Floor is Rising

The Founders of https://twitter.com/lasso_labshttps://twitter.com/nnhafreyand Karthik Thiyagarajantalk about the NFT search engine they built.SummaryHow did you get into NFTs?0:00Combining NFT data silos seamlessly to power new use cases.4:26Non-speculative use cases of NFTs.9:39Crypto-native games.15:07How Lassolabs index NFT data.19:27Learnings from early product feedback from users.25:24Utility as a proxy for NFT community health.30:08

Timestamps;How Spencer got involved with Crypto Kitties in Asia?2:27What's unique about the asian market in the NFT space?5:00The current landscape of the NFT trading market.11:22What does the future of NFT trading marketplaces look like?20:49How are NFT AMMs superior to regular NFT marketplaces.23:41New usecases for NFT AMMs specifically for NFT projects in bootstrapping liquidity.27:04Collection.xyz how does it work?33:44Linkshttps://twitter.com/spenceryanghttps://twitter.com/collectionweb3

Boffin talks about how NFTs is an emotionally loaded term, and that many people would buy NFTs if they were not called that.Boffin talks his theory of why reddit NFTs will accrue value, and the longer the collectible lasts, the more people get on board, the oldest ones will be worth the most.Boffin says the earliest people have the best handles on twitter, and that they can use flex to stand out.Boffin says that Reddit NFTs is a pretty big bet personally for him on the long term future of them.Boffin talks about how the product decisions of the Reddit team have an impact on the future value of Reddit NFTs and how much they want to support the project.Boffin says owning the collectible avatars makes owners financially invested in reddit making good product decisions going forward. Boffin mentions the governance stack they've built on Arbitrum.Boffin talks about how he evaluates projects in general and talks about how to predict if a narrative will take off. Boffin talks about various narratives that he thought would take off but hasn't including Cool Cats. It has been directionless and the floor of the cool cats community has dropped. Boffin discusses the narrative of Squiggles as another example of a narrative that didn't take off like he thought.Boffin discusses his favourite nfts and says he like buying from small artists.TimestampsHow he got into crypto in 2013. 1:33The amount of capital he's spent on reddit NFTs. 7:41How to stand out in a digital world. 16:58How much does reddit want to continue to support NFTs? 22:50How traits work in Reddit NFTs - 25:56NFT thesis that didn't work out. 32:46Coolcats, an example of a narrative that didn't take off. 39:09What is your favourite NTFT and why? - 43:30 Links;https://twitter.com/NinjaBoffin/status/1585626484731174912https://twitter.com/NinjaBoffin/

Episode Show NotesConor Moore discusses the two schools of thought on NFT lending markets, the peer to peer market vs the peer to pool market. And the various pros and cons of each approach. Conor Moore talks about how the inspiration for Metastreet vaults was to take the benefits of peer to pool and overlay that behind the peer to peer market.David Choi discusses Powersweep, an integration to increase captive use case for the vaults. David Choi notes that early on, users of the vaults were doing a positive carry trade because of the low cost of capital. That use case disappeared with the bear market onset. Now, they are pioneering use cases around leveraged NFT trading.Conor Moore talks about the how the leveraged purchase of NFTs is similar to real world examples of leveraged purchases such as real estate. David Choi notes that he didn't like the trad art lending markets because it's slimy, fascinated by cash flow generating NFTs. David Choi talks about his vision for what Metastreet is building.David Choi discusses the Metaverse Economic Forum (MEF) and notes that their goal is to bring builders together into a more cohesive community to create the capital markets of the metaverse.David Choi and Conor Moore talk about what their favourite NFTs are.TimestampsThe bad and the good of peer-to-peer lending markets. 6:06What is the use case for NFT lending? 11:17What are the differences between how people use borrowed funds in the art lending market vs. NFT lending? 16:12What is the non-recourse art lending industry?19:43Do you think that a completely different demographic of people needs to come in order for NFTs to go "mainstream"?25:15What's the future of capital markets in the metaverse?29:34Liquidity and price discovery in the metaverse.37:41Linkshttps://metastreet.xyz/https://mobile.twitter.com/_conormoorehttps://twitter.com/ktkzergs

If you're interested in the Web3 gaming space then today's episode is for you! We'll be unpacking where Web3 gaming is currently at, the trends we've been noticing, and what developments we expect to see from this field going forward. Here to help us unpack this topic is special guest, Kepler, a builder, and writer who specializes in crypto and the Web3 gaming space. Tuning in you'll hear us discuss the state of Web3 gaming, the role that speculation plays in feeding this ecosystem, and how these games are succeeding (and failing) at creating new genres and formats. Our conversation covers some of the challenges that Web3 gaming is currently facing, including how to support both investors and gamers, and what it means to create an infrastructure that accommodates a range of risk profiles. We also discuss the concept of social innovation in gaming, how Web3 is facilitating it, and what some of our favourite Web3 games. Key Points From This Episode: Get to know today's guest, Kepler, and how he got into the Web3 gaming space. Top takeaways from the recent article that Kepler wrote on Web3 gaming. Kepler's thoughts on the future of Web3 gaming and how to limit speculation. The potential for people to play Web3 games for fun, and not just with an earning mindset. An overview of battle royale games and how they are significant to Web3 gaming. The potential role that esports and streamers could play in Web3 gaming. A breakdown of the analogy that compares Web3 games to nightclubs. How to create a Web3 game that accommodates a range of players. Why Web3 games should have the option of playing with different risk profiles. The concept of permadeath and how it affects your gaming experience. The difficult decision many Web3 games are facing when it comes to prioritizing their investors or their gamers. The new genres and functionalities that crypto and Web3 gaming could potentially offer. How Web3 gameplay is paving the way for social innovation. Why developers need to understand what different players are motivated by. The benefits of giving people the opportunity to explore all your gaming features. The real reasons why NFT and Web3 gaming has grown so quickly. Learn what Kepler's favourite Web3 game of the moment is! Tweetables: “When you open the economy to everyone, even players that are not inside the game, and you allow for trading, you also open it up to speculation. And that can basically destroy your whole game.” — Kepler “You probably shouldn't make every asset into an NFT. Because it just becomes way harder for you to control the economy.” “Crypto is basically risky. So what you could do is have players self-select a risk profile. So when you're looking at an esports game, some people just want to play the game, and others want to play wager matches. So that's much higher risk.” “At one point, mobile games got a template and then everyone did it. There's nothing like that in Web3 gaming, for now. But I think that's also the interesting part of it because we're in the exploration phase and not the exploitation phase of ideas.”  Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Ever wondered how different the world of NFTs is in Japan? Well, today we are lucky enough to be joined by two great guests, Takuya Kitagawa and AT, to give us some real, first-hand insight into the overlaps and contrasts that are happening with regard to the burgeoning scene. We have a great conversation unpacking some basics about our guests' entry into the NFT space, and what initially drew them in. From there we look at the major hallmarks of what is popular right now in Japan, and how this compares to the rest of the world, before talking about important aspects of the field such as influencer and celebrity marketing. Takuya and AT then spend some time illuminating the inner workings of Nannda, and some more general thoughts on game design, and we finish off our chat by considering which types of games appeal to different Japanese demographics and why. Join us to hear it all! Key Points From This Episode: Our guests' paths into working in the NFT space, and their initial excitement about it. Insight into the state of the Japanese scene right now.  Thoughts on the current NFT projects that are having success in Japan.  Contextualising differences in the Japanese market and some reasons for popularity. Influencer marketing of NFTs and the main drives for demand.   The culture of big celebrity endorsement for brands and how this figures into the NFT landscape.  Barriers to entry that are influencing the Japanese market right now.  Comparing the mechanism at Nannda to other examples of play-to-earn.  Risk and reward in the two different approaches to game design.   The importance of the social dimension to games to increase engagement and difficulty.  Japanese audiences' attitudes towards different types of games.   Favourite NFT picks from Takuya and AT!  Tweetables: “Influencer marketing itself is big in Japan, YouTubers are big, TikTokers are big. But this actually hasn't come to the NFT world yet.” “Japanese audiences play any kind of game, individual oriented game or a social game. Either way works. If it is a more individual game, you typically have to do more campaigns.” “When I see the Nouns community evolving really well, I get really excited, seeing that maybe that is the future of NFTs.”  Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/a_t__3_jp (AT) https://twitter.com/takuyakitagawa?lang=en (Takuya Kitagawa on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

This week we continue with our NFT awards. Today's category is people's favourite NFT games. Joining us in conversation is one of the most influential voices in the NFT space today, Mete Gultekin aka Vader Research! Tune in to hear about the games that ranked in the top three, the strategy of game-makers, and why liquidity is essential within the NFT marketplace. You'll also hear our thoughts on whether compelling NFT gaming is possible, how our game that ranked first brought people into the world of NFTs, NFT gaming, and crypto. Our guest also reveals the unexpected similarities between the gaming and nightclub promotional models and touches on the sociological implications of the changing gaming space. Tune in today to hear more from this expert in all things NFT gaming!  Key Points From This Episode: Today's topic, continuing in our conversation on NFT awards: your favourite NFT games. Gods Unchained, how it works, and why it ranked third place in the NFT game awards. How blockchain-based games strategise monetarily. What Web3 games will change about their approach going forwards. Why trading mechanisms depend on a healthy secondary market and a friction-free marketplace. The importance of liquidity and balance within the NFT marketplace.  Second place: Forgotten Runes. The crossover between art, metaverse, NFTs, and gaming. Answering the question of whether compelling gaming is possible. Our game that ranked first and how it brought people into NFTs, NFT gaming, and crypto.  What has driven growth for Axie Infinity, and why the number of game players has dropped even though the quality has improved. How the NFT gaming space can be approached in the same way as the nightclub model. The expectations for Axie that have not been met and why it is increasingly difficult to get gamers' attention. Game design and the different roles one can have, from pure enjoyment to monetary gain. Our guest's thoughts on what makes for compelling gameplay. Answering the question of whether it's truly possible to make game play fun in NFT gaming. The sociological implications of the changing gaming space. Tweetables: “Having liquidity is definitely important; otherwise, it's going to be a very frustrating experience for the players.” — @DeFiVader  “Forgotten Runes is not a typical NFT game in that it appeals to a different crowd. There is a pretty strong delineation between people who are interested in PFPs, people who are interested in art, [and] people who are interested in NFT gaming. There's some crossover but not a lot.” @SabretoothSG “One of the things that could create a compelling gameplay, and not just in terms of being fun and enjoyable, where you want to spend ten hours on it, but rather that it is open enough that it is welcoming to anyone who wants to engage.” — @DeFiVader  Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/defivader (Vader Research on Twitter) https://defivader.medium.com/night-clubs-web3-games-bd71be9eb6d4 (Night Clubs and Web3 Games) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising) https://twitter.com/floorisrising (Floor Is Rising on Twitter)

Today, we will discuss the results of the top metaverse projects with a special guest, Ogar. He originally worked in design and production in the video game and the esports industry for 10 years until he found his true calling in NFTs, blockchains, and the metaverse. Ogar launched his company in 2019, Ogar Production, to pursue his passion for alternative art that embraces the voxel atheistic. His work focuses on creating buildings and assets within the metaverse space, one block at a time! In this episode, we go through the various winners and discuss what makes them stand out, as well as the future potential and challenges for the metaverse space. We learn details about the winners, what Ogar thinks about the various projects, aspects that make each project special, the role of big corporations in the space, the value of indie projects, and much more! Tune in to hear from a leader and respected figure within this cutting-edge industry, Ogar! Key Points From This Episode: We learn how Ogar first started in the NFT space and what he is currently working on. Background about Sandbox and why he thinks it is an interesting project.  What Ogar sees as the competitive advantage of Sandbox compared to similar projects. How he thinks Sandbox can strike a balance between people and technology. He shares what he thinks about the future potential and challenges are for Sandbox. What the new OM project is and how Ogar would characterize it. Whether OM will be able to meet the promises of users and be sustainable.  Discussion about the narrative of OM and how it is beneficial to scaling the project. Learn about Cryptovoxels and what makes it different to other metaverses. Aspects that he enjoys the most about Cryptovoxels and why he values it the most. The vision that the developers of Cryptovoxels have in common with Ogar. Some of the problems and challenges that Cryptovoxels may have in future. Comparison of Cryptovoxels to other metaverses. The characteristics of Cryptovoxels that makes it appealing to people. How Ogar feels about Cryptovoxels' focus on art within the digital space. An overview of the winner of the vote: Decentraland. Why Ogar thinks Decentraland won and what is the mass appeal. Ogar gives us his opinion on the role of Facebook in popularising metaverse. We end the show by finding out what Ogar's favorite metaverse project is. Tweetables: “Whatever you deliver, you deliver it in a better world.” — @Dat_Ogar [0:12:56] “I believe that the metaverse will be the one to clear the path and act like a laboratory of metaverse societies that will function under the development of decentralized contracts.” — @Dat_Ogar [0:24:22] “In Cryptovoxels, I feel like there is more life and also feel that they did more to include people that didn't have a lot of money or a lot of crypto, in order to push them to build.” — @Dat_Ogar [0:37:53] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/Dat_Ogar (Ogar on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

In 2017, Jason Bailey immersed himself in the world of NFTs, with the hope of slowly shaping a better art world. Four years later, the industry exploded into the mainstream, and although it looks different from what Jason had imagined, the increased levels of access and democratization keep him passionate about, and inspired by, the space. Even before becoming involved with NFTs, Jason lived his life at the intersection of art and technology, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in art and 20 years of experience working for tech startups. For these reasons, we thought he would be the perfect guest to join us for a deep dive into the work of the winners of this year's FIR Awards! Listen in as Jason shares his thoughts on artists Cath Simard, Deafbeef, Beeple, and XCOPY, and why the legacy of the NFT revolution will be the social change that it has brought about. Key Points From This Episode: An overview of Jason's journey navigating the intersection between art and technology. Jason's entry into the world of NFTs in 2017, and how things have changed since then. Motivation behind the founding of ClubNFT. An introduction to the work of NFT artist Cath Simard. The original crypto art collectors and what that bulk of new NFT collectors are buying.  Factors that make the work of Deafbeef unusual in the NFT space. Thoughts on the accessibility of Deafbeef's work. How most of the traditional art world views NFTs, and why Jason disagrees.  Changes to the art world brought about by the NFT revolution. Jason's love/hate relationship with Beeple's $69 million sale.  Exploring the work of XCOPY, the winner of the FIR Awards! Tweetables: “In NFTs, it's not just that the art stands alone, but there's also a sense that you can follow along with the artist, look up to the artist, or at least admire them for their principles and their approach.” — Jason Bailey “[NFTs] really did, to some degree, democratize who gets to make art and ways of selling art and who feels comfortable collecting art. We probably have more art collectors today than we've ever had in history, and maybe more artists selling work than we've ever had in history.” — Jason Bailey https://twitter.com/artnome (Jason Bailey) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

For today's show we welcome back Brandon Buchanan, to discuss the intriguing results of our 2022 NFT Awards where we surveyed friends of the show and look at the top four PFPs. This category of the awards was by far the most popular, receiving more votes than any other. And we have to be honest, there were some surprises! We get to hear some really interesting perspectives from Brandon on our top four projects, Doodles, Nouns, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks. We discuss Pharrell Williams' involvement with Doodles, how Bored Ape Yacht Club rewrote the playbook for NFTs, the unusual roadmap that Nouns have created for themselves, and why CryptoPunks are still the most important player in the history of the game. Key Points From This Episode: Building a brand beyond the world of NFTs; Brandon's thoughts on funding and investment.  Weighing Pharrell Williams' decision to come on board with Doodles and what this means.  Nouns' daily options and the implications of this relating to pricing and demand.  Looking at the Nouns trajectory and the long horizon they have laid out.  Board Ape Yacht Club's serious impact on the PFP sphere, and their polarising status. Misunderstandings about the way that Bored Ape flipped the crypto playbook.  Considering the influence of fashion, memes, and more general rules of branding.  Why CryptoPunks are the Michael Jordan of the NFT PFP space!  Thoughts on the role of the CryptoPunks founders and why they broke the mould.  Tweetables: “I like that we are moving away from this idea that PFPs are just there to flex. I like this idea that NFTs can be a gateway to community, a gateway to participating in governance.” — Brandon Buchanan [0:07:14] “I think Bored Ape's contribution to the NFT space, particularly with the the PFPs has to be revered, they have done so much across the board.” — Brandon Buchanan [0:33:51] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:s http://www.brandonkbuchanan.com/ (Brandon Buchanan) https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkbuchanan/ (Brandon Buchanan on LinkedIn)  https://doodles.app/ (Doodles) https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a36489849/pharrell-williams-interview-black-ambition/ (Pharrell Williams) https://www.ninachanelabney.com/ (Nina Chanel Abney) https://pitchfork.com/artists/30022-meek-mill/ (Meek Mill) http://www.jeffkoons.com/ (Jeff Koons)  https://nouns.wtf/ (Nouns) https://www.moonbirds.xyz/ (Moonbirds) https://boredapeyachtclub.com/%23/ (Bored Ape Yacht Club) https://larvalabs.com/ (Larva Labs) https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks (CryptoPunks) https://www.cryptoadz.io/ (CrypToadz) https://www.supremenewyork.com/ (Supreme) https://www.yuga.com/ (Yuga Labs)  https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01.html (Michael Jordan) https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/russebi01.html (Bill Russell) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marcel-duchamp-1036 (Marcel Duchamp) https://www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/ (Andy Warhol) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Show Notes. Just as NFT technology has disrupted the way art is commercialised, so too is it disrupting the way art is curated. Joining us today to break down the role of curatorial DAOs is Lucas Pontes. Lucas is part of Fingerprints DAO and RAW DAO, in this episode, he fills us in on the greatest issues NFT collector DAOs face, as well as the solutions they aim to solve. We discover the parallels between the traditional art world and the NFT art world, in terms of legislation and curation, as well as the novel, decentralised curatorial system of RAW DAO and its subsequent challenges. Lucas predicts the evolution of the DAO as a format, before delving into NFT photography and what it means for the traditional photography space. Tune in to find out more about all things DAO, and how curation competence is ensured in the ever-evolving world of NFTs! Key Points From This Episode: How Lucas Pontes got into NFTs and how he got involved with Fingerprints DAO. Lucas explains Fingerprints DAO and his role in the DAO. The biggest issue with NFT collector DAOs: the unclear business model. Fingerprints DAO's current business model and brand attributes. The solution Fingerprints is selling to NFT collectors. The balance between the DAO as a format and the art itself in terms of creating, retaining, and returning value. The novel and decentralised curatorial system of RAW DAO. The meticulous art-centred curatorial process of Fingerprints. How DAO members make decisions about acquisitions. The similarities between gallery and DAO acquisition processes. The parallels between the traditional art world and the NFT art world. The challenges of the decentralised curation model and ensuring curation competence. Fingerprints DAO's plans to stray from solely Ethereum acquisitions to include real-world acquisitions. The impact of the NFT market on photography. The criteria by which RAW DAO deems a piece of NFT photography valuable. Lucas' prediction of the evolution of the DAO as a format. How NFT technology disrupted the way art is commercialised. The differences between photography NFTs and traditional photography. Lucas's favourite artists. Tweetables: “Perhaps the biggest issue with collector DAOs is there isn't a very clear business model.” — @lucasponn “The main purpose of [Fingerprints DAO] is fostering the best collection that we can.” — @lucasponn “In RAW DAO there is a more decentralised curatorial system in place, which is quite interesting.” — @lucasponn “As much as people rely on experts, you can't just say anything is art.” — @lucasponn “There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the traditional art world and the NFT art world. At the end of the day, it's still a bunch of people in art and you've still got the same problem of figuring out what is valuable and what isn't.” — @lucasponn “If the curatorial process is entirely open, you've got to make sure that there isn't a way for people to go into it and sway it to their will.” — @lucasponn “There is a big conflict between what is popular and what is good, and divergence within that. That is not going away with the technology.” — @lucasponn Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/lucasponn (Lucas Pontes on Twitter) https://twitter.com/FingerprintsDAO (Fingerprints DAO on Twitter) https://twitter.com/theRAWdao (RAW DAO on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Show Notes Cole Sternberg is a critically acclaimed contemporary artist who is now entering the world of NFTs. His first NFT drop was on June 10th and in this episode, we hear about the broader concept of his work and how it manifests through the process of relinquishing control to code. Cole fills us in on what it is that he loves about generative work, and why he chose to embrace the technology tied to NFTs rather than simply turn his physical art into jpegs. We also find out more about the differences between the physical art world and the NFT world in terms of ranking and collector trends, interactions, and expectations. As a ‘crossover' artist, if you will, Cole explains the dynamic (and the thrill) of exploring the new medium of NFTs, as well as the digital literacy gap between physical art and the NFT space. Tune in to hear about Cole's exploration process, how his themes of human erasure manifest in his NFT works, and how NFTs act as a commentary on society! Key Points From This Episode: Why Cole Sternberg chose to enter the NFT world via Art Blocks. Cole's choice to embrace the technology tied to NFTs, rather than turn physical art into jpegs. The themes of his work: erasure of the human hand, and the earth itself as a composer. How his upcoming NFT collection addresses these themes in the digital form. What Cole loves about generative work. How it feels to relinquish control to code versus nature. Cole's learning process of thinking more abstractly and getting to his imagined final product. How interactions with collectors differ in the physical art world versus the NFT world. Why ranking NFTs according to their floor price is detrimental. How NFT curatorial concepts can (and should) evolve. The crossover dynamic of established contemporary artists moving into the NFT space. The digital literacy gap between the physical art world and the NFT world. NFTs as a commentary on society. Speculation on how Light and Space artists would have approached NFTs. Cole's favourite artists! Tweetables: “All these different things emerge when you expose paintings physically to the elements.” — @colesternberg “That broad idea of erasing the human hand and giving it back to the earth, I wanted to address that in the digital form.” — @colesternberg “There's not much transparency in the physical art world but there's basically infinite transparency in the NFT world.” — @colesternberg “There's an inherent crossover that should be irresistible to most artists.” — @colesternberg “It's a crazy thing that a medium can come over a few-year period, tops, and become so prevalent in the world and in the market.” — @colesternberg Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/colesternberg (Cole Sternberg on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Today on the Floor Is Rising Podcast we are joined by Prateek Shah and Drew Beller, the two Co-Founders of Spanning Labs, to speak about what their company is offering the world of NFTs and why artists and collectors should be excited about the expansion of possibilities they are bringing to the space. We get to hear all about the company and how our guests made their way to the advent of this project before we dive into their vision for cross-chain interoperability and the practicalities of what this will mean when they launch publicly early next year. Along the way, we cover some interesting ground, hearing from Drew and Prateek about the lessons in consensus the blockchain space has taken from robotics, what they see on the near horizon for the NFT markets, some of their competitors, and how they differentiate themselves, and a little about the architecture of their solution. So, in order to hear all about an exciting addition that might be the answer to your needs, be sure to press play! Key Points From This Episode: Our guests' backgrounds and journey into their current roles working in the NFT realm.  Cross-pollination between robotics and the blockchain space.  Spanning Labs' solution for cross-chain interoperability. Detailing how ownership changes in NFTs under the Spanning Labs NFT framework and what is meant by 'moving owners around'. The intricacies of blockchains like Solana and how the Spanning network fits into these transactions.  Potential changes to the NFT landscape in the next few years, with increasingly lower barriers to entry. More power and control for creators to make decisions about their art.   Drew and Prateek's perspectives on competition in their section of the market.   Differences between Spanning Labs and competitive solutions such as LayerZero.  Integration with OpenSea and how Spanning NFTs can be deployed and function. An explanation of multi-chain addresses in the current climate.  Adoption strategies from Spanning Labs in the context of the bear market.  The modular architecture of Spanning, and what this enables for transfers.   Where and how to learn more about Spanning Labs! Drew and Prateek's favourite NFT artists and projects, and what they are most excited about on the horizon. Tweetables: “There won't be one blockchain to rule them all, but there might be one blockchain that's the best at payment processing.” — https://twitter.com/drewbeller (@DrewBeller) “It's really important to us that an NFT is always owned by the user.” — https://twitter.com/drewbeller (@DrewBeller) “The important thing to keep in mind is that it's not possible for a contract to meant to be deployed locally to interact in a multi-chain way.” — Prateek Shah “I am really looking forward to seeing more changes in the generative art space, specifically how we can start generating art on-chain.” — Prateek Shah Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://spanninglabs.com/ (Spanning Labs) https://www.linkedin.com/in/pcshah1996/ (Prateek Shah) https://twitter.com/drewbeller (Drew Beller on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Episode 66: Show Notes. Today we have a great chat with generative artist, p1xelfool, about how NFTs became his main practice and source of income, and his philosophy towards the evolution of the art world. p1xelfool tells us about his focus on the feelings that art can evoke, and why he values these over intellectualisation and representation. We also discuss why making his work look distinctly digital is a central part of what he does at the moment, and how his path diverged from his focus on a more classical painting practice. As a relative newcomer to the world of NFTs, p1xelfool's story is one that many artists might relate to; we speak about the possibilities of the future, what it means to stand out in these burgeoning and sometimes overcrowded spaces, and where and who he draws most of his inspiration from. To hear it all from this great guest, join us! Key Points From This Episode: p1xelfool's route into the world of NFTs and the part that using Bitcoin played.  The decision that p1xelfool had to make between pursuing generative art and painting.  p1xelfool's innate attraction to obsolete technologies and low-resolution work.   The market's appreciation of difficult mediums such as generative art. A look at the tools that are used in p1xelfool's creative process.  Thoughts on 'concrete' and abstract generative works and why our guest shifted gears in his latest project.  The challenge of standing out in the digital realm; how our guest approaches catching viewers attention.   p1xelfool's thoughts on the current stage of his career and hopes for the future.   The big influence that Nicolas Sassoon has had on p1xelfool's work and attitude. Tweetables: “I have always loved the idea of playing with obsolete technologies.” — @p1xelfool [0:05:40] “One of the things that I like about low-resolution works is that it is very restrictive, and I see that as a challenge.” — @p1xelfool [0:09:12] “When I started p1xelfool, I decided that I wanted to create something that is more sparkly, in some way.” — @p1xelfool [0:12:27] “I try not to represent anything. What I try to do is somehow evoke feelings or try to examine the feelings that a work brings in.” — @p1xelfool [0:14:40] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: http://p1xelfool.com/ (p1xelfool) https://twitter.com/p1xelfool (p1xelfool on Twitter) https://twitter.com/Nicolas_Sassoon (Nicolas Sassoon on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Welcome to the podcast Floor is Rising. During today's conversation, we are visited by special guest Hemba, a famous collector in the CryptoPunks community. He is the founder of CryptoPunks V1 and tells us the story of how he claimed his first Punk and became the largest punk holder. Next, we dive into the history of the CryptoPunks trading market, the “hack” that led to the “hard fork”. Hear Hemba tell the drama filled lore of his journey in the crypto punk community and why he believes the story needs to be told. Thanks for tuning in!  Key Points From This Episode: Welcome to today's guest, Hemba, founder of CryptoPunk V1. The story of how he got into NFTs. How he claimed his first punk and realised what he was up against. The story of how the cryptopunk trading market started and how you can look back on the early Reddit posts to see the energy around even small amounts being spent. How he “hacked” the original cryptopunk contract that led to a “hard fork”. The 82 transactions that were completed before the second Cryptopunks contract, of which 69 were Hemba. How he ended up selling all of his punks by 2020 How he came to start CryptoPunk V1 and collaborated with Frank to create the V1 wrapper. Why he believes the CryptoPunk story needs to be told. Why he believes that the cryptopunk community needs to unite rather than fighting each other as the best way forward. How Yuga buying Cryptopunks affected the rights you have as holders of the token, to freely trade, exhibit, and trade. His focus on education, installations, and events, and why he believes CryptoPunks are an important part of art history. Tweetables: “I think the CryptoPunk story must be told, and the CryptoPunks community must come together to share it.” — @soldthebottom [0:33:57] “The path forward is finding some kind of acceptance and peace. Really I think this is an opportunity for the whole community of Punk lovers to go, this is our chance to do something with CryptoPunks.” — @soldthebottom [0:38:27] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/soldthebottom (Hemba on Twitter) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising)

Episode 65: Show Notes. MetaKovan made history by kicking off the biggest NFT boom by purchasing the most expensive NFT on record, Beeple's 'The First 5000 Days'. MetaKovan is also the founder of the Metapurse Fund, and NFT studio and investment fund, and we get to talk to him today, hearing all about his philosophy, current projects, and where he sees the world of art and NFTs heading in the near future. Our guest shares some really thought-provoking views on the societal functions of art, where art's value really lies, and why personal relationships with pieces of work are so important. For MetaKovan, art is all about experience and interaction, and he sees the hoarding and private storing of important pieces as a waste and misuse of their power. So to hear it all from a truly central member of this new world, be sure to join us for this great episode! Key Points From This Episode: Thoughts on the power of crypto and art as equalising forces in the contemporary world.  MetaKovan's decision to invest in Beeple and the process of consideration.   Issues with infrastructure for artists outside of the western context.  The long-term impact of MetaKovan's groundbreaking purchase.  What most excited MetaKovan's about purchasing a piece of art from Beeple.  Evolving attitudes about the role of the artist and the growth of the idea of creators as designers. Commission and co-creation; how MetaKovan fits into the NFT ecosystem.  MetaKovan unpacks his assertion about the public utility of art. How MetaKovan sees money and the Metaverse developing in the coming years. MetaKovan shares his favourite up-and-coming NFT artist and the excitement he has about them! Tweetables: “Art has this nature where its value, that accrues to the art itself, is very different to the market.” — https://twitter.com/MetaKovan (@MetaKovan) [0:04:30] “How does art become valuable? In a lot of ways it's the story, it's how people hold it over time.” — https://twitter.com/MetaKovan (@MetaKovan) [0:04:58] “That's where I am now, thinking about how do we make sure that use this phenomenal change that has happened in a way that is sustainable, and has lasting impact.” — https://twitter.com/MetaKovan (@MetaKovan) [0:06:02] “In a few years, I'll be really proud if I am able to buy art from different parts of the world.” — https://twitter.com/MetaKovan (@MetaKovan) [0:12:51] Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: https://twitter.com/MetaKovan (Metakovan on Twitter) https://www.metapurse.fund/ (Metapurse Fund) https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/beeple-first-5000-days/beeple-b-1981-1/112924 ('The First 5000 Days') https://www.beeple-crap.com/ (Beeple) https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising) https://twitter.com/floorisrising (Floor Is Rising on Twitter)

FIR with Mark Soares On today's episode of the ‘Floor Is Rising', hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Mark Soares, CMO/Founder at Blokhaus, a Marketing Agency, associated with the Tezos Blockchain, discusses NFTs and Tezos. Episode Highlights 01:19 – Mark shares the story of how he became aware of NFTs. 04:40 – Around April, and May 2021, it started taking off in terms of people's realization that there's a carbon footprint to Ethereum. 06:38 - After Hic et Nunc took off In May 2021 they started looking at opportunities with institutions, Art Fairs, and Art Basel. 08:25 – A lot of people don't realize that the teams that work within the Tezos Ecosystem are long time Tezos nerds. 13:00 – It's hard to kill a platform that's decentralized, or that's built in a way that can be redeployed seamlessly. 15:25 – After HEN was rugged, the team were kind of in limbo, trying to determine how, and where we are going to drive traffic to for the artists because they had their work there. 17:30 – People are asking where are the NFT stored? Are you building it? Can I still access it? Those are really important questions to answer, mentions Mark. 19:30 - It's interesting in terms of how different categories of arts receive work and what is being sold. 21:15 – Can we solidify the rules of engagement when you're selling for a use case, and not necessarily selling the work itself. 26:31- It's a big selling point for Tezos as a brand and as an Ecosystem to have all these. All these cool people are creating amazing artwork. 28:25 – Sabre enquires that there's an indie side and then there's a lot of corporate stuff going on so how does Mark coexist not just now but going into the future? 32:50 – Mark refers to the NFT of a large global brand like Coca-Cola as an example.  Two Key Points There are three things that make Tezos attractive to do NFTs on and it's important from a positioning standpoint. Number one is little transaction fees, number two is the energy-efficient story, and number three is on-chain governance, which allows you to self-upgrade and evolve. Mark feels that the two camps have to coexist (Corporate and Artist camp) both provide different use cases. The corporate camp is more driven towards utility and it's more of the architecture or the infrastructure of the NFC that's attractive to them as a means of engaging their very large user bases. Then there is the artist's community which really started the whole NFT movement, and they want to preserve the authenticity and the creativity of the artwork, and many of them don't want to add too much utility or even consider it because they want it to be Art. You have to educate each one or at least engage with each one and solve problems for each one.  Tweetable Quotes “It's the first true web3 use case ever that actually shows the strength of web3.” - Mark Soares “It goes to show how passionate the artists are on Tezos that they won't let this thing fade away.” - Mark Soares “We're able to accommodate but it actually did create a little bit of chaos for us for a few days.” - Mark Soares “If you build the marketplace like ‘Hic Et Nunc' was built, you don't have a problem. Other marketplaces might have a problem.” - Mark Soares “Looking at the category of photography, this is a very savvy from a legal standpoint.” - Mark Soares “The majority of artists that were on boarded early to Tezos was by virtue of not having to pay 200$ to an NFT.” - Mark Soares “Tezos can also fork but the beauty of it is that it does not have to, it can do things without forking.” - Mark Soares “Utility is important but I think if you ask the artists' community, a good chunk of them will say, I don't want utility on my artwork to be the artwork.” - Mark Soares Resources Mentioned Floor is Rising:         https://www.floorisrising.com/...

Brandon Buchanan On today's episode of ‘Floor Is Rising' podcast, hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Brandon Buchanan, Founder and Managing Partner at Meta4 Capital, been in crypto a long time and now running an NFT fund. He explains why the Grail Thesis of investing in NFTs is the way to go. Episode Highlights 00:58 – Brandon shares how he got into NFTs and also how he came to found the Meta4 NFT Fund. 03:15 –They've been trying to acquire the best assets, and most innovative and important collections dating back all the way to 2014. 05:25 - Michael Jordan rookie card is considered a Grail and they certainly have some of those in NFT's space. 07:35 – Crypto Punks certainly continue to be, if not the top collection of all time, they are still amongst the top. So from a number's perspective, it's still there, says Brandon. 09:20 – Brandon says, when they first put out the Bored Apes, even they themselves would admit that they didn't think the project was probably going to be as big as it is now.  11:48 - When they were mapping out the deployment of the fund, a lot of it meant doing this retrospective of NFTs to show where they've been, where they are now, and where they could potentially be headed. 13:35 – Brandon wanted to have their own internal tools that they can use to be able to execute such a strategy. 15:00 - When you look at the earlier NFTs like Rare Pepe or a Crypto Punk. They'd be very hard-pressed to say that's a security, but that is essentially a form of digital art or digital collectible, states Brandon. 17:35 - There's just something so beautiful about hearing the base that everything else is built on top of, and it's the same way with NFT's. 19:25 – There is just a ton of demand for new launches, and new projects that people want to get on the ground floor. 21:34 – Brendon thinks, if they didn't make that purchase, then at the outset, they probably could have gotten it for somewhat a bit of discount today. 23:14 - Brendon talks what NFT projects are right now seems to be pretty fairly valued. 25:35 – Sabre enquires, who these individual institutions are who will come into the NFT space?  30:02 - We do need to De-Risk and help with UX, UI way so that people can interact with NFTs and that's all part of the process. 32:00 – Media is definitely going to play a more prominent role over the next several months in educating the market.  34:00 - Brendon shares about his favourite NFT Artist and his favourite NFT collection. Two Key Points Once you get into this realm, where you are doing Airdrops, where there is an expectation from the consumer that they're going to profit based on the efforts of the folks that are running the enterprise, you start to get in a grey area of what's the security or not. Even artists that now we're seeing, use NFTs as a tool to essentially raise capital. Brandon highlights that we've entered a different realm of expectation that folks want their collections to evolve, that now it's bigger than the art they want to be a part of a cool community. It becomes a sort of reflection of the kind of who you are. He thinks that's a powerful driver.  Tweetable Quotes “With NFTs, I kind of always had this philosophy or thesis around the tokenization of everything.” - Brandon Buchanan “Some collectors have stuck to an opposite thesis that it's better to collect floor pieces rather than those super rare pieces.” - Sabre Tooth “By having these grails, we're essentially having historical artifacts or digital antiquity.” - Brandon Buchanan “Provenance in the history, for me, that is very important.” - Brandon Buchanan “There have certainly been moments where I felt like we may be overpaying but the fact that you want a particular specimen, kind of mandates that you make a certain purchase.” - Brandon Buchanan “Rare Pepes we believe are undervalued.” - Brandon Buchanan...

FIR with Jordi Alexander On today's episode of ‘Floor Is Rising', hosts Sabre Tooth (Professional NFT Collector) and Kizu (A Professional Art Critic) talk with guest Jordi Alexander, Game Theorist and 1st Principles Thinker, CIO of Selini Capital & Advisor to many NFT Projects, All-around games expert, and former poker player who has a lot of opinions on things to Crypto. He shares his opinions on a variety of subjects related to NFT's. Episode Highlights 01:45 – Jordi shares how he got into Crypto and his first introduction to NFTs. 03:35 - There's a lot more psychology involved behind thesis in NFTs, says Jordi. 05:35 – Sabre and Jordi discuss the BAYC flipping of the Punks pfps. 07:25 – Jordi talks about the two things that he finds interesting in his current role. 09:38 – Jordi thinks a lot about the fragmentation of liquidity and what does that end game look like? 12:28 – Kizu asks if the community is driving the price or if the price is driving the community. 14:07 – The best practice that most people think of in the NFT space is post hoc rationalization. This is valuable because it increased the price thus, it is now valuable. 16:00 - The price has been a reflection of what has gone right and what has gone wrong, states Jordi 17:35 – Jordi explains the concept of risk-adjusted investing. 19:54 – Jordi discusses NFT from a legal and security perspective. 22:17 - There are arguments to be made that they are securities and this creates a lot of legal battles that are going to have to be fought, highlights Jordi 24:00 – The NFT being part of the community, it is good if you reward people in that NFT community. If they're being active in the community, you want to give them something that's the very basic thing. 26:11 – When you add financial incentives to a particular game design or game mechanic that didn't have that before, it turns into completely something else.  29:33 – Jordi expresses his view on how he feels about attempting to dethrone the open sea situation that probably will play out in the next few years. 32:43 - We will have wallets specially designed for NFTs where we'll have our wallet address and for all the other EVM chains and everything else that exists, states Jordi. 34:35 - It's a little bit of a circular thing where people are paying fees to themselves to get a slightly higher percentage of rewards, mentions Jordi. 36:22 – Jordi is very curious to see how digital artists start to create modes for themselves where their art cannot be as easily replicated and that is quite sustainable. 38:00 – Jordi shares about building community when it is one on one. 40:00 - The benefit of NFT is that everybody can look at it. It's not like it's locked up somewhere. Everybody's looking at the creation and there is the status aspect as well. 42:00 – Jordi suggests people look at NFT as real estate and when he wants to invest in real estate, he is looking for things that are not easy to replicate. 45:15 – Jordi talks about his favorite NFT project of artists. Three Key Points There are always going to be people who are looking at the market and saying which one is the most expensive, that's going to show people the most status and they just want to buy that one and don't care if it's pixelated or if it's an ape, there is a clear catalyst that just drives price forward, and that is price. Jordi explains that the gaming side is a whole different element where NFTs just fit in very nicely in terms of the ownership of items. We don't necessarily need to create a whole new structure there. It's just exactly what it used to be where we would have some rare item in the game and now, we're just making that NFT so that it's much easier for people to move it around, sell it, own it, and feel like more ingrained with the game in that aspect. So apart from the gaming side, the social side of the social tokens is something that he finds most fascinating. The technology will...

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: Kevin Abosch Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode, SabreTooth and Kizu interview Kevin Abosch, an OG crypto artist. Kevin began formal practice as an artist 33 years ago. Beginning with digital photography, he explains his art as always have been at the intersection of art and technology. After getting publicity from a project he built in which users of the portal could communicate anonymously, he was approached by a number of Bitcoin wallet companies who wanted to acquire the same technology. This sent him into a deepdive on all things blockchain. In January of 2018, Kevin made his first big statement by tokenizing himself in the form of 10 million ERC-20 tokens. This idea for I AM A COIN came to him after many years of feeling commodified as an artist.  When Kevin released his book Bank in 2013, few people seemed to show interest in the subject matter. In fact, he explains, the mainstream is only just now beginning to show interest in crypto, which has previously been seen as an alien. For decades, digital art was very marginalized from the professional art world. Many early practitioners of digital art were not prolific and spoke the language of technology, which most traditional artists did not have in common. Art institutions are only growing interest in digital art now because of the monetary potential seen in the medium's growing popularity. There is very little consensus on what crypto and NFT art means, though for Kevin it is simply a methodology of creation.  The traditional art world has been hesitant to accept pioneers of digital art, though they are slowly coming around. Kevin ultimately believes that if there is money to be made in this field, then those with money and in power positions will control the narrative, show, media and marketplace. They discuss trash art among other prominent “newer” art movements. Historically, we know that the art world loves a movement, as there is power in numbers. Among many NFT artists, it is clear that there is a lack of understanding regarding how their practice fits into the context of the tradition of making art for thousands of years. The “new” concepts, such as trash art and found art, have really been done for decades and are nothing new at all.  Kevin discusses his first major NFT project 1111. Though the amount of work it required nearly killed him, it was a satisfying and well received project overall. The most challenging thing, he recalls, was finding the ability to sit back and watch his work be commodified. He prefers to know that his work has made it into good hands and people are finding enjoyment in it. This is a space, he has learned, in which you have the ability to create your own reality. As the episode wraps up, he reveals his favorite artist.  Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  0:57 - Introduction to this episode and today's guest, Kevin Abosch 1:53 - Kevin's background in art and cryptoart.  8:33 - The reception of Kevin's 2013 work, Bank, and what has changed since then.  11:04 - The tensions between digital vs. contemporary art worlds.   19:25 - The future of traditional art worlds.  22:30 - Reflecting on trash art and other “new” art movements against the background of art. 28:11 - Kevin's project 1111 and discussing the art collector dynamic.  35:30 - Kevin's favorite artist,  Tags: Crypto, cryptocurrency, cryptoart, crypto artist, NFT, digital toke, digital photography, photographer, artist, digital art, technology art, blockchain, cryptography, conceptual art, investors, startup, privacy,...

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: Mario Gabriele Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host Sabre Tooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode of Floor is Rising, host Sabre Tooth is joined by Mario Gabriele, founder ofhttps://www.readthegeneralist.com/ ( The Generalist) and one of the best writers on the internet. He found NFTs last year, like so many others, through Twitter. He's always been interested in crypto and understanding that world, so when NFTs popped off, it was a natural fit for him. The inflection point for him was when Apes hit the market. Writing a piece for The Generalist led him to buying and creating his own NFTs. He felt like there was a missed opportunity in the market because it was so aesthetic-based, and the source material wasn't super deep. He wanted to view NFTs as a literary character and filter them less by aesthetic and more about their character.  It was this line of thinking that led him to creating https://www.philosophicalfoxes.com/ (Philosophical Foxes.) Inspired by BAYC, he aims to build out the lore of his Foxes and wants to tell stories with them using novel technology. The market can be irrational and fickle, so he hopes his community and narrative are the measures of success he's judged upon, rather than how much the price is. Of course he wants a triple hit in which the price is competitive, but he believes that comes after the success of the story. The ultimate NFT bottleneck is the noise in the market. Many are cool projects, but Mario explains that there are also bad projects and scams out there. Literary projects, he believes, will be a slower burn as people begin to diversify their interest in NFTs. They want to infiltrate everything, film, media, digital, and more. He's sure that some will be broad and hit all of those markets, but others may niche down to just eBooks, or instagram. The thing he's currently most interested in is the immediate social capital given to NFTs.  One of the first things Mario did when creating Foxes is setting their values. One of the first ones was Philosophy not Floor. The people who have a bunch of Foxes are some of the best builders in the world, so while he wants to be literary and philosophical, he doesn't want to be precious. Foxes are in the beginning stages, so he's excited to move into the messy middle. Lastly, Mario explains his current favorite artist is Dom Hoffman, and his work in Corruptions. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps: 1:00 – Introduction to this episode and today's guests 1:21 – How Mario got into NFTs 4:25– The missed opportunity in NFTs 7:36 – The hole FoxesNFTs fills in the market 9:37 - How Mario will measure the success of his NFTs 15:22 - The current bottleneck in NFTs Tags: Creating, collecting, analyzing, NFT, crypto, funds, portfolio, manager, products, field, Foxes, builders, unsustainable, effort, survive, backstories, interest, assess, development, alpha, beta, questions, whitepapers, project, games, analyze, process, data, tweaks, enhance, role, ecosystem, ambiguity, standpoints, metric, AI, philosophy,  Links: Learn more about Mario Gabriele and The Generalisthttps://twitter.com/mariogabriele ( here) Connect with Floor Is Rising onhttps://twitter.com/Floor_Is_Rising ( Twitter). 

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: Sasha Fleyshman Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host Sabre Tooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode of Floor is Rising, host Sabre Tooth is joined by Sasha Fleyshman, https://www.ar.ca/blog/author/sasha-fleyshman (Arca) Chemist on Twitter and Portfolio Manager at https://www.ar.ca/blog/author/sasha-fleyshman (Arca), one of the biggest brand names in crypto funds. The episode begins with Sasha talking about how he got into NFTs and became the portfolio manager at Arca. He began by helping to test the different products and shares how his unique skills and experience in gaming helped him in this field. He had always found it interesting and was an expert in the mechanics of it, which helped him grow in his knowledge and reach his current position. He also shares about his role in helping pitch ideas to the team and begin running new strategies on an institutional level.  Next, Sasha and Sabre discuss the differences between individuals buying NFTs versus institutions buying them. First, Sasha points out how everyone does it in different ways with different strategies. However, he encourages all buyers to look at the underlying project of the NFT as well as the relationship of the success of the profit to the success of the asset to help inform decisions. The NFT gaming sector has grown largely in recent years, and Sasha also discusses two of the leading factors in this growth, specifically in how Covid increased involvement.   Moving on to the specifics of the NFT gaming sector, Sasha next discusses the different ways that the playing fields are made even and fair. He also dives into the enhanced PvP mechanics of this field. These originally started out as unsustainable because of low effort games being put out into the field, however, Sasha shares his confidence that the games which build IP will survive and thrive. He lists some of the games about to be dropped soon which he has high hopes for and points out the importance of gaining attention from gamers through the creation of backstories. Sasha then gives insight into how to assess a game's solid IP. Because this field is still in the early stages of its growth and development, it can be difficult to truly assess them. However, he does discuss the benefits of looking for an alpha or beta, asking questions directly to the team, and reading whitepapers to make sure everything checks out. Another important key Sasha encourages listeners to look out for is how the assets correlate to the project. He gives some  examples of different games that struggled in this area and how it affected their quality and growth. The episode continues as Sasha explains how they analyze and process data to implement different tweaks into the system to enhance it and make it better. He shares how it is a continual work in progress and how there is always growth to achieve: the ultimate goal is to take what you have learned and use it to make things better. Most importantly, he discusses the importance of knowing what the assets are and the role they play in the ecosystem, always reaching out about questions rather than relying on ambiguity, viewing it from different standpoints, and reflecting on the progress and data present.  Lastly, Sabre and Sasha reflect on the different AI used in these gaming systems and the ways it is implemented to enhance the games. Sasha specifically looks at how AI can be trained to develop and create unique assets for the games. The future is bright for AI, and Sasha tells of his excitement for what it has to offer in this field and in how these types of land will gain instrumental value. He concludes by sharing about some of the projects he has been a part of and

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: PangeaDAO Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode, SabreTooth and Kizu interview the two pseudonymous founders of PangeaDAO, Punk8621 and Albert Wegener. As Albert and Punk explain, PangeaDAO is a collective of investors, artists, creators, builders, and people who want to create cool things in the metaverse and to gain exposure to different kinds of metaverse land ("land" that is perhaps better understood with the analogy of a software engineering SDK). PangeaDAO is designed to bring people together to acquire metaverse land and develop on it, creating revenue-generating ventures. The work of PangeaDAO is not all about revenue, though, but is about creating things of lasting value that benefit the community, as well as making an easy way for any individual or retail investor to get access to a diversified portfolio of metaverse land assets.   This focus on access works against the current barriers to entry for individuals and investors who are not associated with large companies, and intends to make the metaverse a more equitable space. The focus also represents the central concern that drove Punk and Albert to develop the plan for PangeaDAO in the first place. They describe their respective backgrounds in the NFT space, and how they arrived at the realization that people need relationships and networks in order to acquire metaverse land. Without ample funds and the right contacts, small retail investors have a disadvantage in their efforts to buy, and the advantages enjoyed by larger companies skew areas of the metaverse in their favor.   Given the fact that land is only as valuable as what you do with it, Punk and Albert established their cooperative in order to do something productive with land using a network of creatives. While big companies are currently snapping up land to hold as a revenue-generating asset, organizations like PangeaDAO intend to build gallery spaces, in-world games, and other such ventures that offer long-term value. While use cases like in-world games are currently popular in the metaverse, they are only the beginning. Punk and Albert expect the metaverse to shape the future of work and social media, and much more. The metaverse in general offers a place to connect, host, and bring in culture, and Punk and Albert expect that it is only the first iteration of the next version of the internet! Even with all the efforts toward metaverse decentralization, its free market will always mean that there are winners and losers, as well as trends of gentrification. However, if a world constructed within the metaverse becomes unpalatable to those in it, people are free to simply leave it and build a new one. And the structure of the metaverse is such that buyers and builders stand to benefit from developing things that help others. With these realities in mind, Punk and Albert are excited about PangeaDAO's future! They explain the origin story of their team, and also share both about their steps to make the organization legally compliant and about PangeaDAO's financial structure and its commitment to avoid institutional investment income prior to public sale. PangeaDAO's pre-sale is intended to bootstep liquidity for its token launch, but to also maintain equity as the organization opens up to buyers. With equity in its launch and equity in its vision, those interested in getting into metaverse development can expect great things from PangeaDAO in the days ahead! Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  0:57 - Introduction to this episode...

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: FIR - Jenny Sutto Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Jenny Sutto, aka “Jenny from the Blockchain” and host of the NFT Catcher Podcast. As the conversation begins, Jenny shares her background in the NFT space. It was her twin sister who introduced her to crypto in 2017, and to NFTs in 2020. Jenny's first NFTs were a dozen cryptokitties and, shortly after, she got into NBA Top Shot quite early. Now, Jenny is fully immersed in the world of NFTs and is Head of Market for Evaluate Market. She decided to start making weekly update videos detailing what was happening in Top Shot and offer tips for beginners. She quickly gained subscribers and was offered the position with Evaluate. When she retired from making Youtube videos, her podcast began.   Before making her Top Shot videos on YouTube, Jenny was actually a content creator on TikTok. She speaks about the differences in making short vs. long term content and the ability for TikToks to draw people's interest towards new things. Though short term content is overly flashy and doesn't always show the whole story to things, it's very nature of being attention-grabbing helps introduce more people to NFTs. Then, Jenny reflects on the NFTs about which she initially didn't understand the hype, such as Bored Apes. She didn't like the art or profile pictures of the apes which was her initial turn off.  Anyone can make a profit by flipping, but it takes a certain person to hold on to diamond hands until the end. SabreTooth shares his theory that people holding onto NFTs are similar to the hypebeast fashion community. Thus, the experience you bring with you into the NFT space will inform what projects you will get and diamond hand, and which you will not get and flip. Jenny herself got into Top Shot because she was already into Blockchain technology. She spent much time learning about crypto before ever putting any money into it. When you have been holding onto something for long enough, she reveals, it gets harder and harder to allow yourself to let go of it.  Many people are beginning to value their digital identity over their real life one. Jenny believes this is because you can have a bigger impact online and reach more people. For this reason it will likely become more popular to own things digitally because more people can see the things you have. The value of NFTs is largely dependent on the price and the aura around it. Patience and discipline are a huge part of being in this space. In closing, she shares her favorite artist.  Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  0:46 - Introduction to this episode and today's guest, Jenny Sutto 1:20 - How Jenny got into NFTs.  3:24 - Jenny's progression to being immersed in NFTs.  7:00 - Short form vs. long term content.  13:28 - NFTs Jenny has been wrong about in the past.  18:41 - Diamond hand holders vs. flipping.  23:18 - The rise of the digital identity.  25:21 - The need for discipline and patience in owning NFTs.  28:02 - Jenny's favorite artist.  Tags:  NFTs, Blockchain, Jenny from the blockchain, cryptocurrency, crypto, cryptokitties, NBA top shot, investment, investing, flipping, NFT Catcher Podcast, evaluate market, content creator, Youtube, TikTok, Twitter, NFT podcast, short form content, bored apes, minting, bored ape yacht club, pranksy, hypebeast, diamond hand holders, NFT flipping, supreme, digital identity, PFPs  Links: Follow Jenny on...

Podcast: Floor Is Rising  Episode: FIR - MLO Welcome to the podcast Floor Is Rising with host SabreTooth, a professional NFT collector and Kizu, a professional art critic. On this podcast, we talk deeply about the business of creating, collecting and analyzing NFTs. So, if you're a creator or collector of NFTs, jump in!  On today's episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Martin Lukas Ostachowski (MLO), a crypto artist and crypto art historian who got his artistic start in painting before beginning to incorporate digital tools into his process and eventually shift to thinking digital first. Around 2017, Martin developed an interest in crypto (the technology more than the currency), and he looked for applications in the art space. As he moved his practice more digital, he began to develop a body of work with an educational tone that helped bridge the gap between complex emerging digital technologies and everyday people. Martin explains why he adopted clouds as an artistic focus, and then shares how he got into documenting the history of crypto art (first in a blog and then a list of milestones) because of his conviction that innovation in art requires a knowledge of what came before.   Moving forward, Martin and his hosts turn to the topic of definitions. Martin prefers the term "crypto art" to "NFT" or "NFT art," even though the former has fallen out of popularity. One of Martin's current projects centers on clarifying definitions relevant to digital art, and Martin is actively pushing for the use of "crypto art" because of its wide and interesting meaning. The terms also feed into a discussion of how digital art relates to traditional art, and after commenting on this relationship, Martin explains the good that crypto art brought to the general art space as well as the belief he holds that there is a way for crypto art to break into traditional art. This way exists even though the pariah of the digital art world - NFT - has been given its own world. We are currently in the eye of the NFT tornado, but in light of the whole scope both of digital art history and Martin's own history as an artist, he testifies to the evolution that continually takes place. NFT isn't everything, and there are many examples of past works with a far greater scope than what NFT can boast. Since art evolves in a cyclical manner, Martin believes that not only will we see other work with a broad scope come to the fore, but that we will remember and come to value older work and artists that are currently overlooked.   Even as the digital art space has morphed, different camps of artists have gained prominence: those who became influential through crypto/NFT art, and those who gained fame through other art avenues before entering the crypto/NFT art space. If crypto art is to be the inclusive movement it aims to be, both groups must be considered legitimate. Both groups must be able to contribute to crypto art history, and even artists whose work is controversial (like those in the Trash Art Movement) must be allowed to create. The space is dynamic, and doesn't stop; this fact should motivate artists to keep going! After briefly commenting on how he collects crypto art history, Martin wraps up the conversation with insight into his own current artwork and Alotta Money, an artist he wants to recognize.   Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  1:11 - Introduction to this episode and today's guest, MLO 7:24 - The term "crypto art" and the relationship between digital and traditional art 14:05 - The evolution of art, the eye of the NFT tornado, and Martin's shifting art 17:02 - Martin offers examples of projects with broad scopes. 24:26 - There are two camps of famous artists in the digital space and some controversial figures. 31:53 - Will more radical conceptual projects continue to be

 https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1576&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/jehan-chu-nft-investing/)  On today's episode SabreTooth and Kizu are joined by special guest Jehan Chu. Jehan is Chairman and Founder of Kinetic, a crypto VC firm, as well as Chairman and co-Founder of Social Alpha Foundation. Because of his background as an art dealer and his early involvement in NFTs, Jean is a perfect guest for the show.  Jehan's interest in NFTs began through investing in Decentraland. His firm Kinetic was the first blockchain VC in Hong Kong and one of the earliest in Asia when they got started in 2016. Kinetic were seed investors in Decentraland, the first decentralized metaverse, in 2017. The company did much research on digital value and how it converted to real world real estate fundamentals and investment strategies. Jehan began his career as a front end developer before he was recruited by Sotheby's, and transferred to Hong Kong in 2006. Two years later, he left the company and became an art dealer and advisor immersed in the contemporary art world. He identifies the three major pillars of art collecting: the critical importance of the artwork, the work's market position and your personal relationship to it. These principles serve the same framework when applied to NFTs. Jehan became interested in crypto in 2013 and left the art world professionally in 2016, when he founded Kinetic.  Jehan considers PFPs to be collectibles, representative of community, self expression and membership, rather than fine art. While NFTs are creative and artistic, he doesn't consider them to be art themselves. He reveals that the context for fine art is missing in the NFT space, because the NFT space is far too generalized, and the conflict between both sides is a result of misunderstanding on both ends. The institutions of fine art have been around for many years and are unlikely to be overrun now. Aside from influencer signaling, price is the only other reference for the value of an NFT.  As more PFPs come into play, engagement and commitments of communities often drop. As a result, the NFT world is on a very weak foundation. There needs to be a broader understanding of the cultural significance of NFTs to bridge the gap between NFTs and art. Elaborating on the tension between crypto artists and artists just joining the space who have made a name for themselves otherwise, Jehan reveals the world of NFT is not filled with artists, but designers. There must be education in the art schools to understand the tools and concepts of the NFT medium. As today's episode draws to a close, Jehan highlights a few of his favorite artists in the space.  Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  0:44 - Introducing Jehan Chu.  1:23 - How Jehan got into the world of NFTs.  3:13 - The contemporary art world as a backdrop for NFTs  9:06 - Art vs PFPs  17:58 - What constitutes value for PFPs?   19:50 - Tension between traditional artists and crypto artists.  26:41 - Graphic design in the NFT world.  31:38 - Jehan's favorite artists.  24:43 - Thanks to Jehan for joining us today  Tags:  NFT, cryptocurrency, art, design, art dealer, jehan chu, social alpha foundation, crypto, VC firm, kinetic, decentraland, blockchain, blockchain VC, hong kong, asia, seed investors, investing, metaverse, digital assets, cryptokitties, art world, traditional art world, front end developer, sotheby's, contemporary art, art career, art collectors, PFPs, fine art institutions, cryptopunk, digital art  Links: Connect with https://www.linkedin.com/in/jehanchu/details/experience/ (Jehan Chu).  Follow Floor Is Rising on https://twitter.com/Floor_Is_Rising (Twitter). 

https://www.floorisrising.com/pixelord/ (https://www.floorisrising.com/pixelord)/ On today's episode, SabreTooth and Kizu welcome guest Pixelord, whose decade-long music career has in the past year expanded into work with NFTs. Pixelord considers himself an audiovisual artist, bringing together music and images, and has been both collaborating on NFT ventures with fellow artists and developing his own NFT collection. He joins the podcast today to share about his background and art, his entrance into and thoughts on the NFT space, and how his identity as a Russian individual shapes his experience.  As the conversation begins, Pixelord overviews his recent move into the NFT space before diving more deeply into the dynamics of the transition through the lens of his nationality. He appeals to both Russian and more international, English-speaking audiences, but he found his audience shifted when he entered the world of NFTs. After all, the world of his music and that of NFTs naturally draw different crowds. Pixelord's music has long drawn audiences - many of them Russian - who resonate with his "vaporwave" aesthetic. The aesthetic is rooted in Pixelord's Russian heritage, and carries darker, dystopian, and melancholic vibes. The music incorporates a fusion of styles, but they are generally united by a sense of surreal nostalgia.   NFTs, on the other hand, catch the attention of artists, collectors, and people looking to make a profit. Conversations surrounding NFTs tend to take place on Twitter, and are international in nature (and so carried out in English). NFT buyers are mostly American and European, with Asian buyers also gaining a prominent place in recent days. The big collectors are not Russian, and the Russian art scene has simply not been very well penetrated by NFTs (or even use of Twitter!) at this point. Russians looking to access art have their own ways of doing so, and often would not have the money to spend on NFTs even if they were interested in doing so.  Moving forward, SabreTooth, Kizu, and Pixelord discuss the current NFT market. At this point, music NFTs have not been given as much attention as visual NFTs. While Pixelord notes that there is mixing of visual and musical components within NFTs, he also explains why he expects the presence of music in NFTs to grow and how he anticipates it will be incentivized. In the visual space, many collectors have collected NFTs for the appreciation of value, but for music, this has not been the case. Already, Pixelord sees other incentive systems in place and expects them to develop further; these systems, he says, include the ability to buy a music copy to sell later when a musician gains prominence, the option to buy a component of the rights to music, and the chance to work in musical collections (as Pixelord is doing now with his small collection of handmade NFTs). As the conversation wraps up, Pixelord shares a few of his favorite artists to spark listeners' interest in and exploration of NFTs. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review!  Timestamps:  0:31 - Introduction to this episode and today's guest, Pixelord  2:42 - Pixelord offers thoughts on how his audience has changed. 5:48 - His "vaporwave" aesthetic 11:36 - His work has different receptions across Russian and other audiences. 14:14 - Why has the NFT market not penetrated Russia more? 19:04 - The conversation shifts to the topic of music NFTs. 21:58 - Many collectors collect visual NFTs for the appreciation of value. 26:43 - Pixelord's small collection of NFTs and his favorite artists Tags:  NFT, music, collaboration, Russia, visual, audiovisual, audience, English-speaking, artist, collector, profit, value appreciation, vaporwave aesthetic, dystopian, melancholic, vibe, place, surreal nostalgia, fusion, reception, Twitter, NFT buyers,...

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/nfts-finding-the-diamonds-among-the-duds (https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/nfts-finding-the-diamonds-among-the-duds) Interviewed for the article in Business Times above, full interview below https://www.floorisrising.com/diamonds-among-duds/ (https://www.floorisrising.com/diamonds-among-duds/) NFTs: Finding the diamonds among the duds10/03/2022 - 18:25 EXACTLY one year ago, a non-fungible token (NFT) artwork sold for US$69 million to a Singapore-based technopreneur. Since then, the NFT space has ballooned from a US$2 million market into a US$25 billion one, showed figures from market tracker DappRadar. With millions of cartoon apes and pixellated characters to choose from, how do you find the best NFTs to hold or flip? Are there tools to select investment-grade NFTs? Is there even such a thing as investment-grade NFTs when many cultural establishments, such as museums, steer clear of them? We speak with three experts who have been watching the space from the beginning: Clara Che Wei Peh is an art curator best known for curating the https://rightclickandsave.sg/ (groundbreaking NFT exhibition) at Fine Art Storage Services in Le Freeport in 2021. She is also the founder of the Discord group https://www.nftasia.info/ (NFT Asia), a community for Asian NFT artists with over 3,600 members. Kizu (not his real name) is a Singapore art critic who has written for Wall Street Journal, ArtAsiaPacific, and other titles. While he's well-known in Singapore's art circles, he prefers to use the pseudonym Kizu when he co-hosts the NFT podcast https://www.floorisrising.com/ (Floor Is Rising). His fellow co-host, Sabretooth (also not his real name), is a serial technopreneur who calls himself "a professional NFT collector". His publicly accessible https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/sabretoothsg (NFT wallet) contains over 1,000 NFTs. (The interviews were conducted separately. But in the interest of brevity and clarity, they are merged here and edited to reflect the range of responses.) Q: How does one pick investment-grade NFTs if one intends to hold them for long or flip them quickly? Clara: Everyone has different criteria for buying NFTs they wish to hold. Some people would look at the reputation of the creative team and the artwork itself, whether the project has the potential to scale up and deliver value over time. Value can come in different forms - it could be, for example, a game that's really enjoyable; it could be further airdrops or tokens that can bring utility. I think a lot of people would agree that you should look for projects you genuinely like. But if you're looking to flip something, you probably have to look at the hype that project has built for itself on the various media platforms. However, what I've just described are the criteria for collectible NFTs. It's also important to state the distinction between collectible NFTs versus fine-art NFTs, because the markets for these look different. For fine-art NFTs, it's really about artists that you believe in and want to invest in over time. Sabretooth: NFTs are such a new investment category that there is no consensus on what is an investment-grade NFT. There are huge portions of the population who think every NFT is a bubble or scam. And it's tough to call something investment-worthy if it has not been through multiple bull and bear markets, and survived. And so, I look for things that have shown some kind of longevity in the market, even if the time frame, in the case of NFTs, is much shorter than in the stock market. The physical artwork of CryptoPunk #7810, available for sale as an NFT, in the premier area at a CoinUnited cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, China. Photo: Bloomberg The other factor that I look at is historical and cultural significance. For example, there were two projects launched in 2017 - CryptoKitties and CryptoPunks. When CryptoKitties was launched, it was the biggest thing in the NFT...

 https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1573&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/michael-gord-metaverse-landlord/) https://twitter.com/FloorisRising/status/1501128443903156226

 https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1569&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/kaloh/) https://www.kaloh.xyz/

Notes to come; https://www.floorisrising.com/art-market-manipulations/ https://www.sepia.fr/

Show notes Here; https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1547&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/mitchell-chan/)

 https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1443&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/les-borsai-nft-fund/)

Notes here. https://www.floorisrising.com/?p=1433&preview=true (https://www.floorisrising.com/polyannie-porn-nfts/)

Longer notes to come - @robnessofficial - how meme culture became NFT culture - Which celebs coming in to NFTs are doing it the "right way". Why the secret anon drops that happened on #hicetnunc. WHY #ROBNESS TWEETS ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME?

New Episode - OG NFT degen https://twitter.com/Carlini8N (@carlini8N) explains how his personal philosophy on NFTs which led to his split with https://twitter.com/hashtag/PranksyNFT?src=hashtag_click (#PranksyNFT) and leaving https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFTBoxes?src=hashtag_click (#NFTBoxes) to start https://twitter.com/hashtag/purrnelopescc?src=hashtag_click (#purrnelopescc).

New episode - https://twitter.com/sutu_eats_flies (@sutu_eats_flies) joins us to discuss https://twitter.com/hashtag/NEONz?src=hashtag_click (#NEONz) and the https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sutuverse?src=hashtag_click (#Sutuverse), an indie metaverse he's creating in opposition to VC and corporate funded metaverses. We also talk politics and the time he was denied entry to the US cos of TRUMP? o

How can we classify the different works and styles within crypto art and NFTs?We tend to think of the major art styles (impressionism, abstract expressionism, surrealism, etc.) as they relate to a visual structure or language. For crypto art this understanding has been somewhat alighted. In a way we can think of PFP projects as their own style because visually there is something in common, they work as a personal likeness or avatar. That being said most are just jpegs and not necessarily art that has been enabled by the blockchain. Generative art however produces a certain aesthetic due to how that work is generated by code which could (somewhat) be classified as a NFT art style. Good examples of this would be OG artists like Eric Paul Rhodes or Tyler Hobbs, specifically his Fidenza series. In these cases, because of the algorithmic mechanism which is medium-native to crypto art, there are stylistic similarities which Kizu feels would classify as a major art style within NFT art. Beyond this we also have things such as illustration or painting, which could be used as classifiers but these come from a time before crypto art and we can not really view or classify them in the same way. Moreover, those are merely techniques, which can be helpful for ranking skill level, but in the end that doesn't really get to the point of why we classify art. While https://twitter.com/kaifuku_kizu (Kizu) and https://twitter.com/SabretoothSG (Sabretooth) both acknowledge their level of cynicism, they bring up the idea that ultimately, art being classified is a biproduct of the market. Sabretooth talks about how collectors will buy a certain artists and then look for a narrative in which to place these artists. The reason being that, works are worth more if they are part of something bigger than just the work itself. Sabretooth finds that overall this effort has been unsuccessful in the sense that they have not been powerful enough to break through to the traditional art world. He gives the example of Beeple who has sold for ridiculous amounts of money, has a large fan base in the crypto community, but is not accepted by traditional art people. Kizu talks about the use of of Punks as profile pics or RTFKT sneakers and the signaling of value in the metaverse, how we communicate, the transactions, etc. to point out that there is a narrative and it is about the money. He also draws a comparison between the NFT space and the art world of the 90s where, art from the developing world got recognized because there was a movement to promote these artists. It wasn't really about their style or aesthetic rather their background and what they stood for. What's up with music in the NFT space?Many major DJs are launching projects and that's not a surprise as DJs and NFTs are both on the cutting edge of popular culture. Despite this, Sabretooth notes that music has stopped being the cutting edge of niche subcultures. Minority expressions don't start in music anymore. There are cheaper or more viral ways such as creating a tiktok account. Because it has somewhat lost its power due to these mentioned elements Sabretooth feels that NFTs are ahead of music in creating subcultures and thus he is not as interested in the topic. Could NFTs and smart contracts replace traditional contracts in business and real estate?The idea of tokenizing real world assets has existed since 2016, it has not yet taken off nor does Sabretooth think it will. The reason why brings us to look at what is called the oracle problem - how do you bring data from off the blockchain on the blockchain and still have it be trustworthy? Especially in the case of real estate or other tangible items, the question moves to – if someone steals your NFT do they now own your house? The answer is generally, no, and if that is the case then, what is the purpose of putting it on the blockchain in the first place? When you buy an NFT who owns the creative rights?This brings...

Part 1/2 - Newbie interview episode with Meta, the podcast assistant, find her on https://twitter.com/MetaDaniel7 (Twitter) Time Stamps [00:32 – 4:38] Meta asks what websites to use for references, specifically sites like https://raritysniper.com/ (RaritySniper) and https://xn--rarble-5va.com/?subid=12a39eo15mhn (Rarible). Sabertooth says if you need to use these type of websites, you probably don't know enough about that project to be investing in it. For kizu, the analysis is useful in an objective comparison. Sabertooth disagrees and says it is actually subjective. He also warns to check out the business model for those sites.  [4:38 – 6:52] Sabertooth says that he doesn't personally use any websites for educational purposes and recommends that you simply listen to Floor is Rising for the info you need regarding trends, projects, etc.  Continuing, he does says that a helpful way to get more information is by looking at wallets. Using the example of https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks (CryptoPunks) he says, check out what wallets have Punks then see what other NFTs that wallet owns. By this you will see patterns and transactions. [6:52 – 11:55] Meta asks about the distinction between the different marketplaces. Sabertooth notes that it is helpful to break them down in to categories of primary and secondary sale. Primary examples would be; https://superrare.com/ (SuperRare), https://niftygateway.com/ (NiftyGateway), https://foundation.app/ (Foundation), https://async.art/ (async.art), https://newworldmarketplace.io/#/landing (NewWorld), etc. In these cases the artist is minting a particular work and you buy directly from him via listing or auction. Secondary sale sites include; https://opensea.io/ (OpenSea),https://rarible.com/officialnftmarketplace?tab=onsale (Rarible), https://zora.co/ (Zora), and you would buy from collectors.  These previously mentioned pertain to https://ethereum.org/en/ (Ethereum). https://nftplazas.com/hic-et-nunc-finds-a-solution-after-sudden-shut-down/ (Hic et Nunc) is different, it is on https://tezos.com/ (Tezos). Every blockchain (https://solana.com/ (Solana), https://www.terra.money/ (Terra), https://dfinity.org/ (Dfinity)) has an NFT ecosystem and thus its own marketplace. Most NFTs are on Ethereum but Tezos and Solana would be the next up. Kizu recommends, especially for those from the traditional art world, to check out some of the NFT gallery spaces for a more curated experience. One he likes, that was even mentioned by https://twitter.com/kennyschac (Kenny Schachter), is https://feralfile.com/about (FeralFile). Kizu says that on there you can even find OG artist like https://twitter.com/tylerxhobbs (Tyler Hobbs), https://twitter.com/refikanadol (Refik Anadol), https://twitter.com/quasimondo (Mario Klingemann) (who we just interviewed)  [11:55 – 13:45] Meta asks about minting, sales, and rights. Sabertooth clarifies that an NFT is not tied to a marketplace. This being said, the price can vary on different sites.  [13:45 – 16:36] Moving to wallets, Sabertooth talks about how the terminology and metaphors we use directly affects our behavior. Wallet conjures up the idea that the NFT is stored there, it's better to think about the wallet as a way to interact. The blockchain stores the NFT.  Ultimately, what people need to focus on protecting is their seed phrase not necessarily the wallet.  [16:36 – 20:33] The way you prove you own what you own is through your seed phrase and this is set up usually when you get a wallet. If you loose this seed phrase that's it. If you leaked your seed phrase there's no getting it back, you can't call up and reset the password.  One thing you can do to protect your seed phrase is to get a hardware wallet. This has a benefit as opposed to a hot wallet...

Jon Burgerman Jon's https://jonburgerman.com/ (website) Social Media Twitter - https://twitter.com/jonburgerman?lang=en (@jonburgerman)  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jonburgerman/ (Jon Burgerman ) https://www.facebook.com/jonburgermanartist/ (Facebook) Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jonburgerman (Jon Burgerman) Shop https://www.burgerplex.com/ (BurgerPlex) Art listed on https://niftygateway.com/marketplace?artistId=4267 (Nifty Gateway) https://superrare.com/jonburgerman (https://superrare.com/jonburgerman) https://foundation.app/jonburgerman (Foundation) Time Stamps [1:01 – 3:41] Jon was introduced to NFTs in 2019-2020 when he was approached by https://twitter.com/niftygateway (Nifty Gateway) (founded by https://twitter.com/gcockfoster (Griffin Cock Foster) and https://twitter.com/DCCockFoster (Duncan Cock Foster) and later acquired by https://twitter.com/Gemini (Gemini) run by https://twitter.com/tyler (Tyler Winklevoss) and https://twitter.com/cameron (Cameron Winklevoss)) to drop NFTs on the then new platform. He began working on NFTs in the spring of 2020. The first drop sold out quickly. Jon credits this with giving him a lifeline in the pandemic when everything else was being cancelled and closing down.  [4:40 – 6:34] Jon doesn't know why Nifty Gateway contacted him early on, but says they saw his work in other forms, and imagined it would work on their platform. Jon has a traditional background, but his work has existed across different mediums over the years, including digital stickers and wearables for https://twitter.com/PlayStation (@PlayStation) Home. [7:35 – 10:26] Jon says his career is like a pizza with each slice it's own medium (painting, books, etc) but as a whole it's complete. His advice is to make your work and put it out there. Once you make something, people see your concept and how your work would look. People are looking for good work and good artists - it's important to make your work discoverable. [10:45 – 12:36] When working in different mediums, Jon leans into what that medium can do that others can't. With NFTs he likes that you can interact with people, build up collections and have drops. The goal of the work is the same, just different outlets for creativity that are distributed in different mediums. [13:45 – 15:12] Jon is still adapting to the community aspect of NFTs. It's a time investment to keep up with the social aspect of the NFT community using channels like https://twitter.com/Twitter (Twitter) and https://twitter.com/discord (Discord). This is a different skill set and a different kind of art will emerge from it. [15:28 – 16:17] Collectors of Jon's NFTs are different from collectors of physical works. In 2020 early adopters were buying NFTs, but there is still skepticism and a long way to go for mainstream acceptance. Many of Jon's physical collectors aren't interested in NFTs. [16:49 – 19:49] Jon discusses the blurred lines between collectors and artists with the engagement thru social media, discord, etc. When artists engage with the collectors it takes away the art being fully in control and the fans start to shape the work. He compares this to https://twitter.com/Marvel (@Marvel) or https://twitter.com/starwars (@starwars) films where the feedback loop from fans alters the next installment which pleases the most vocal fans, but not the entire fan base. [20:26 – 23:07]  Jon hopes galleries and traditional spaces will learn from the NFT space and update how they are run. These institutions won't disappear. If you have a good dealer or gallery, everyone benefits while helping push the art in the direction that they all want it to go in. Collaboration is necessary in some form to get your art out there.  [23:24 – 26:12] Jon discusses his creative process. He needs emotional connection or interest in the work to make it interesting for him. He discusses creating and how many things don't work, but others hit a...

RubenFro Ruben's https://rubenfro.com/ (website) Social Media https://twitter.com/Ruben_Fro (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/rubenfro (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/rubenfro/ (Instagram) Videos https://www.youtube.com/rubenfro (YouTube) https://vimeo.com/rubenfro (Vimeo) Art listed on https://objkt.com/profile/tz1cjn8DAkb7FsCHMJsJq17uRFWhCrGxnzqd/created (objkt.com) https://foundation.app/@rubenfro (Foundation) https://superrare.com/artwork-v2/dissolving-realities---hanoi-1-30221 (SuperRare) https://showtime.io/rubenfro (Showtime NFT) https://kalamint.io/user/rubenfro (Kalamint) https://dat.rubenfro.com/collections/ (DAT Collections) https://www.henext.xyz/tz1cjn8DAkb7FsCHMJsJq17uRFWhCrGxnzqd (Henext) Audio Tracks https://soundcloud.com/rubenfro (Soundcloud) Time Stamps [0:58 – 1:23] Ruben's first experience with NFTs was March 2021. He was working on the https://twitter.com/pussyrrriot (@pussyrrriot) music video Panic Attack and they released an NFT collectible of the music video divided into four parts. [1:32 – 1:48] Ruben is Italian and moved to Tokyo 15 years ago to work in software development and was doing that until 2 years ago. [1:53 – 3:10] Ruben has always been fascinated by interactive installations. Two years ago he went to France to do an installation. Inspiration came from https://rhizomatiks.com/en/ (Rhizomatiks) and https://twitter.com/daitomanabe (@daitomanabe). Installations work was small but grew. Stopped when the pandemic hit. A year ago started doing more video art, but plans to go back to interactive art.  [3:14 – 5:47] Ruben discusses his process. He uses https://twitter.com/unity (@unity) for 3d art and started looking into point cloud. He got into using Unity more and going deeper and built his framework with shaders he built in Unity. He uses photogrammetry mixed with 360 photography to capture large areas. This allowed him to move into large areas to record the streets of large cities. He built tools to process footage using his framework and shaders to create the interactive installation. [6:07 – 8:25] In January 2020 Ruben worked on a project in Vietnam that fascinated him and realized he enjoyed this more than creating apps. He decided to focus on video art and music videos. He then worked with Acronym and https://twitter.com/asus_rogna (@ASUS_ROGNA) for short films. He started his visual effects company. He is happy choosing his projects to connect with artists such as Pussy Riot and https://twitter.com/DEATHPACT (@DEATHPACT) [8:45 – 10:08] His most recent footage is from Vietnam. He's more attracted to his footage from Vietnam than his scans from Tokyo. Ruben hasn't had requests for his videos to be stereotypical Japanese. He's had freedom to explore and use scans from everywhere.  [10:44 – 11:50] Ruben is one of the earliest and most successful artists on https://twitter.com/hicetnunc2000 (@hicetnunc2000). He was introduced by https://twitter.com/JoanieLemercier (@JoanieLemercier) because they were both into the ecological aspect of NFTs and https://twitter.com/ethereum (@ethereum). He now realizes it's not exactly as black and white. He started because of that and stayed on the platform because of the community. [11:57 – 15:40] At the time, Ruben found the Ethereum platform to be too much about how much you're selling pieces. It was great to see artists with successful sales, but he also felt it was more about that than the art itself. On hic et nunc it was more about enjoying and sharing the work with each other. Ruben now feels it's different and is seeing more diverse art with artists with different backgrounds dropping pieces. One thing he enjoyed about hic et nunc is it was popular in developing countries like Brazil and the model with https://twitter.com/tezos (@tezos) with low gas fees and pieces that were affordable for a lot of people was revolutionary in a way and that was empowering for artists. On Ethereum you needed more money...

Episode interview with some of the Botto team (https://twitter.com/choobie3 (choobie), https://twitter.com/quasimondo (Mario Klingemann), https://twitter.com/hudsonsims (Simon Hudson)) find their https://twitter.com/bottoproject (Twitter) or more info on their https://botto.com/ (website) Time Stamps [0:55 – 3:16] Mario is the artist behind and the project and he has been doing generative, algorithmic and AI art for about 20 years. He says that at some point when dealing with these mediums you start to wonder, can I pass this last step of choosing and learning to a machine? With blockchain taking off in 2018, Mario felt that this could be the time for this project, but he couldn't do it alone. So he built a team to help him with the other side of things. [3:16 – 6:37] Kizu asks about decentralized art and other movements where artists were so engaged with the community. Mario laughingly states that he would never use the term decentralized art and that for him the most question for him is, if a machine can reach true autonomy. He feels that, if possible, decentralized systems and DAOs are the tools that would allow the machine to do .  Right now they are still working to get to a level where the machine could be so autonomous that it could make its own decisions, even fire/hire people. For now, Botto is still in a toddler phase, the AI needs help making decisions, and that's why the community of stakeholders is so important.  [6:37 – 10:04] Simon started as a member of the community then decided to get more involved. Simon elaborates on the idea of decentralized governance and DAOs - the emerging subtleties of  structures and principles that are needed to uphold them. Simon was working in AI for the past five years and became fascinated with Mario's work back in 2016. He was drawn to the idea of open, community oriented sourcing as a way to train AI as a reflection of taste. And within that, crypto as a great tool for getting the value to loop back to that same community.  [10:04 – 13:30] Sabretooth notes that Botto is using https://towardsdatascience.com/gpt-3-a-complete-overview-190232eb25fd (GPT3) neural network which is widely used in other NFT projects such as https://twitter.com/muratpak (Pak's) https://twitter.com/poetslost (LostPoets), he asks about the feedback loop and how the experiment evolves to be more autonomous over time.  Mario comments that Botto uses GPT3 for the description generation and that for the image Botto uses https://learn.adafruit.com/generating-ai-art-with-vqgan-clip (VQGAN + CLIP). Botto is a prompt miner, each image is generated from prompts. Botto finds good prompts which then produce interesting forms (aesthetic or mental).  Botto is constantly producing new fragments, about 3-4k every week, it then selects about 350 out of that week which get added to the voting pool. Botto pre-curates what the community sees and that process is influence from previous voting. This trains the model to mimic the voting behavior. [13:30 – 17:34] The other way that the feedback comes in is that when particular images or topics receive more popular results, Botto will examine those areas for new ideas rather than generating new prompts. Botto is also built to try to surprise people and not be boring. People tend to like things that resemble traditional art but yet later, other people respond that they miss the crazy stuff. Botto tries to combine all of this and the team is currently analyzing how to deal with such mixed tastes. [17:34 – 19:17] Sabertooth asks if Mario feels that the art is diverging from his own personal taste. Mario says, absolutely! Mario prefers the more grotesque stuff where the traditional, oil paint images are what have recently been winning. Mario tried to create the algorithm as open and neutral as possible so as to not favor his personal taste.  [19:17 –...

Dalek's https://shopdalek.com/ (website) Social Media Twitter - https://twitter.com/DALEKSPACEMONKY (@DALEKSPACEMONKY) Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dalek2020/ (dalek2020) Art listed on https://opensea.io/DALEK (OpenSea) https://hicetnunc.art/objkt/571405 (Hic Et Nunc) Time Stamps [0:55 – 2:41] Dalek was introduced to NFTs by his friend, https://twitter.com/lurklovesyou (@lurklovesyou), who told him about https://twitter.com/hicetnunc2000 (@hicetnunc2000) on https://twitter.com/tezos (@tezos). Lurk told him that it was easy, no gas, cheap to mint, and easy to put work out. Lurk set up a clubhouse Dalek joined with https://twitter.com/mumbot (@mumbot) and https://twitter.com/_sampierson (@_sampierson) and other artists. Dalek liked the community aspect. [3:01 – 9:29] Dalek got into anime and comic book culture going to high school in Japan. He was into punk rock and early hip hop such as RunDMC, https://twitter.com/KurtisBlow1 (@KurtisBlow1), https://twitter.com/DJFlash4eva (@DJFlash4eva), SugarHill Gang. He moved to Chicago and got into graffiti in the early 90s. TD who ran Undercover Magazine and Kaws were big influences on Dalek. He moved to California and met and was mentored by Chris Cycle and Mike Giant, Greg Carroll. This was the era of Twist, Amaze, REVOK, https://twitter.com/Saber (@Saber). Kris Markovich convinced him to move to San Diego where he met https://twitter.com/OBEYGIANT (@OBEYGIANT), the founder of Obey, who introduced him to printmaking and stickers, and taught him to use Illustrator. Dalek did group shows with https://twitter.com/new_image_art (@new_image_art) curated by Rich Jacobs and included Mark Gonzales, https://twitter.com/TempletonEd (@TempletonEd), Chris Johansen, and Barry McGee. He says he still didn't know how to be a professional artist. He moved to New York to take a step toward becoming a professional studio artist. When he saw https://twitter.com/takashipom (@takashipom)'s paintings the first time, he knew that's what he wanted to do. He reached out to Murakami and started working for him. [11:45 – 13:54] Dalek says artists were interested in certain aspects of Japanese pop culture. Some artists like KAWS, Stash and Futura would go to Japan, but Dalek was more focused on being in New York and learning. He was spending time with Brian McGinnis, and https://twitter.com/steveespopowers (@steveESPOpowers), and anyone he could. His experience with Marakami wasn't so much about what he was painting, he was way more interested in the technical aspects. [14:19 – 18:58] Dalek discusses his relationship with his https://opensea.io/DALEK (Space Monkey) and how it went from being fun to getting repetitive and hitting a wall. He started deconstructing it, and went down a path of geometric explorations. This opened him to learning new skills. After a 10 year break, he started again with Space Monkey in 2017. He says at first it was flat, but Andrew Hosner with https://twitter.com/ThinkspaceArt (@ThinkspaceArt )wanted to do a show. Soon after the show something clicked. He has transitioned back into Space Monkey and feels he finally found the formula that made it interesting. He acknowledges it's what people know him for. [19:29 - 22:13] Dalek says Space Monkey and https://www.artsy.net/artist-series/takashi-murakami-mr-dob (Murakami's DOB) are independent of each other. He says a commonality is the riff on Mickey Mouse. He mentions other artists who have riffed on Mickey Mouse such as Slick, https://twitter.com/ronenglishart (@ronenglishart), https://twitter.com/Mattgondek (@Mattgondek), Warhol, Basquiat. Dalek has had some people say Space Monkey reminds them of https://twitter.com/TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons)' Itchy and Scratchy, which Dalek points out is also a riff off classic cartoons. He talks about Murakami's Boston Museum show and the explosive color clouds in paintings and how it reminds him of an anime riff on classic Japanese painting styles. [22:14 - 27:46] Dalek...

Christian's Social Media https://www.facebook.com/Christian-Andersen-162246641238792/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/christian_andersen_/?hl=en (Instagram) Michael website Social Media https://www.instagram.com/michael_jeppesen/?hl=en (Instagram) https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljeppesen/?originalSubdomain=dk (LinkedIn) https://twitter.com/michaeljeppesen (Twitter) June Art Fair https://www.june-art-fair.com/ (website) Social Media https://www.facebook.com/JuneArtFair/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/juneartfair/ (Instagram) https://twitter.com/wearejuneart (Twitter) [1:11 - 4:01] Christian was introduced to NFTs when Michael approached him with the idea of bringing NFTs to the https://juneart.io/ (JuneArt Fair). With the emergence of https://nbatopshot.com/ (NBA Top Shot) and https://twitter.com/beeple (Beeple) he saw a need for something for the established art world. Michael said you could have NFTs created by artists of the caliber of https://twitter.com/JeffKoons (Jeff Koons) and NFTs collectors wouldn't know who it was. Michael wanted a place more in line with the old fashioned art world where art is curated and JuneArt came from this. [4:27 - 6:52] Michael says there is a difference between the traditional artists and crypto artists. Generative art projects may look interesting, but mostly sell because people want to make money. https://opensea.io/collection/boredapeyachtclub (Bored Apes) and https://opensea.io/collection/cryptopunks (Crypto Punks) are interesting from a cultural perspective, but not as art works. https://www.vice.com/ (Vice Magazine) has linked NFTs to a generation. Michael credits the internet with the ability for anyone to use https://opensea.io/ (OpenSea) and other platforms to publish. [7:34 - 8:45] Michael says you can look at NFTs or a medium or a scene. The scene is 99% generative art. Michael and Christian look at NFTs as a medium. They work with renowned galleries for JuneArt that have artists working to make new and interesting art. NFTs are an opportunity to take art further. [9:18 - 12:07] Michael discusses how the traditional art world is internal with small groups vs the large groups of the crypto community. The benefit of the large crypto communities is it's more accessible and provides the ability to create awareness for art. That creates the possibility to build your own large audience which hasn't been possible for many in the old fashioned art world. With more accessibility this may lead to more advanced art. [12:08 - 13:21] Christian talks about galleries opening online viewing rooms(OVRs) to sell physical art digitally. Physical art doesn't work on a digital platform unless it's flat (unlike a sculpture). He liked the idea of NFTs alongside a traditional gallery because you see exactly what you are getting. [13:22 - 17:57] Sabretooth poses the idea that art coming out of PFPs and generative art can be compared to the film industry transition from theatre to film and good art will survive and generic art won't last. Michael says this comparison isn't accurate because the art world is already so diverse. Christian agrees with the Sabretooth and says what we see now is scratching the surface of what may come. Michael agrees this could lead to more. [20:50 - 23:39] Michael says describing https://opensea.io/collection/cryptopunks (Crypto Punks) to the traditional art world would make people think of Andy Warhol. He says in the old art world people want to be first. He believes people at art fairs are now trying to pretend they were first to NFTs. For the chess world, Michael created https://chesschamps.io/marketplace/all (Chess Champs) with https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen (Magnus Carlson) of https://www.playmagnus.com/en (Play Magnus). The old art world has huge potential. Christian thinks in the next few years more galleries and art fairs will have NFT platforms. [24:27 - 26:21] Christian says the crypto art world needs...

Website: https://oliveallen.com/ (https://oliveallen.com/)  Linktr.ee https://linktr.ee/oliveallen (https://linktr.ee/oliveallen) Olive's https://oliveallen.com/ (website) Social Media https://twitter.com/IamOliveAllen (Twitter) https://www.facebook.com/oliveatdecadent/ (Facebook) https://www.instagram.com/olive_allen (Instagram) Art listed on https://opensea.io/collection/olive-allen (OpenSea) https://niftygateway.com/marketplace?artistId=3987 (Nifty Gateway) https://superrare.com/oliveallen (SuperRare) https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/trespassing/olive-allen-29/125299 (Christie's online) Time Stamps [1:02 – 2:32] Olive got into NFTs in 2017 after learning about https://www.cryptokitties.co/ (Crypto Kitties). She delved deeper when she travelled to Asia and heard about ERC 721s. Olive played the game Fortnight in those days and had the idea that it would be great if she could trade skins she held in the game and give those virtual items a status. This gave her the idea for her startup company, Decadent. [2:49 – 5:04] Decadent was an early version of marketplaces that exist today. The idea was a marketplace to exchange virtual objects such as game items, art, music, film aviators, and more. Olive moved to Silicon Valley and met with VCs to raise money and faced resistance to investing in crypto. She thinks she had bad timing. She decided to focus more on being a creator vs a company founder which tied her up with administrative tasks with less time for being creative. She moved back to New York in 2019. [5:19 – 6:48] Olive's career took off when she was 17 living in New York and creating as a traditional painter. At that time she was in a group show that was critically acclaimed. She wanted to be more innovative and create something remarkable. She always felt tech was the future. https://oliveallen.com/13items (13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items) was the first drop in the history of the NFT space. This drop got the attention of https://twitter.com/dccockfoster?lang=en (Duncan Cock Foster) and https://twitter.com/gcockfoster (Griffin Cock Foster) at  https://niftygateway.com/marketplace?artistId=3987 (Nifty Gateway). [7:27 – 9:31] Olive thinks the NFT world is about assets and the traditional/fine art world is a tiny facet of that. She says artists have explored technology, but crypto art is more of a movement. She believes the world needs a critic or curator to define this for the bigger art world to better understand it. For now people are acquiring and selling to prepare for the bear market.  [9:32– 11:13] Olive was at https://twitter.com/ArtBasel (Art Basel) and https://nagel-draxler.de/exhibition/breadcrumbs/ (showed with Nagel Draxler). They've been doing traditional art for 30 years or more. As a well respected gallery in Germany, Olive says https://twitter.com/nageldraxler (Nagel Draxler)  took a chance on NFTs and younger artists in the crypto space, while other galleries take a cautious wait and see approach. Olive compares NFTs to post-internet where traditional collectors don't want to miss out. Galleries can be progressive, but the traditional world can be a bit slow in general. [11:37 - 14:33] Olives talks about a piece she had at Art Basel, https://oliveallen.com/recent-artworks (Post Death and the Null Address). The piece came from the concept of what happens with digital assets when we die. She says these are immortal and provide artists ultimate immorality.. Olive says at a burn address, NFTs still sit at the null address indefinitely and the image can still be found if you dig for them. She said it's essentially collecting digital dust in the ultimate place of abandonment, but always there. [14:34 - 18:20] Olive discusses artists who created NFTs early on versus those who held out. Artists creating more traditional art and thriving don't need to jump in and create NFTs; Artists can be successful being themselves and not following the hype....

Episode interview with A L Crego, find his https://twitter.com/ALCrego_ (Twitter) and some of his works at https://makersplace.com/alcrego/ (MakersPlace) Time Stamps  [1:11 – 4:23] For Crego, NFTs were a natural step and it was as far back as 2014 that he started to use the internet as his canvas. Originally he moved to crypto more for protection than sales. By 2019 he was contacted by https://makersplace.com/ (MakersPlace) to be a new artist on the platform (where he now curates). Connecting more with the NFT scene happened once Crego joined Twitter.  Crego clarifies that his work is actually not generative and that he does it by hand, frame by frame. That people are often confused even as to what a GIF is, despite it existing for 34 years now.  [4:23 – 13:56] Regarding underrated artist, Crego feels that most of the artist who started digital art are underrated. His position comes from noting that many people in the crypto scene only look to those who are on Twitter and ignore those artist like https://twitter.com/i_am_pi (Pi-Slices), https://www.kidmograph.com/ (Kidmograph), https://twitter.com/Glitch_Black (Glitch Black), and https://twitter.com/etiennejcb (Etienne Jacob) who were doing digital art long before on places like Tumblr. He finds it painful when people call him and above mentioned artist as emergent.  Crego goes on to talk about his dissonance towards social media and the business of NFTs as a whole.    [13:56 – 17:49] Crego has coined the term GIFtilism as a homage to Impressionist pointillism. Crego explains; what the point was to traditional art is now what the square or pixel is in digital art. He goes on to make a correlation between comics and GIFs; while comics were originally not taken seriously they have evolved into a high form of literature and he feels that GIF art now being sold on the blockchain also has the room to evolve into something of more value.  [17:49 – 21:43] Looking to the importance of a pixel, Kizu brings up Murat Pak's sale of a single pixel for $5 million. For Crego, he respects Pak's work (and even did a similar piece) but finds it to be a bit repetitive.  Crego first got into GIF art as he saw that it was a space that could still be improved. That many of the artist in the space moved on to produce video art but that he stayed with GIFs because he found them to be a powerful tool. He sees the repetitive loop of a GIF as the visual equivalent of a Tibetan mantra.  [21:43 – 26:48] Kizu asks about Crego to elaborate on his views regarding the psychology and philosophy behind GIFs. Crego says that GIFs are the most human format. That our memories work as GIFs.  Crego felt limited in photography (mentions http://www.artnet.com/artists/henri-cartier-bresson/ (Cartier Bresson) for his ability to capture motion in a still shot). Says poorly made photo animations are like the autotune of GIFs. For Crego, time is what gives art value, not money. In a digital world where almost everything is free, what has value is what calls your attention… and GIFs and motion call your attention, especially if done in a hypnotic perfect loop where the eye can not detect point A from point B. [26:48 - 31:51] Sabretooth asks Crego about his artistic processes. For Crego the tools have been almost the same for 10+ years, that is; Photoshop and After Effects. His creative process though is often based on poetry he has written and the imagery that the words later give him. He gives the example of writing the quote, “In a world that run so fast, to stop is to advance” and the work that that produced of shoes hanging/running on a wire.  For him, this translation of word into a work is art, the other way around is branding. Crego shares a bit of his views towards generative art and says that he thinks of https://www.jackson-pollock.org/...

Episode interview with Laurence Fuller, find his Twitter https://twitter.com/LaurenceFuller (@LaurenceFuller) and check out some of his works on his http://www.laurencefuller.art/ (website) Time Stamps [0:48 – 2:06] Laurence got into crypto in 2017. In 2020 when blockchain got one of its first big use cases in NFTs, Laurence felt connected enough to start speaking up about his interest in crypto.  [2:06 – 3:10] Kizu congratulates Laurence on his screenplay, Modern Art, which won the “Best Adapted Screenplay” award at the Burbank Film Festival last year. The film was based on his father, Peter Fuller who started, Modern Painters, a magazine that Kizu has previously written for.  [3:10 – 5:12] Laurence talks about his father who was a controversial figure in the art scene of the time due to his outspoken love for beauty during the avant-garde movement which favored more experimentalism. [5:12 – 6:58] Caught in the Hollywood ecosystem of labor, Laurence felt disconnected from his journey as an artist. Researching his father drew him back to a sense of connection. During this research he also was inspired by the sense of community that used to exist within the art world. This is also why Laurence loves NFTs, because he feels that it embodies these values of community and belonging. [6:58 – 10:36] Sabretooth notes that Laurence's works, which combine poetry with neo-classical imagery set in motion, is very different from other NFTs. Laurence says that he was first inspired by his friend https://simaajo.com/bio (Sima Jo) and their collaborations.  He then started posting those works on social media but notes there wasn't really an audience. With the NFT space he feels there is finally a niche for video art.  [10:36 – 13:20] Inquiring about what Laurence thinks his father's position would be on NFTs, it comes out that Laurence will be playing the role of https://www.hockney.com/home (David Hockney) in a HBO series (due to having the best Yorkshire accent). Hockney, who was one of Laurence's father's favorite artists, has been really negative in his position on NFTs. Laurence feels that this is likely due to how they are portrayed in mainstream media and says that this how many people are forming their views toward the scene.  [13:20 – 19:25] Discussing the recent shutdown of https://hicetnunc.art/ (Hic et Nunc) (HEN), Laurence says he was drawn to HEN because it was a way for him to create his own world. He laments its termination but will now mint his works on https://objkt.com/ (objkt). Laurence goes on to talk about how objkt.com started as objkt.bid and was used as an auction site for HEN pieces.  Now Objkt are doing their own minting (using https://tezos.com/ (Tezos)) and have even created a https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/oneof-nft-marketplace-quincy-jones-whitney-houston-tlc-doja-cat-crypto-1173557/ (music platform with Quincy Jones). Some of the catalogue will include John Legend, https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/quincy-jones-backed-platform-oneof-to-auction-unreleased-whitney-houston-recording-as-an-nft/ (Whitney Houston), https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/doja-cat-nft-crypto-art-concert-tickets-1221594/ (Doja Cat), and The Game. One of the most recent releases was backed by rapper https://aithority.com/technology/blockchain/nft/multi-platinum-recording-artist-chief-keef-x-colourfulmula-release-remaining-4000-glogang-genesis-nfts-oneof-com-crashes-as-fans-flock-to-purchase/ (Chief Keef). [19:25 – 20:09] Sabretooth says that he is hopeful regarding the continuation of the HEN community and points out that founders leaving their crypto projects is quite common in the scene ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterizzo/2021/04/26/10-years-ago-today-bitcoin-creator-satoshi-nakamoto-sent-his-final-message/?sh=714e883710dd (e.g. bitcoin)).  [20:09 – 26:16] Kizu brings up Laurence's...

Episode interview with Chris Le, find his Twitter https://twitter.com/clegfx (@clegfx) and check out his new avatar project dropping soon https://clonex.rtfkt.com/ (CloneX) Time Stamps [0:33 – 1:11] Chris is the co-founder of Studio https://rtfkt.com/ (RTFKT) and soon dropping https://clonex.rtfkt.com/ (CloneX), a collaboration with https://www.instagram.com/takashipom/?hl=en (Takashi Murakami). [1:16 – 8:40] Chris has worked in all forms of entertainment some of the artists e has worked with include; https://andersonpaak.com/ (Anderson Paak), https://www.nasirjones.com/ (NAS), and https://www.instagram.com/richforever/?hl=en (Rick Ross). From music industry to film he has done it all but always with an emphasis in visual effects (CGI or VFX background) then moved into game skins. Chris developed a lot of skins for the https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=719928795 (Steam Workshop Platform). In his view skins are the same concept as NFTs.  He then had the idea to put these skins on sneakers and was introduced to https://twitter.com/benitopagotto?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Benito) through his friend https://brockhoferart.com/nzxt-h440-hyperbeast (Brock Hofer) (Hyperbeast). From there they teamed up with https://twitter.com/zaptio (Zaptio) to create a digital sneaker brand that could be forged for physicals. They got funded in 2019 by https://www.galaxyfundmanagement.com/ (Galaxy Digital) then later by https://www.galaxyfundmanagement.com/ (GFR Fund) and RTFKT launched in 2020. They returned to NFTs in late 2020 with their release of Cyber Sneaker on Superman. [8:40 – 11:35] For Kizu he sees a lot of overlap between Chris and Murakami's background. Starting in fashion, then later moving into the hip-hop industry (Murakami's colaborations: https://www.lvmh.com/group/lvmh-commitments/art-culture/ (LVMH), https://www.supremenewyork.com/ (Supreme), https://www.off---white.com/en-mx/ (Off-White), https://news.artnet.com/art-world/takashi-murakami-kanye-wests-kid-cudi-album-art-1298195 (Kanye West), https://artoyz.com/shop/en/blog/takashi-murakami-collaborates-with-jeweler-ben-baller--n878 (Ben Baller) & https://www.grailed.com/collaborations/drake-takashi-murakami (Drake)) Chris responds that he only works with people he is a fan of and that their backgrounds (Chris, Zapatio, Ben & Murakami) all aligned, almost as if it were meant to happen.  [11:57 – 13:04] The collaboration came about after the guys at RTFKT did an interview with Forbes Japan after which Murakami reached out with a DM of emojis. The rest is history. [13:04 – 18:09] Kizu sees Murakami, especially in recent years, as merging the two worlds between hypebeast and nerd culture. This is interesting as usually they are seen as being on the opposite sides of what is cool or fashionable.  For Chris, who has a love for gaming and otaku but also hip-hop culture, this highlights even more the synergy of why and how this collaboration came together. Chris says that him and Ben came into this because they wanted to make gaming cool.  [18:09 – 22:52] Kizu talks about the cultural shift between the need to look cool on and offline and how these worlds are merging.  For Chris who started as a nerdy PC gamer looking up to hip-hop culture, he says that he always knew that pop culture would eventually go in that direction how Clone X for him is bringing these worlds together. [22:52 – 27:43] Sabretooth notes that there are many PFP projects out right now in the NFT scene and asks Chris how they they came up with, https://clonex.rtfkt.com/ (CloneX). It all started when Ben and Chris started creating virtual influencers (https://www.tiktok.com/@fnmeka? (FN Meka)) with this background, plus a need to be able to wear

Episode interview with Denzuul, find his Twitter https://twitter.com/Denzuul?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (@Denzuul) [0:53 – 4:50] Denzuul bought bitcoin as far back as 2011, started to really get into it by 2015. Last year (2020) noticed investment potential of NFTs and from there fell in love with the art side of things. When Denzuul started off with NFTs he thought projects like https://www.cryptokitties.co/ (Kitties) and https://www.larvalabs.com/cryptopunks (Punks) were dumb. Aesthetically he still doesn't quite get it but, understanding the technology and community behind these projects his respect and understanding has grown.  [4:50 – 7:00] Kizu also agrees that the meme and PFP projects do not do much for him aesthetically which brings up the question, why are these projects so popular? Sabretooth points out that crypto is, at its core, antagonistic (towards Wall Street or traditional finance). NFTs inherited this antagonism and thus also look to undermine the traditional art world and its values. That is the point or the greatness of it. [7:00 – 8:26] Kizu talks about the identifying factors of the https://gevols.com/ (G'Evol) project, and what elements people might identify with. Denzuul denies involvement in the project and states that he is merely a huge fan. That when he first saw a baby in a ski mask, he felt it was tru;y different from other projects and there was something there he identified with. [8:59 – 10:53] Sabretooth notes that, people come into the NFT space usually because they are attracted to the money that can be made but that this often evolves into a deeper love for the art. Denzuul finds that what actually moved him to feel more connected to the scene was shit posting. This was what brought him to really love the scene.  [10:53 – 12:45] Denzuul was always a shit poster, even back in the crypto scene. He used to have multiple personas, he now almost exclusively focuses on Denzuul profile.  [12:45 – 14:41] Denzull thinks that if Ethereum doesn't come out with the https://ethereum.org/en/eth2/ (2.0) version in the next year or two, that they will start loosing the NFT market, but not their DeFi market. He thinks that art doesn't have the same need for security as finance. That it is not worth paying $400 per transaction for the extra security and that https://hen101.xyz/ (HEN) will take their place if they don't fix issues around https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/gas/ (gas fees). [14:41 – 16:19] Denzuul says that gas fees were really high in spring/summer of 2021. Felt the need to buy JPEGs but couldn't afford to on ETH so he started to move to HEN. From there he kept finding great projects and got hooked. Now he owns over 1000 works on HEN. [16:19 – 18:00] Sabretooth points out that we're in an https://dgen.network/what-really-happens-in-an-nft-bear-market/ (NFT bear market). Denzuul feels this will probably last until the end of the year, but says that it's a good thing since you can't have a market that is always rising.  As crypto goes up, it is natural trader psychology that people will want to hold on to their crypto as apposed to NFTs. Thinks that it may be a rough 6 months but that looking to the long haul he's still really bullish on NFTs.  [18:03 – 19:00] Denzuul's favorie artists on HEN are, https://twitter.com/tokblokk?lang=en (TokBlok), he is also partial to https://twitter.com/DALEKSPACEMONKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (Dalek) as he has a collection with him. He is a huge fan of https://twitter.com/kiszkiloszki (kiszkiloszki) and also gives a shot out to  https://www.instagram.com/vondoyl/?hl=en (Von Doyle) and http://www.laurencefuller.art/ (Laurence Fuller).  [19:00 – 20:05] 95% of Denzuul's buying process is based on simply if he likes it or not (especially on HEN). 5% is based on value and

Episode interview with Vimal Chandran, find his https://twitter.com/vimalc (Twitter) and https://www.instagram.com/vimalchandran/ (Instagram ) https://vimalchandran.com/ (https://vimalchandran.com/) Time Stamps [0:51 - 2:55] Sabretooth starts by asking Vimal how he started with NFTs.  Vimal learned about the large profits artists were making through NFTs in February 2021, specifically the Beeple $69m sale. Since then he has been exploring and learning about NFTs, crypto, and bitcoin. [2:56 - 5:44] Sabretooth asks Vimal what his move to NFTs means for his art. Vimal started with watercolor illustrations as a kid and moved to digital art in 2012. He started with a https://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets (Wacom tablet) and drawing in https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html (Photoshop). When holding an exhibition, people preferred physical work though. He was split between his traditional artwork for a profit and digital for personal use. It was revolutionary for him to discover NFTs. This allowed him to make a career out of digital art and not just client work. [5:45 - 9:21] Vimal has much of his work within the Indian market. Sabretooth is inquiring if his work will go beyond Vimal's traditional client base. Vimal focuses on storytelling that comes from the area where he lives. For his NFTs, he focused on global and futuristic. He sees his pieces as reaching a global audience. While everyone may not understand the traditional intricacies of Indian culture, the Scifi movement and his execution reaches far beyond.  [9:58 - 13:54 ] Vimal's series that he is dropping on WazirX and Foundation is a narrative about the issues happening around him. Vimal grew up in Kerala, a region of India with many folk stories. It also has an inclination towards art.  Growing up he would read a Sci Fi comic distributed by the Soviet embassy and moved to Bangalore in 2005. Vimal then started to explore these two very different environments. He calls it Indo Futurism. It is a genre that even Bollywood hasn't explored.  [13:54 - 16:43 ] Sabretooth asks Vimal to explain how he is balancing his design work, gallery and NFT career, and cultivating his social media. Vimal started in 2005 with Facebook and how he started with brands reaching out to him. He believes that there is a different audience on social media than NFTs. He feels like he is starting from scratch again within the NFT space, but wants to continue to complete more of his own artwork in the future. Vimal has reduced his client base and will continue to focus on NFTs. He wants to be known for mixing indian culture with Sci Fi and connecting to a global audience.  [16:44 - 21:40] Due to India's policies towards crypto, many Indian's felt the need to use pseudonyms. Sabretooth believes that there are a lot more Indians in crypto than people realize. Sabretooth asks Vimal about his personal experience of the Indian community who are in NFTs. Vimal agrees that there are a lot of people in India in NFTs and it is becoming more popular. It is especially popular for the younger generations even though everyone is talking about cryptocurrencies. He does not believe the government will ban it because they will not be able to ban it. Vimal thinks that they will be part of the global blockchain movement.  [21:41 - 21:40] While it is a tough question for Vimal to answer, his favorite artist is a South African painter https://art21.org/artist/william-kentridge/ (William Kentridge). Vimal sees him as being ahead of his time by making small animations and selling them in traditional galleries. In India, his favorite is a contemporary artist is https://www.artsy.net/artist/sheela-gowda (Sheela Gowda). In the global artists business, he follows http://www.artnet.com/artists/david-shrigley/ (David Shrigley) and https://www.artsy.net/artist/jasper-johns (Jasper John) work.

Episode Interview with Kenny Schachter, find his twitter https://twitter.com/kennyschac?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor (@kennyschac), his website https://www.kennyschachter.art/ (https://www.kennyschachter.art/) and check out https://cryptomutts.io/ (Crypto Mutts).   Time Stamps [0:58 – 3:31] Kenny was introduced to NFTs in September 2020. Made art prior to NFTs but never felt comfortable calling himself an artist. After learning about NFTs, he made some NFTs and realized how revolutionary NFTs would be to the art world. Wrote about NFTs in the journal, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/authors/kenny-schachter (The Art Newspaper). He was introduced to https://niftygateway.com/collections/kennyschachter (Nifty Gateway) by https://twitter.com/tommyk_eth (Tommy Kimmelman) and in December 2020 sold several NFTs on the platform. Has pursued NFTs since then. [3:47 – 7:46] Kenny explains that art is about communication. NFTs are being communicated in different ways. The https://opensea.io/collection/cryptopunks (CryptoPunks) set a precedent and people are poking fun at themselves. Kenny created PFPs called the https://cryptomutts.io/ (CryptoMutts) as satire. Kennys says right now you can also buy a masterpiece NFT, but people are more focused on using PFPs as a substitute for digital currency (which he says is a no-no). Kenny says art is a slow burning process. The NFT community is full of all different people making relevant and meaningful art. Sabretooth mentions tension between artists and feelings toward PFP collectibles. He references the value of Crypto Punks for being OG art of NFTs, and compares it to Bitcoin being the oldest crypto. He asks Kenny's thoughts on the thesis that PFPs won't hold in that high value as more traditional art people come into NFTs. [9:26 – 13:55] Kenny thinks there are pockets of overvaluation. His own CryptoMutt collection was to create a community and also gave a reduction to an https://www.artnet.com/ (ArtNet) subscription. He didn't like Crypto Punks at first but has grown to appreciate what they signify. He thinks eventually PFPs will go away because they are now just copying what has been successful and don't have any meaning. He says the market changes swiftly and references https://www.artblocks.io/ (art blocks), and generative NFTs from generative photography and computer art in the 60s and 70s.  Kizo mentions that people in the crypto world might not have art history knowledge, and people in the traditional art world may not be interested in how discord works. [15:25 – 22:24] Kenny references https://twitter.com/beeple (Beeple) who has a sculpture at Christie's with an NFT element (the piece is https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/beeple-human-one-christies-1234608208/ (Human One)) in the language of “boomer art” like https://twitter.com/hirst_official (Damien Hirst) and https://twitter.com/JeffKoons (Jeff Koons). When someone commented on a resemblance to​​ https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alberto-giacometti-walking-man-i (Alberto Giacometti's walking man sculpture), Beeple was uninterested, and said art history is stupid. Kenny uses this to emphasize there are people on both sides (crypto world and traditional world) that aren't interested in the other. Many in the crypto world who don't care to learn about art history or have interest in power brokers in the art world such as https://twitter.com/Gagosian (Larry Gagosian), https://twitter.com/HauserWirth (Hauser & Wirth), https://twitter.com/gladstonenyc?lang=en (Barbara Gladstone), Acquavella, or https://twitter.com/PaceGallery (Pace). Many people in the traditional art world don't care to learn about NFTs. Kenny talks about contemporary artists who've transitioned to NFTs, https://twitter.com/tom_sachs (Tom Sachs) who created https://twitter.com/tsrocketfactory (Rocket Factory)  and https://twitter.com/CHAOSursfischer (Urs Fischer) whose project is...