Theme: NFT NYC 2022 Themes & Highlights
- Over 15,000 tickets sold, two days of speakers
- Hundreds of unofficial events
- Affordable project: Double down fewocious
- NFT News
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Today on all about affordable NFTs. We are talking with Andrew about how NFT NYC went. I've been seeing it all over my feeds and in the news, I'm excited to hear how it went, but you're back. Am back I'm back home was, uh, are a lot of events going on and yeah, it was, uh, it was exciting to be there and, uh, you know, happy to, uh, get to talk about some of the events that were, were happening in the last few days in New York.
[00:00:30] Yeah. I feel like this is a blend between, we're about to jump into the news, but I feel like the news is NFT NYC, but I, I want to get into the particulars and just how it was to actually be there versus like what I heard some of the FUD and upside was. So let's actually, uh, turn toward things. Uh, we saw on the news this week.
[00:00:48] Yeah, we'll get into some, some headlines. Anyway. Uh, so first off we've got here that Shopify has rolled out some new NFT integration features where merchants can add, uh, what they're calling it, add utility to the NFTs, but they're able to, to token gate, uh, certain products on the site so that you'd have to have the NFT to be able to buy it.
[00:01:09] Um, so I think that's a real big thing to, for Shopify to. Uh, give two merchants. Um, it makes it super easy for anybody really to be able to use an NFT as a, uh, token to gate specific merchandise, you know, be able to offer certain things to only holders of NFTs. And, uh, that's a big step here. That's massive.
[00:01:30] I mean, this is a huge eCommerce platform, web two, adopting web three tech and really driving home the upside of access and utility with a capital U. That is gonna open up a lot of interesting, uh, interesting tie-ins right? Cause you can control certain types of membership. And as, as much as it makes me roll my eyes, when I see merch as like a utility, there is actual actually an ability to say, Hey, here's a physical piece of art that you can get and the NFT and they actually go together and here it is wrapped in a perfect package for you.
[00:02:09] I think there's a lot more behind this one. And also Andrew, for those of you keeping score at home, the wild and crazy idea of allowing NFT access to be validated as part of the native technology, uh, Shopify one discord, none. Just if you're keeping track natively, it's a good point. Good point. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:02:30] I mean, this is, I've been a big fan of shop buy shop, buy for a long time, because of all the, the way they keep adding more features. And I think this is helping them not just stay relevant, but really give their merchants. Tools that many others are not yet able to, to do, to offer. And I think it's gonna be some time till you see a lot of big companies start offering these, uh, token gated types of products, but you know, small, small merchants can start getting into it right away.
[00:02:57] Now you, I mean, you ran a whole eCommerce store, you know, the game, maybe it's time for some, uh, some three, a merch start getting that's right, man. Roll it in. All right. So next headline here. We've got moon pay. They have, uh, they're starting an minting service. So at the, uh, founder of moon pay Ivan Soto, Wright was actually on stage at, uh, NFT, N Y C and demonstrated some of those technology.
[00:03:19] But, uh, they're rolling out with partners, some big partners here. So they've got, uh, Fox, um, creative artist. The universal pictures, um, some other, uh, music, uh, partners as well. So they're rolling out with some pretty big names. Um, moon pay has been, um, pretty big in getting people, onboarding, uh, people from Fiat to crypto, um, and interesting that they are getting more and more into the NFT space here.
[00:03:46] I'm not quite sure what this means. Other than I know moon pay has traditionally been like one of those leaders in saying, Hey, here's an on. I'll be honest. I've never gotten moon pay to work for me. It is always bugged out and I have tried it on seven non-con consecutive occasions. Well, maybe this will work better.
[00:04:08] This will work better. I, Hey, I'm gonna try again at some point. All right. So this next headline, we've seen some big movement in the crypto punks market. Recently, the, uh, the floor had gotten to under 50 E and then they started getting snatched up and then word came out that, uh, they have. Uh, hug labs has appointed, uh, Noah Davis, formerly of Christie's as, uh, the head of the crypto punks project.
[00:04:34] So he helped bring crypto punks to, uh, Christie's as part of an auction there, um, and has been part of that community by punk holder for some time. And, uh, you know, I think this is a good move from somebody in charge of that crypto punks project, because it did seem like they, after they acquired that. P it got somewhat lost among all of their other projects that certainly are taking much more of their focus.
[00:04:56] So good to see that they are putting someone in charge that understands the history of crypto punks and what they do mean to the, uh, NFT movement. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that that goes away ebbs and flows, but I think, you know, the, the window where you could have grabbed a punk for a mere $50,000, if you figure the sort of like where the prices intersected, uh, maybe, maybe something we note is like, oh man, that would've been the best investment ever or we'll see.
[00:05:26] Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. . And then, uh, so last one here is the 2022 NFT awards. So this was part of NFT, N YC, um, open sea helps put this on. And so I attended some of this and I. I mean, you can check that the link here for some of the winners. I think a lot of the categories seem sort of, um, like, they were just made specific to give to specific projects in many cases.
[00:05:54] Um, and it seems sort of, um, I'm not sure that this is something that the industry is, is looking for at this point, because it wasn't very well attended. And, um, you, like I said, they. They seem to come up with with awards that would fit or fit, uh, certain winners, most of the winners, weren't there to accept the awards anyway.
[00:06:14] So, um, a little disappointing overall to that, but, um, maybe not necessary. Well, wait a minute. Top gaming collection by transactions Z run. I'll tell you what highest volume collection on the polygon blockchain Z run. Best NFT artist was X copy. Oh, best emerging NFT R uh, artist. Uh, FIUs that's one. That's been on our list.
[00:06:40] I'm there's we have best NFT artists, best emerging N NFT artists and best established NFT artists, and then best digital NFT artists, best non, I mean, these are, you know, I get some of these, you know, there, but hold on. There's one at the bottom here with the best NFT podcast, using three A's in it launched in 2021 run by.
[00:07:01] Two crypto dads. We won it three a oh man. We got it. We got it. we got it. I love it. I had you for a second for yeah. Yeah, no, no, I'm sure. Um, you know, people are checking now though. They're checking that link. See if we got anything and um, no, but best NFT media rug, radio. I mean, we've mentioned, uh, the rug radio folks before.
[00:07:28] Very interesting platform and recommend that membership one. Yeah, it's definitely worth browsing through. Um, you know, I think maybe, maybe this will start to develop a little further if they do continue with this, but, um, definitely needs a little bit more, a little more marketing around it to get people more excited about it, to, uh, for it to, to expand and, and grow.
[00:07:49] Yeah. All right. So the NFT NYC, I, I saw there were over 15,000 tickets sold, but some news showed, like there were like 50,000 people. I'm kind of confused as to the attendance numbers of like, were there larger events that. I don't know, you know, I, I think there are a lot of, I mean, there were hundreds of unofficial NFT NYC events, so just events going on around the city, um, that were going on during the same time, but weren't part of NFT, N YC.
[00:08:21] So I think in many cases there were probably people there that weren't, that didn't get a ticket to the event itself. Um, I did have a ticket and went to some of the events. Even that I was really only able to get to, to a handful of those just because there were so many other things going on that I was also trying to get to.
[00:08:38] And, you know, there were a lot of these, uh, I mentioned this before, um, in our preview episode, but there were a lot of, uh, physical galleries that were showing pieces. And that was something that I was trying to prioritize, getting around to, and, and seeing these pieces. Being displayed on some pretty impressive, uh, impressive setups.
[00:08:56] Um, but I think that's probably why the numbers, uh, vary a bit. And, you know, we also don't really know how many people ended up attending. I'm sure there were, there were people that did not attend, uh, after getting a ticket, you know, maybe based on some of how the market has moved. over the last few weeks here.
[00:09:13] So, what was the sentiment? Was it a depressed Fest degens drinking? I heard some jokes about how this was like basically college, where people went to learn nothing and drink their sorrows away and stuff. what, what was, what was the vibe? You know, I was worried about the vibe, you know, definitely in part because of the market and wasn't sure what it would be like.
[00:09:31] And, you know, for the most part, it felt like people were still pretty, uh, pretty optimistic, you know, maybe not about the price in short, in the short term. I think people are pretty optimistic about all of the things that are being built. You know, you still see that it's bringing thousands of people, you know, whatever number that is, but it's bringing thousands of people together, um, in ways that really weren't happening before this.
[00:09:53] So I think there, you know, the people that do show up, they're pretty committed to, to the space. And I, I think they're, they're seeing that. There's still all these events going on. There's still companies here. There's still building, you know, there's, there's, there's a lot going on. You can see how this event, I mean, I see how the event has changed just in what is it?
[00:10:11] Six or seven months from the, uh, the last one that I was at and how much more, uh, how much more knowledge there is about NFTs from the outside. We're still, you know, as we know, we're still a long ways from, from where most people understand them and it's, it was encouraging to me to see that so that people were weren't thinking, uh, you know, thinking like this all might really go away.
[00:10:35] You know, I think we've, we've talked about how it feels like there's people just continuing to, to, to build things so that when. When something does turn around, like all, everything works. It's all people are here. There's collectors that understand this there's new platforms all the time. And, you know, I think we're seeing that there's just more and more, uh, more and more infrastructure being, being built right now.
[00:10:56] And, and that was definitely, uh, being talked about a lot at different events that I was at, you know, I wasn't, well, I, I didn't get to any of the, a Fest events or anything like that. I'm sure that had a, uh, had its own culture. Um, You know, I can't comment on. So they took over the south street Seaport, they had a giant ape down there.
[00:11:14] They, it was like inflatable and they'd like took over a ship or something. Oh, okay. I knew that there was a, uh, NFT, there was a big outdoor event, uh, music event down in the Seaport area. So I, maybe they were, uh, you know, trying to make sure it was seen by many others that maybe did not have tickets, you know, did see some, some, uh, signs for ape Fest around some, some apes spray painted around on.
[00:11:41] Sidewalks, um, promoting the event, I guess, or, you know, trying to, I don't know if it's as much promoting it or trying to make people feel like they're, you know, trying to induce. So some FOMO it's all FOMO. So FOMO based economy. Yeah, we, yeah. Right. We do know that FOMO is a big part of NFTs and oh yeah.
[00:11:57] That's part of the utility. Um, the ability to spread to spread FOMO, um, like agen, I'm curious too, because you went to the last NFT NYC six months ago was. Or it was, it was let's see, like early November. It was. Yeah. Um, so yeah, this was, this did come pretty quickly after that. well, what I mean then, and now how would you compare?
[00:12:19] Are they stepping up their game? Are they just playing the hits? Is this, is this, uh, increasing in momentum despite the market overall? Yes. I mean, the event itself was, you know, there are there's over a thousand speakers. I think they said over 1500 speakers. And the idea is to try to get as many, to give as many people, a voice as possible that does become, becomes a lot as an attendee to try to find the events that you AC or the, the talks that you actually want to go to.
[00:12:49] And I hope that they would, that they will start. Being a little, they, that they do a little bit more curation with their speakers. I mean, I understand that they want everybody to have a voice, but I think we need to help the people that are attending by giving them some, by narrowing it down a bit. Um, but outside of the official event, I think it's, it's really growing.
[00:13:11] Um, there's more and more, there's more and more interest in. Companies, and you're seeing these other galleries pop up. You're seeing, I mean, there's, there are these parties. I mean, for pretty much every collection it's, every big collection seemed to have some event somewhere. Um, and that's that wasn't necessarily, there were a lot of parties at the last where a lot of events, a lot of projects had a presence, but it felt much more substantial this time in that.
[00:13:35] Anybody, any of any project that really wants to be serious, I think has, you know, almost you have to kinda, you have to pay to play and then you have to have a party and it has to be admittance, you know, with your Ft. It's, uh, I mean it's showing value of membership and that's kind of where they have to, to, to flex a little bit in our discord.
[00:13:56] You posted what? Just looked like an epic picture of the fallacious. Party. Oh man. Yes, I should talk about that ferocious party. That was cool. So that was over in Brooklyn. The only time I only time I had to get outta Manhattan but I I'm sure there are some other Brooklyn events going on. Uh, but it was, it was a really cool event, big warehouse space.
[00:14:17] It felt so well done. Like, I mean that you can see that they have done this before, but a. Very just professional check in it's it almost felt like a theme park as you're going through the line and it's got a road on the, um, on the little, you pretend road on the, um, that you're walking in as you get in line and you can go get your, your hazmat style suit to cover up and go, go to the paint store and get some different paint.
[00:14:42] And there's all. Did you get a different amount of paint or anything different because of the NFT you held? Or was it just like knit one? All, no it, oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, you get two spray cans or one spray can, yeah, that would've been interesting. 15 spray can that, you know, in the space, it was just these giant CA canvases, um, that anybody could paint on and you could see the ones that were there from the morning session, uh, that those were all drying there.
[00:15:06] So it was, that was a really cool event. I think that's such a. Uh, I know such a, such a great way to get people into the space and a very different style party than than all the, than most of the others that we're just about, you know, being at a bar. I hear you. I hear you, uh, a little bit more though, cause I'm always curious about what types of collections bring, what types of collectors and is it basically the same crew?
[00:15:32] That's. taping into absolutely everything. So you see the same faces or were there really, like, if I were to put, you know, those people in one room and be like, oh, those were probably fallacious people or those were probably degens people or whatever it is. Hmm. That's a good question. You know, I did run into, you know, I ran into some people at many events, many different events.
[00:15:53] Oh, you're gonna name drop so hard. I'll I'll allow. Cause I'm excited to hear what they said. No, but could you, could you pick a collection by the collectors if I just put 'em in a room without any other info on you? Um Hmm. You know, it, it was, yeah. I mean, furocious, I thought was a, a, a more diverse crowd than, than I, than I say in the, and I, then I seen a lot, then I saw a lot of the other parties, I guess.
[00:16:19] Um, and I mean that in like, I mean, also, I guess I was at a lot. Events that were somewhat similar. Some art blocks events at, at Samsung. And they'd had a lot at the Samsung building and they had a lot of similar people going to, to these events. Um, you know, and I think there, but there is kind of a, I mean, I've.
[00:16:38] Seen in the past that there's definitely, um, the generative art collector seems to be a little bit older than, um, some of the, the PFP than most of the PFP projects I've found, um, for was, has had a big range of the big age range. Just big range of. Backgrounds of people like had, that had gotten into crypto in different ways I felt than, than some of the other places.
[00:17:02] And I mean, I, I like being able to, you know, in a lot of these events, you're, you're waiting around for a while to get in. So a lot of talking with, yeah. Was there a lot of, a lot of waiting in lines? I heard some flood being thrown around being like, oh, they weren't ready to like process people and was like, More of a headache getting in around it should have been, you know, when I, when I had to check into NFT N YC, it was a, I went to the hotel and then at the Marriot marque, uh, outside times square, right by times square.
[00:17:27] And, uh, what made the mistake of going to the hotel and then realizing that the end of the line was a good block and a half away. Um, so that was, but it, it did actually move pretty quickly. Um, so I was, I was impressed about how, by how quickly they were getting people through. I also feel like maybe we could move away from.
[00:17:49] Having to pick up a badge and maybe use some other system for ticket technology device, but how would you prove that somebody owned the ticket that they had? I can't think of any way possible, only, and well, like what if somebody co duplicated it? Uh, how would you, yeah, we just need to prove digital ownership of this somehow.
[00:18:11] Huh? yeah. I don't see a way to do this. Um, yeah, so it would be really, that's another thing that it would be nice, you know, in other places have definitely had had some lines, you know, there's some of that, but you know, it was, uh, Um, couple of the, the physical gallery places that I got to included a gallery, uh, that's owned by, uh, Adam Lindeman, a big art collector in the traditional world.
[00:18:32] And then he's been getting into squiggles and they had about 300. Oh my gosh. On display there. I sell you on a squiggle so hard. And by the way, you dropped that tiny thing about, so CREs on, cause I've been trying to save up for my squiggle and oh, I know those really. So Florida have run. Yeah. Those, those well went from five E to 10, eighth, and now we're officially.
[00:18:50] We're we're out there. Yep. It's it has run up. Um, let's see if the other, I was super rare. I didn't have the guts. I didn't have the guts to pull the trigger. If I was my, my reserve price was under five and it was like five and a half. And I'm like, I'm not doing it. Yeah. They, they, it was one of those ones that I guess people were waiting on for the once the E price dropped.
[00:19:13] I think, I think it's all those people listening to three a, they know they're I should stop broadcasting my. That's probably it they're front running. Yeah. It's definitely what it, what it is. So you talked to some, go ahead. You talked to some awesome folks. I saw, you said you actually, uh, talked to snow and coldy yes.
[00:19:33] Yeah. You had to talk to, to snow, Eric, uh, Eric. Snow pro he's the, the head of art blocks, the founder he's the, the, the artist behind the squiggles. Um, yeah, it was really good. Great to talk to him. I had never actually gotten to, to talk to him, uh, face to face before. Um, that was cool. He's really, I don't know, just, he's a great understanding of the, the space and he's just so excited about all these people that are showing up because of the project that, that he started, you know, last November or November, uh, 20 2020.
[00:20:07] Getting that right. In 2020. Um, and you know, now he's looking at this giant 30 foot screen and showing off all these generative art pieces, and he's got all these great artists there and all these collectors there and, you know, it was pretty, um, it was a cool, cool event to, to see. And, you know, he was obviously pretty proud of, of what that, uh, platform has grown to, to be.
[00:20:27] And, um, yeah, coldy was another one I've I've I've mentioned him in the past. I'm big fan of coldy. Um, so I. Got to meet him at the, uh, last FTA NYC event. Um, it's good to see him again there. I think I actually ran into him at an X copy collector meetup. Of course X copy was not there as he is a anonymous artist.
[00:20:47] A non yeah. Yeah. And we're still working there, but you know, we've, I think, uh, artists, it can, it can probably work better than, uh, teams behind a project anyway, but, um, That was, yeah, that was cool. Getting to talk to, to people. What was on their minds? Like where, where do they see and how do you think they're spending their next, you know, 100 to 200.
[00:21:09] I, I mean, they're, they've been through, they've been, they've been in the space for so long that, you know, I think they've, they've gotten, they've been on around they've, you know, they were doing this when nobody was paying. I mean, coldy especially was doing, it was when nobody was paying attention at all.
[00:21:23] Nobody really knew what NFTs were and certainly not, you know, for. For art, like the key produces, um, you know, is, you know, people were, were aware of crypto punks and, and that PFP kind of thing. But I think he's been a lot, been a big, um, just big artist in, in, in being able to, or he's wait, sorry. What he impresses me is that he could.
[00:21:44] Continues to create when nobody's paying attention, but he also understands the history of the crypto culture and he, he gets this side of it and, you know, he's excited to just keep creating more art and says, he's collecting a lot of stuff right now too. He said he just picked up, uh, a couple OUS pieces and he says, you know, he's a big collect and, um, So I think that's, you know, that's also encouraging to hear, you know, he's, he, he's looking at this as a buying opportunity right now.
[00:22:10] And so for RO well, just the paint, right? His paint is his main thing, but does he have actual other projects floating around on like other, like. Yeah. So he's done a couple other drops on, um, on nifty before that paint drop and then has some, I know it has some super air pieces as well. Um, mm-hmm or one of ones, and it's a lot of this style.
[00:22:32] Um, he actually did a shoe with artifact before they were acquired by Nike as well. Um, so it's got his say white shoe that has the, you know, paint. Painted his style, but you know, it's a, it was a you that, I mean, I think that's going to be a, a good collector piece over time, you know, as it is that artifact before it was Nike, you know, one of the early projects there and, and one of FIA's first, uh, projects too.
[00:22:56] So yeah. Um, he has a few pieces like that, uh, that are, but we don't have an affordable project for you, but you know, that's great. We got, we got a little double downs in here. We're, we're dropping a lot of. I think enough alpha in these conversations. So we'll, we'll leave it in that actually. Um, but like maybe hunt down some of those pieces and take a look at it.
[00:23:14] Um, and then for snowflake, like any idea, like the vision for, for art box, I feel like it's hard to maintain momentum, honestly, when you burn that hot data early, um, you know, how is how's he feeling about they? I think, you know, it's been a lot of learning, um, for them. Last summer, everything, every project that was put out would mint out immediately and the floor would run.
[00:23:40] I mean, and it was for every project, even the, the RPL factory projects, which are generally not, not quite as highly desired as the, the period projects I would say in general. Um, but it was, you know, and then after that, I think they maybe. Were the projects, they were minting, maybe too many projects. And the sizes got a little too big because they had gotten used to everything minting out so quickly.
[00:24:05] Um, so when, when things did change, there were more projects sitting around with. Incomplete. They still had a lot like hundreds of pieces to mint and, you know, it's hard to, hard to build momentum when you're doing it that way. So they have really tried to pair down the number of collections they're doing and how many pieces are in the collection.
[00:24:23] Um, they did one just the other day as part of, uh, opening their art blocks gallery at pace or sorry, pace gallery at art blocks. Um, that was 196 pieces. And I think. That like 1.5. And it seems like they're doing this much more often now and going, yeah, they're reducing the quantity, tightening the quality and really it's about the curated, just to, to note in the art box line, you have the, the curated game, which is like much higher tier from the selection and availability versus the projects, which is just much more open and easier to, to apply and then through.
[00:25:00] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So they, I think they've, you know, He's recognizing, you know, that they're learning from all this, but, um, you know, it was also, I mean, part of what was really cool about being in that Samsung building was Samsung is showing off their tech. Um, so they've got their 30 foot screen showing these, these art blocks Mo you know, moving pieces and, you know, standing right next to it.
[00:25:21] You really couldn't see any of the pixels. And, you know, he was excited about that aspect too, of just, you know, where we're going with being able to display, display these pieces. Not just on our, on our phones or our computers, you know? Yeah. Any other cool tech that you saw there or any, um, any, any fo I just imagine a lot of shilling, uh there's there is a lot of shilling and you know, all the way all the time.
[00:25:44] Yeah. And you know, there's even a lot of that on, I don't know, on. In places where it didn't necess surprise me at times, I guess. Um, during some of the, uh, the talks, how much there was just people trying to show projects or show new new tech. But, um, maybe I shouldn't be surprised by that. That's all. Did you, did you buy anything?
[00:26:02] I didn't see any action on your, on your wallet, you up to anything? No, I feel like this is, this is probably, uh, slowed. Slowed the pace of NFT sales a bit with bringing all the, all the collectors to a place in real life, you know, and we're supposed to put that back into our, our separate corners and get in our computers guys.
[00:26:22] The market's dropping. You gotta go home. You can't stay here. You don't have to go home. We can't, we gotta keep buying. Cuz the market' yeah. Stalled from one conference.
[00:26:30] All right. Would you go again? Yeah, I think I, I would, and you know, I was, I was wondering, um, I was thinking about that recently. I was kind of wondering if they'll start expanding this into more days just because it is, there's so many events right now, and there's so much overlap, um, that it feels like it's going to, to grow in some way.
[00:26:50] Not that I want to go for longer, but it's you, you see how it's just, it's, uh, it's really growing the number of events and, and the number of people that are, that're interested in this. So I, I would definitely go. Yeah, well, something tells me they're gonna have another one in six months. So yeah, it's a crypto year, right?
[00:27:09] just keep, keep, keep going. Um, all right. Anything, uh, takeaways that you had from the, the conference? Any, any other moments of alpha. Or beta? No, unfortunately, you know, I wish I had more alpha to share, but, uh, you know, it's, you gotta be careful what , what you take away from, from everybody's shilling, right?
[00:27:30] yeah. Let's just see how the, let's see how the, the market plays out first. All right. Well, very cool. Thank you for sharing all that. I feel like I got a little idea of, of how it went. I'm gonna go to one of these eventually. I'm gonna. Gonna wait till they figure out ticketing though, when they have the technology, right.
[00:27:51] someone can come up with it, right.