The Rise of Engagement Farming in the Wild Wild Web3

The idea brings to light the concern of how individuals can safely protect, respect, and navigate themselves, services, and products in a world still developing. 

Part of this development? Engagement farming.

Sure, we’re reaching beyond the limits any human has ever ventured into on the blockchain but is it possible there should be boundaries in a decentralized community? 

Engagement farming is a relatively new term and digital strategy in the tech space. The term refers to a strategy amateur marketing gurus use to promote content or services in Web3, primarily on Twitter. There are a variety of ways to look at this but it appears the Web3 community is dubbing it the virus of the internet: spam and botting.

Crypto punks will use manipulation tactics to abuse social media users in the space. This effort is to gain more outreach for their brand, thus resulting in more direct traffic to whatever they’re trying to promote. Additionally, engagement farming is using bots to spam the web. What’s this type of early stage engagement farming called? The pros call it Shiling. 

Okay, I get it. Everyone is trying to hustle. But there are some things that just don’t work. At the risk of sounding facetious, maybe we should have faith in "third times the charm," but evidently not. Not only are there legal but inappropriate behaviors developing in a new decentralized space, but even now crimes!

 As of now, the laws have yet to be updated to include excessive engagement farming on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Imagine getting tagged in tons of random replies asking to “like” or “mint” some fake NFT collection like “Pooping Ladies NFT” just because you used the “WomenInWeb3” hashtag. This is currently happening on Twitter and it’s ruining the experience.

Phishing, botting and spreading disinformation in the form of excessive marketing promotion is in fact fraudulent. It can even go insofar as a crime in many countries around the world. In the US, consumers can report spam calls and bots to the better business bureau. Businesses who send emails have to ensure all emails have “subscribed to the list” and if not, consumers, like you, can mark them as spam. This is called CAN-SPAM. Too many spam complaints about one company can be subjected to large fines and legal court orders.

Recently, the first alleged insider-trading crime in the blockchain space made the news. 

On June 1, 2022, New York Southern District prosecutors unsealed an indictment for former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain. Why? Because the dude allegedly committed one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, “using confidential information about what NFTs were going to be featured on OpenSea’s homepage for his personal financial gain.” 

Chastain’s position was responsible for selecting NFTs to feature on OpenSea’s homepage. OpenSea kept the identity of featured NFTs confidential until they appeared on the cover of the website. After an NFT was featured on OpenSea’s homepage, users can infer the price buyers were willing to pay for that NFT increased. And for other NFTs made by the same NFT creator, revenue typically went up. 

Like, what’s the point of evolving technology if we know of flaws in an already established infrastructure and we don’t bother to apply what we’ve learned? In response, OpenSea announced internal policy changes for its employees to patch this hole. These policies include: "OpenSea team members may not buy or sell from collections or creators while we are featuring or promoting them (e.g. on our home page); and OpenSea team members are prohibited from using confidential information to purchase or sell any NFTs, whether available on the OpenSea platform or not."

So you’re telling me that no one in the company predicted this gaping crater in the business structure? We’re just all supposed to rely on the transparency of the blockchain? What about behaviors in the space that are uncouth but not illegal?

That’s why engagement farming is something you should care about.

Tech giants and masters of the industry are building a Web3 infrastructure. And yes, the blockchain reveals all, but how do you avoid the more treacherous area of the wild? It's our third time around the internet but it looks as if we’re going to have to repeat hard lessons.

As of now, it seems the best practice is to do what you would do in any new territory. Follow your instinct and claim what’s yours. Hopefully, this extension of the blockchain will be more evolved in every way possible. 

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