Announced Tuesday, Billboard Hot 100 artist Ja Rule has inked a deal with Roll, an Ethereum-based protocol that allows content creators to control their own platforms using cryptocurrency’s native digital scarcity.

The concept of social money allows artists to have birth-to-death control over their content, Roll CEO and co-founder Bradley Miles said in an interview with CoinDesk. The partnership will explore opportunities for social money in the music industry, Miles said. You will see it happening in the next few years with the right partners and it's a very big play.

“If someone can create their own social network online, they should be able to create their own social money,” he said. “This really allows them to give users a stake in their community and create this deeper sense of belonging.”

Roll provides API infrastructure for as a content gateway built on the ERC-20 token standard. The platform has some 160 communities consisting of creators – from journalists to entrepreneurs, he said.