Educate ownership opportunities with social media and NFTs

Concepts such as agency and ownership are often discussed in the education space as important aspects of learning for students to embody. As a result, entrepreneurship programs are emerging to enable a mindset many see as necessary to succeed in an accelerating world of opportunity.

Many Millennials were raised in the era of do what you love and the money will follow, made famous by Marsha Sinetar. But as a recent New York Times article suggests, many Millennials have concerns about real money as their earning potential appears to be far less than that of their Baby Boomer parents. Although they represent one of the most educated and diverse populations, rising housing costs, student debt and inflationary constraints hamper their growth potential.

Instead of buying into the “real world” investment strategies of a volatile stock market and high real estate costs, some are turning to the virtual world as their most hopeful avenue for growth. With the uncertainty of crypto-related markets, the idea of ​​ownership seems more attainable in the new world economy of virtual transactions, from non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to other subscription-based opportunities.

As Millennials take “ownership” of learning in their post-academic lives, they are turning their eyes to entrepreneurs in the digital space who can provide answers to their uncertain financial futures. Julian Rodriguez is a Millennial who is using his background in crypto markets that stretches back to the beginning of the Ethereum project to drive a new venture into creative ownership. He is the founder and CEO of Momento NFT, a direct-to-fan NFT social network that allows fans and collectors to own the best moments of content creators.

Business Wire predicts that the global NFT market will reach $97.6 billion by 2028, increasing at a market growth rate of over 30%. Rodriguez bets on the growth indicators as a real option for younger investors who want to change their financial picture through ownership options that speak to their digital sensibility. With an initial seed round of $4 million for Momento NFT led by Cadenza Capital Management and others, Rodriguez places total funding to date at $6 million as he seeks to revolutionize how the world thinks about digital ownership.

This reporter sat down with Julian Rodriguez to learn about his path to Momento NFT and his take on the changes in mindset and outlook among younger generations. Few people have ridden the waves of early crypto into its current manifestations as much as Rodriguez. A new world is emerging where physical reality takes a backseat to virtual, and it will take people like Rodriguez, with his vast background and experience, to drive the vehicle.

A crypto background

Rod Berger: Explain the early days and how your career experiences changed your thinking about engaging in a social media platform-based model of Momento NFT.

Julian Rodriguez: The story encapsulates the beginnings of crypto. In 2013, I met Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder and creator of Ethereum, and ended up working with him at Bitcoin magazine. I coordinated much of the magazine’s distribution in and around New York City. Vitalik published the Ethereum white paper in the magazine and I was one of the first 20 people to review it. So I had a front row seat to what this world would be like.

I was into it all and one of the first Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners with box number 68, but I didn’t have the foresight to buy more than one at the time [laugh].

In 2014, Vitalik went down to the conference in Miami to unveil his Ethereum project to the world, where the first 20 co-founders were announced. He called me in a Facebook movie moment and said “Hey Julian, you should be here.” But unfortunately, I wasn’t prepared to just up and move to Miami from New York.

Soon the crypto apocalypse came, and the New York Bitcoin Center closed. Man, it was light out. Everyone argued, and Vitalik left the US, focusing on Europe.

I turned my gaze to Silicon Valley to understand how people scale businesses and build sustainable technology. Then, in 2016, I launched my first venture-backed startup, which had nothing to do with crypto. Instead, it was a B2B wholesale marketplace, which made me a better entrepreneur.

By 2020, after listening to people like Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVee) to Mark Cuban predict the crypto market and seeing the TikTok explosion and people spending more time online, it was clear that the timing was right to get back into it. I’m probably one of the few who has seen all the crypto ups and downs, why they work and don’t, and how the market is shaped. I knew I had to bring in my former roommate at Fordham University, Sudesh Banskota as a partner, and Momento NFT was formed.

Berger: Why Momento? What was the difference in the decision to launch the social platform NFT?

Rodriguez: All roads lead to Vitalek, right? He thought the next phase of Ethereum was going to be social, but it never got off the ground. There should have been social programs for Ethereum. Instead, there were super high tech projects that had nothing to do with what people wanted to do on social media. A lot of it is also waiting for the blockchains to get to the right point. Ethereum, in its current iteration, was not the best place to do that. You couldn’t scale a social media platform on top of Ethereum.

So in 2020 you saw the rise of a bunch of blockchains. At least 1000 blockchains that promise the necessary scale and speed. Wherever there is interest, people will find a solution. Everyone was talking about and thinking about crypto in 2020 and I knew the timing was finally right because I had the momentum to influence people to make it happen.

Understand the model

Berger: How would I understand the success of Momento now? How many people are currently actively using the platform?

Rodriguez: There are currently 55,000 users, but we are growing rapidly. We are not just Web3-focused in our approach to growth. We work with Web2 (current) influencers and the creative economy, celebrities and athletes to bring their active Web2 audiences and show them our toolset through Web3.

It is digital ownership, royalties by owning and trading other people’s content. The tool around having an NFT unlocks a ticket, a live stream event or some limited edition merchandise. It opens up different avenues for these influencers and celebrities to monetize the digital content they’re known for and inspire and connect with their communities. Then there are payment rails at the back, and we put everything together in a practical package.

Berger: Talk about the celebrity angle. I think you have a deal with the NBA, right?

Rodriguez: There’s a part where NBA Top Shot of Dapper Labs (an NFT marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade basketball video clips) does all the on-court content and we focus on the off-court stuff. These athletes know their worth and the social currency their content creates.

For example, LeBron James, off the court, has done this thing called Taco Tuesdays. A funny short video went viral and he has continued to follow up on the theme. They are intimate moments with him and some of his teammates with other all-stars. LeBron knows the media value and maybe starts imagining what if he did that with Pepsi and what that number would be? The financial number far exceeds the number of dunks or jump shots he shoots. So we are going in that direction. We don’t have an infinite budget, but we know the interest is there.

Our business is actually an 80-20 split; 80% of our users are people creating their own personal brands, and 20% are athletes and A-list celebrities.

Change of civilization

Berger: Where is this transformation headed from today’s Web2 to Web3 and beyond? Where is it moving collectively, in your opinion?

Rodriguez: I have a ton of opinions about where we are going as a civilization. The world will be a place that essentially has no difference between digital and physical spaces. Most of these Generation Alpha children will be born into a reality where they will actually be irritated by the physical world.

They will be irritated by sunlight, and wonder why the tree moves so much? “Where’s the reset button,” they might say. Something happens when you are exposed to technology at a very young age. You begin to realize that another person has created a machine with a predetermined set of rules under which it behaves. So you tend to figure it out or anticipate the breadth of what people can do. Nothing is spectacular or fanciful anymore. You know that the machine can do a certain amount of things. Now it’s about whether the machine is faster than you.

Humans have never interacted with anything like that in all of civilization, which is why you see such a huge difference in how fast we move and what we build.

Zuckerberg is pouring $10 billion into their new generation of virtual reality (VR), which is actually mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR). It’s about transposing digital worlds on top of your visual field of vision. The physical world is covered by a digital effort, live interactive, digital information.

But Zuckerberg knew he had to make this out of VR gaming because it had to be fun. People aren’t going to do it just because it’s intellectually stimulating.

The end point

Berger: How will these innovations change how individuals interact financially with each other and the speed of transactions?

Rodriguez: The question becomes, where does crypto and Web3 end up in this scenario? You’re going to see people get paid per second, and individuals will consistently be aware of the “value” you extract for the things you do on a per-second basis.

The balance will change, which is not dictated by the central bank. It’s yours. You have the private keys in your virtual wallet.

There will be a psychological shift. What will people do when they realize that they only need to interact with another human being to receive an immediate transfer of value? You will never get that value unless you kill me and take my private keys out of my brain. So people are just going to do more. They want to be able to say, “Well, I can give you this right now or build it right now. Scan China and send the payment.” It’s a level of human incentive we’ve never seen.

Beyond a creator and visionary in the new online space bringing social media platforms powered by NFTs and personal ownership, Julian Rodriguez is a compelling, energetic mind whose forward-thinking gears seem in perpetual motion.

As the world of blockchains and cryptocurrencies work out their kinks in the financial world, visionaries like Rodriguez will continue to adapt, develop and create innovations that transform the physical and virtual realms of our collective existence. No easy feat, but minds like Rodriquez rise to the challenge.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.