NFTs empower artists

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Often we don’t take our side hobbies as seriously as we would like. We skip those guitar lessons, the baking book we bought is now covered in dust, the new sneakers are hiding in the closet, and we almost always promise ourselves that we’ll do better next time.

So imagine when your side hobby suddenly becomes an integral part of your professional life, giving you an edge that most people may not have. That’s what happened when Eva Beylin, director of The Graph, couldn’t believe that non-fungible tokens (NFT) could be a way for her to become an artist.

Eva Beylin, director of The Graph Foundation, is a speaker at CoinDesk’s Consensus Festival in April.

“I’ve now been able to sell my art, which would never have happened before if I just did it randomly because I’m not a great artist. I don’t do this full time. For me, it’s incredibly empowering.”

There is more to Eva’s portfolio than her art. With her background in finance and a career in Web3, Eva Beylin represents today’s crypto leader. Not to mention, Elon Musk retweeted her meme, which she eventually sold as an NFT, making almost $20,000. Talk about seizing the moment.

Beylin is currently working on a blockchain data indexing protocol called The Graph, and has led the distribution of over $135 million in grants to The Graph’s core developers. She is also a member of the influential Web3 venture capital fund called eGirl Capital.

eGirl Capital is a digital native brand and venture capital that was founded by 14 acquaintances on Telegram. The portfolio includes Arbitrum, Yat (the emoji identity startup) and Radicle (a decentralized platform for developers). Fun fact: Most partners in eGirl to this day remain pseudonyms for each other.

“A lot of the people who are pseudonymous in crypto are not anonymous at their core. They’ve built an identity around a specific expertise or job or skill set that they then want to emulate. And it’s very possible they have multiple identities,” Beylin said .

The story continues

But as the world embraces the world of crypto and Web3, the technological shift is not as simple as it seems. Many are curious about the upcoming challenges the industry may face. So we caught up with Eva Beylin to understand the future of Web3, why NFTs matter and, most importantly, to get a Twitter tip or two.

(The interview has been edited for clarity.)

CoinDesk: How does it feel to be able to combine your interest in art with technology like NFTs?

My background is in finance, which was my first love, and with Ethereum [that] was in a way to realize how we can use it for payments and rethink our financial systems. Art was more of a side hobby and a surprising consequence of my interest in crypto. I didn’t expect when I joined Ethereum that I would be able to become a side hobby artist because now I have been able to sell my art, which would never have happened before. You know, if I just did it randomly, because I’m not a great artist. I don’t do this full time. For me, it is incredibly empowering.

What are your thoughts on NFT fees?

I think this topic is very controversial because the term “royalty” is misunderstood as a specific implementation. While the simple definition of royalties is just a recurring financial payment for some kind of IP [intellectual property] or use of copyright. And so, it sounds like a lot of the artists that got into crypto bought into this idea that royalties are a percentage of sales that is explicitly taken out at the time you make that transaction. And it failed a lot of people.

We should rethink how we can make recurring payments to creators as a concept. It doesn’t have to be a percentage of NFT sales because there are some limitations to that. But can we think of new ways to actually create these revenues? And the reason I think this is important is because it’s outside of our current creative economy. For example, if we think of authors who write books, their entire business model is built on the idea of ​​recurring payments. So if we say publishing is fundamentally incompatible with Etheruem, I resent it.

And do you think that NFT royalty should be enforced programmatically on the chain?

I think that question is very nuanced, because just enforcing them with NFT has a lot of limitations that are not fully enforced. I think dapps should do their best to enforce them for social reasons. You know, at the end of the day, when we think about the value of the NFT market, it’s about the artists’ creations, and if artists don’t get funded, they’re not going to create things. In terms of programmatic enforcement, this is where I think we need more innovation because there are limitations with wrapping these NFT contracts, regardless of whether you can actually enforce a payment at the time of sale or transfer. So that’s kind of what I’m saying is a very primitive view of royalties, and we have to think about what’s the next mechanism that can’t make royalties possible.

Speaking of NFTs, how is your NFT portfolio doing? Do you have anything that has surpassed the Elon Musk retweet experience?

I have not. It was definitely the combination of the retweet and also being able to sell it, that’s why I won the internet that day. But I’m really, really big into collecting art, simply because I really like art. So I haven’t stopped collecting, especially finding new artists. One of my hobbies on Twitter is finding an artist that seems really exciting. I am interested in the open edition and supplement trend. I think we’re going to see less open editions in the future and more curated editions because of the benefits that creators get from informing the community or empowering the community.

And is eGirl Capital still active in the bear market?

We are always active and passive at the same time. Most of the members have other full-time jobs or other areas of focus. So we continue to invest in what is interesting to us. I think we invested in “Oh Baby Games” just a few months ago.

What about The Graph? What are the challenges you have faced there?

We are learning and growing all the time. Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been more than two years since we launched the network. But I would say that the biggest challenge is estimating the time it takes to make progress in Web3 technologically. It’s just that there are so many unpredictable things that come up with building these new sets of infrastructure that we’re kind of seeing across the board. It could be a problem in some kind of node client that then affects our ability to serve that data, until there’s a greater sense that we still have a lot of work to do with the infrastructure.

Do you think pseudonymous identities on Web3 will be able to win the trust of the public?

I come from management consulting working in New York, and I definitely recognize that I want a bit more of a traditional identity KYC [know-your-customer] structure. However, Web3, as part of its general movement, provides access and openness. And part of that openness is to people who choose different identities, openness to people who live their lives in different ways. I think there are definitely reasons not to trust certain individuals, whether they are anonymous or not, and sometimes it has come up in scams. But there is also a lot you gain from just having an identity that is a brand.

Would you ever consider getting a pseudonymous identity for yourself?

I was already public, so that’s partly why I’m not a pseudonym. But I have some anon accounts. And I see no problem with that. I think it creates a lot more opportunity for people to actually express themselves in non-traditional ways. Whereas, historically, you only had one job, and you really only got to do that one job.

What are you most excited about Consensus this year?

Oh, good question. The past year has been quite challenging for most projects, and especially builders. And so I’m really looking forward to focusing on what builders need to get us to the next step. We are basically ready for our prime time. And now it’s just a matter of finishing these last bits. So I look forward to insightful conversations, maybe even if it mimics a salon type environment. That would be exciting.

We are also excited about that. See you at Consensus.