In the midst of the cryptocurrency, NFT people continue to believe in a Web3 future
On a rainy Tuesday in June, I found myself in a crowded and buzzing theater in Times Square, after skipping a queue that apparently went endlessly around the city block thanks to a very convenient press card. The occasion: an event organized by Doodles, a collection of 10,000 colorful NFTs.
To say I did not get the fuss is an understatement – one of Doodle’s most prominent photos seems to be one of cartoon throwing up a rainbowand among the founders is a guy who walks by “poopie“on Twitter. But the participants assured me that this was one very exciting moments. Some were jazzing over what they said would be a much-anticipated new phase of the project, while others wondered who the promised musical action would be. Finally, the audience was treated to video messages from Serena Williams’ husband (a new investor) and Pharrell (new chief brand officer) and a performance by The Chainsmokers. The company also promises several NFTs, music projects and art, much of which is TBD.
“Doodles are here to color our world, it’s here to help us channel our inner child, and ultimately help us understand that anything is possible with the power of our imagination,” said Doodles CEO Julian Holguin in what constituted a glorified TED speech. He joined the project in May after coming over from Billboard. “The market needs it right now, the world needs it right now,” he added. The market line evoked laughter from the crowd. It is, as you may know, a less than ideal time to invest in NFTs, cryptocurrencies or, really, most investments in the past.
“We speculate a bit about the cultural impact that Doodles have on music, sports, games,” said David, a Doodle owner who had traveled to New York from Los Angeles this week. He enthusiastically explained to me what was going on throughout the evening, after the Pharrell announcement that bent over to whisper that the floor price of the NFTs had just crept up. “We hope the future is something that brings greater benefits.”
Much of what happens in crypto, perhaps especially in Web3 (the supposed next version of the internet) and NFTs (unique digital bits), is quite clever and predatory. Much of it is based on a future promise of “utility” which in most current iterations does not translate into anything more than hype. That hype is generated by a select few on the backs of the masses, some desperate to be a part of constructed societies. It fails in its basic premise of decentralization and taking power out of the hands of concentrated authorities. NFT NYC, the context in which the Doodles event was held, was a good example: Thousands of participants paid hundreds and even thousands of dollars to attend a conference that can only be described as pure chaos. Some participants criticized it as one cash by a handful of organizers.
Still, if you immerse yourself a little in the arena, you can begin to see why some of this works. Everything has felt so bad for so long, everyone seems so disconnected. People want to feel excited, and if a rainbow drawing that says it’s making an album with Pharrell does it for you, why not? We feel an inherent desire to be a part of something, to belong to, and we often do spend money to achieve it.
In the midst of the current market crash, being in a room full of carefree NFT fans feels a bit like the “this is fine” meme in live action. Then again, so does everything else.
NFT people are still super happy with all this, they promise
For four days in late June, thousands of people traveled to Midtown Manhattan for the fourth part of NFT NYC, an event that claims to be one of the largest in non-fungible tokens. The organizers claimed that 15,000 people should participate, and that they had a selection of 1,500 speakers. If all this seems like a bit much, it’s because it was. Navigating the touristy streets of Times Square was often easier than the hallways of the multi-storey, casino-like Marriott Marquis Hotel. Most speakers only got a handful of minutes on stage, and at best took care of half-empty conference rooms.
You may have thought that the chaos at the conference itself would have been cause for doubt, on top of the recent cryptocurrency that has seen both cryptocurrencies and NFTs fall in value. Instead, the environment was an almost toxic positivity. The “we are all going to make it” (or WAGMI) attitude was consistent, although it is definitely a situation where most people acknowledge that “we” are a fairly narrow segment they hope they are a part of.
Well-funded people in the arena say they foresaw the decline and even welcome it. “There’s so much noise in the NFT room, in the crypto room right now, and if anything, what this crypto winter represents is the ability to shake some of it out,” said Jason Melo, chief technology officer at VHS, the company behind Zed Run, a digital horse racing games. Phillip Shoemaker, CEO of Identity.com, an identity verification company focused on Web3, and former head of the Apple App Store, reiterated the feeling. “Everyone who was an AND crypto person saw this coming,” he said.
I think both when they insist that they try to build real projects in the budding Web3 site. Gambling is fun, so why not on digital horses? Shoemaker really seems to care about pseudonymity.
However, both can also afford to lose, a privilege that norms and new players in the area with much shallower wallets do not necessarily have. Web3 definitely needs some shaking. Those who will be shaken out are those who may be least able to afford it.
Austin Kuechle, one of the founders of Galactic Gaylords, an NFT project aimed at the gay community, spent thousands of dollars on a sponsorship booth (of which there were dozens upon dozens) and for his team to attend NFT NYC. Kuechle, who leaves Austin Please online and describes himself as a “gay father from Canada”, just quit his job as a mechanical engineer to get more into Web3, although he still has an e-commerce business next door. His timing is not good, but he is determined to move on. “For a long-term project like ours, I’m not that worried,” he said. The actual NFTs are not available yet.
The Galactic Gaylords will be “story-driven,” and the team will hire LGBTQIA writers to “tell their queer journey within the confines of our super-gay galaxy,” he explained. The ultimate goal is to get a Netflix show. In the meantime, they plan to send physical playing cards to NFT holders quarterly. I tell him I do not understand. He tells me I’m just not there yet. “Before you dive into it, you may not want to feel it.”
Once again, I believe in him. I also do not get people who go to Phish concerts or collect Pokémon cards, both of which have thriving communities around them. The culture around many high-profile NFT projects, whether it’s Bored Apes or Doodles or something else, is hyper-revenue-generating fandom. Web3 can in many cases be a cynical cash from those at the top, but at the bottom of a pyramid there are many people who are at least partially true believers.
“The Web3 community is so small that the people in it are extremely passionate, so they’re almost willing to jump on anything,” he said. Lauren Mitchellone of the forces behind Save Web3which claims to be trying to keep the Web3 promise of decentralization and community alive.
We meet with one of her business partners, Tyler Stockfield, the day after NFT NYC closed. She is a rather daring crypto-trader (or, as the lexicon says, a “dough”, short for degenerate), will soon host a Bali NFT event, and tells me that she is here to “eliminate poverty” for Web3. He talks about the eye-catching connections between crypto, venture capital and large companies in a way that can feel a bit like that. It is always sunny meme.
But then in the middle of a restaurant at the Herald Square Hotel, Mitchell hits the nail on the head. “There are a lot of people who benefit from the desire people have for communities that come out of the pandemic,” she says. Stockfield comes in with a different, and probably also correct, angle. “It’s a close-knit club of people pulling the strings.”
NFTs are gambling and so is gambling
I certainly still do not want a Doodle, and most people in space agree that about 99 percent of this will not exist in five to 10 years. But I will say something that I probably should not: I feel with the hope of what it might be, and with why that hope exists in the first place.
The Internet right now is a real boomer – giant technology companies control everything, privacy is a lie, and Facebook may have ruined democracy. It’s so hard to manage it as a musician or artist. It feels like the economy and society are crumbling around us. Crypto and DeFi and Bored Apes and what else is completely different and pyramid-like and unfair and bad for the environment. The same goes for so many aspects of big business and capitalism. The metaverse may not be great, nor may the real world. Crypto can be particularly bad when it comes to regulation and consumer protection, but we also allow people to be overwhelmed by predatory financial services and investments all the time. It’s all more of the same.
In the middle of the NYC NFT event, I sought a moment of silence in one of the side conference rooms, which were largely empty. There I met Stephan Ledain, who is working on an NFT project called Jenny Metaverse DAO. It deals with fractional shares – which means that more people can have a stake in it – of art.
Ledain, who works in a consulting firm, is enthusiastic about the project and is also aware that it may not work. He is also aware of what is happening in NFTs. “Every budding industry has this gold rush, capitalist energy around it,” he said. In his view, the art market as it is today is basically destroyed, so why not see if Web3 can help fix it?
This makes it difficult not to mess with the underdog, even if the underdog is betting on a future that may very well not come out.
We live in a world that is constantly trying to fool us and fool us, where we are always surrounded by small and big scams. It may feel impossible to navigate. Every other week, join Emily Stewart to look at all the little ways our financial systems control and manipulate the average person. welcome to The big squeeze.
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