Still confused about NFTs? Watch Ashanti, Ebonee Davis and Terrance Eady Break It All the Way Down
The first ever ESSENCE Tech Summit in 2022 ESSENCE Culture Festival featured an eye-opening talk presented by AT&T Dream In Black, which took a deep dive into the topic of NFTs and how important it is that more creatives and makers join in recognizing this new technology as the future of ownership.
Talking with Angela Baskervillewho is Vice President of Corporate Systems at AT&T, Grammy-winning entertainer Ashanti spoke candidly about her journey in the tech space, which led to her becoming the first black female artist to co-found a Web3 company.
“I think it’s so important, just for us as a culture, to be aware of technology,” she said. “Technology is moving so fast and it’s connecting the entire planet. And to be a co-founder and co-owner of a Web3 company as a black woman is a very honored and humbling experience. I never thought I’d be in this space so deeply , because when you think of technology… you think of men, sort of. So I’m glad, as a black woman, that we’re breaking the barriers and owning [in that space].
Ashanti also broke down why she believes fully understanding how NFTs work is critical for creators and just the black community in general.
“What’s important and essential to me is understanding the difference between owning your intellectual property and giving it away. So if you think about Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and all that, other people get checks when we come up with these dances and these beauty tutorials and these makeup tutorials,” she added. “But with a Web3 company, you own your intellectual property, and that’s the difference. So I want to be a vessel to explain and tell people that they own your creativity.”
Later in the conversation, Model & Poet Ebony Davis emphasized the irreplaceable value of being able to connect directly with your audience.
“Imagine doing all the work to build this following and then never having access to that audience again if this app ever shuts down [indefinitely],” she said. “So NFTs give us the opportunity to bring our community directly to us, and to have a direct correspondence with them. It also allows us to sell our art directly to the community instead of it being consumed by people who don’t really appreciate it.”
Graduated from Bethune-Cookman in 2021 Terrance Eady also weighed in on the value of NFTs for fashion creatives like himself, and shared a bit about the groundbreaking company he founded to use his knowledge of NFTs and technologies to help others in the fashion community.
“I wanted to create a space for other fashion designers, so I actually created my own startup called Fashion Swap,” he said. “It has 3 components. The first is a multi-vendor marketplace for fashion designers. So, imagine if you’re from Miami or from Detroit, you can go in and shop every single designer from your city, including independent designers.
We also have a component that teaches people how to make their own clothes, and we have an animated section where you can actually turn your clothes into metaverse wearables so they’re NFTs. It will allow you to make one rendition of a design and sell a million of those digital hoodies to people in the metaverse, creating a whole other revenue stream.
In the fashion industry, one of the things we lack is royalties. When I sell a shirt, it’s probably the last time I’ll make any money from it. With Diginal IDs, it is in a way like a QR code or an NFT sewn into the clothes. So it would be like a peer-to-peer marketplace where every time your clothes are resold, you get a percentage, like in royalties.”
To hear the full conversation, check out the video above. For more of everything you missed at the 2022 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, visit our official video content hub HERE.
