TAFTs

Y Combinator revolutionized Silicon Valley with SAFEs (Simple Agreements for Future Equity). Crypto adapted this into SAFTs (Simple Agreements for Future Tokens). But both still require lawyers, corporate structures in Cayman Islands, and tens of thousands in setup costs.

TAFTs are the on-chain evolution. No lawyers. No offshore entities. Just smart contracts enforcing agreements through immutable code.

Transferability Creates Secondary Markets

Traditional SAFTs create a fundamental problem: they're not transferable. You invest in a project, sign legal agreements, then wait years with zero liquidity. Can't sell. Can't transfer. Can't exit. Your capital is trapped behind legal paperwork that only lawyers can untangle.

TAFTs solve this through NFT ownership. Patron Cards are TAFTs—NFTs representing future token claims plus permanent LP allocation. When you sell the NFT, all rights transfer automatically to the new owner. No paperwork. No smart contract interaction. No permission required. The NFT is the agreement.

This transferability creates secondary markets. Missed the initial sale? Buy someone's Patron Card on OpenSea. Need liquidity before token launch? Sell your card to someone who values the opportunity more. The market prices risk continuously rather than forcing binary hold-or-nothing decisions.

NFT Ownership Encodes Agreement Terms

Smart contracts encode the agreement terms immutably. Each Patron Card NFT points to specific claim amounts in the claim contracts. When tokens launch, NFT holders call the claim function to receive their vested allocation. If they sell the NFT before claiming, the new owner gets those rights.

The beauty: no new token standard required. Standard ERC-721 NFTs work perfectly. The claim contract maintains a mapping of NFT IDs to token allocations. NFT #42 might have rights to 100,000 tokens vesting over four years. Whoever owns NFT #42 can claim those tokens. Transfer the NFT, transfer the rights.

This eliminates the cost and complexity of traditional agreements. No $50,000 in Cayman Island entity setup. No $10,000 in legal fees for SAFT drafting. No ongoing compliance costs. Just deploy contracts for gas fees and let code enforce the agreements forever.

The Illiquidity Advantage

Counter-intuitively, the illiquidity of NFT markets becomes a feature for TAFTs. Unlike liquid tokens where whales can dump entire positions instantly, NFT collections have natural price stability. You can only sell what someone's willing to buy at listed prices. No automated market makers to absorb massive sells. No cascading liquidations.

This protects projects from announcement-driven development. With liquid tokens, founders optimize for news that pumps price. With illiquid TAFTs, founders optimize for long-term value that attracts serious buyers. The token stops being the product. The product becomes the product.

TAFTs enable bootstrap founders to raise capital without the extraction of VCs or the speculation of immediate token launches. They create sustainable funding cycles where building takes priority over price action. The future of crypto funding is on-chain, transferable, and accessible to everyone.