Erick Calderon: NFT Platform Art Blocks’ Rapid Growth ‘Felt Unreasonable’

NFT art platform Art Blocks shot to prominence during the 2021 bull run, with individual examples of the generative art created on the platform selling for millions of dollars.

But Art Blocks creator Erick Calderon, also known as Snowfro, told Decrypton its gm podcast that the platform’s rapid growth “felt unreasonable, it felt unsustainable.”

He added that the crypto crash has resulted in “calmer” conditions that “make it much easier for me to have rational conversations with people about art.”

“From a mental health perspective, it wasn’t healthy for Art Blocks as a team, and it wasn’t healthy for Art Blocks artists either,” Calderon said of the platform’s meteoric rise in September and October 2021. “Yes, they were about to earn a bunch of money at the drop of a hat, but it’s actually not always healthy, especially when you question the actual value of the work.”

In recent weeks, despite the bear market, Calderon said that “Art Blocks has kind of started to have a resurgence.”

This has again caused the speculation to rise again. “On my travels, and when I have conversations with people in the contemporary art world to bring value to Art Blocks outside of our little echo chamber, the conversation shifts back to the speculation,” he said Decrypt.

Calderon was quick to clarify that “We don’t have a problem with speculation,” but said, “We want to make it clear that’s not why we’re here. We’re happy when you make a bunch of money, and we’re gutted when you lose a bunch of money – but those things are actually irrelevant to our purpose, which is to just host amazing art by amazing artists in this new avenue.”

NFT bear market hire

The bear market doesn’t seem to have dented Art Block’s ambitions; Calderon told Decrypt that the platform is hiring, “We want Art Blocks to grow and we realize that time is of the essence,” he said, adding that the platform recently got an artistic director.

“We’ve seen incredible artists emerge at Art Blocks; some of them have traditional art backgrounds, but many of them are computer scientists who realize they have a creative side to them, Calderon said.

The new artistic director will help these Neophyte artists to develop their careers, he explained. “We need to help educate artists on how to manage their careers, to get critiques, to get feedback to help them through not just their art project, but their artistic career.”

Calderon also plans to expand Art Block’s engineering team.

“We’re very aware of how fortunate we are to potentially be in hiring mode,” he said, suggesting that companies that hired during the bull market may have overstretched themselves. “You don’t actually have the luxury of sitting back during a bull market and saying, ‘We’re not hiring until the next bear market because people are being unreasonable with their salary expectations.’ Because then you will be left behind.”

Having witnessed economic cycles before, Calderon explained that during bull markets, “incredibly talented people are hired for incredible amounts of money that become unsustainable during these down times.” That, in turn, means that during a downturn, “you’re looking at potentially having to let go of ten people, because you want to keep this one superstar, because you’re paying them too much. You start questioning, okay, well, maybe I can’t afford to pay that person that much, because these other people are actually living normal lives.”

Fortunately, he said, that’s not a concern for Art Blocks, which are “thriving” in today’s economy. “We’re excited, we’re lucky and we feel very privileged to be in the position we’re in.”