Taking Inventory of What I've Contributed to ICP
Today I want to do something a little different with ICP. I want to stop, document, and take inventory of what I've contributed here, and have a discussion about the marketing of Internet Computer Protocol — how we could go about it, and how to make this sustainable going forward.
I've contributed almost one and a half million impressions in the last 28 days. That's one and a half million times people have seen my posts about ICP in just 28 days. Now, if you valued that at competitive rates, even at a minimum — a low, low rate of a dollar per thousand, which is low quality — that would be $1,449 worth of work. And if you valued it more competitively at $3 to $5 per thousand, we're talking $5,000 to $7,000, if somebody were paying for this appropriately as sponsored work.
I have done all of this instead for about $500 in ad revenue on YouTube, and I'm super grateful for everyone who has gone to jerrybanfield.com.
Yesterday, you all collectively spent $300 on my website. Two people bought the lifetime chat access, and one person bought a 30-minute Zoom call. Although one of the people who bought the chat actually found me from my vlogs channel — not from ICP. And you can see the leaderboard, the list of everyone who's created an account and spent money on my website, which is fully hosted on ICP. I've also got some new products in my store, because right now, what I'm doing is not sustainable. Right now, I've delivered a hell of a lot of value, and in return I've got not even enough money to cover half my rent. What's amazing is that I started from scratch in March, and less than five months later, this is the level of results I've delivered in the last 28 days.
So I have added a new option today: a sponsored crypto video for anyone who has a project. I have two YouTube channels plus my X account that have all these impressions I can share it on. If you have a project and you want to do a video and talk about your project, I'm available for that. If it's on ICP, we'll focus on the ICP channel, and if it's not on ICP, you can do it on the Crypto Reviews channel. I'll go through all my analytics in detail below.
Dominic Williams, FUD Bounties, and Taking Care of Your Own
I've been thinking about this ever since Dominic Williams offered somebody $7,500 to tell him who's doing these FUD posts about ICP. Usually in life, it's better to take care of the people who are already around you. For example, I have two children, and almost all the money I spend on kids and the time I spend with kids goes to my two kids. It'd be crazy if I went out there and put a bunch of time and energy into helping other people's kids while neglecting my own kids in the process.
And that's where I'm most critical of ICP: you've got content creators who are doing a fantastic job, and we get nothing from DFINITY directly.
The Network Nervous System Should Pay for Marketing
Now, I think there's a better solution, which I'm going to talk about in a future video. What should be happening is that the Network Nervous System itself should be paying people to do marketing for ICP. There should be three reasons ICP is created. I can already hear all the critics and the whiners and the haters — "more inflation!" — and I'm going to do a whole video about that in the future. Because to me, having DFINITY try to pay content creators itself has not worked that great in the past. You had these community grants, which I received in 2025. I got $25,000 — that was $5,000 a month for five months. And I delivered this kind of value, if not more, every month. But then the grant stopped, not just for me, but for everybody else. The grants were not very well managed. I don't know that it makes sense for DFINITY to be paying creators directly — I think it makes sense for the blockchain to do it directly. However, people need to be demonstrating value like this in the blockchain proposals they make, because otherwise you could have a bunch of people just ripping off the Network Nervous System like you had with the Neurons Fund.
So I'm going to propose that we mint ICP for voting rewards, which makes sense, and node rewards, which makes sense — but the ICP blockchain should also pay for its own marketing, and that should come straight out of blockchain inflation. The tokenomics completely support this right now. For all the whiners who want to say "well, more inflation, that's a horrible idea" — look, if you want the price of ICP to go up, you need people like me. You need people like me who are out there telling this story. A lot of the time, people are being reached ten-plus times by my videos, so you could easily assess from this that a hundred-plus thousand people have seen my videos an average of 14 times in the last month. And they've consistently promoted ICP, and I've used creative strategies to do that.
Why I Quit Before — and Why Income Was Always the Problem
To me, if you're going to have any system with content creators, what I do is valuable. And I stepped up and did all this for inadequate compensation, where I'm literally borrowing money on cash advances to pay my bills right now. I realize some of you are asking, "well, why'd you quit before?" I think I quit in 2025. I was burned out, but I also wanted to fix my marriage. My ex was consistently very critical of and annoyed with my work, and unsupportive. I thought trying to do something in person and getting a real job would help my marriage. She really liked that — until I didn't like it. And then we got divorced right after that. But still, every time I've quit doing ICP content, the number one frustration has been the income. Like in 2024, when I quit after the community grants stopped, I thought: this was dumb. I was getting paid for my work, and it made sense. And then several months after not getting any more payments, I'm asking myself, why am I doing this? There's got to be something better I can do. I'm not getting a salary, and I have to constantly come out here and shill stuff.
Now, I do believe it is my responsibility to set my website up so that I can make money doing coaching. I just added dating coaching to my website, along with this sponsored crypto video option. It's not up to DFINITY or the Network Nervous System to support me and my business — that's not their responsibility. It's my responsibility to figure out how I can make a living full time doing what I'm doing. And to me, step one is to demonstrate the value I'm giving, and then to set up ways to receive. So I've got calls on my website. I've got my Skool community — somebody joined yesterday. I just put up dating coaching. I've got a book on there. I've got sponsored videos. I have a chat membership. And I'm delivering a hell of a lot of value.
How I Get These Results in an Hour or Two a Day
So let's look at the analytics in detail and see how I'm doing this, so you can understand. In the last 28 days, I was doing live streams and testing that out, and I was testing doing fewer videos, and that didn't work. So I've just been grinding out a video every single day. I have a very fast video process where I can make a video like this in about 30 minutes of real time. Therefore, in about an hour or two a day, I can make two-plus ICP videos, and in an hour or two a day, I can generate these kinds of results. But my entire lifestyle is set up to be able to do this. My entire filming studio is set up to do this.
And let's be real: I want to make at least $10,000 a month doing what I'm doing. I have skills that can make at least $10,000 a month doing what I'm doing. I'm not moving in with my mom, or giving up where I live in this house and having some shit existence, just to die on a hill somewhere supporting ICP. I'm going to do what it takes to make the money to support myself and my lifestyle. So I'm setting up opportunities to receive that, and I'm being open-minded about how I do it. I can make videos about stuff that will make a lot more money than ICP, and I'm prepared to explore that. Now, I would prefer to keep doing what I'm doing, but it needs to be financially sustainable. Some people would say, "well, get a real job." No — I'm so good at this. There are things I can do that can make me $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 a month right here in my studio. I started off doing ICP, and my ICP contributions have been valuable, but right now they're not paying the bills, even though I'm delivering a hell of a lot of value. In life, you don't want to keep giving a whole bunch of value in a place where you're not receiving what you need — at least not indefinitely.
Two Channels, Two Strategies
So: 654,000 impressions on ICP videos on my ICP channel. And I want to thank you — you watching these videos makes a big difference. My impressions are up 71% over the previous 28 days, and that's because you all have been watching, and because I've made videos where I went with the clickbait titles. These videos are getting put out all for free on YouTube.
Now, that's just one channel. I have another channel where I'm using a different strategy to promote ICP. On the ICP channel, I just do ICP videos every single day. On the Crypto Reviews channel, I take a different approach: I try to reach people on all these other coins, and that onboards a bunch of people to ICP. I'm doing that through how YouTube works. YouTube has all these numbers it assigns to various topics. If I talk about, say, Near Protocol, that's got a number in YouTube. If I talk about Solana, that has a number in YouTube. Tron, Toncoin, XRP — these all have numbers in YouTube, so that when you talk about that stuff in a video, YouTube knows this video has this number and that number. And when you watch videos on YouTube, YouTube figures out which numbers you like to watch. Based on the numbers you like to watch, your watch time, your satisfaction, and channel satisfaction, YouTube then puts things in the algorithm based on your numbers and the numbers of the videos I'm making. With ICP, I've lasered in on the ICP channel — it's just going to focus on being an ICP channel. But on the Crypto Reviews channel, I've learned that these tier-maker videos get out to a lot of people, because there are a lot more numbers in them.
Tier Lists That Reach Everyone — With ICP on Top
When I talk Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink, Solana, Aave, XMR, Sui, Toncoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and so on, there are a lot more numbers in play. I've lasered in on the ICP channel for pure ICP content, but on the Crypto Reviews channel, I've learned that these tier-maker videos get out to a lot of people. When I talk Avax, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe — when I cover all of those in a single video — I've got a much bigger audience I can reach on YouTube. And if you notice, my thumbnails promote ICP. Impressions are just people seeing the video, so even if someone doesn't click, I'm promoting ICP in most of my thumbnails as the top coin, and I'm destroying all the other coins over and over again.
This is extremely valuable work that I'm doing for ICP. I've onboarded people who've shown me their portfolios with tens of thousands of dollars in them, where they've dumped thousands and thousands of dollars of other altcoins into ICP — some of them doing it live with me. Others have shown me portfolios that are six figures, only ICP. And who put this thing together? Well, DFINITY did. But those people sold all their other crypto and put six figures into ICP off of finding me on videos like this, then watching my ICP channel, and then putting the money into ICP.
This is valuable work that needs to be done. If you get sick of these fraudulent scammers out there who promote all these other garbage coins and then roast ICP, and you think something different should be happening — well, then you need to take care of the people who are out there doing that work. Imagine how much value was lost to ICP in the nine months that I was gone. In the nine months where I didn't create any ICP content, there were probably at least 10-plus million impressions that did not go out because I didn't make videos. And then some other people quit making videos too — like James Allen, who left after I left. If James Allen had gotten even a thousand, a couple thousand dollars a month, he would probably still be grinding out ICP videos consistently instead of shilling Casper. Maybe Casper paid him, and that's why he's doing Casper — I don't know. But James Allen almost certainly would still be here. His turning point with ICP was when he cranked out a bunch of ICP content that people really enjoyed, and then the community grants didn't even respond to him. It took about a year, but then he got sick of doing work for free that was valuable and nobody appreciated.
Do the Math on What Marketing Is Worth
And the thing that got all this going for me: Dominic's talking about paying $17,000 to this guy to roll over on the people who are FUDding ICP. This one post from the guy got, I don't know, 400-some thousand views. By that logic, Dominic's offering him $17,000, and this guy's post did negative publicity on 400-some thousand views. Well, I did three times that much positive publicity in the last 28 days. So I'd say that's worth at least $10,000. And ideally, that should be paid from the Network Nervous System directly.
Right now, the dumb thing is that the Network Nervous System has governance built in, and those should be the highest level of rewards — the governance system should be the highest rewards. Then the node provider rewards should scale based on how much computation the network is doing. Right now, we don't need to be paying that many node provider rewards, because the network is still doing relatively low amounts of computation. But still, in August 2026 — let's look at July, since it's a full month, and maybe August hasn't all been paid out yet — in July, you had one and a half million dollars paid out to node providers to run the network, which makes sense. And right now you have a couple hundred million dollars in undistributed voting rewards sitting there. I'd say at a minimum, we should be paying out about as much in XDR or US dollars for marketing as we're paying out for node rewards — and that would matter even if you started with just a tenth of a percent of the node provider rewards. What we have right now is a whole system that's not working together, and the price is an indicator that maybe we need to do something differently. The node providers are getting a million-plus dollars a month collectively, which makes sense — they're doing something extremely valuable. All the people staking and voting are getting much more than that every month. And the marketing is the missing piece — the missing part of the trifecta, the Holy Spirit, if you will.
It's unreasonable to expect people like me — and Blockchain Pill and Bobby O and Zero to Hero and Michael Duffy and everyone who keeps creating ICP videos — to keep doing it when there are almost no opportunities to get sponsored or to get paid in the ecosystem. The ad revenue is garbage. It's unreasonable to expect people who have valuable talents and can deliver results like this to keep delivering them for pennies on the dollar.
Now, even if the Network Nervous System only paid out $100,000 a month, that would be 10% of the node provider rewards — a nothing burger in the inflation. That'd be an extra 50,000 ICP a month, which would be nothing. Look at the total supply and how it inflates: an extra 50,000 ICP a month, even at $2, is nothing. And if the price actually went up to something like $10, the same amount of ICP would fund a lot more marketing, and you could get into a positive feedback loop where the higher the price of ICP, the more you could pay for marketing, and the more you'd attract crypto influencers who would shill ICP instead of these other garbage coins. Yes, some of the crypto space is blatantly dishonest and compromised, but some people are just doing anything they can to get views. If ICP went up to $10 and they could get a couple thousand a month to make their videos on ICP instead of XRP, there are influencers who would change from XRP shilling to ICP shilling. If you gave them that money, and they could get that money every month, they would shill their thousands and thousands of followers on ICP instead of some garbage like XRP.
My X Analytics and What I Intend to Receive
Let me also share my X analytics and wrap this up. I've been delivering a hell of a lot of value for ICP. And it's certainly on me, after I deleted everything last year, to lay a foundation. I'm grateful for all the impressions I'm getting on X: 200,000 impressions, up 70%. The crypto review video is a big part of that. 495 verified followers on X, almost 10,000 engagements, hundreds of bookmarks, thousands of reposts, thousands of likes. This is what I'm giving. And I intend to receive a lot of money — I intend to receive enough so I can keep giving this, because I'm set up perfectly in this studio to keep doing the work I'm doing now. I am flexible. I would love to get money from DFINITY, or the Network Nervous System, or for sponsored crypto videos, or from people who want dating coaching or YouTube coaching. I'm going to set myself up to receive in as many ways possible, including YouTube ad revenue. But if, for example, I get heavy into dating coaching or YouTube coaching, I'm not going to have as much time to make ICP videos. That's just the reality of it.
Right now, my vlog is getting some good traction, with people actually joining who've never even seen a video from me anywhere else. My Jerry Banfield Show vlog is getting people in the door. To get full monetization there and start making another hundred, couple hundred dollars a month in ad revenue, I need 1,000 subscribers. On my dating channel — I love helping people with dating — I'm offering monthly dating coaching. I'm going to just put that up and see if anybody buys it. On my YouTube channel side, I'm going to offer the same kind of YouTube coaching package. And on crypto, I've got these offers up now.
So I would love for somebody — DFINITY, the Network Nervous System, the community — to step up and say: look, marketing is important. And DFINITY's marketing, as we've all seen — to me, DFINITY's marketing is at all-time lows right now. Maybe, hopefully, the game is rigged in their favor; hopefully, the technology is that good. But there are literally two posts on DFINITY's account in August. Look at the reach: 26,000 and 2,000 — 28,000 total. I've got about the same, if not more, reach on my X profile promoting ICP than the official DFINITY account. I'm not sure why there are so few posts, and I'm not sure where the monthly research and development reports went, either.
How to Talk to Me and Support This Work
I appreciate your support. If you want to talk to me — I don't read public comments anymore, because it takes too much of my time. There's too much toxic crap, too many people I don't need to listen to who have useless opinions that garbage my mind up. But if you'd like me to hear from you, I'd be happy to hear what you have to say, and you can support me at the same time. Go to the chat on my website and get lifetime access — we've got several people in there now in the first week of launch. I also have a Skool community if you'd prefer to use Skool: join the Jerry Banfield Family on Skool. I'm on there every single day, and I often respond to posts immediately in there and in the chat. You get on the leaderboard when you buy the chat or anything else — you could even take the top leaderboard spot, and I can show it off in every video.
Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. And if you want to follow everything I'm publishing on Internet Computer, it's all collected in my ICP Crypto playlist.
To me, this is just a discussion we need to have as an ICP community right now. Marketing is important, and we need to take it seriously. What we're doing right now for marketing is not working, and we need to make some changes. So I would like to know: what do you think those changes are?