off it on your own site. Eventually The Line will have APIs and Claude Code skills so you superintelligence can simply plug in. For now do it manually and see what you can create.
I have created a TAO based system for collectors to choose paint colors on Strip Paintings as an example. The more artworks a collector has, the more they can 'weigh in' with the TAO to co-create the first ever decentralized painting.
You can of course deploy TAO however you like. There are no rules. Have fun.
lfffline
